Category: Cell Phone Accessories

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Cell Phone Accessories Imaging

DotLens microscopic lens lets your iPhone see it’s the little things that matter

With our noses inside our phones, we neglect to remember the existence of the wondrous, microscopic world that exists around us teeming with unfamiliar life.

Now Dotlens wants to create a bridge for us in the form of a 15x or 120x pebble-sized lens attachment for smartphone cameras. Its resolution of one micron gives any smartphone the ability to take laboratory quality photos of all manner of objects and specimen, from the rocks strewn outside your door to the house ant crawling on your kitchen floor. When you’re done, share them instantly using social media or attach the smartphone to a computer or projector for real-time collaboration or teaching.

Smartphone microscope attachments have been a thing for quite some time. Products like MicrobeScope and Skylight represent what most of these products are like, transforming smartphones into bulky, stationary microscopes. You even have the choice to create a DIY version for around $10 if you were so inclined, but what none of these have is the ability to be attached and removed simply from a smartphone, expanding the range of subjects because of the increased portability. The price is similarly light: $25 will get you the 120x version, a pledge that will go far towards their $12,o00 funding goal.

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Cell Phone Accessories Chargers/Batteries Lighting Music Tech Accessories

Vox puts a pyramid of desk tools at your fingertips

In a world where humans are expected to multitask, it only seems fair that there are gadgets available that allow for gadgets to multitask as well.

Vox makes multitasking more effective in our fast paced world. Oh, let tech lovers count the ways! Six ways, to be exact. These include a rechargeable LED desk lamp, USB and laptop charger, Bluetooth speakers, video recording camera, classical clock, smartphone, and tablet dock. At the touch of a button, answer the phone while using a charging laptop, enjoying Bluetooth, and driving the caller crazy. It’s the ultimate multitasking experience with each side of the pyramid having its own unique multitask enhancing purpose!

The fun is available to those who own iPhone 6/6+, as well as owners of Apple, HP, Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony, LG, Asus, Acer, and Fujitsu laptops. Early bird backers who want the six-feature premium version product can get theirs for $95 with an expected delivery of December 2014.

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Cell Phone Accessories

Gyzmo is another Bluetooth button to remotely control your smartphone

For decades, senior citizens with medical conditions have counted on emergency paging necklaces to notify medical responders of an emergency. Gyzmo operates primarily as a wireless panic button that can be used to contact emergency contacts with precise GPS location by activating the functions programmed into a smartphone. This way, trusted and reliable friends and family members will know where the Gyzmo owner is, and that something is wrong. Additionally, Gyzmo can be used to activate functions on any smart device wirelessly, by again using one of three pressed buttons to activate features set up through the owner’s smartphone.

The Gyzmo battery lasts up to six months, ensuring that it won’t go out in the middle of an emergency if properly managed. Stadson Technology, creators of the Gyzmo, are looking for $75,000 to develop the app, test, and go through production. Buyers can pick one up for $49, having it delivered in April 2015. As just a panic button, Gyzmo is a pretty solid idea and device that could potentially save lives. Trying to market it as a smart home controller seems a little far-fetched, as it still has to be routed through a smartphone, and most smart devices already have companion apps for wireless control.

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Cell Phone Accessories Connected Objects

Salt locks your phone when you get up to grab some condiments

The seemingly innocuous act of unlocking our devices is suddenly not so when we lose almost three days a year doing just that. Most people have caught on to this, disabling their security as a result, leaving them vulnerable should they lose it. The choice between not having a lock screen or enjoying instant access to our devices is a tough one, but many opt for the latter out of sheer convenience.

SALT is a durable plastic card embedded with Bluetooth technology allowing users to enjoy the best of both worlds. As long as the user is within 10 feet the card, it will let you access your Android or iOS device instantly. The second you’re out range, the phone locks: either the entire phone or certain apps in response, protecting you in the unfortunate scenario of losing it or having someone rummage through your personal texts and e-mails.

If the opposite occurs and you lose the wallet or purse the card was in, the SALT app can help you locate it instead. With a custom battery estimated to last for over a year, users can enjoy keyless entry to their devices while still maintaining a high level of security. Although the company behind SALT has already hit their funding goal of $50,000, interested parties can grab themselves their very own with just a $15 pledge.

There aren’t very many solutions to this small yet time-consuming problem. SALT is one of the first that manages to be more versatile than just a card in your pocket. Many people are obviously interested, but one wonders if this could have worked without a battery to avoid the inevitable purchase of another. They’ve also admitted the possibility of the iOS version eventually lacking its star feature by blocking out an entire smartphone eco-system in the process. Solving these two issues will propel this from a maybe to easy impulse purchase territory.

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Cell Phone Accessories Video Games

GenX Cardtroller flattens the controller, possibly mobile game opponents

Smartphones are packed with enough power to tackle a ton of applications or functions, including games. For those that grew up on the classics, however, gaming just doesn’t feel right without a controller to hold on to.

There have been plenty of peripherals released for phones that better simulate the controller-holding console game experience, but the major issue with them is that they require owners to carry one more thing around with them, or increase the size of their phone with a bulky case. Genx Cardtroller is a controller the size of a credit card that gamers can use to play on their phones without carrying around extra weight. When the power switch is slid into the on position, retractable shoulder buttons emerge from the top of the Genx, providing a place for fingers to rest and more ways to enjoy the action.

Genx also has internal memory inside, which the phone will treat as an external storage device for games, emulators, or save files. The Genx charges through micro-USB and can run wirelessly for two hours on a single charge. Inventor Joseph Nathan Cohorst is asking backers to pitch in $30,000 of funding for Genx. Backers can press start on this product for $35 in January 2015.

One of the issues that the campaign video brings up is that not being able to feel the buttons is a big part of why touch screen controls fail for many gamers. At the same time, the compact design of Genx means that the surface appears either flat or near flat, not addressing this problem. It’s a neat little accessory, especially when it comes to size, but ask anyone who’s played with a tiny controller, and they’ll tell you all about the hand cramps.

 

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Cell Phone Accessories

Snapshot is a simple clamp for steadier smartphone videos

96c751161fd85f5bd5a0bbd05e3e540c_largeIf you look hard enough, most problems have pretty simple solutions. For the problem of shaky videos, pipilala has created Snapshot: a simply designed, lightweight clamp that you can carry around anywhere by attaching it to your keychain. The product lets you prop your smartphone up on a stand so that you can experience a a stable video-recording experience, something many of us could use to begin our Oscar worthy films, according to the creator. But don’t worry as it doesn’t come with a Oscar-level price tag: each Snapsot goes for just $10 if you’re early enough. Pipilala is looking for only $3,000 by mid-October.

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Cell Phone Accessories

MiracleFone fake call device may help you hang up with Chatty Cathy

Nothing can take away a big chunk of productive time like an unwanted conversation. Whether it’s someone coming into the office to kill time they don’t want to spend on work or bumping into someone on the street that one would rather avoid, there needs to be an easy way out. MiracleFone is disguised as a key fob like those used to remotely unlock or lock a car, but its function is much different. With three different buttons, MiracleFone can dial one of three pre-programmed numbers. There would be a pause so that nobody can link the button press with the phone call, and then owners have a way out.

MiracleFone operates on Bluetooth with most major smartphone brands and models. Inventor Mike Miracle needs $10,000 worth of support due to a change in Bluetooth technology that rendered his previous stock obsolete with newer phones. Backers can grab a MiracleFone to save them for $25 in February 2015. It almost seems like a novelty item you’d get a joke store, but for those that don’t want to be rude but want to be left alone, there’s plenty of reason to get a MiracleFone.

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Cell Phone Accessories

OXA Bluetooth headset sticks to your phone, performs other tricks

Some devices were meant to go together; keyboards and mice, headphones and MP3 players, smartphones and Bluetooth headsets. OXA is a Bluetooth headset that eliminates the headache of having the phone but not the headset. With silicone suction, the OXA sticks discretely to the back of the smartphone, removing easily when needed. This way, the two devices stick together.

OXA can also function as a Bluetooth bridge between the phone and the car, streaming audio and phone calls, and even helping to locate a parking spot if the OXA was left in the car. The OXA can even work as a stand to hold the phone upright if it is left on the phone’s back. OXA Innovations is trying to raise $10,000 to get the best sound quality from the device. Supporters can stick an OXA Bluetooth headset to their phone for $29 in October 2014. Backers shouldn’t expect the best quality or the most feature-rich device here, but if losing Bluetooth headsets has been a recurring problem, then the OXA will fix that in an instant. If this has been a long-standing problem, readers might recall the MoGo attempting to fix it, and may prefer to stick with that over the OXA.

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Cell Phone Accessories

AnyMote Home makes your mobile a universal remote

The Premise. After setting up the perfect home theater system, most customers are left with a few more remotes than were expected, and scarcely an idea of how to use most of them. The universal remote has been around for decades to solve this problem but often creates more in its wake.

The Product. AnyMote Home is designed to take the core idea of a universal remote, eliminating the need for multiple confusing and similar remote controls and condensing them down to a single device, and pairs it with modern technological sensibilities. AnyMote Home is a simple Bluetooth LE hub that takes phone or tablet inputs and converts them into IR signals that can control almost any device, with thousands of devices supported already and updates constantly rolling out.

The Pitch. Anyone who rolls their eyes at TV infomercials starring actors who manage to mess up everything from sorting closet space to cooking pasta might be put off by the beginning of the AnyMote Home pitch video. Viewers meet Jason, a stylish young man who wants to relax after work but gets annoyed with how many remotes he has to pick up and use to watch television. Seriously. Aside from that, the presentation made by Color Tiger is clean and informative, going over the myriad ways AnyMote Home does more than just simulate a remote control. Color Tiger is aiming for raising $50,000 for manufacturing, tooling, and certification.

The Perks. An AnyMote Home hub will cost backers $70, with a delivery date of June 2015. Developers who want to do more with the AnyMote system can get the SDK along with the device for $250 in January, and anyone who can’t wait any longer without having this piece of tech in their home can also pay $250 to get an Arduino prototype as early as October 2014.

The Potential. AnyMote definitely has a strong degree of adoption possibility because of the way that it combines home automation with the familiar button layouts of existing remotes on a touch screen device. Because AnyMote supports over 800,000 remotes (really!) and is already up on Google Play with functionality on certain model phones, some customers are accustomed already to using the AnyMote system, and the Home hub will just make it even more convenient.

Still, the universal remote never found favor beyond the technologically challenged for the lack of precise control and features. If AnyMote doesn’t offer complete 1:1 remote simulation, there will always be a need for the familiar feel of the plastic wand that makes the entertainment magic of the living room a possibility.

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Cell Phone Accessories Uncategorized

iScent smart atomizer lets you text people to go to smell

a118604cfcfb8a67ded56dab64218090_largeFor all those who’ve been clamoring for scented notifications from the smartphones comes the iScent, a small tower shaped device that pairs with an app to let you do just that. Water infused with essential oil is atomized to notify you of incoming notifications all while making your environment a pleasant one. Ultimately, the iScent looks like it a one-trick pony that will go the way of the oPhone DUO and Digiscents, even if it boasts a party mode for your olfactory-inclined friends. Early birds can scoop one up for just $35 if they care to, although it may make for a pretty paperweight if they do.