UrbanHello Wins Innovations Award At CES With A Home Phone

Home phones are becoming much less prominent than a decade ago now that we have cell phones with us at all times. There's no point in having a home phone just to receive calls when your mobile device serves the exact same function. Yet UrbanHello, a new French company was awarded the sought-after "Innovations Award" this year at CES for their new "Smart home phone" design that may just convince us otherwise. 

The UrbanHello phone is an intelligent device that knows when you're holding it up to your ear or when you've put it down. When answering calls by holding it up, the phone will automatically project HD sound through the earphones and when placed down, the loudspeakers come on. This makes conference calls and hands-free calling so much more convenient. 

It is a quickly setup device as well as UrbanHello promises the ease of "Plug-and-Play"; the three words that we love to hear. To keep things simple, the phone comes equipped with the essential mechanical buttons needed to dial and get your way the device. Two OLED displays located on top and on the bottom of the handset show the relevant information. To help with energy-saving, the displays are self activated only when the phone is in use. 

As with a lot of new startup ideas, they look to Kickstarter and the power of crowd-sourcing for help. Head on over to their campaign page to support the design and idea.

GameStick, The New Portable Console Controller

We've seen numerous gaming consoles brought up by independent companies looking to rival the big guys at Sony and Microsoft, with the power of less costly consoles and games. The GameStick is a unique, $79 portable-sized gaming console powered by Android Jelly Bean that fits into your pocket. It's a dual analog stick controller and a console all in one package, and it connects to your TV using a small HDMI dongle which then wirelessly pairs up with the GameStick console controller over Bluetooth. So while it's not the next PlayStation Vita, it is the next modern portable TV gaming console. 

The hardware is able to support full 1080p HD streaming of content, and it consists of an Amlogic 8726-MX processor with 1GB of RAM, 8GB of flash storage, WiFi 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0. Gamers will of course have direct access to the Android ecosystem of affordable games, and as many as 200 titles which are fully compatible with the GameStick. Although the GameStick features very little on-board flash storage, users will also have access to cloud storage for games. The company behind the GameStick console controller are working with developers to bring more compatible content that is both free and affordably priced. No word yet on battery performance or access to movie and music content via the Android marketplace.

Where can you get one? You guessed it, it's available for pre-order now on Kickstarter.

XFLEX, The All In One Tablet And Phone Stand

XFLEX is one really useful piece of hardware that has been long overdue in our world of tablets and smartphones. It can be used to stand virtually any tablet or smartphone. It has two detachable pieces that can fit in a purse or backpack and can be used in a million and one places.

The XFLEX is made up of two pieces, one being a flexible arm and the other being a weighted base made of aircraft aluminum. There is one connection hole on each side of the base that allows maximum accessibility where the arms can attach via magnets. For as simple as the device is, it is truly the real deal in all-in-one accessories. Use it on any flat surface, wedge it between your couch cushions or fit it in the back seat pocket of a car for easy video viewing. 

Why get other single purpose products that only work for specific devices (mostly iOS ones) when you get a high quality, US made all-in-one device. XFLEX currently has a Kickstarter page up to raise enough funds so they can lower production costs and keep it manufactured in the US. As of writing this, they have hit half of their $20,000 goal. You can get it for $40 off on their Kickstarter page or order it immediately on their website.

XFLEX [Get $10 off instantly by using coupon code: xmas10]

Transparent Speaker Is Transparent

People People, a unique Swedish startup, is planning on bringing its new home audio system into your living room without clogging up your view of things. As the name implies, People People's Transparent Speaker is a speaker system designed with a see-thru glass housing giving you the opportunity to enjoy the inner workings and the environment behind it. Inside, the Transparent Speaker features high-end hardware like a 6.5-inch subwoofer with an amplifier, two 3-inch full range drivers and a machined aluminum control panel complete with treble, bass and volume adjustment knobs. The Transparent Speaker is Swedish design and simplicity as its finest.

While you can plug in your audio source via two standard 1/8" and 3.5mm auxiliary inputs, there's also a USB port for hooking up a Bluetooth dongle if you'd like to go wireless. There's even a special slot that can house an Apple Airport Express for superior AirPlay music streaming over a WiFi network. People People's minimalist Transparent Speaker will come in either a complete and fully assembled package for $490, as well as in a do-it-yourself kit which you will need to put together yourself Ikea style, for $360. You'll also need to supply your own glass panels to make up the speaker housing which is kind of a deal breaker unless you're into the whole DIY thing. The Transparent Speaker can be pre-ordered on Kickstarter.

MobileMount+ Will Mount Your Smartphone Onto Anything

The dual-slinging, double suction cup mount MobileMount, is back with one more additional feature that warrants its MobileMount+ moniker. What sets the MobileMount+ apart from the previous generation, is its ability to separate into two pieces - one of which has the ability to attach onto any tripod head thanks to its threaded 1/4" ball joint connection. Like the MobileMount, the MobileMount+ is a compact double suction cup mount designed to allow users to mount virtually any smartphone with a flat back onto a variety of surfaces to be used as an in-car GPS device amongst many other applications, while a ball joint let's you adjust the viewing angles.

The MobileMount+ can also be used as a tablet kickstand with adjustable set of tilting angles. The MobileMount+ can be pre-ordered on Kickstarter starting at $30, in black or white colors.

Thanks for the tip, Chris and Lindsay!

Mod-3 Radius iPhone 5 Aluminum Case

Talk about a unique concept for an aluminum iPhone 5 case. Mod-3's minimalist Radius case for the iPhone 5 is the G-string of all aluminum cases. The concept behind the Radius is that it's designed to cover up less of the iPhone 5's design, while protecting every critical contact point. The Radius's unique and lightweight aluminum exoskeleton design covers very little in order to prevent any potential signal loss caused by the metal material, whilst maintaining the original design of the iPhone 5's brilliant thin construction. Each corner is lined with anti-scratch lining that'll provide vibration absorption. As much as we like the ultra-thin design, we fear the Radius will pose an uncomfortable grip with all of its industrial exposed metal screws around the back.

If you're interested in the Radius case, it's now available to be pre-ordered on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter for $59 in polished silver, cyan and red anodized colors. Kickstarter backers of Mod-3's Radius case will have the choice of choosing between a polished silver aluminum X frame or a matte black (slate) finished aluminum X frame.

MyLED Adds An External LED Notification Light To iPhone

Don't you wish your iPhone had a clever little LED indicator to alert you of new notifications? Android smartphones have had this convenient feature for ever now, it's time that iPhone users get the same treatment. The MyLED is a tiny $15 LED dongle that plugs into your iPhone's 3.5mm headphone jack, protruding out from any protective case you might have on for optimal visibility. The visual blinking LED light will blink red whenever you get an email, tweets, missed calls and other notifications with the help of the accompanied app which will run in the background. It's designed to keep tabs on iOS notifications that have gone unnoticed by you, for what ever reason.

The MyLED is all about simple convenience. With it injected into your iPhone's headphone jack, you'll spend less time delibretly checking your phone for any important events you've might have missed whilst you were away or simply addicted to social networking. The MyLED will also work with the iPad. The only significant caveat is that you will have to sacrafice your headphone listening enjoyment. As if that wasn't pretty obvious.