Smart Phone Stand To Watch Your Videos

When you are out at the coffee shop drinking your hot beverage, it is hard to hold your phone and drink at the same time. That is where a stand comes into play where you can stand up your phone to watch it instead of holding it in your hand or flat on the table. There are a lot of stands on the market, but few are easily transported as they are fixed in position. That creates issues for taking it with you. The goal is to be able to flatten the stand so that it lays flat. Anything else becomes an issue to take with you.

The Rabbit Mini Portable Stand from Cyanics is one which is available and able to be taken with you easily. The stand can support most phones that have an edge which will not slip in the stand, which is available at Amazon right now. It measures 4.25 by 3.6 by 0.2 inch when it is in the flat position. A little thick if you are putting it into your pocket with your smart phone, but is far better than taking a stand which does not lay flat. At a price of $9.99, these look to be a reasonable solution to having a stand for your smart phone which you can take with you.

But, at 0.2 inches thick, it is a little thicker than what we would like to see as being portable. We did find one that is the thickness of a credit card with the Card Stand which was a recent Indiegogo campaign in 2012. While they have just started sending out the first batch to the investors, we cannot find a site where you can go out and purchase one of these. Made of carbon fiber, this credit card size stand fits easily in your wallet and will support most smart phones in the stand. But since there is no where to purchase one of these, it may be a while before they appear in the market. This looks like a great idea and we are surprised there is no web site available for this product.

Apple Cufflinks To Whow Your Love Of Apple

If you are an Apple fan and love all things Apple, you need to show just how much of a follower of their technology you really are. And what better way than to wear that on your sleeve so to speak. To be more specific, you can wear that as a cufflink to showcase your iPhone.

The iPhone cufflink shown here is a great looking one to show off your love of the iPhone. These look like the real thing, but you cannot do anything else with them other than looking at them. Maybe in the future, the iPhone will be small enough to get your phone down to that size. But for now, these will generate some conversations.

If you would rather not have cufflinks of the iPhone, you can take a look at Apple cufflinks to show your appreciation in a more generic way so that it is not a specific product, but rather representing the Apple logo. This one is not as flashy as the iPhone cufflinks, but stills shows your appreciation for all the great Apple products which you use.

And there are so many other jewelry items for both men and women to show your love of everything Apple at Amazon. There is bound to be one that you find intriguing for you to wear. These include cufflinks, charms, earrings and many others for you to chose from.

Solar Battery Charger For Your Smart Phone

Kickstarter Friday - Using the sun to charge up your mobile devices

If you have ever been out in the mountains or at the beach and find that your mobile device needs to be charged, it would be great to have something which could solve that problem for you. Using the power of the sun to replenish your smart phone battery is exactly what you would need and there is such a product coming to market soon and is currently listed on Kickstarter.

The WakaWaka Power Station has already exceeded their funding goal of $50,000 with 13 days to go and it looks like they are going to go over the extended goal of $250,000. The WakaWaka company has previously provided a solar powered light which is small and portable. With this latest product, they are providing a small device which is capable of charging up your smart phone and providing hours light after that.

With claims of being up to 200% better than existing products, this one looks to be an excellent seller when it comes to market. The solar charger contains a battery which can be charged to 75% within 6 hours depending on location which is more than enough to recharge your depleted smart phone battery. At 4.7 by 0.6 by 2 inches, this compact device is a must to be carried around with those away from electrical outlets for charging. They are saying this small device when full charged up will be able to charge up a number of mobile devices from iPhones to most Android devices with battery life left over to provide you with hours of light from the device. And the mobile devices will include tablets.

This latest product is expected to arrive in May 2013 with a possible price of $79 when it is available to the public after the Kickstarter backers are taken care of.

Talking Gloves For Your Bluetooth Smart Phone

If you have been out in the weather recently, you have probably seen some cooler temperatures which may require you to wear gloves to keep your hands warm. And while gloves make you hands warmer, they do not do much more than that function. But a recent discovery has found a pair of multi-functional gloves which you can pair with your smart phone and use as a microphone and hearing in a single glove. They are calling these as talking gloves.

These are from Hi-Fun and seem a rather interesting product. These have bluetooth connectivity built into the gloves where the thumb area contains a speaker that allows you to hear your caller and the pinky finger holds a microphone which you speak into. If you notice the picture above and it shows that symbol that many of us use to say call me without saying anything.

Obviously there is a battery contained in the glove which has a reported 20 hours of talk time and 10 days of standby time according to the company web site. Each glove has 3 buttons on it to control the functions for the glove. And charging is accomplished via a USB connection. This is a brand new product and pricing is not yet available for here in the US. This looks like a great idea when you need to keep your hands warm in cold weather.

Here is a YouTube video of the Hi-Call gloves which we found from Engadget.

E-Bike Sales to Shift into High Gear for 2013

Sales of electric bicycles, or e-bikes, are expected to grow by more than 50% in North America during 2013, as the hot item in consumer green tech is set to breakaway in sales from previous years. Actor William Shatner, who is no stranger to futuristic tech, recently purchased two Pedego Interceptor e-bikes for him and his wife in LA.

The e-bike market is ready to go mainstream in the U.S. The price for e-bikes has come down significantly in recent months. At one time, most e-bikes with decent components and weight were in the $3,000 range. Now you can find reasonable quality e-bikes in the $1,000 range. With gas prices at all-time highs, e-bikes are an attractive, low-cost option to gas efficient vehicles.

E-bike owners are finding that they are great for commuting to work, as traditional bikes can be a problem with office dress and sweat.

People who use e-bikes range from commuters to casual cyclers who like a little help with hills and wind, to those who decided to save money on buying a scooter. These are not for the serious road cycler or hardcore mountain biker.

I've been shopping for an e-bike now for a few weeks, and I've had my eye on the Prodeco Phantom X folding electric bike (pictured). I've had folding bikes in the past and love the convenience of being able to throw my bike in almost any car trunk or hatchback. Because the Phantom X folds up it can ship from the manufacturer fully assembled.

If you’re considering an e-bike, it pays to do some research first. Cheaper e-bikes are going to be heavier and have less battery capacity and power. Higher priced bikes will be made from lighter materials and have better batteries.

Another consideration is local motor vehicle laws. E-bikes could be considered motor vehicles depending on where you live (or where the one you’re buying the bike for lives). For example, according to US federal law, as long as your electric bike is under 750 watts and does not go over 20 MPH (without pedal assist) then it is a bicycle and not a motor vehicle. Most consumer e-bikes in the $1,000 range don’t fit the motorized vehicle description.

These are just the basics of e-bike considerations. You’ll want to browse through bike websites and shops to find out more. Also, read the reviews on the top e-bikes at Amazon.com.

CLIPP: Education App for the Modern Classroom

Education finally has its own, complete app solution designed for today’s classroom: Clipp. With scores of productivity and cloud storage apps crowding the ed-tech landscape, education choices are abundant, yet seem discombobulated. Tom Pargulski and Marty Weber are in the process of raising funding on Indiegogo with an integrated solution. According to them, Clipp manages and performs tasks students and teachers need to do, all from a single connection point. Since Clipp works with other apps, everyone can still use their favorite app to get their work done.

The essence of Clipp is that it allows you to take the entire classroom environment with you, and presents it the way your mind thinks ... in images. An app like this is a major time-saver, making learning much more efficient. Every word, phrase, file name, etc. is searchable and sortable within Clipp, all organized on an infinite, scrollable timeline. All student notes, lecture notes, teacher lesson plans, videos, links, web bookmarks, curricula, etc. are available to anyone with appropriate login credentials. Any item is reviewable and retrievable in real-time. It’s like students and teachers having their own personal Google for their classroom.

But that's not all.

Clipp can also utilize stored files, notes and media to create new learning tools and materials. Clipp can organize information for instant study guides or lesson plans, request live feedback from students via live polling and real-time surveys, and can even automate grading. Clipp does all of this digitally, and all within one application. Think of a wiki for the classroom, evolved to handle computations of its data.

Clipp was built to be the digital hub for the classroom and has vast potential in education. Finally, the classroom has evolved with technology. Follow the app’s progress on www.indiegogo.com/clipp.

iBuKu Pets Let You Reuse Your Old iPhone

Kickstarter Friday - iBuKu Pets using your old iPhone to teach children
Have you ever wondered what you might be able to do with your existing iPhone when you purchased a newer one? There is always the idea of selling it in advance of getting a new one, but what if you could use that older iPhone to provide a toy to a child which would make learning fun. That is exactly what iBuKu Pets is all about and is a Kickstarter project which was funded last Saturday. With the goal of funding $25,000, they exceeded the goal getting 123 people to pledge $25,585.

iBuKu Pets sells kid safe pets which you can place your old iPhone into. For the moment, each pet will hold an old iPhone, either the iPhone 3GS, 4 or 4S, by plugging it into an included battery. The included battery will increase the time between charges so that your child can get maximum enjoyment. Then you snap it into the iBuKu Pet. But, before you do that, you will need to download the iBuKu Pets app into your iPhone so that it is there ready to be run. Your kids can use your old iPhone as a learning tool.

The pets have a story behind them which you can tell to kids to gain some understanding. Such as the "iBuku Pets love recycling these objects to make machines and other useful gadgets" as an example. And you can even use your old iPod in the iBuKu Pets with the iPod 3g or 4g. If you have kids, you know they all want to play games on your iPhone and sometimes delete something by mistake, but the iBuKu Pets and app will eliminate that when you use your old iPhone or iPod.

The iBuKu Pets are currently for sale on their web site at a price of $24.99. You can expect deliveries to arrive in January as those who have pledged money to the project will be getting their iBuKu Pets first. Here is the video from the Kickstarter page.

Last Minute Gifts That Don’t Require Shipping

If you still have some holiday shopping to do with only a couple days left before the big day, shipping a gift from Amazon or eBay is out unless you want to pay double what the gift is worth to overnight it.

So, what are your options at this point?

Sure, you could go out and buy gift cards card, but didn't you do that last year?

eCards? So you couldn't bother yourself with stepping out of the house to drop a real card in the mail. Instead you email a cheesy, semi-animated eCard surrounded by banner ads.

Don’t be that person.

Here are a few unique and thoughtful gift ideas that won’t require shipping and will make you look like a creative holiday hero.

Create an Xtranormal Video

You could just record a special holiday video message and send that. But this gift idea is much more creative and entertaining. It’s super easy, and depending on the options you choose, it might not cost anything to create.

With Xtranormal, all you need to do is write a short greeting and you can have a 3D animated character present your message. You just type your message into the free software to have it read by your character.

You can choose from a wide range of characters, many based on real-life celebrities. Select a venue and background music for your scene. You can give your digitized celebrity facial expressions as they talk and cue body gestures.

The only flaw with Xtranormal is the selection of voices. With all the characters they offer, the number of voices is comparatively low. The digitized voices aren't the best I've come across in other software either. You can also add your own voiceover to your video.

Upload to YouTube (make it private if you like) and post on the recipient’s Facebook wall or email the link.

I've done this before for some friends and had a lot of fun making my video. My friends absolutely loved it. You can get started on your video production by heading over to Xtranormal.com.

Hire Someone on Fiverr to Create a Unique Holiday Greeting

You can hire people to do almost anything on Fiverr.com for only 5 bucks. You can write a greeting and have it video presented by puppets, in another language, by sexy women in holiday lingerie, sung by country singers, or reported by a news anchorperson.

This gift idea is going to depend on the booking availability of the person offering the gig. If you can find someone with a 24 hour turn around, you might be able to pull it off if you act quickly.

Gift Music, Games or Apps

Many sites that sell digital products also allow you to “gift” items. You pay for the product and your gift recipient receives the all access details. Here are a few example sites that allow gifting:

• Music: Streaming music service Spotify allows you to buy gift subscriptions that will allow access to their impressive library of tunes.


• Apps: Use iTunes to gift one of your favorite apps to a friend or family member. You can also gift music.


• Games: Have a family member who’s a gamer? Gaming platform Steam allows you to gift individual game titles from their online store.


• Courses: Give the gift of learning. Udemy.com has a gift option available for all their online courses.

If you do a quick search on Google you’re sure to turn up more sites that allow gifting.

There you have it: a number of gift ideas that are thoughtful and will make you look like a creative genius. Best of all, you didn't even have to get dressed to finish up your holiday shopping!

Tankbot Robot - Desktop Toys For Fun

We have been looking for something that would be just plan fun to have and use. What we found was a company called Desk Pets and they provide little robots which you can play with on your desk when you want to have some fun. The work day is often too stressful and talking the time to have some fun is always important to clear your mind.

We so often think of robots as something which is serious, but these are just plain fun. The Tankbot from Desk Pets is a small little robot and can be controlled by an iOS device or selected Android devices. You just have to download an app to your smart phone for those which are supported. Or you can set it in the autonomous mode and sensors on the robot will detect obstacles and avoid them. Create your own maze for it to try and get through.

These little devices plug into the USB port of a computer to charge and then you are on your way to having some fun. There is a universal remote that you attach to your smart phone via the standard head phone jack. That is all there is too it for you to have some fun. If you want to have even more fun, have your friends buy one and then you can have some robot wars.

Your Personal Robot From Romotive

Robots are becoming an interesting area in the past few years as technology advancements have made them far more life like. So, what if you want one that you can have at home as something for the kids to get them interested. And we are not talking about a 4 foot robot, but something small. The great thing about this is that it works with your iPhone to control it by mounting on the robot, which can do a number of different things. That includes having it figure out how to navigate through a room and not run into anything. This has so many variations on what it can do and they are growing.

Romo from Romotive can be considered as a personal robot, though it does not have arms. But it is a reasonably priced robot at $149. The current plans have this to begin shipping in March next year and it will probably have inventory issues until they can catch up from the initial demand. Romo the robot measures 4.5 inches wide and 3 inches tall with a length of 5.6 inches. Sounds like a great size to work with. The iPhone slot can tilt 15 degrees forward and up to 45 degrees backward.

With the Romo apps you download onto your iPhone, you can program what you need Romo the robot to do. And Romo can learn, which is what much larger robots can do making this very realistic. You might wonder how technical you have to be to program Romo, but with the graphical user interface, you can do just about anything you need to get this up and running as soon as you get it out of the box.

This runs on batteries and they can be recharged through the use of a USB cable. Take a look at the video they created when this was part of the Kickstarter project.

Wine App For Those Who are Not Connoisseurs

If you are like most people, you enjoy a good glass of wine. But you are not an expert by any stretch to know all the details of a wine like those who live for the next great wine to be found. Most of us just look for a good bottle of wine when shopping and if we do not have any particular recommendation, we buy what looks like a good bottle based on the label. But there are apps which can assist you in that effort based on your own experience.

Like most of us, we do not remember the good bottle of wine that we have a year ago and struggle to try and remember what it was. If you had installed the Vivino app on your smart phone, you would be able to pull that information up and have it at your finger tips. Available for the iPhone and Android smart phones, the app makes it really simple to add information about a wine into it.

If is so simple, that all you have to do is take a picture of the bottle of wine and then you rate it on a scale of 1 to 5 stars. You obviously would not want to add in wines that you did not like, unless you wanted to make sure that you never purchased that one again.

You can keep it simple like this or you can add other notes to your wine addition. What makes this a powerful tool is that the Vivino app matches the picture you have taken against a database the company has built of wines. That process only takes a few seconds to be accomplished. While they cannot match all of them, they are working in that direction.

With the matched lookup, you can get a wealth of information about the wine. The Vivino WIne scanner is available in a free version and a paid Pro version on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

Quadcopter Experience Without Paying 100's of Dollars

We have all been hearing about the idea of local law enforcement departments either purchasing or looking into purchasing drones to fly silently around the town. And while you can purchase some quadcopters for hundreds of dollars, there are alternatives where you can purchase one for far less so that you can get a feel for just how maneuverable these types of things can be. Looking around the web, we found one that is rather interesting and fits the bill for flying a much smaller version of what is being considered by law enforcement.

Enter the 6 AXES GYRO from Brando Toys which will give you the enjoyment of flying a quadcopter around and will not break the bank and sells for less than $50. This comes with everything that you need to get it up and running quickly, though it does require some assembly. It comes with a large remote control device and does amazing things while in flight, such as roll overs in flight with a single button press. Just watch the video below showing it being controlled in a store. Imagine what you could do outside.

If you desire to fly a quadcopter and do not want to pay the high dollars for larger ones, this may be just the answer you need to get you up in the air.

iPhone Camera Case With Lenses From iZZi Gadgets

The cameras on most smart phones do a very good job of producing pictures with increasing megapixels. As an example, the iPhone 4 has a 5 megapixel lens, the iPhone 4S has an 8 megapixel lens and the iPhone 5 has an 8 megapixel lens. These rival highly priced cameras of 5 years ago and are included with the price of the phone. But, what if you would like to increase the lens on the iPhone so that you can take better pictures. That is where the iZZi Gadgets camera cases come in to meet the need.

The iZZo Solo camera case and the Orbit camera case are available for the iPhone 4, 4S and iPhone 5. With either of these, you can add to the videos or pictures that you can take with your iPhone. The iZZi Orbit has three lenses, which can orbit to give you 3 options. A 2 times telephoto lens, a wide angle lens and a 180 degree fish eye lens. Each of these gives you some very interesting shots with your iPhone.

If you are not in the need for a 3 lens set up, you can take a look at the iZZi Solo case and it comes with the 180 degree fish eye lens. You can also buy individual lenses for the Solo and swap them out, but it makes more sense to just buy the Orbit. At prices of $239.99 (iPhone 5) and $229.00 (iPhone 4 and 4S), this looks like a great product. If you prefer, the Solo has prices of $139.99 (iPhone 5) and $129.99 (iPhone 4 and 4S). All with a case that has the ability to attach a tripod.

Here is the original video of their products as they were working to get funding for the iZZi Gadgets camera cases.

iPhone EMF Detector By Ghost - Mr. Ghost That Is

Kickstarter Friday - Searching for radiation sources
As many of us are trying to remain healthy and protect ourselves from the environment, there comes a new Kickstarter project which is going to help you identify those Electromagnetic Radiation sources or EMF as it is abbreviated. This is being developed to run as an app on the iPhone and has a detector which will plug directly into the headphone jack of the phone. Sorry Android lovers, the app is not going to be written for the Android OS. I would bet that if this turns out to be as successful as it looks, you will see an Android version in the future.

The Mr. Ghost: iPhone EMF Detector which can be deemed as a success story. With 4 days to go on the funding for the project with a goal of $7,000, they have received pledges of $29,059 which is well over 4 times the amount requested. That means that this will move forward with the initial phase of producing the product and distributing it to all those who help to fund it with $20 or more. Beyond that, they will move into mass production.

This will come in 4 colors as shown above and looks to be a great way to see how much EMF waves you have where you live. Or in other locations as that would generate a lot of conversations. The video below is a great demonstration on how this works in measuring the EMF waves. Look for this to begin shipping in February.

iPhone Cases With Flair And Style

It seems that cases for the iPhone seem to have a very distinctive style to them. There is elegance associated with many of them which is probably due to the feeling of some that the iPhone is a work of art. So, we have been seeing a lot of them recently due to updates for the recently released iPhone 5. One that caught our eye is the T8 Storm wallet case for the iPhone 4/4S and iPhone 5.

The T8 Cases, as shown above, are made from Italian leather and lined on the inside with a nylon material. There are two slots on the outside which can hold credit cards and money, though you will not get too much in there as they are really not meant to be the holder for all your credit cards. But, it does put things in a convenient place when you are out on the town.

One of the unique things about this is that you can purchase a matching lanyard for the phone so that it can hang around your neck. Your iPhone would always be at the ready to take pictures of check your messages. For those who do not have pockets to hold your iPhone, this provides a great solution. This is a great gift idea for that someone special.

Prices for the iPhone Storm wallet cases are currently $60 and come in black and tan leather. The nylon insides vary depending on the one you are purchasing. The Zepher Lanyard is priced at $15 and comes in the colors of blue and red nylon.

Go over and take a look at the T8 Storm iPhone wallet cases.

Flexible And Portable Keyboard For Your Smart Phone

If you have ever been out and about with your smart phone and needed to type something quickly which was far more than than a few sentences, you dreamed for a keyboard you could easily carry around with you. At the moment, those are far larger than we would like to see in our mobile wanderings. But, what if you could have a bluetooth keyboard that was extremely portable and even flexible that would take up very little space to carry around. Something less than the size of a roll of quarters. There is development of exactly that going on right now.

The Indiegogo project for Qii is in the process of building up funding to complete the project for creating just such a thing. A flexible keyboard on a plastic sheet which rolls up for easy travel and transport. It has all the features of a full QWERTY keyboard, including a 10 digit keypad for fast entry of numbers. The endeavor is looking for funding right now to make this a reality. They have gotten things working on a larger package and are looking to get it evolved to the small size shown above. If they can be successful, this will mean a fantastic product for everyday use.

Unfortunately, they are asking for $1,850,000 to be raised by January 6th. That is $1.85 million dollars which is quite an undertaking for getting funding for a project. If they can reach the desired goal, they will be able to finish the work to reduce the size of the Qii flexible keyboard and bring it to market. There are currently black and white models planned and they are open to other colors as they move this towards the marketplace.

If you are interested in helping them reach their goal, head on over to Indiegogo.com/Qii.

Is A Flexible Smart Phone Screen In Your Future?

We have been hearing talk about flexible screens for your smart phone and other devices, but they have always seemed to be somewhere in the future. But with recent developments, we may be seeing them in some form next year. That is at least according to the rumors which are being reported over the past week. Whether these are accurate or not is for you to decide. The bigger issue is that they are coming. The question is when and we believe that time will be in 2013.

In a Wall Street Journal article and video, Samsung is committed to producing smart phones next year with flexible screens. That will mean a screen made of plastic and not the current glass touch screens we are used to. It is reported that these flexible screens will be unbreakable, but we know that as plastic ages, it does tend to become more brittle. But, it will make your smart phone much lighter and even better, it will be flexible. That is the future.

Flexible screens will make your phone smaller as well which is a great benefit. It can then be expanded to a much larger size or larger that we are seeing today. It creates lots of potential. If you thing about the ability to unroll your smart phone for use and then rolling the phone back up to make it compact, you begin to see the potential of flexible screens. The ability to reduce the size of your 4 inch smart phone to half that size when carry it makes things far more portable than they are today. And that is what we want to see. Do you believe we are going to see flexible screens in 2013?

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We have been seeing these for a while and Samsung presented them at CES in 2011, so they are actively working on them.


Much of the speculation is based on an interview which the Wall Street Journal is reporting and we are including it here for you to decide for yourself.

Find Cheaper Gas Prices With This App

During these times of higher gas prices, we are all on the look out for the best possible prices we can find. And driving around in an attempt to find the best prices on gas is not an advisable thing to do as that burns up the precious fuel that cost so much. So, the best thing you can do is find the best prices before you need to fill up your gas tank. So, what you need is an app on your smart phone to accomplish that task.

And that is where GasBuddy.com comes in to provide a great app for your smart phone. It is a simple yet powerful process that makes this invaluable in your efforts to get the best price on gas. You can either enter your location or let the app determine where you are located via the phones GPS. With that, it returns all the gas prices in your general area and it is sortable by lowest prices being displayed first. It is that simple. It can display a map of the area and prices as well. The great thing is that when you are traveling, it can show you gas prices closest to where you are currently located. That is a great tool.

What makes this really valuable is that the prices are maintained by a fleet of volunteers who keep things updated as they see prices changing. And those volunteers are entered into a weekly drawing where they might win $250. That is a lot of incentive to keep updating the prices they see as they travel. That makes this a fantastic app and one that you should have on your smart phone.

The GasBuddy app is available at the Apple App Store, the Android Market (Google Play), Windows Phone Marketplace and Blackberry App World.

Bring Stars Wars To Your Next Party

If you are like a large group of people, you are a follower of the Force and all things related to Star Wars. And when you have a party, you may be one of those who like to put out things showing that you are a follower. Whether you are on the Dark Side or a true Jedi, you want people to know that. And what better way to show that spirit than to provide ice cubes for drinks at your gathering which have a Star Wars Theme. And that is especially true if your are a true Star Wars fan and even better if you think you are part of the Dark Side. And if that is the case, you certainly need to take a look at these as part of your next gathering.

We have gone out to ThinkGeek.com see look at some of the products they are offering which will give you that Star Wars theme with the ice cubes. These come in a few different types and there is sure to be one that you will like. The depiction of the Death Star is a great one which will have people talking about Stars Wars and where you got the Ice Cube tray for this one. Unfortunately, as the picture above shows, this only freezes 1 at a time. Since that is the case, you really should pick up more than one of these so that you can meet the needs for your next gathering and discussion of all things Star Wars. And, this is not the only one on the market which has a Star Wars theme to it. There are many other types of Star Wars themed ice cube trays available for you to pick up.

The next one is the Millennium Falcon and can freeze 2 cubes at a time. These will have to be placed in wider glasses due to the size of them.The Falcon is a very important part of the development of Luke Skywalker and one that is worth considering. Though there are a number of different ships that can come in ice cubes trays.

The X Wing ice cubes like you create 6 at a time and being of a smaller size will fit in most glasses without a problem. If you are a Darth Vader fan, you can have Darth Vader helmet ice cubes. These are sure to satisfy those of the Dark Side. And if that is the case, these are just for you.

There are even ice cube trays which can freeze different sizes. There is the R2D2 which creates 1 larger cube and 4 smaller cube which will provide for a variety of glass sizes. R2D2 is a great part of Star Wars. The same applies to the Hans Solo Carbonite ice cube tray with 1 large and 6 smaller ones. And for many, he is the real star of the early Star Wars movies.

There are a variety of ice cube trays here to satisfy the Stars Wars desires inside you. All from ThinkGeek.com.

Toolbox In An iPhone Case From TaskOne

Have you ever been out and needed a tool to fix something quickly? If you are like most of us, you have encountered a situation where having a screw driver handy or some other tool would have given you what you need to fix something. Most of use travel with one sure thing. Our cell phone. If you are the owner of an iPhone, you may soon have the ability to carry around some tools to help you out in those situations where you need to fix something. Enter the TaskOne iPhone Case. This is a product under development with crowdsourcing as the funding to get it off the ground.

The TaskOne case is on indoegogo.com which is a funding source similar to KickStarter. While they are not quite yet at the half way mark in their goal of getting $32,000 for funding, it does seem likely that they will make it. The TaskOne case will fit the iPhone 4 or 4S and the iPhone 5 when released. And is expected to be delivered some time in April for those who are investing in the start up. As you can see from the picture above, it has a wide variety of tools built into the case. 16 tools to be exact and there is a video showing off a number of features of the TaskOne case.

The first TaskOne cases to be delivered by April will be black with additional colors of Slate Grey, Cherry Red or a limited edition Orange Flame coming after that. It is too bad that this is not already a product on the market as it would make for a great gift during the holiday selling season. Watch for this one to come to market.

This future product needs support to get it off the ground and you can participate in the funding by making a pledge at indiegogo.com for TaskOne.

Startup Turns iPhone Into Personal Protection Device

Coyote Case is turning the iPhone into a personal protection safety device.

The Coyote Case is an ingenious smartphone case that contains a powerful panic alarm system. But that’s not all. In addition to the piercing 100+ decibel siren is a Bluetooth-enabled security app. When the button on the exterior of the case is pushed, the siren is activated and the app invokes an emergency text message that includes the user’s GPS location. The message is sent immediately to their pre-selected contacts. It deters would-be attackers while alerting others for help in the immediate area and remotely.

Coyote Case is user-friendly and ideal for children, college students, young professionals, and joggers. The case system has already attracted some attention and has been named an International CES Innovations Design and Engineering Awards Honoree.

The Coyote Case is not in full production just yet, but you can pre-order cases starting at $60 from their website: www.coyotecase.com

Coyote Case is one of 20 gift ideas featured in our 2012 Holiday Gift Guide, along with accessories for the latest tablets and phones, plus green tech items. Check it out: Gadget and Accessories Holiday Gift Guide

iPhone Needs An LED Light - Here It Is

We periodically follow KickStarter projects which are interesting. And today, we noticed one from myLED which will give your iPhone or iPad with an LED light to provide indication of a missed call or email. You might ask yourself why and the simple answer is that Apple has not provided one on their popular products. I have a Galaxy S3 and really appreciate the flashing LED letting me know of alerts, missed calls, emails, etc. This is missing for all the Apple fans out there.

The myLED Kickstarter project is one that has a great chance at success and they are closing in on the 50% mark for the $18,000 they are asking for to fund the project. The idea is a simple one. When you iPhone or iPad is turned to silent, there simply is no notification mechanism other than looking at the face of the phone. There is no flashing LED to instantly tell you there is something to look at and myLED will provide that notification.

The little myLED plugs into the headphone jack of your iPhone and can respond to any iOS notification that has been issued. There is an myLED app which is download to your iPhone which is used to configure the items you would like to be notified about. Then the myLED device is plugged into the iPhone and turned on. And that is it. You iPhone will now notify you when there is some activity which you need to respond to. Pretty simple concept.

The myLED has a project schedule on KickStarter with plans to begin shipping activities on March 13th. If you want to be one of those who support the project, you can pledge money towards their goal and get the myLED device when it ships. Delivery of the myLED for those who pledge is set for April next year.