You’ve returned! We’ve returned, if perhaps a few days late! Let’s talk gadgets. This week: an iPad paintbrush, proof that Batman prefers Macs, a four-pronged charging station, a tablet for the people, and a cable to plug your iDevice into a TV.
For months we’ve been ogling those Jorge Colombo New Yorker covers illustrated using an iPhone and then an iPad. Colombo had the brilliant idea to use a new medium to do his illustrations, got noticed online, and then found his way into the premiere showcase for illustrators. His stuff is good, sure. But you can do better with a good tool like this Nomad brush. Its bristles are made of conductive fibers, so the screen recognizes its touch (sort of like those conductive fingerpads we highlighted a few weeks ago). It’ll work with all the various touchscreen devices and drawing apps, and doesn’t require any setup or installation. Just like a real paintbrush, but without the cleanup.
PRICE: $24
More proof of the coming appocalypse! For those who still doubt that the future of media is going to look more or less like Angry Birds, buy this app/movie/digitized version of Bruce Wayne from Warner Bros. Instead of renting or buying the movie itself, WB wants you to buy the Dark Knight’s app, which will work on any iDevice. It’ll then offer you the chance to download or stream the movie itself, along with a host of bonus features — behind-the-scenes featurettes, an art gallery, and Batman trivia game. Back in our day, we called this a DVD. But if there’s anything we’ve learned obsessively reading about gadgets, our day is definitely no longer.
PRICE: $10
Are you a small-d democrat? Do you believe in open markets and a world where one entity doesn’t get to decide how we should live? Do you want a healthy, diversified economy that’s open to small and big businesses alike? And what of free speech? Is it worth the risk even if it comes with messy consequences? If so, Vutlure Bytehards, buy a Motorola Xoom. It’s the most iPad-like Android tablet to hit the market. Android has challenged the iPhone’s hegemony in cellphones, and now tablets like Xoom—and the HTC’s Flyer, LG’s Optimus, etc.—will try to do the same for tablets. So, be an American and compulsively buy a consumer electronic that you maybe can’t afford. For democracy’s sake!
PRICE: $800
Vulture Bytes has planned your next party. Invite dozens of people over to your house/apartment/hovel for a get together. Make it a theme night, preferably choosing a specific decade. Anytime before the 1980s will do. (We prefer the 20’s, personally.) Then, when everyone shows up in their flapper dresses and Newsie caps, confiscate their phones, tablets, and e-readers. Blame it on the party theme. There will be anger—what else will people look at when they have no one else to speak to? But they’ll feel better when they get their devices back, because you’ll have been charging them all night. How are you going to do that? By buying a few of these universal charging docks, which charge four gadgets at once. It’s a multitasker, like your guests were before they walked into your place.
PRICE: 49.95 Euro.
Vulture Bytes spends a lot of time telling you about new ways to get video from your phones, computers, and tablets to your TV. There are any number of boxes that will do it—Boxee, PlayOn, Roku, etc.—but we’ve neglected to mention the old-fashioned, and perhaps easiest, way: just buy a cord. They cost less, don’t depend on your wireless network’s speed to stream things smoothly from one screen to another, and are far more portable. Take Gigaware’s composite cables, for example. Hook them into an iPod or iPhone while you’re traveling, and all of a sudden you’re streaming Netflix in a hotel room. Far better than whatever Pay Per View schlock they’re offering. You’ll be so busy watching the screen you won’t have time to lament that the setup isn’t as compact or elegant as the Apple TV you could have bought for more than twice the price.
PRICE: $40
