Science fiction TV shows and movies have given us some iconic space craft over the years, and Sci-Fi Airshow brings many of those together in virtual... well... airshow. The site includes shots of Space: 1999's Eagle transporter, the Jupiter 2 from Lost in Space, Battlestar Galactica Vipers, and more. Instead of just shots from the shows, however, Sci-Fi Airshow displays the craft as if they really exist and even has images of crowds checking them out. The images are great, and the pics include some fun historical information, too.
myPhoneDesktop Allows You to Send Data from Mac/PC to iPhone
myPhoneDesktop allows you to send data from your Mac, Windows, or Linux PC to your iPhone right from your desktop, allowing you to call phone numbers, open map routes, save images into your Photo album, etc. with your keyboard and mouse. Just select anything on your computer, drag it to the right edge of the screen, and drop it on the popup virtual iPhone. It does this with a combination of desktop client and iPhone app that communicate with each other. The desktop clients are free, and the iPhone app is US$4.99.
iLuv Ships ‘Aud 5’ Lightning Speaker Dock for iPhone 5
iLuv announced Thursday that it is shipping the Aud 5, the company's first Lightning speaker dock for iPhone 5. The device allows you to charge your iPhone 5 through a built-in Lightning dock, and you can play music through the dock, too. The Aud 5 also has a 3.5mm auxiliary input for playing music from other devices. It features four speakers and a passive radiator, and it's priced at U$149.
Square Stand Turns Your iPad into a Payment Station
Square's new stand does more than simply hold your iPad: Thanks to its built-in credit card reader the Square Stand turns your iPad into a complete payment station without the look of a clunky cash register or bland card reader. It works with Square's Register app so that's customizable for what you sell, and it works with the Square cash drawer, receipt printer and barcode scanner to make a complete POS terminal that looks sleek on your shop counter. Square Stand is priced at US$299 and should be on store shelves in July, but you can pre-oder from the company now.
Synology DS1513+ Added to Already-Awesome NAS Line-up
I've long been a fan of the concept of a Network-attached Storage (NAS) drive, that being a device which attaches to your network and provides both storage and network-centric services beyond just simple file sharing. I've tried nearly everything out there, and it wasn't until I used the Synology DiskStation units that I finally felt someone got it right. Yes, they're "network attached storage" units, but they also easily provide additional services like an iTunes server, the ability to stream audio/video to dedicated iOS apps (even across the Internet), their own private cloud called Cloud Station (i.e. your own Dropbox), and more. In fact, third parties have created (unsupported) packages you can install to let your DiskStation become a Minecraft Server, a CrashPlan client and server, and much, much more. It's too cool, and I highly recommend these to everyone looking to add functionality to their existing network.
Yesterday Synology added the DS1513+ to their line-up of DiskStation NAS units, and the DS1513+ has a few things that prosumers will find attractive. First is the 2GB of RAM that is (finally!) user-upgradable (to 4GB) – this makes running lots of packages feasible. It's also got a dual core processors, necessary for doing on-the-fly video transcoding, and more. The DS1513+ also has 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports (admittedly overkill for us home users), and the ability to expand beyond the five drive bays included. Cool Stuff Found, indeed!
Panorama P1 USB Controller for Cubase, Nuendo, Reason
Nektar announced on Tuesday that it is shipping the Panorama P1, a compact USB control surface for Cubase, Nuendo, and Reason. This pretty little thing has 66 real-time controls, a TFT color display, and it was designed specifically for the three music creation applications above. If you're using ReWire, you can switch back and forth between the apps and the P1 will switch between Mixer, Instrument, and Transporter mode as needed. Pretty cool! It's priced at US$349.99/€289.99/£244.99, and it's available now.
I/O Denim Jeans Solve the iPhone ‘Pocket Problem’
It's crazy. The watch pocket in a pair of jeans is an anachronism dating back to 1902 when it first appeared. Although, famously, Steve Jobs did once pull an iPod nano out of the watch pocket of his jeans. (Here's the YouTube video where he does that at about 1m56s.)
Anyway, nothing much has changed with jeans in over a hundred years. And because many guys prefer to carry their smartphone in a jeans pocket, getting that smartphone out, quickly and easily, when needed can be a problem. I/O Denim, a Kickstarter project, has the solution, Their new jeans, 100 percent cotton from North Carolina, premium denim (hence the price), feature a special pocket on the left-hand side, in between the knee and the hip along the seam. The pocket is big enough to handle any of the iPhones with a slim case and also most Android devices. For now, men's cut only and limited sizes.
Problem solved. Very cool indeed.
Stream Daft Punk’s New Album Free on iTunes
Daft Punk's long awaited new album, Random Access Memories, isn't due for release until May 21, but anyone in the United States can stream all of the tracks now for free through iTunes. Unlike the usual 90 second previews for trackson other albums, you can listen to complete songs as often as you want, although you can't download any yet. Random Access Memories is available for pre-order at the iTunes Store and is priced at US$11.99.
Star Wars R2-D2 Interactive Astromech Droid
I don't have an interactive R2-D2 in my life. Welcome to my first world problems, but there is at least a first world solution: the Star Wars R2-D2 Interactive Astromech Droid. This is a roughly foot-tall robotic replica of R2-D2 that not only moves, it responds to (a limited range of) vocal commands. It will activate a light, alert you to movement, and play Princess Leia's recorded message. Oh, and it makes all those awesome R2-D2 noises that continue to delight us almost 40 years after Star Wars was released. This has been around for a while, but if you haven't seen it check it out (there are a lot of videos on YouTube). It's priced at $199, but Amazon is offering it for $175.85 to Prime members right now.
Draw Your Own iOS Game Levels with Pixel Press on Kickstarter
Pixel Press, an innovative iPhone app that, "lets you draw your own video game (no code required!) and share it with others" has launched on Kickstarter. The app starts with you drawing on a special graph paper you can print out yourself (no purchase necessary). You then photograph your drawing and the app turns it into a level! That's pretty darned cool. There are videos galore showing you how it works. The company is trying to raise $100,000, and it crossed the $16,000 mark on this, the first day.
Featured Editorials
TMO Weekly Sponsor
Latest Podcasts
-
ACM 204: Google Hangouts, BlackBerry & Apple’s Competition
Apple's competitors have been busy, so this week Jeff and Bryan take a look at Google's just announced music streaming…
-
MGG 449: Finding iCloud, Creating Workflows, and More!
Here's John and Dave, on a warm, Sunday evening, doing what they love to do: answering your questions, sharing their…










Vern Seward
Bryan Chaffin
John Martellaro
Nancy Gravley