Last year, I brought you a Ballistic HC iPhone Case Review and found it to be an awesome rugged case. At the time, I wished it would protect my iPhone from water, too. Today, I have a Keystone ECO NautiCase, which promises to be shock proof, sand proof, and splash proof, so I put it to the test.
NautiCase Features
The NautiCase is made with a polycarbonate hard shell surrounded by a rubber skin and has a clear membrane for interfacing with the screen while protecting it. Also included with the case was a thick holster with a belt clip and the belt clip doubles as a stand.
Some of the key features as mentioned on the Keystone site are:
- Shock proof, sand/dust proof and splash proof. IP54 certified.
- 3-layer integrated one-piece design, no assembly needed.
- Redesigned sound channel for clear voice transmission.
- Full touch screen and phone functionality.
- Access to all buttons.
- Enhanced lens protection allowing glare free photography.
- Hard impact hard shell with durable rubber skin & textured bumper for firm grip and shock absorption.
- Holster holds phone face in or face out and with built-in stand.
How Well Did It Work?
The case has a very small rubber seal around its inner perimeter that came out a little the first time I opened it. I wedged it back in and it wasn’t a problem, but this had me worried from the beginning. Another thing to note is that the included user guide warned that this case is splash proof, not water proof. The case has a hinged front that opens to insert or remove your iPhone and snaps tight with three small plastic clips on the top, left, and right edges. Getting my phone in and out of this case was easier than a lot of other cases I’ve reviewed, and that’s important for a case like this. The holster was, well, a holster and worked like it should. The Swivel belt clip moved only when I wanted it to, but it sometimes required a bit of pressure. This is a good thing, really. As an added feature, the belt clip has a little plastic prop that pops out to make it double as a stand. This only worked for horizontal viewing, but it worked well. I put the case and holster on my iPhone for just this feature to view MIT video courses one night.
The NautiCase did pretty well with some basic tests with dirt and dropping, but I was really interested in just how splash proof it was. Despite the warnings in the user guide, I fully submerged my NautiCase in a sink full of water (as seen above). What you might also notice in the image above is that I did not have my phone in the case for this test. I heeded the warnings and opted, instead, for paper towels. With the case completely packed with two paper towels, I submerged it in the sink for 60 seconds, giving it any chance to fill with water. When I retrieved it, there was a small amount of wet paper towel at the bottom edge. This was much better than anticipated, as I expected the front membrane to let a lot of water in. The top two-thirds of the paper towel was bone dry, which also surprised me. Splash proof? It’s almost completely water proof. Keep in mind that the operative word is “almost”, so when you use this case, heed the same warnings about submerging it.
Conclusions
While a little bulky, the Keystone ECO NautiCase comes in several color combinations to help it fit your style. Regardless, this is a case designed for function more than for style and it works well for that purpose. At $49.99, it’s priced for a higher budget, but if it saves your phone once, it’s worth the price. This is not a case I would have on my phone all the time, but will definitely come in handy when on a hike, by a pool, or anywhere I know the likelihood of iPhone catastrophe is high.
Almost two years ago, I brought you a review of a great little device called XShot that lets you put your camera out past arm’s length for better photos. Not wanting to leave out iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S users, XShot sent me a case that is compatible with these latest iPhones and lets you mount your phone to not only the XShot, but also to an included mini tripod. Check it out.
In The Box
Inside the box is a hard iPhone 4/4S case that snaps onto your phone in two pieces. Your phone slides into the bottom piece and the top piece then slides onto your phone and snaps in place with the bottom. The case has all the expected gaps and holes in it that allow for the continued use of your phone’s buttons and connectors and, of course, a hole for the camera lens. In addition, there are two grooves on this case to slide in a special XShot adapter for a tripod mount. These are placed on the bottom and side of the case to allow for mounting both horizontally and vertically.
The box also includes the adapter mentioned above (as well as a spare) and a mini flexible tripod to use it with. The adapter slides into either of the grooves on the iPhone case as mentioned above and has a standard tripod mount screw hole on the bottom to mount to a tripod. To make it easier to get on and off the case, the adapter includes a quick-release. The mini tripod does well to hold the phone up for videos and photos as well as propping your phone up to watch video. The tripod did exhibit one flaw after a few uses that surprised me. Two of the legs became detached. They’re glued in, so this obviously should not happen and may be unique to the one I got.
XShot Usage Examples
I really wanted to get the best use from this case, so I borrowed an XShot from Wes Novack and headed out for a Saturday with XShot. The photo below is an example of getting a picture of yourself with the XShot case on an iPhone 4. In fact, this is a capture from video taken.
My Saturday included casual hiking and some time drooling over Ferraris and Lamborghinis at a local car show. While hiking, the XShot case allowed me to get into the video I shot showing all of the scenery. The mini tripod came in handy when I wanted to set the phone on the ground to capture some of the wild life. At the car show, I snapped the phone back onto the XShot to get above the crowd for a bird’s eye view.
Conclusions
This case sells on the XShot site for $34.95, which falls in line with other quality iPhone cases, but the price includes the mini tripod and it would be nice if this was an option rather than included. Barring the easily solvable tripod problem, I felt like I got a lot out of this case in just one day and I’m sure I’ll use it over and over again. Tripod or not, this is a great accessory to your iPhone 4.
A while back, I ditched Cydia and my jailbreak on my iPhone 4 (Verizon) for the bells and whistles promised by IOS 5. At the time, I thought about all the advantages of my jailbroken IOS and decided that the new features of IOS 5 outweighed the features I was actively using from being jailbroken. Then came Siri and this month, I learned that Siri was soon to be ported to jailbroken iPhones running IOS 5.0.1 and couldn’t wait to jailbreak again. This morning, the untethered IOS 5.0.1 jailbreak AND the Siri port (named Spire) are both available.
How To Jailbreak IOS 5.0.1 Untethered
First, make sure you have one of these supported devices:
- iPhone 4 (GSM – CDMA)
- iPhone 3GS
- iPod touch 4G
- iPod touch 3G
- iPad 1
You’ll also need to make sure you’re on IOS 5.0.1 If not, update your device now, because Apple is sure to release a new version soon to close up some open doors.
Got everything you need? Good, you’re ready to begin. Just follow these steps:
1. BACK UP – You don’t know how many times this has saved me. Do It!
2. Download Redsn0w 0.9.10b1 (Windows – Mac OS X).
3. Unzip the Redsn0w archive you downloaded and run Redsn0w 0.9.10.b1.
4. Click the button to Jailbreak and follow the on-screen instructions.
After a couple minutes and a reboot, you should be jailbroken. Props go out to pod2g for making it possible.
How To Install Siri On iPhone 4
Ryan Petrich and chpwn have released a port of Siri, called Spire, to Cydia. This is about 100MB, so you really should install via Wifi. To find it, just search for Spire in the BigBoss repository.
This is the best port of Siri to date, but it still requires authorization from Apple to run. This means that you have to find and use a proxy in order to use Siri (for now). For more information on how to get a proxy, see this post from cydiahelp.com.
Unbrick Your iPhone
Just like anyone, I can make mistakes. Sure enough, while trying to re-jailbreak my iPhone, I wound up turning it into a paper weight when I did something wrong and it wouldn’t boot up. If this happened to you, don’t worry because there’s hope. Sadly, it will take some time to restore and you may lose some settings, though. If your phone is stuck with error messages or won’t boot, you can start by doing a factory restore. This will reset the phone to the stock or latest IOS install. After this, you need to restore from your latest backup. You did make a backup, right? Once the backup is in place, you’re ready to jailbreak again. Good luck!
