I frequently receive updates about new iSkin products. They’re always introducing new designs and I like almost all of them. They have something for everyone and all the designs tend to look current and fashionable. Of course, this is in addition to the fact that they protect your iPhone, iPod, or other portable electronic device. iSkin has definitely become a recognized name in device skins, so I’m always happy to get my hands on iSkin products to review and give away.
Pictured above is the latest device I’m most excited about (and giving away), but the whole line-up has introduced some new looks. Keep reading to see what iSkin’s been up to.
What’s New?
The most important new product from iSkin, in my opinion, is the Duet for the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4 has video conferencing and a crystal clear screen for watching videos and movies. It’s no surprise, then, that companies would start coming out with ways to prop it up for hands-free viewing. Other companies have come up with solutions, some decent and some that are just waiting to fail. What makes the Duet unique is that it includes a belt clip that doubles as a stand. Rather than a full case like most of iSkin’s product line, this is a holster. A bit bulky looking (and perhaps a little bulkier than most of iSkin’s cases, it is a little slimmer than it looks, but it feels pretty sturdy. If you prefer a belt clip, this is a great compliment to your iPhone 4, but if you don’t the belt clip may be a bit much to slide in and out of your pocket. Regardless, the Duet packs in some of the slick style iSkin has become known for.
The people at iSkin have been pretty busy ramping up for the holiday season. In addition to the Duet, they’ve replenished their product line-up with more new offerings for the iPad, iPod Touch 4G, and iPhone 4, including:
- Aura for iPad
- Pebble for iPod Touch 4G
- Touch Duo for iPod Touch 4G
- Solo FX for iPhone 4
- Solo vu for iPhone 4
While I don’t want to go into every detail of each product, I thought I’d share my brief thoughts on each, beginning with the Aura. I’ve posted before about another iPad case, one for which I actually earn on every sale, but this honestly just looks better. The Carbon (black) looks flat and boring next to the Sienna and Bronze Auras, which look corporate take-over fancy. Compared to other iPad cases, these definitely win in looks. The Aura offers three angles to position your iPad for typing, viewing, or reading, but doesn’t appear to offer a portrait mode viewing angle, which may be its only, although notable, shortcoming.
The new Pebble and Touch Duo for the iPod Touch 4G as well as the Solo FX and vu for the iPhone 4 all represent the latest in iSkin’s knack for design with the added belt clip feature the Duo offers. They all look great, especially the Solo vu, which combines elegance with a modern, vibrant look. If I had to choose any of the new products for myself, it would be the Solo vu, hands down.
Win Your Own iSkin
Other than the Aura, I have one of each of the new products to give out to my readers, thanks to iSkin. To win one, all you have to do is comment, tweet, or share. Comment below, telling us why you need an iSkin and what one you like the most for one entry. You can also earn an entry by sharing this post on Twitter or Facebook and commenting below with a link to your tweet or Facebook update. I must be able to find (and read) the tweet or update, so follow or friend me. You can only enter each way once for a maximum of three entries. Entries into this contest will be accepted until January 1, 2011 and I will select winners at random by January 3, 2011.
I was given Powermat products to provide a hands-on review. Return of these products was not requested, but this review is based 100% on my opinions after using the products provided.
I like to keep my iPhone charged, but I often get up from what I’m doing and want to take my phone with me. When Powermat sent me one of their mats and a receiver to review, I was up for the task. I thought I’d like it, but when I got my hands on it, I found some features I hadn’t planned on.
What Comes With A Powermat?
To be honest, I hadn’t really asked this question before it showed up. I like surprises, so I waited until it got here and opened it up to find a lot more than I had expected. I was told that they would send out a mat and a receiver, and they did, but the mat came with some items I didn’t plan for. Inside the box was:
- 1 Powermat that folds up for portability
- 1 Powercube
- 1 portable charger
- 8 power tips
- 1 carrying case to take a few of the tips with you
This all came in a little case to take with you, but I just packed the mat and the DSi tip for my wife’s Nintendo DSi. Of course, this all goes best with a receiver, so Powermat provided an iPhone 3G S receiver for testing.
How Does It Work?
The Powermat uses wireless charging to transfer power from the mat to the device via its receiver. In my case, I put my iPhone in its receiver and placed it on the mat. I could feel the magnetic alignment pull the phone into place. According to the Powermat site, this is done to perfectly align both pieces for optimal charging. The mat displays a small light and emits an audible chirp to let me know that the connection has been made and charging is in progress. When charging is complete, it shuts off the flow of power for you. It knows charging is complete via an RFID handshake between the receiver and the mat.
With a Powecube, additional devices for which you have no receiver can also be charged. The Powercube sits on the mat like any other receiver and your device plugs into the Powercube via Mini-USB or one of the power tips. It’s not as convenient as the cordless solution the iPhone receiver provided, but it can replace a missing charger, as was the case with the DSi we charged on it. Additional tips included were Apple, LG, Micro-USB, DS Lite, DSi, Samsung, and Sony. The site also has these and more tips for individual purchase with most priced at $6.49. One end of each tip has the connector specific to your device while the other end is a Mini-USB input. I suspect you’d be able to use these with any Mini-USB cable to replace a lost power adapter, too.
Another surprise feature I found with my Powermat 2x was the internal 7800 mAh lithium polymer battery. As soon as you plug the mat in, it begins charging the internal battery, if needed. When unplugged, it will still charge other devices for as long as the battery will last. The internal battery has its own LED indicators to let you know how much juice it has. Although I haven’t tested it myself, the web site boasts up to 4 full charges for most smart phones.
My Thoughts
At $129.99, the Powermat 2x Portable is the most expensive of the mats I’m seeing on the web site, but it looks like a lot of the cost is in the “Portable” as other solutions range from $39.99 for a 1x mat to $99.99 for a 3x mat with a Powercube. Receivers start at only $10, so getting powered up doesn’t have to be expensive. Everything worked as expected and then some. The availability of the Powercube and additional tips erased my compatibility concerns and the whole thing was about half the bulk I had expected. Not folded, the Powermat fit easily into my laptop bag. The receiver case for the iPhone includes a Micro-USB connector and cable to allow for charging when away from your Powermat, which is nice because the case took some work to get off the phone. Not a bad last minute gift for the gadget geek who can’t be pulled away from his DSi or phone.
Win A Powermat Kit For Christmas!
I like this thing so much that I’m keeping it, but the people at Powermat have promised to provide one lucky reader a Powermat and a receiver (for whatever phone you have). What a cool Christmas gift. All you have to do to enter is share this post on Facebook or Twitter and comment below with a link to your Facebook wall or tweet. I have to be able to see the post for it to count. You can only enter once on Facebook and once on Twitter and each counts as one entry. For an additional entry, comment below and tell my why you need a Powermat. Contest ends Christmas morning and I’ll announce a winner by the next day on Twitter and Facebook, so be sure to follow and friend me.
Want to increase your odds of winning more? At the time of this writing, Powermat is giving products away on Twitter, too.
@powermat says: Tell us why you need a Powermat for Xmas. The more interesting the answer, the better your chances of winning. Use #PowermatClaus to enter.
This post brought to you by NAVTEQ. All opinions are 100% mine.
Most of us drive every day to and from work and occasionally to places completely new to us. Some of us, namely me, are not great with directions. Personally, I’m lost without a map of some kind to guide me and I can’t stand paper maps if I have a digital solution available to me. Thankfully, this is not out of reach. Many cars now come with navigation systems (standard or optional) built into the dash. An example of this is my 2009 Dodge Charger with its in-dash touch screen interface.
A built-in navigation system from NAVTEQ is an option for cars like mine. NAVTEQ, is the company whose technology and maps drive most of the in-car navigation systems in the U.S.. If you have an in-dash Navigation system, chances are it’s powered by NAVTEQ! That says a lot for them. Sadly some of us don’t have the latest NAVTEQ systems guiding our way. That’s why a navigation system map update from NAVTEQ makes a good Christmas gift. Not only that, but you don’t have to worry about it being the wrong size or color, they wont re-gift it, it’s actually useful, helping your giftee get places on time, and really just makes any kind of travel easier.
If you want to keep it for yourself, that’s OK, too. I almost ended up driving to Michigan again for my holiday travel this year, and if I had, this would be ideal along the way. One thing I realized on the last trip is that, although we survived it with minimal arguments, those that occurred were usually a result of bad navigation and getting lost. Whatever the need, having a navigation system like this in your car is really recommended.
While writing this, I started thinking about all the ways I would use this in my own car. Here’s a few I came up with:
Getting to Christmas parties
Weddings (can NOT be the guy walking in mid-ceremony)
Checking out new places to eat on recommendations from friends
Travel, of course
Finding a different way to get there during rush hour
They say that you should work smarter, not harder and I think about that a lot. Having a full-time job and also writing a blog and working on other websites and everything else I do means that I have to do these things faster if I want to enjoy life on the side. One of the things that has made me work a little smarter and not quite as hard is something called Dragon Dictation for the iPhone. Here’s a quick demonstration video showing how it works.
Using the App
Dragon has a commercial app that you can buy for your computer but who wants to spend the money? And if you can get something for free why not. This article is about actually getting something for free that normally would cost you money and using it to help you work smarter instead of harder so that you can enjoy life more. What you say into your phone gets translated into text so you can dictate e-mails, jot down things you’re thinking about while you’re on the road or whatever else you would normally do that might require typing sitting in front of the computer. As an example of this I am currently dictating this complete blog post from my iPhone while I’m on the freeway driving home from work. I’m wondering if this will work as well as I hope for a lengthy blog post, and this should be a good barometer of that. The goal is to read through what is dictated and put it into my WordPress editor do a couple small edits in and fix any possible mistakes before publishing.
I have taken a couple peeks not really reading too much while driving but in the peeks that I’ve taken I have determined that it seems to be translating what I’m saying really well. If there’s minimal errors to correct, I’ll go grab an image and just dress up the post a little bit to make it look good. Normally, I would spend maybe an hour or two writing this post and instead I’m spending a mere five maybe ten minutes max while I’m on the road doing something that I have to do anyway. Instead of just listening to the radio, I’ll have gotten something more productive done on my ride home, provided you guys with something informative, hopefully, that you can use it in your business or your even in your personal life and I’ve made my drive home a little bit more interesting because I’m doing something not quite as mundane.
Problems
The only problem that I’ve found with the dictation app so far is that it only allows me to dictate on the iPhone about for a minute or so before it pretty much stops. The upside is that the app will allow you to continue where you left off and will combine everything for you. What happens is it stops so that it can process all the audio, shows you all the text that you have so far, and then it allows you to continue where you left off. You just hit the record button again.
Conclusions
This post was edited, leaving in some of my rambling, but fixing spelling and grammar mistakes as well as some mis-translated words. In the end, I found myself doing a lot more editing than normal, but I had to do a lot less typing. Looking back, the bigger hurdle to overcome, perhaps, will be how much I rattle on when I talk as opposed to my (hopefully) much clearer written communication. Free is pretty much unbeatable, though, so learning to speak like I write may prove a worthwhile experiment to help me get more done during my idle time. If you have an iPhone and could optimize your time a little, head to the app store and search for Dragon Dictation and let me know what you think.
