CES

Wen you first see their product, you will think they made a typo with their company name and instead of Octa, they should be called Orca. But it's no mistake.  Octa's TabletTail is a vacuum-based suction mount that sticks to your flat backed tablet, ideally an iPad 2, and can give it a tail. The tail makes it easy to both grip the tablet and can be used as a stand to prop the device up.

Not everyone wants to keep their iPad or similar tablet in a case. The iPad 2 is wonderfully thin and to put it in a case is almost sacrilegious. Apple's Smart Cover is a nice enhancement but it doesn't always help you keep a good grip on the iPad. In fact, some users have found out the hard way that the iPad 2 can fall to the ground if you grab it by the Smart Cover!

The VISBYH LHOPE stylus is a comfortable and cute stylus that can be color coordinated to match your attire, as long as you're wearing bright colors!


In fact, the stylus and packaging remind me of a makeup kit. It even comes with two caps, of different colors, and if you were to purchase multiple styluses (stylii?) you could have a bunch of color combinations.

There are a ton of screen protectors, and you can often get them for free when you purchase a case. So why would you pay for one? Simple, for the same reason nobody pays me to play golf. I'm an amateur and if you want a good performance, get a professional. The same is true with screen protectors. The free ones are typically worth what you pay for them. Bubbles and fingerprints are almost inevitable, and they end up making the screen protector useless.

I was at my local Apple Users Group and a member came up to me to rave about the great deal he got when he sold his various Mac computers and a display. I shouldn't have been surprised when he said it was SellYourMac.com, the popular used Mac (and iPhone) buyer and reseller.

It seems like everybody has an iPad these days, and they are making inroads in schools and businesses. This means more administrators need to keep track of, sync, and charge multiple iPads everyday. Two vendors have stepped up to the plate to make life easier for such administrators.


Kanex offers the Sydnee, an integrated desktop station that docks up to four iPads with the cables neatly concealed. You could then plug the Sydnee into your computer's USB port to sync and charge.

I'm becoming a fan of Kickstarter, because it's democratizing manufacturing and enabling individuals with an idea to bring it to market faster. In a way, it is the hardware equivalent of the App Store. As consumers, we benefit form a wider variety of gadgets that otherwise might never see the light of day. The downside is, as a Kickstarter funder, you have to make a leap of faith and preorder an item without the benefit of even seeing a prototype of the product in person. The team at Studio Neat has created and launched a few products on Kickstarter, such as a tripod mount for the iPhone, but the one I really liked, and bought at MacWorld, is their Cosmonaut stylus.

I like M-Edge cases, and have written about their personalized Design-Your-Own cases in the past. I had one made up with a cover replicating an issue of iPhone Life Magazine!


Such custom logo'ed cases make great business gifts. But some of us iPad owners also have kids and need a more rugged, childproof case. So I was excited to see their latest offering, the SuperShell.