Category Archives: Mobile

Pocket Tripod: A Genuinely Useful Gadget

Gadgets, Mobile, Travel, , , , ,
Pocket Tripod

At first glance, an ordinary piece of plastic

I will cheerfully admit to owning more than a few gadgets. Most are a clever idea, but poorly realized and of little longterm value. However, every-so-often you come across something that is genuinely useful….

Pocket Tripod

A few twist and turns. Now we have an iPhone stand…

Last year, I supported the “Pocket Tripod” on KickStarter. This was to be a credit-card sized piece of plastic, that twisted and contorted into an iPhone stand. Typically, the travel iPhone stands are frustrating – small, lightweight, but ultimately useless.

Pocket Tripod

Pull it apart for widescreen use.

This particular gadget (the Pocket Tripod) is actually well-machined, and does the job as it should. On those occasions when I need to prop up the iPhone on a desk (to use with a Bluetooth keyboard) or to play music, this does the job. Very easy to carry around, and a particularly ingenious design. I recommend it.

Google Glass: Part 1

Gadgets, Internet, Mobile, , , ,
Google Glass

Google Glass

This is going to be a short post… I received my Google Glass a few weeks ago, and I although I set up the various Glassware applications and started wearing the device at work (but not in public), I have done little in the way of testing.

I am going to start to post observations and test from here on.

I was thinking of seeing how well the video camera would work for recording lectures, and have quickly discovered that this is not particularly feasible. After about 20 minutes of recording, Glass alerts me that the battery is running low. I had about 29% battery left at that point, and will see how long I can record with a fully charged device.

Voice command work largely well. Using the gestures is sometimes an easier way to accomplish a task though.

Overall, the device fees like a solution is search of a problem. The technology is extremely impressive, but needs developers to make Glass more than a novelty.

More later….