Category: Hardware »

Here at 148apps.com we're big fans of the iKlip and its ability to hold iPads and iPhone/iPod Touches (courtesy of the iKlip Mini) - now the manufacturer IK Multimedia has come up with another great tool.

Debuting at last week's Summer 2011 NAMM show, it's called the iRig MIDI and it provides iOS device users with the ability to connect MIDI keyboards, drum machines, drum pads and pedal boards, amongst others, to their device. There's even the addition of a micro USB port that can connect to any standard USB power supply source thus ensuring that the iOS device can stay fully powered during sessions. iRIG Midi crucially ensures that users can use their instruments with apps such as the all mighty GarageBand.

As well as that, bundled with the device is IK's new SampleTank app which is the mobile version of the software of the same name. It offers 20 studio-quality insert effects that can be applied to each individual instrument along with a master reverb-delay effect.

On paper, iRig MIDI looks to be an ideal tool for any musician who enjoys using their iOS device to create music.

iRig MIDI is coming soon and will be priced at $69.99.

It's not everyday that we write about hardware on 148Apps. So when we do, you know it's about something awesome.

Today, Sonos, one our favorite iOS friendly audio hardware makers have released a new, smaller device, the Play3. It's the little brother to the fantastic S5, now called the Play5 that we reviewed last year. This smaller version has 3 speakers instead of the 5 found in the Play5. It still maintains the features of the Play5 in that it connects with your home network to stream music from iTunes and a huge variety of online services like Spotify, Rdio, Pandora, etc.

I had a chance to test out the new Play3 for a few minutes earlier this week. And I'm impressed. It does a great job, in a smaller package, of still sounding great. You can use this in addition to a Play5, on it's own, or create a stereo pair between two like devices. The Play5 is a great machine that I've grown to love. The Play3 will be a great first device for new Sonos users considering it's retail price of $299. It will also make a good second device to extend your Sonos range into another room.

We hope to be able to bring you a full review of the Play3 in the next couple weeks.

I'll admit it. I'm old enough to not only remember arcades, but I actually played games in them, back in the day. Well, my day, anyway, which seems to creep ever forward into the twilight of my....well, never mind. I digress.

The ThinkGeek/Ion collaboration iCade iPad arcade cabinet is a thing of beauty. Assembly is a breeze, especially if you've struggled for years learning how to use an Ikea-inspired hex bolt wrench and can follow instructional pictograms fairly well. Once set up, the iCade breathes a retro cool like no other. Case in point: the muted 70s style rainbow stripe down the sides, the faux-retro font with the wide "wow" shading behind it, the cleverly styled cut of the cabinet panels, and - goes-without-saying-obviously - a sweetly sized red ball perched mightily atop the joystick (no 'q' here, boys).

The hardware. It is hawt. It makes my inner child and outer children squee in delight. There is something primal, almost sexual, about the industrial design of this $99.00 iPad gaming accessory.

And yet, and yet. Like all other infatuations of youth, the beauty can pale after first blush. Sure, it's GORGEOUS, but what can it do for me? Truth is, through no fault of its own (the API is FREE, developers!), the iCade only has one trick up its sleeve. While that trick is a fairly substantive one, bringing a HUGE amount of the Atari arcade ouvre to an iCade-enabled gaming room, the initial excitement does indeed wane after some exposure.

The problem, as with any gaming platform, lies with third-party developer support. Atari's Greatest Hits is the only "game" in town here, with a mind-numbing 100 titles to choose from, in 25 different "packs." Seriously, though, while Tempest is obviously the best arcade game ever made, how many games of Tic Tac Toe, Hangman, or Casino do we need? And, while it can be argued that Breakout does indeed deserve its own 4 game pack, I'm fairly certain that Quadrun was no one's favorite.

Pointing fingers at the third party developers is one thing, but remember that pointing one finger at someone else implies pointing four of them back at yourself. Right? The iCade has an impressive eight buttons, only three of which seem to do much of anything at any time. Just not the same three. The joystick is a memory-inducing talisman worthy of Proust's madeleine cake, no doubt, but it is limited to eight directions - this is no analog stick for fine adjustments.

While $100 will be defined by potential purchasers within their own concept of disposable income, it seems a worthy amount for such a well-designed piece of hardware. It makes an instant conversation piece in any room. Hopefully, the presence of a free API will bring developers of more modern arcade "hits" to the table, and perhaps encourage Atari to fine tune it's massive library of classic games.

Until then, this is a purchase best made when money is not an issue, and playing older Atari arcade games is worth the expense. Of course, a buy can be justified on purely nostalgic and decorative grounds, which of course is why many of my friends of a certain age pre-ordered this baby as soon as it became a reality. It is available at ThinkGeek right now, with no back-order foolishness.

UPDATE: The following games also have iCade support baked right in!

148Apps editor, Rob LeFebvre, was quite impressed with his time with the iKlip back in April. It provided him with a great way to attach a first generation iPad to a microphone stand, thus making it easy to consult for everything from speeches to lyrics or music sheets.

Now, IK Multimedia has announced the release of the iKlip for the iPad 2. It's a similar device but geared towards the iPad 2 by offering a new mounting kit that sets to be just as effective but aimed at the new slimmer build of the iPad 2. It also works around the new back-facing camera on the iPad 2 ensuring that it never gets in the way of using it. As before, users can position the iPad to either portrait or landscape orientation. It's worth noting that the new iKlip adaptors still allow for users to use it with the iPad 1 ensuring it works well for everyone.

The iKlip is available now for $39.99/€29.99 (excluding tax) from the IK online store as well as select music and electronic retailers across the world.

Any users who have already got an older version of the iKlip and require the iPad 2 adaptors can pick them up for $9.99/€7.99. Users who purchased the iKlip after May 1st 2011 can claim the iPad 2 adaptors for free by providing a proof of purchase to IK Multimedia.

In one of the smaller announcements today, Apple announced that iOS 5 on the iPad 2 will support a feature called AirPlay mirroring. This feature is something that I've been telling people would eventually come to the iOS world and basically backdoor Apple into the console market.

If you aren't familiar with HDMI mirroring on the iPad, it's a feature that lets you plug in an cable into a special adapter on your iPad 2 and display your screen on an HDTV. This feature is great for use in classrooms and has even seen some play in games as well with Firemint using this feature to allow 1080p output on your TV from their Real Racing 2 HD via mirroring. But, you are tethered to the TV with a cable.

So, what's AirPlay mirroring then, you ask? According to Apple, "AirPlay® Mirroring to wirelessly display everything you do on your iPad 2 right on your HDTV through Apple TV®." To me, that means with an iPad 2, you'll be able to do that mirroring without a cable. That means anything you see on your iPad 2, you will be able to see on an Apple TV. Let that sink in and then think using that feature for games.

This means that any game you play on your iPad 2, you'll be able to play on your TV, wirelessly. Yes, wirelessly. You launch Angry Birds on your iPad 2 and the Angry Birds screen will show up on your TV. Boom, instant game console with $0.99 game downloads.

To control the game, you would use the iOS device as the controller. The Apple TV becomes the cheapest console out there at $99 with the largest game library at nearly 100,000 games. Your iPad 2 becomes your controller, albeit a very expensive one. We can assume that this feature will also be available in the next iPhone and iPod touch, once their processors and memory are upgraded and on parity with the iPad 2.

Let's wrap that all up together, and it means that you can consider the Apple TV to be firmly in the game console market now. This is huge! I can't stress enough how much of a game changer this is for the gaming world.

Sony, Nintendo, or Microsoft should be worried. They have all been rather slow to adopt downloadable games, now Apple has gone and made it easy and cheap. If Apple does to the console market what they have done to the mobile software market, they should be very worried. The Apple TV, which started out as Steve Jobs hobby, could turn out to be the most popular home game and entertainment console around.

The foxl V2 Bluetooth from soundmatters is a little device that you may have never heard of. It's a Bluetooth speaker device with both fantastic high fidelity wireless music playback and great speakerphone options.

I first saw it at Macworld Expo earlier this year and was rather impressed. It had good sound quality even in the crowded and loud conference hall. We got a chance to take one for a drive, and it's even better than expected.

Why you'd want it: audio speakers. There are two main functions for the foxl. The first is as a wired or wireless speaker system. It puts out an amazing amount of sound for a tiny little device. It's only about the size of a three pack of golf balls. Using Bluetooth for convenience is a great, wireless way to listen to music. Though note that it does compress the music some and you will lose a bit of dynamic range in the music. The wireless freedom can't really be beat and the slight loss in fidelity is worth it for the convenience.

Once you've paired the foxl, to use it as a set of wireless speakers it's as simple as turning it on and selecting it in the audio output selector (AirPlay box) in any music app that supports it. You also have the option of doing a direct connection for wired audio playback.

Why you'd want it - wireless speakerphone. The other main feature of the foxl is as a Bluetooth speakerphone. This is where it really shines. The sound of the speaker and quality of the microphone are top notch. In the few times I've used it the sound is great and callers report that I sound loud and clear.

How it performs: Overall, the foxl Bluetooth performs quite well. Comparing it to the Jambox from Jawbone, it's a bit smaller and louder, particularly in the bass end of the audio spectrum. The price is also very similar - in the sub-$200 range. This won't replace a dock speaker system, but for travel and convenience, the foxl Bluetooth is fantastic.

foxl V2 Bluetooth Features

* Highest-fidelity resolution with pocket-sized portability
* Connect to any music source via standard audio cable
* Up to 8 hours battery life, output wattage increases when wall-powered
* Lithium-ion BassBattery™ re-chargable via USB or wall charger
* Output for optional powered subwoofer 25-30' Bluetooth range with improved sound quality
* Automatically connects for instant wireless streaming
* Built-in "Business-quality" wireless hands-free microphones for speakerphone/conferencing
* Including speaker one-touch reject/answer/end calls functions

You can pick up the foxl v2 on Amazon and other usual places for around $199 for the Bluetooth model or $169 for the model without Bluetooth.

If there was one reason I’ve heard more than any others about why someone bought an Android or Blackberry phone over the iPhone, it’s that the person doesn’t like to type on touchscreens. Regardless of my argument that after a few weeks, I ended up typing MUCH faster on the iPhone’s onscreen than on my old Blackberry, people often opt for a physical keyboard.

The NUU MiniKey is by no means the only physical keyboard case for the iPhone (there’s a flip-out one available at ThinkGeek and another popular one by BoxWave), but it has a few interesting features and sturdy-looking design (though it looks like it may almost double the thickness of the iPhone).

The MiniKey has navigation keys to allow easier movement between characters than using the magnifying glass on the touchscreen. Like most cellphone keyboards, the MiniKey has function keys to allow quicker typing of symbols and numbers. Something I haven’t seen on other iPhone keyboards is backlighting. While it isn’t helpful to a skilled typist like myself who doesn’t need to look at the keys, other more novice typists may need to see what keys they are pressing. The MiniKey is also compatible with the Mac keyboard shortcuts like Command+C for copy and Command+V for paste. And finally, it has a key to toggle between the physical and onscreen keyboard. I assume this key simply turns the keyboard on and off (which would be great to save battery life).

The NUU MiniKey is selling for $79.99 on Amazon (free shipping). This won’t appeal to those of us that trust that Apple knows best and if we needed a physical keyboard they would have given us one. But to anyone who is on the fence between iPhones and other phones, accessories like this may be the deciding factor.

While the iPad can definitely be used to write (emails, blogging, etc), it isn’t necessarily ideal for writing more than short posts and emails. One solution would be to grab the iPad Keyboard Dock or a bluetooth keyboard. But the obvious problem with buying one of those is (1) the price and (2) it’s just something else to carry around. Inventor Cliff Thier came up with a solution that doesn’t involve carrying around another largish gadget.

The iKeyboard isn’t on the market yet. It’s one of those Kickstarter projects that will be funded and put into production only if a certain amount is pledged ($4000 in this case). The iKeyboard would attach to the iPad and create a sensation of touch-typing by providing tactile feedback similar to that of a real keyboard. The iKeyboard is light-weight - much lighter than carrying around a bluetooth keyboard. It seems that it will be cheaper than a bluetooth keyboard considering people that pledge over $30 will receive a first-generation iKeyboard (hopefully meaning that the product will be around $30).

Thier, along with industrial design firm IDEAZ, seem dedicated to making an experience akin to a real keyboard experience,

The designers at IDEAZ have managed to match the force required to depress a key on the iKeyboard to the force needed to depress a key on an Apple keyboard. They’ve also succeeded in making the iKeyboard's keys travel a distance equal to that of Apple keys. We now have a fully functional prototype that works pretty well.

At the time I’m writing this, $14,376 has already been pledged to the iKeyboard. Looks like we’ll be seeing an iKeyboard in the near future. But there are still solid reasons to pledge. $30 or more will reward the pledger with the first-generation product and $50 or more will get the first and second-generation (when it comes out). Both increments will be asked to participate in providing feedback to create a better second-generation product. Interesting in supporting iKeyboard?

Source: Mashable

When devices that supported AirPlay started showing up at CES this year it left Sonos at a bit of a disadvantage. Airplay requires special hardware for it to be supported in a consumer device and the Sonos devices didn't have that chip. But that's not the end of the story.

The engineers at Sonos put their heads together to find a way to make AirPlay work on Sonos devices like the S5 which we looked and loved at last year. It's a bit of software and a bit of hardware. But if you have an Apple AirPort the you have all the hardware you need.

To make AirPlay work on the Sonos, you connect an AirPort Express directly to your Sonos S5, both the Ethernet and audio cable. Once connected and configured properly, when you play something on the AirPort via AirPlay, the Sonos will pick it up and switch to play the audio from that device automatically. Boom, instant AirPlay.

Ok, it's a bit of a kludge, but damn, it works great.

Finally, the white iPhone 4 is to be released! Tomorrow in fact. How exciting. Patient iPhone fans have been waiting for their beloved white version since the release of the iPhone 4 last summer. Now you've got a choice. Go with the sleek standard black color or the shiny and sexy new white edition. I daren't be too positive about the lovely white version, my black iPhone 4 might get upset.

The launch is set to hit a number of territories starting with the US and UK tomorrow with much of Europe, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Japan to follow shortly.

In the US a suggested retail price of $199 has been given for the 16B model and $299 for the 32GB model alongside a 2 year contract through the Apple Store at Apple's retail stores, AT&T and Verizon Wireless stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers.

In the UK, O2 and Three have confirmed they'll be stocking it in their stores and online for Pay Monthly customers. Tariffs will be the same as the Black iPhone with O2's offers starting from £21.50 a month (with an upfront cost of £304.99) and Three's starting at £25 a month with an upfront cost of £229.

Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone have yet to confirm their launch details but we'll be sure to keep you informed.

[Source: Apple]

Touch screen gaming will always be looking for ways to best offer controls that are as close to physical controls as possible - look at the Xperia Play, which is all about offering physical game controls on a phone. We've seen devices like the Joystick-It pop up recently, and another similar mechanism for physical controls on a touch screen is the Fling Joystick from Ten One Design. The Fling works by way of having 2 suction cups that stick to the bezel of the iPad, and a joystick mechanism in the middle. It is slightly raised, so touching it presses it against the screen. This is what makes it more useful than the Joystick-It - this registers a center point on the screen, which properly allows virtual floating joysticks to work, as you can move from a consistent center point defined by the joystick, and you get analog movement.

The Fling design is great - the mechanism is transparent, so you can see around where you have placed the joystick. Tons of games work great with the Fling as well - Super Mega Worm's d-pad works wonderfully with the Fling - about as well as one could hope. Archetype HD's movement controls work great, making you feel like you're playing an actual console game about as much as possible. Dual-stick shooters are incredible - you move and fire with remarkable precision. Your high scores on Age of Zombies are no longer safe if I'm your Game Center friend. Max Adventure is a revelation with the Fling, feeling smoother than the game has any right to be. Red Nova's movement is great with the Fling, as well. Also, it's easier to stick the Fling and get it stable on the iPad thanks to the Fling's bag that also serves as a microfiber cloth to clean the screen. It is exceptionally convenient, and helps make the Fling remarkably stable.

Not all games will work perfectly with the Fling - some games' joysticks will be too large, so you may not move as fast as you want in some games. Games with swiping controls won't work with the Fling - because of the way the joystick works, it snaps back to the center point, so moving the joystick in a direction returns it to the center, so it registers as a swipe in the direction you swiped in, and then in the reverse direction, so it won't work properly. If you want to play Silverfish with the Fling, use the d-pad controls. Aiming in Archetype HD didn't quite work properly due to this mechanism as well. Fixed controls are a trickier proposition, as you have to position them exactly correctly to play them properly, so Gun Bros. might be a challenge. The joysticks also have very stiff resistance - this may be part of the engineering of the device, but it is stiffer than most controllers' joysticks.

Is the Fling useful? Yes, very. It makes playing games with virtual joysticks much easier, and the games that work properly with it are wonderful. Is it necessary? Maybe not, and there are a few problems with it, so it's not perfect. However, there's plenty of times when the Fling just feels like an ingenious solution, and well worth checking out. If you play a lot of games with virtual joysticks, this may be what you've been looking for.

The Fling Joystick is currently available for $19.95 for one unit, and $29.94 for two.

The iPad 2 is thinner (by 0.16”), lighter (by 130g) and smaller (by 0.03m H and 0.04m W) in comparison to its first generation counterpart. Along with that comes an all new, custom-designed Apple A5 dual-core processor churning out 1GHz of power, the inclusion of two cameras and a three-axis gyroscope. Screen and battery life remain identical. So when iFixit took on the challenge of tearing down the iPad 2, what else was there to be found? Let’s find out.

“Prior to starting the teardown, we guessed that the glass front panel was no longer held in place by tabs. We were correct. The new tapered edge on the iPad 2 prevents any kind of tabs from being used; instead, Apple engineers used generous helpings of adhesive to keep the front glass in place” writes Miroslav Djuric, Director of Technical Communication at iFixit. “Consequently,” he warns, “the front panel is very difficult to remove – it’s nearly impossible to open the iPad 2 without shattering the glass.” In terms of screen replacement, the iPad 1’s tab-equipped assembly made it a whole lot easier for a self-repair job. It looks like the same job on an iPad 2 is now a near impossibility.

Once the team were able to remove the glass, it was noted that both the LCD and glass thickness were smaller in comparison to iPad 1. Whilst this does provide a number of advantages, notably the reduced thickness and weight of the device, it may reduce its overall durability. “We’ll see in due time if the percentage of folks with broken iPad 2 front glass is dramatically different than that of the original iPad” writes Miroslav.

What wasn’t mentioned in the keynote address – or in the current technical specifications page of iPad 2 – is that the device contains 512MB of RAM, double the amount of iPad 1. This should do wonders when it comes to more powerful applications like iMovie and Garageband, the latter of which frequently leaves you waiting as it “optimizes performance” on iPad 1.

Overall, iPad 2 is as different underneath as it is on the surface: subtle differences, significant changes. Here’s a teardown video, along with select screenshots, for your enjoyment:

[gallery type=thumbnail]

130g lightness refers to iPad 1 3G (80g if referring to iPad 1 Wi-Fi). Dimensions and weight courtesy of Wikipedia.