360 DEGREES Weblog

Combining old school inspiration with a stark design full of sharp lines and a matte finish, iHome’s iP4 boombox simultaneously makes nods to the outlandish, button crazy gadgets of the past, and the flat, minimal designs of the now. I think I’m swooning.

The tonal colorway and the seemingly matte finish give the iP4 the look of something created in a 3D modeling program, or mocked up as a prototype in an R&D lab. But then iHome had to go and offer it in pink.

Anyways, let’s just pretend that never happened and talk specs. In addition to housing an iPhone, the iP4 has an FM radio and an Aux In jack, giving you some source options for tunes. And if you’re really feeling nostalgic, you can pop in six D batteries to power the 4-inch woofers and 1-inch ferro-cooled tweeters as you walk down the street. You can buy it now for $200.

While it’s a reasonable question to ask why, if you’re an audiophile, you insist on having your music library on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod, if you’re looking to get the absolute highest fidelity out of those lossless digital recordings, you’re going to need to bypass your iBuddy’s internal DAC. The NuForce Icon iDo ($250) will let you do just that. Using a dock connection, it draws the audio data directly from your library, and then uses its own converter to send pristine audio your your home stereo, or, if you want to get more personal, through its built-in headphone amplifier straight into your power-hungry high-end cans.

It seems that small point and shoot video cameras like the Flip are going the way of the Dinosaur, as they are being replaced by smartphones like the iPhone 4. But have you ever considered using your iPad 2 as a video camera? Makayama gives you the ability to attach various accessories such as lenses, microphones, lights, tripods and even an optical viewfinder to your iPad 2 with their new Movie Mount case. This Smartcover compatible case offers some cool features such as the ability to attach 37 mm conversion lenses, like wide angle and zoom. It even allows you to easily slide the lens out of the way for on the fly changes. You can pre-order the Movie Mount for $69.95, with availability in October.

Looking to ge the best possible sound out of your iPod, iPhone, or whatever it is you use for on-the-go audio? Before you plug it into your car or home stereo, run it though the JBL MS-2 Pocket Digital Processor ($200). This pint-sized processor uses DSP to optimize the sound for the acoustic characteristics or your speakers and listening area, improving clarity and stereo imaging.

Shiny black plastic? Check. iPhone/iPod dock? Check. Ability to explain the “k” in its name? Okay, so the Roth KRadio (£200; roughly $330) can’t do everything, but it can give you access to thousands of Internet radio stations thanks to an Ethernet port and built-in Wi-Fi, playback music from your iPhone or iPod while it charges, hook up to DAB and DAB+ stations in Europe, wake you and your significant other up on time thanks to twin alarms, and even tune in “old time” radio with its FM tuner — and that’s good enough for us.

The Kingston Wi-Drive is a rugged Flash-based portable storage solution with built-in wifi that allows three Apple device users to stream different file types simultaneously without any performance disruption.

The additional 16GB (US$130) or 32GB (US$175) storage and convenient file sharing make it a perfect companion device for the iPad, iPhone or iPod touch.

Summer’s nearly here, the sun shining bright — wouldn’t you like to share your tunes with friends while basking in the light? That’s what Eton’s counting on as it prepares to ship the Soulra XL, the solar-powered iPod boombox formerly known as the Soulra 2. As we discovered at CES in January, its set of eight speakers get pretty loud, and Eton claims it charges twice as fast as its predecessor (five hours) thanks to a sizable monocrystal solar panel, and lasts five hours on a charge. It’ll juice your phone, too. All told, you’ll be schlepping around seven pounds and paying $300 for the privilege of completely cordless mobile sound. Sound like a deal?

Alright, they are not from outer space, but they look pretty spacey right? The Rokform Rokstand’s are available in 2 versions: desktop and folding, made of anodized aluminum with sound enhancing speaker ports.  The desktop stand which is $169.oo has 6 viewing angles and can be used with the iPad. It’s available in a large selection of color combinations. The folding version of the Rokstand is priced at $119.oo and is available in 4 colors and has 2 viewing angles.

Looking for more out of your audio system than generic looks, a dock, and some speakers? The Vita Audio R4 Music System (£600; roughly $975) delivers, with a slot-loading CD player, DAB, DAB+ and FM tuners, a top-mounted universal dock, a USB port for playing back music from a thumb drive, front and rear auxiliary inputs, an integrated active subwoofer, 80 watts of power output, a docking “RotoDial” remote control, and a gorgeous walnut, white, or gloss black body.

If you liked the minimal MoviePeg iPhone stand, you’re going to love the Piolo, which offers more — or really less — of the same. Hell, even its name is shorter.

Where the MoviePeg was a chunky, rubbery clip-on stand with a satisfying heft, the Piolo is a thin strip of TPE (thermoplastic elastomer) with a notch cut to hold the iPhone. It works in both horizontal and vertical configurations and props up the handset by working as a tiny kickstand.

Wired.com’s very own NYC Bureau Chief Mr. John C. Abell had the MoviePeg for his iPhone 3GS and regarded it as good. The Piolo seems to be the same, only even more pocket friendly, and even has a hole to hook it onto a keychain.

But the very best thing about the Piolo, designed and made in the gruffly charming city of sheffield in England, is its price. The designer, Andrew Bond, has even applied his minimalist creed to the cost, and the Piolo sells for just £4, or $6.50, plus flat rate shipping for just £1.85 ($3). What’s not to like? And how can you not like a man whose bio includes the following: “I like a good cup of tea, bacon sandwiches, sleep, photography, films.”?

Thanks WIRED