Incipio Unveils New Line of iPad Accessories at CES

The 2014 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is in full swing and lots of gadget and accessory makers are unveiling new products that are scheduled to launch later this year. Incipio is one of those companies with high hopes for the New Year. Today, they have announced the upcoming launch of four new products for the iPad that are sure to be crowd pleasers at this year's conference.

The Prompt

The Prompt Visual Notification Pod delivers mobile device notifications at a glance with the use of glowing colored lights to notify users of incoming phone calls, emails, text messages, calendar appointments, low battery alerts, and more. Users can simply pair Prompt with their device using Bluetooth and the Prompt Notification Pod will display specific colors to notify the user of incoming status changes without the hassle of pulling out their mobile device.

The free easy-to-use Prompt Notification App is compatible with Android and iOS7 devices and complements the user experience by offering the option of customizing colors to their notifications, with up to 10 available colors per notification. The Prompt Notification App will be available in the App Store and Google Play next month. A simple tap on Prompt ends the blinking light and can reset the notification system. Users can experience hands-free convenience while saving time and their mobile device's battery life with the Prompt Visual Notification Pod.

The Prompt Visual Notification Pod will be available next month for $39.99 at the company's website and select retailers nationwide.

Desktop Charging Station

The Incipio Desktop Charging Station is an elegant and compact dual-port power source capable of charging two iPads simultaneously with a 2.4A output per port. The high-speed Desktop Charging Station for iPad and iPhone is perfect for quick charging on desks, counters, or nightstands for convenient charging access anytime.

The Desktop Charging Station will be available in a range of colors next month for $39.99 at the company's website.

Mix & Match Folio

Incipio's Mix & Match Folio offers customized style and protection for iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display with a two-piece protective solution featuring a removable front cover and base. Customers will be able to choose a base color and a front cover offered in a variety of colors and designs for endless creative combinations.

Stylish and protective, the Mix & Match hard shell casing safeguards the iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display against scrapes and dents; providing all over device coverage. The front cover securely closes with an elastic band for easy portability. Incipio's Mix & Match Folios will be offered as a complete retail program, allowing retailers to provide their customers with a wide selection of decorative and protective solutions for the iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display.

The Mix & Match Base for iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display is $14.99 and the Mix & Match Cover for iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display is $24.99 and will be available in the coming months at the company's website.

Steno Keyboard Folio

The versatile Steno Keyboard Folio transforms the iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display into a mobile workstation with the convenience of Bluetooth connection and flexibility of the sliding keyboard. Ideal for work or leisure, the Steno Keyboard Folio provides easy adjustability and multiple viewing and typing angles. The sliding keyboard features a 78 key keyboard, 14 quick access short-cut functions, and optimized key spacing for the utmost typing efficiency. Additionally, the Steno Keyboard Folio is designed with front and back hard shell casing for full device protection while remaining thin and lightweight.

The Steno Keyboard Folio for iPad Air will be available next month for $99.99 and the Steno Keyboard Folio for iPad Mini with Retina display will be available for $89.99 in various colors at the company's website and select premium retailers nationwide.

Signal’s New ‘RP One’ iPad Game Controller Takes Styling Cues from Xbox

Wireless gaming controllers for iOS are all the rage right now. Newcomer 'Signal' is premiering their first offering at CES called the RP One. This controller connects via Bluetooth and will be available for $99.99 in the first half of 2014.

The RP One looks similar to an Xbox controller and as long as they have steered clear of copyright infringements, I would hardly call mimicking one of the best controllers ever a bad idea. While it certainly lacks imagination in the design category, I think new controllers on the market are good for everyone and will hopefully help bring down the ridiculous prices.

"We are at the dawn of the next major era of gaming," says SIGNAL Director of Business Development & Channel Marketing, Mark Prince. "The RP One is our invitation to the future. Gamers want to experience their favorite titles anywhere, anytime, without limitation, and the RP One enables them to do it. It is the first full-scale controller designed specifically for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch."

The RP One contains a rechargeable lithium ion battery that is capable of up to ten hours of game play and can be charged during use for limitless fun.

I have two questions about this controller which will only be answered as the release draws closer. The first is which games it will work with and the second is how much latency there will be with the wireless connection. If they have taken care of these issues then I would probably buy this device.

Dailly Round Up CES 2013 Pre-CES/Day 1

So CES has started and there will be a flood of electronics, gizmos and gadgets coming out of it. I am going to try to keep you up to date on the awesome, the likely and the you'll probably never see it. As always day one which is really pre-CES has shown off a lot of cameras, TV's and video streaming/smart boxes. UHD is a new term that'll start to become familiar just as OLED did last year however the hopes of the TV companies this go round is to make Ultra High Definition an affordable product we see in consumers' homes, something the OLED TV's haven't quite been able to do. Even Vizio has jumped on the Ultra HDTV train and if anybody can bring them to consumers it's going to be them, matching both quality and affordability as they always do. Keep reading to find out more.

The camera round-up is pretty standard; smaller form factor, more pixels and extra connectivity - whether it be Bluetooth or Wi-Fi everyone wants you connected. The big trend in the Point and Shoot category right now is the flip out screen making self-portraits capable without the creepy bathroom mirror. Video Streaming boxes are all offering about the same features right now with the big push being size and ability to play games on them but it's early in CES so I am sure we'll see even more features on those. One of the highlighted products of pre-CES is Nvidia's Project Shield. It's in short a XBOX style controller with a 5" 720p display attached to it running games natively on the device via an android OS. However one of the most talked about features of this new gaming device is its ability to stream games from your Nvidia based graphics PC over your local network including Steam titles. It's very Wii U like and will require your PC to be equipped with an Nvidia 600 series or higher graphics card along with the GeForce Experience software to be installed as well. Sources at IGN say the streaming was pretty flawless. Pricing has yet to be announced as well as other details. Stay tuned as we try to keep you up to date with daily round ups of all things CES.

I Just Controlled a Computer with My Eyeballs and It Was Amazing

We checked out Tobii last year, and it was pretty rough around the edges—just a prototype. But now the eye-control tech wizards at Tobii are back with a polished product, and I feel like I'm in Star Trek.

It's still not perfect, but once Tobii's new USB eye-scanning peripheral calibrated itself with my peepers, I was able to select whatever I looked at onscreen just by pressing the delete key. It made navigating Windows 8's interface rainbow faster than touch—just look at what you want to open, select, read, whatever—your retinas will always be faster than your fingers. It made it genuinely fun. It made it sci-fi.

But zooming through a map is the absolute best: no matter where you look, the Tobii will navigate on the fly. Starting from a view of North America in its entirety, I was able to sweep down through the east coast, zooming straight down to Gizmodo HQ as I got my visual bearings. Not only is Tobii accurate, it's fast—we were told the sensor, which mixed traditional imaging with near-field infrared scanning. This was crucial for something like maps, where a split-second change in what you're looking at matters.

Tobii is already partnering with companies like Lenovo to bake this tech directly into laptops and tablets. Later this year developers (and soon, us consumers) will be able to buy the USB stick to use on our existing rigs.

The sooner the better. There's nothing that feels like this, and even though it requires some keyboard taps to trigger, an interface that uses only your vision feels like something nearer to telepathy than anything I've encountered with tech before. Something has to make the keyboard and mouse combo obsolete, and a mix of eye-tracking and voice-recognition might just do it.

Hands-on with a Seriously Next-Level Activity Tracker

Withings little Smart Activity Tracker is, in fact, tiny but a smidge larger than the Fitbit One. It's an odd little shaped device in that it's kind of like Apple's iPod Shuffle if you've ever seen one of those before.

Most of the functions are cycled through using the button at the top but you can cycle through previous days recorded steps and the like by swiping from left to right or vice versa along the lower third of the display. As mentioned before, the SAT does not have an altimeter but a Withings spokesman told me that the technology being used to track stairs climbed is being patented.

Measuring your heart rate seems pretty simple - you simply cycle to the heart rate feature and stick your finger on the LED that's pulsing on the backside of the device.

Withings is still mum on pricing but they expect to ship the tracker by the end of Q1.

Customize your iPhone, with metallic prints from Chromaluxe

I'm a fan of aluminum photos. I have a nice family portrait printed direct on aluminum and it gets great feedback. Such prints resist fading, water damage, tears, etc., so I was excited to see the Chromaluxe cases for the iPhone 5 and 4/4S.

These cases are a combination of a clear plastic bumper that contains the iPhone and a custom aluminum backplate with the photo of your choice. I had one made with a sample cover of our iPhone Life Magazine. You could make one up with your photo, business card info, and even a QR Code! Imagine just holding your iPhone up to have someone scan your contact info or business URL!

They also make cases for specific Galaxy phones.

A nice feature is you could swap out aluminum prints as desired. Maybe have one with your favorite football team and then swap in your favorite baseball team when the season arrives!

Check out their printed aluminum products, beyond iPhone cases, at http://www.chromaluxe.com.

Give your iOS devices a HyperBoost of storage with the iUSBport

Sanho makes a variety of battery packs under the HyperJuice name that give you extra power for iOS, Apple, and other USB based devices, but I was intrigued by their latest offering. The iUSBport is a hockey puck sized device that takes any USB hard drive or flash drive and turns it into a wireless storage device!

You can plug something as small as a 16GB flash drive or as big as a 3 terabyte hard disk drive and access the content from up to three devices at a time. Those devices can be iPhones, iPads, or iPod touches, but also Android devices!

To access the wireless data, just use a modern browser like Safari or Chrome and you can view videos and photos wirelessly! You just browse to the default address that the iUSBport broadcasts from, http://192.168.0.1 once you connect to the iUSBport WiFi network. There's also a built in FTP server so you can transfer files wirelessly!

A neat bonus feature is that you can use the USB port to charge your iOS device, provided you supply the USB cable! This could really help, in a punch. The device itself charges using a custom cable and a USB charger (not provided, and they recommend an iPad caliber 5watt charger) and can last about five hours on a full charge.

The iUSBport is available in white or black. Another nice touch is an integrated LCD screen that displays the current status of the iUSBport.

You might be concerned that by connecting to the iUSBport's WiFi network, you are giving up your Internet connectivity. Fortunately, they have a pass through option that allows you to connect to both the Internet and the iUSBport.

Given the high prices Apple charges to go from 16GB to 32GB, or to 64GB, the iUSBport offers a flexible, affordable alternative. And because that extra storage can be shared among multiple devices, and can be as large as you can find, the iUSBport is a great accessory for your gadget bag!