Nate Adcock

Some cases protect your phone. Some cases charge and protect your phone. Some cases look cool, and sort of protect your phone (at least a little) while doing so. The new iblazr iPhone case (on Kickstarter until December 29—hopefully coming soon to retailers) does all of these things and something much much more. It turns iPhone into a serious photographer's pocket super camera. How does it do this magical thing? By adding a powerful amount of illuminance (200 LUX, but more on that later) to your puny iPhone flash. Every photographer will tell you that the best camera is the one you have with you, and with an iblazr case attached to your iPhone, you will find that to be true. Read on for the gory details on this exciting Kickstart campaign, and how you can contribute.

Why would you line all your tablets, smartphone (and whatever else charges) on a dock in front of you? There are a few cool reasons that you may not have thought of, besides just charging them. If it seems silly to even have a tablet anymore (or an iPod), hear me out. In the right conditions, two tablets are actually better than one. Two tablets with an iPhone sandwiched in there is majorly empowering (looks cool, anyway)! Udoq, which is being featured on Kickstarter launch in the U.S. gets more than a few things right to make multi-device docking interesting.

The cheap virtual reality glasses experience reminds me a little of the early fighter pilot video games of the 80s. After Burner was probably my all-time favorite (I still play it on a home arcade). As awesome as AB was, and it was awesome for its day, I remember even then (years before the movie Top Gun) thinking how much cooler it could have been. Just add a wrap-around high-res screen, simulate a real cockpit view with better graphics, and allow full control of the aircraft in all directions (like a real fighter). Enter VR some 30-plus years later—or maybe what some would call a somewhat passable facsimile. The makings of a much better AB almost. I recently grabbed one of many $20–$30 VR headsets that work with iPhone or Android, and sampled some of the better apps out there (the fighter simulator I tried made me feel sick). After mostly being only mildly impressed with the slightly blurry and jittery experiences, I found an award-winning game that makes the cheap VR thing more interesting again; but it's not a roaring jet fighter game, just a simple platformer called Space Box ($0.99).

If you have kids that are seriously frightened of things that go bump in the night, maybe steer them towards Pokemon GO instead of LightEaters (or go grab Light Eaters for yourself). Light Eaters ($3.99) has a dash of the scariness in there that could frighten younglings into your room for the night (or several nights thereafter). The game idea was hatched on the crowd publishing platform BrightLocker. It's a campy platform puzzle game that excels in creating enough nervous tension to keep you tiptoeing to the next level.