When it is nice out, I ride my bike to work several days a week. One of the big annoyances is dealing with my lock. It’s heavy to keep in my shoulder bag, but too bulky to keep on the frame. The InterLock on Kickstarter is designed to solve this issue. The lock hides inside of the bike’s frame through the seat…
We look at a lot of bags here on Tools and Toys, but the Tenba Messenger Photo Daypack is the first one I can recall geared directly toward photographers. The $150 (yay, Prime!) bag is 8.5 x 13 x 17.5 inches, but its real feature isn’t the size, but the way the space is laid out. It’s got a 15-inch laptop sleeve…
I was in a wedding this past weekend. Instead of the normal “rent a tux and hope for the best” deal, the groom bought each of us a gray suit to wear during the ceremony. In addition to me realizing my buddy is an absolute boss, I realized that my tie clip stinks. I picked it up several years ago, and it…
A good drink — hot or cold — should be about more than just the taste. The smell and look of a beverage round out what can be a simple, yet enjoyable, experience. That’s one reason I like the Moderna Artisan Double-Wall Thermo Glasses. These 8-ounce, heat-resistant glasses insulate your drink while showing it off. Don’t be shy — tell the world you…
The ScanSnap iX500 is the newest in a long line of great desktop scanners from Fujitsu. The new machine can scan up to 25 double-sided pages per minute, auto-rotate images and save OCR-equipped PDFs. The scanner can send files to your desktop, notebook or smartphone, and even services like Evernote and SugarSync. Going paperless has never been so easy. For homework, be…
I do a fair amount of sketching on my iPad mini. As I’m not doing so for artistic reasons (I’m usually just sketching out a diagram or layout), many of the drawing apps on iOS are overkill for my needs. Enter Ink. The new free iOS app from Minimal Tools offers only one color and weight of ink, on a white canvas.…
In the last week, Matias has released three new keyboards. The first, pictured above, is the $149 Tactile Pro 4. Built with the same Alps Mechanical Switchs as before, this new version boasts better integration with Mac OS X. Adjusting screen brightness, entering Mission Control and controlling iTunes has never been easier on the clicky keyboard. If tenkeyless boards are your thing,…
My current toolbox is big, heavy and ugly. Made from pressed steel, it’s tough as heck, but it lacks class. This Gerstner wooden chest does not. Built with plain-sawn red oak with polished chrome hardware, this box is strong and handsome. It’s felt-lined, so you can put precision tools in this thing and not worry about them getting banged around, which is…
The Nike+ Fuelband and Fitbit One are both popular fitness and activity-tracking devices, but both have their limitations. Fitbit is seeking to overcome these limitations with the new Flex wristband. It should be significantly harder to lose than the company’s One device, and more powerful than Nike’s one-trick-pony Fuelband. Like the One, the Flex will track steps taken, distance traveled, calories burned,…
With CES underway, my RSS reader is full of stories about Android tablets I don’t care about and ultrabooks that look like the MacBook Air, but one product — the Samsung Vacuum Tube Soundbar — jumped out at me. Dubbed the “HW-750,” this soundbar is the first (according to the company) to incorporate a vacuum tube amplifier. This gives the sound a warm,…
We’ve covered no shortage of smartphone and computer speakers, but the Spherical Ballo Smartphone Speaker really jumps out at me. Designed by Swiss designer Bernard Burkhard, this speaker is mono, but promises 360-degree sound. If attached with a stereo splitter, however, you’ll be rocking both left and right. Designed to be used on a hard surface, the Ballo is small and portable.…
On my desk at work sits a 27-inch Apple LED Cinema Display. To the right of it, on a notebook stand sits my 15-inch MacBook Pro. Sadly, my notebook stand is pretty pathetic. It’s some cheap thing our office manager bought me — I should have told her I wanted the Belkin Loft. Made from aluminum, the Loft is quite simple. With…
Since the advent of the Mac App Store, there’s been a movement toward simple Mac apps that do one or two things, and do them well. Without a doubt, this is a side effect of iOS, where simple apps tend to do better than more complicated ones. Nasturtium Player for OS X is a great example of this. The app can be…
Below The Boat is a collection of laser-cut, wood undersea maps. Starting with data from bathymetric charts, these artists use birch pieces to build a layered look at what’s under the surface. Once complete, the maps are placed in solid-wood frames and protected with a sheet of ultra-transparent Plexiglas. The one pictured above is of the San Francisco bay. At 25×31 inches,…
One of the promises of Thunderbolt was the ability to use PCIe cards externally, meaning users of any Thunderbolt-equipped Mac could use such cards. In the past, of course, this type of flexibility and and expandability was reserved for users of the the Mac Pro (and the PowerMacs before). The Sonnet Technologies Echo Express SE Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis is the fulfillment of…
While the Gentleman Rules poster was good, if 20 tips are too many, maybe this $20 poster by Sean McCabe will do the trick. Here’s what it says: Do Work It’s Not Going To Do Itself If that won’t get you going this new year, I’m not sure that will, honestly.
If writing is on your list of New Year’s Resolutions, and you use Apple products, you should check out iA Writer. The app is minimal and easy to use. Powered by iCloud (or Dropbox, if that’s your thing), it syncs text quickly and easily between devices. It has full Markdown support, but here’s the kicker: it has no preferences. Instead, iA Writer…
What does it mean to be a man? What sort of rules should we follow? DapperPaper over on Etsy has some suggestions. This 11×17 poster is full of good advice, and I really cannot decide which bit of advice is my favorite. The poster itself is made of 220 GSM fine art matte paper, with black and red ink. It’s as handsome…
Published in October 1997, Appledesign: The Work of the Apple Industrial Design Group is a 288-page book that looks at the design languages Apple used up until that time. With 400 color photos, this coffe-table book documents the industrial design that even then was ahead of its time — and remember, this is before things like the iMac and iPhone came along.…
We’ve linked to a lot of iPad bags over the years, but sometimes what you need is just a small and simple sleeve. The $29 Rickshaw Cordura iPad mini Sleeve fits that bill nicely. Available in a wide range of custom colors, this sleeve is simple. Hand-built in San Francisco, these sleeves are designed to keep your tablet nice and snug, but…