Smart New Phone Charger for Smart Phones

 

I get hundreds of pitches for new gadgets. Only a few reallysurprise me. Following are the newest and most interesting smartphoneaccessories I’ve come across recently. I’m not advocating you run out to buythem, but these are smart iterations and signs of what’s to come. 

TheChargeCard $25

If you own a smartphone, you have had power anxiety: Willyou make it through the day? Did you remember to bring a charging cable? The ChargeCardfrom BiteMyApple can help; it is an Android and iPhone (4&5) charger thatfits in your wallet. It is a tiny bit thicker than a regular credit card but ithandily fits in even the thinnest billfolds. One end plugs into your phone’s power port and the other goes into a USBoutlet. May new cars have USB ports for power and so do computers, but if youwant to plug into a socket, you’ll need a USB AC adapter.

MoxieShowerhead + Wireless Bluetooth Speaker $149

Music in the shower: it’s nice. The Moxie BluetoothShowerhead speaker makes it very 2013. The showerhead screws onto your spigotjust as any showerhead would. You charge the speaker, pair it with your phone,fire up a playlist, and then place it into the showerhead. It is fullywaterproof, and when you turn on the water, the sound quality is surprisinglygood. The volume is adequately loud and the acoustics of the shower make iteven better. While creating a musical experience for your relatively shortshower may seem over-the-top, I actually used it more to stream podcasts whileI put on makeup and got dressed – kinda like a radio in the bathroom, but muchmore personalized content and better quality when you are actually in theshower.

[Related: How Waterproof Are Your Gadgets?]

Tethercell$35

What if you could control all of the AA battery-operateddevices in your home from your smartphone? That’s the premise of theTethercell. It’s a AA battery housing that fits over a AAA battery. Put this inplace of one of the AA batteries in any AA battery-powered device, and thenconnect that device to an app on your phone. The use-case I imagine is inspired by my kids. Remote controlled toyskeep appearing in our home. I don’t buy them (I hate them), but the kids lovethem, so (thanks, grandparents) they seem to miraculously materialize. The kidsoften (always) leave the power on, and while that offends my environmentaltendencies, the real problem is that I have occasionally (often) been woken inthe night to the sound of Elmo on a laughing rant or a transformer shriekingwith all it’s mech-rage.  With theTethercell, I could turn them all off with the swipe of my finger. You can alsocreate a rule where they automatically turn off each night at 7 pm. You onlyneed one Tethercell case per device no matter how many batteries it takes.

ViiiivaSmartphone Heart rate Monitor $79

I’ve used a Timex heart rate monitor strap and watch foryears. It tracks my workouts to tell me how hard I’m pushing and how manycalories I’m burning.  But the watch isnot a great tool for tracking my metrics and analyzing them over a long periodof time.  Garmin and others make heartrate monitors that tie into armbands that connect to your computer and uploaddata. But that mandates the extra step of actually connecting the device toyour computer when you get home. So the heart rate monitor that ties directlyinto your smartphone is a winner for me. I always run with my phone (for safety,plus it has all my music), so having an app on there that tracks my distanceheart rate and calories burned makes sense. The app for the Viiiiva is still alittle klugy – it pegged my 30-minute run as burning 2000 calories (I wish;“Hello, Ben & Jerry’s”), but it also ties into other fitness apps likeRunkeeper, which may handle the calorie algorithm a little more conservatively(“Hello, Salad bar”).

[Related: How to Lose Weight Playing Video Games]

 

Ethics Statement

Thisreview is completely independent and editorial. It is based on personal opinionand is not a paid advertisement.

 

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