Mobile Accessories-Ipad

Enter to win a trio of mobile accessories from Just Mobile

It's July, and TUAW is starting off the American and Canadian summer holiday week with a review and giveaway of three useful accessories from Just Mobile.

Highway Pro

The Highway Pro (US$39.95 MSRP) is hands-down the nicest-looking car charger I've ever seen. Featuring a knurled aluminum cap that not only makes it easier to pull the charger out of your car power adapter but also looks sharp as well, the Highway Pro can charge your iPad and iPhone at the same time. There's a 2.1 Amp port for your third-generation iPad, as well as a 1 Amp outlet for your iPhone. Just Mobile includes a coiled USB cable that won't tangle -- I just wish they had thrown two into the box instead of one. With all of that power flowing out of this charger, it's nice to know that there's an integrated fuse to provide protection to your favorite devices.

AluCube Mini

While the Highway Pro is meant for your car, the AluCube Mini ($16.95 MSRP) is designed to keep your desktop free of cable clutter. It's a small aluminum cube (hence the name) with a soft rubber-lined slot in the middle. Want to coil up excess charge/sync cable footage? Just run it through the middle of the AluCube Mini and you're set. If you're really anal and want that cable RIGHT THERE and nowhere else, there's an adhesive patch you can use to glom the AluCube Mini onto your desktop fairly permanently.

AluPen Pro

The last of the three cool accessories from Just Mobile is the AluPen Pro ($39.95 MSRP). You might be sensing a trend right about now -- these well-constructed accessories are all made of aluminum. A number of Just Mobile's products are designed by Tools Design of Denmark, an award-winning design show that is responsible for the AluPen and AluPen Pro styluses. What makes the "Pro" different from the regular AluPen? It also features a "high-quality retractable ballpoint pen." That's right, you can use one end to sign checks or scribble down notes, then flip the device around to paint or write on your iPad. The stylus end of the AluPen Pro has a soft rubber nib that provides precise control of your iPad's capacitive touch screen. The AluPen Pro comes with a replacement nib should you wear one out, and also has a leather pouch to reside in when it's not being used.

Conclusion and Giveaway

Just Mobile does an amazing job of creating mobile accessories that are built to last. They look good, they work well, and they're not going to fall apart. Even the boxes that the accessories come in are well-designed, with front "covers" that latch close magnetically. Now it's your chance to win these three mobile accessories courtesy of Just Mobile and TUAW. Here are the rules for the giveaway:

• Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older.
• To enter, fill out the form below completely and click or tap the Submit button.
• The entry must be made before July 4, 2012 11:59PM Eastern Daylight Time.
• You may enter only once.
• One winner will be selected and will receive a package consisting of a Just Mobile AluPen Pro, AluCube Mini, and Highway Pro valued at US$96.85
• Click Here for complete Official Rules.

Loading...Enter to win a trio of mobile accessories from Just Mobile originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 02 Jul 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..

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Firewire 800-Technology

G-Technology G-Drive mobile: Rugged, pocket-sized, and fast

The march of technology amazes me. Yeah, I'm an old guy, but it still surprises me when I realize that the amount of storage that used to fill a data center can now fit in my pocket. G-Technology's G-Drive mobile (made by Hitachi, US$199.99 MSRP for 1 TB) is the perfect example of mass storage in a small, silent box. Read on for a review of this mobile companion and a chance to win one!

Design

There's not much too say in terms of the design of the G-Drive mobile -- it's a slim metallic box 5 inches long, a little over 3 inches wide, and about 3/4 of an inch high. There's no power port; the G-Drive is bus-powered by either FireWire (400/800) or USB 2.0. The device comes with cables for each connection. A single white LED on the front of the drive indicates when it is powered up and in use. On the inside, there's a 5400 RPM 1 TB drive with an 8 MB cache. For speed, I'd much rather see a 7200 RPM drive, but that would most likely drive up both the cost and power requirements of the drive. However, as you'll see with the benchmarks, this is still a pretty fast drive despite the slower rotation speed of the disk. The G-Drive mobile also comes in 500 MB ($149.99 MSRP) and 750 MB ($159.99) versions, although I'm at a loss why someone wouldn't want to double their capacity for just fifty bucks more. I found the drive to run a bit hot -- I had placed my iPhone on top of the drive at one point, and when I answered a call I wondered why the phone was so hot... As with other drives of this ilk, the G-Drive mobile is almost completely silent.

Benchmarks

TUAW uses a standard industry benchmark to compare the I/O capabilities of disks and arrays. The benchmark uses the AJA System Test, which simulates reading and writing video. The specific test I used was the Disk Read/Write test, also known as the DiskWhackTest, set at a video frame size of 720 x 486 8-bit and a file size of 128 MB. The drive read speeds were surprisingly fast in our benchmarks, matching almost every FireWire drive that we've tested (only one is shown below for space considerations). When it came to USB 2.0 read speeds, the G-Drive mobile was slightly faster than the competition across the board. Write speeds were slower for the G-Drive when connected via FireWire 800, while almost identical to other drives with a USB 2.0 connection.

Conclusion and Giveaway

If you're the owner of a MacBook Pro and have an available FireWire 800 port, or have a FireWire-equipped desktop Mac you'd like to back up while keeping a lot of available desk space, then the G-Drive mobile will fill your requirements. Those who only have USB 2.0 ports on their Macs should spend their money on less expensive USB-only drives that offer read/write speeds in the same range as the G-Drive mobile. Thanks to G-Technology and TUAW, you now have a chance to win one of these sweet little drives. Just fill out the entry form below (only one entry per person, please) and we'll pick a random winner next week. Here are the rules for the giveaway:

• Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older.
• To enter, fill out the form below completely and click or tap the Submit button.
• The entry must be made before May 20, 2012 11:59PM Eastern Daylight Time.
• You may enter only once.
• One winner will be selected and will receive a G-Technology G-Drive mobile valued at $199.99.
• Click Here for complete Official Rules.

Loading...G-Technology G-Drive mobile: Rugged, pocket-sized, and fast originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 18 May 2012 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..

source:http://aol.it/JNv2WL