Tag: Case »

iPhone gaming and mobile phone gaming in general are poised to take over the entire handheld gaming market but there is still one big thing holding them back. Touch controls can be great but they are no replacement for responsive, dedicated, physical buttons. Plenty of hardware manufacturers have tried to fix this problem with varying degrees of a success and now a new challenger, Bladepad, is trying to enter the fight.

Bladepad is a slim, protective case that adds a directional pad, two analog sticks, four shoulder buttons, and four face buttons to an iPhone all with full back-lighting. Like a PSPgo or Xperia Play, players can slide the buttons back underneath phone when they are not needed or just easily remove the case entirely. The case and phone can be simultaneously charged over USB and “the battery life is competitive with both the Nintendo 3DS and Sony PS Vita.” Bladepad, LLC says that the product will work with any iOS device using Bluetooth 4.0 including the iPhone 4S, the new iPad, and presumably whatever new iPhone comes out this fall.

However, the project is still in need of funding. Those interested should check out the Bladepad Kickstarter page where one can pre-order at reduced prices along with shirts and other prizes. Bladepad is currently slated for release this holiday season for $99.

This week at 148Apps.com iPad cases were on our collective minds. First, site editor Rob LeFebvre reviewed the new Hammerhead Capo Case, stating, "The Hammerhead Capo case is a solid, good looking basic case for $40. It comes in black, blue, white, red or orange leather-grained polyurethane. It covers the whole iPad, with molded open areas for the dock port, headphone jack, rear camera, and volume buttons."

Read Rob's full review of the Hammerhead Capo Case on 148Apps.

Meanwhile, Lisa Caplan also took a closer look at Brydge, a new Kickstarter project. Lisa writes, "There is a new Kickstarter project, Brydge, by Brad Leong that will come close to converting an iPad into a notebook with a hinged aluminum case and Bluetooth keyboard that looks a lot like a Macbook."

Read Lisa's full commentary on 148Apps.

We also had many, many new kid-friendly app reviews on GiggleApps, including Amy Solomon's review of the latest Toca game, Toca Kitchen Monsters. Solomon says, "I have a real treat for readers today as I would like to announce that recently, Toca Boca released a free version of their popular digital toy app, Toca Kitchen. Titled Toca Kitchen Monsters, this new app includes two monster characters whom players can cook for and feed, complete with monster-like table manners and house-keeping skills."

Read the full review on GiggleApps.

Children's apps were the focus on 148Apps.biz as well, as Kevin Stout reported on a new study released by Ruckus Media Group. Stout writes, "Parents are tough customers to please. While it’s obvious that children’s apps and games need to be appealing to kids, it’s the parents that those apps are really targeting. Ruckus Media Group just announced the results of its national study about children’s educational apps and parental preferences. The research, done with research group, PlayScience, looked to investigate what app experiences parents provide for their children, what parents prioritize in children’s apps, parents’ involvement in their childrens’ reading, and parental guilt with digital devices. We spoke to CEO of Ruckus Media Group, Rick Richter, and obtained some additional information about the study."

Read more about the new study from Ruckus Media Group on 148Apps.biz.

Thew news, reviews and contests keep on coming across all of the 148Apps network of sites. Keep up to date with the latest by following us on Twitter and Liking us on Facebook. You won't regret it. Until next week...bye ya'll!

Halfbrick, developers of the immensely popular Fruit Ninja games has announced a lineup of brand new licensed Fruit Ninja products from a number of partners. These new products will include key chains, toys, plush figures, card and board games, headwear, bags, apparel, underwear, phone cases, calendars, fruit snacks, stickers, posters, and other odd and ends.

While it's not yet clear exactly what these products will be when they are all realized, the prospect of Fruit Ninja card games and underwear is interesting to say the least. These products will be produced through a number of partners and will begin to roll out this week. As of yet, no announcements have been made concerning the cost of any of the products or where they will be available for purchase.

"For the first time, we're creating characters and personalities around the fruit that players slice through," says Halfbrick CEO Shainiel Deo, commenting on the new products. "I'm confident that the Fruit Ninja community will love these products."

The new Akai Pro MPC Fly turns any iPad 2 into a full featured MPC (music production center). Not only does it turn an iPad into a portable production center, but it also acts as a protective case opening on hinges to sit upright, lay flat, or close shut for transport. The MPC Fly touts 16 pads with note repeat and swing, and works with any Core MIDI apps. It also works in conjunction with the MPC Fly iPad app.

With the MPC Fly iPad app users can sequence four tracks at once, access library of audio samples and drum kits, use various audio effects on their sequences, pull samples from their iTunes library, and share their work on SoundCloud, Facebook, or Twitter.

The MPC Fly houses it's own rechargeable lithium-ion battery making it a truly portable solution. It also includes a wall charger, and will charge the iPad while it's plugged in to the wall. No word yet on how much the MPC will retail for.

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.

At Macworld this year, we saw a few new iPad cases with something extra, a keyboard. We're going to take a look at a few of these as we get them in. First up is the Keyfolio from historic peripheral provider Kensington.

The KeyFolio looks like a rather nice faux-leather portfolio for your iPad. The iPad is held in securely by a firm flap at the top yet still gives access to all the needed buttons and ports. On the flap that covers the screen there's a rubber covered keyboard. While the keys are a bit small, the convenience is really nice to have. Yet I do have a problem with some the of the choices made with this keyboard.

They keyboard uses Bluetooth to connect to the iPad giving you the ability to use this hardware keyboard instead of the soft keyboard on the screen of the iPad. Using an external keyboard does offer you some speed and convenience perks. For one you can use the OSX standard command-C,V,X for cut, copy, paste. In addition for you text warriors, the arrow keys and key modifiers also work for rapid text selection.

This keyboard feels fairly good to type with, though it's a little odd feeling. The rubber covered keyboard is nice in that it keeps dust, crumbs, hair, etc. from getting below the keys. But it does give it a cheap feel and lacks that satisfying click of a normal keyboard. Actually using the keyboard was convenient and easy. Once the BT is paired, it connected to the iPad quickly when turned on and worked well for typing. No problems in that respect.

The one real issue I have with this device are the decisions made with key placements. For one there's no right shift key. I don't miss this that much, but if you use that key it will take you a while to get used to it being missing. My bigger concern is that the quote key, both single and double, has been moved to the lowest row by the space bar. This one I have to go searching for every time I need it.

Overall, if you like the form factor, and can get by the key placements, this is a great case for you. While the case itself is on the heavy side it works really well and I'm enjoying using it. The KeyFolio is available from Kensington directly for $99, and considerably cheaper from other retailers like Amazon.

[ Source: Kensington ]

At 148Apps, we made a decision years ago to not review iPhone cases. There are just too many different cases with too many subtle variations to even try to take an authoritative stab at it. When an exceptionally different case like this comes along, however, we have to take a look. And not, of course, an authoritative review.

The Rokbed from Rokform was sent to us to take a look at and I must say I'm impressed. It's a pretty formidable looking two piece all aluminum device, you really can't call it a case, that slides with a very close fit around your iPhone 4. It's precision milled by a company that's been making aftermarket racing parts for years. And the precision is impressive but that precision doesn't come cheap.

I've been using this on my iPhone 4 for a little over a week now and I must say I'm really impressed. I originally thought it would add too much weight or bulk to the phone at over an ounce, but I got used to it almost instantly. It's easy to grab with ridges and valleys in all the right places. None of the ports or buttons are covered, and it still fits perfectly in my iPhone dock (once I removed the tray). And most importantly the aluminum frame doesn't touch any of the antennas so it shouldn't interfere with the reception.

One concern might be the headphone jack. While the three sets of headphones that I tried all worked fine, headphones with a large jack might not fit past the ridges.

Overall, I love this "case," though I think of it more as an exoskeleton. Sounds tougher and more manly that way. It works well and feels very satisfying in the hand. It is very much on the expensive side at $79, but it is also extremely unique and it certainly does catch the eye.

Full specs after the jump.

Instead of making people go into Apple Stores, or even worse, submit mail-in rebates, for their free iPhone 4 bumpers or cases (if you don't know why you're getting a case, click here), Apple has created an app for the process.

The app tracks your phone by its IMEA, so you can't get a duplicate case or a second case with someones 3G.

Also, be sure to read the policy on the iTunes page so you get the process done in the correct time frame. Don't expect to hold off til October and get a case, Apple won't have it.

It's a shame that every company isn't so crafty with its rebates.

Now Apple has announced that it will be providing free Bumper cases to iPhone 4 users and refunds to existing Bumper owners, there's never been a better time to get hold of some low cost protection for your device. UK-based case manufacturer Proporta is offering a novel spin on Apple's generous deal by offering a 20% discount on all of its iPhone 4 cases and screen protectors - if you send them your (now free) iPhone 4 Bumper case that is.

Guy Monson co-founder of Proporta says “We at Proporta think it's very generous of Apple and admire their commitment to solving the problem. We believe that it's good for Proporta as it'll help open people's eyes to the need to protect their mobile devices - something we've been saying for the past 14 years... we realise that a free case is a free case and that a lot of customers will still want fully surrounded protection."

Whether you see the deal as a handy way to upgrade your iPhone 4 case to fully surrounded protection or a sneaky marketing ploy, Proporta does offer a wide range of cases and the discount will certainly help out those in the market for a more sturdy cover.

Those interested can simply enter the promotional code "CASEFREE" at proporta.com to take advantage of the discount.

We got an email this afternoon from Soonleader, a Chinese accessory maker that they've already started producing some cases for the next generation iPhone. You know, the one that hasn't even been officially announced yet. In their note, they mention that they have taken a molding of the next generation iPhone. We can only assume that molding is from the one of many that have seemingly escaped the usual Apple tight security.

Here are a couple pictures of the new cases. They seem to have all of the ports in the right places for the pictures we've seen so far. Check the Soonleader site for more pictures.

While we already know a lot about the next iPhone. I'm pretty sure there are some things we do not know yet. Those things will likely be revealed next Monday at the WWDC Keynote. And immediately after I'm sure we will be deluged with case designs and accessories from other manufacturers.

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Something is going horribly wrong with Apple’s legendary veil of secrecy. Following the highly documented iPhone prototype leaks already this year, it now appears that a prototype iPod touch has escaped into the wild as well. The same Vietnamese website that, to the best of our knowledge, still has an iPhone 4G prototype is now posting images of a prototype iPod touch with a built-in 2 megapixel camera. As before, Tinhte.vn has also posted a video of the device in action that appears to be running some kind of diagnostic tool with some very un-Apple graphics, but it does show the camera working. Last time we posted about Tinhte.vn we mentioned the dramas Jason Chen of Gizmodo encountered when showing off video of an Apple prototype and urged a little caution. The guys in Vietnam obviously missed that post or simply don’t care, this time they even include footage of them walking into their office!

While this is clearly a prototype model, it may not be that new. Apple is alleged to have scrapped an iPod touch with a camera shortly before its iPod event in September 2009 where it instead launched the iPod nano with video. Images circulating on the web around that time also looked very similar to these. Mac Rumors claims that the codename N18 on the sticker one of the images makes this model a third-generation iPod touch prototype, manufactured in June 2009. Whether or not Apple is planning to return to the iPod touch with camera remains to be seen but these pictures at least prove that they have tried it.

And meanwhile, across the South China Sea, more iPhone prototype information is being spilled. Taiwanese website Apple.pro has posted what appear to be shots of the next generation iPhone’s front fascia. This isn’t exciting in itself, given that we’ve seen what we expect to be the finished product already, but what is interesting is one of these front panels is white. Apple already sells the iPhone with a black or a white back panel and, if these images are true, now plans to sell a completely white version as well. We’re not sure we like the idea of an all-white iPhone, especially if the aluminum seen on the black prototype is included on this white version. We may well think differently when we see the final product, however, with Apple being a company synonymous with beautiful products. Then again, Apple used to be a company synonymous with pre-launch security...

[ via Tinhte.vn ]

[ via Apple.pro ]