The guys over at Macotakara[JP] and iLab Factory[JP] have posted images of a new aluminum case which appears to have a slightly different depth for its LCD panel, adding 1mm to the thickness of the back panel, but making adjustments for a slightly thinner LCD panel – reportedly this 2048×1536 panel from Sharp – which fits into the case perfectly. The images do nothing to confirm rumors of a Retina Display, but the changes to the case depth indicate there is clearly a change coming to the display panel itself.

In addition, it looks like the camera opening has changed, possibly to support a new, higher quality (and possibly wide-screen) camera.

It also looks like refinements have been made to the dock connector, improving its rigidity – which should make it less likely that you’ll accidentally yank out the dock connector.

So are these images of parts from the actual iPad 3? Will there be an iPad 2S first, with minor refinements to the iPad 2? Or is this just some knock-off clone being made in China? Only time will tell.

[via iLab via Macotakara]

The Sparxgear Fire Piston is based on technology that first began in South East Asia and the Pacific Islands to kindle fire in ancient times. This Kickstarter project is simply a hollow anodized aluminum cylinder and a piston used to create an ember.

A piece of fuel, wood or cloth, is put on the end of the piston and then quickly compressed. This causes the fuel in the piston to combust allowing someone to then use it to start a fire. Pretty sweet camping accessory huh?

If you want one, a pledge of $35 (USD) or more will get you in on the fire-starting action.

[via Geeky-Gadgets]

FLOTE is currently up on Kickstarter for funding. It’s basically a modern metal stand that can hold your iPad, Kindle, PlayBook, Galaxy Tab, or whatever tablet you may have. No longer will you have to tilt your head while watching a movie or reading a book; no longer will you have to support the gadget in your hands, because the FLOTE takes care of all the not-so-heavy-lifting for you.

What the FLOTE gives you is a truly hands-free tablet usage experience. That is, if you don’t mind having something that resembles a microphone stand right in the middle of your bedroom or living room.

Ready to FLOTE your tablet? Head on over to Kickstarter. A pledge of $245(USD) or more will get you an actual FLOTE stand, while lesser amounts will score you rewards including microfiber screen cloths, sweatshirts, and commemorative pieces.

[via Oh Gizmo!]

The thing is made from a solid chunk of aluminum, which is milled and glass bead blasted. This is the dock Steve would have made. The heft of the aluminum means when you jerk your iPhone out of the dock, the dock stays put. It also uses a low friction connector to plug in easily with or without a case. You can get the dock in silver, matte black, green, and orange finishes depending on how much money you pledge to the project. A $59 (USD) pledge gets you in on the action with a basic Elevation Dock.

The coolest part is the massive success the designer has had on Kickstarter. The project went up yesterday and was seeking $75,000. It funded in eight hours and as of this morning had $112,163 pledged and still had 59 days to go. As of right now the project has over $174,000, and is still going strong. It has picked up $50,000 since this morning! That’s pretty damned impressive for a hunk of aluminum.

[via Daring Fireball via Gizmodo]

The process of anodizing aluminum and metal-finishing inspired Krieger to produce these visually-stunning timepieces. The gradient effect on the face of each MINUS 8 is created by layering gradually more intensely-colored discs of anodized metal.

“Time is a gradient and we use timepieces to slice that gradient into meaningful increments” says Dana. While they do look great, I’ll be curious to see how much they will sell for once they are offered for retail.

There are two watches in the collection: an automatic chronograph and a mechanical Quartz movement watch. No word yet on pricing or availability.

[via core77]

The UpStand is precision engineered out of aluminum, and its supporting grips are out of rubber so that your iPad or iPad 2 rests firmly in it. It’s compatible with many iPad cases too.

The UpStand will prop up your iPad just the right amount so that you can use it on a desktop with a Bluetooth keyboard. It’s also good for watching movies or using the iPad as an expensive digital picture frame or alarm clock. I could see this working to check out recipes in the kitchen.

The UpStand is available for for $44 (USD) over at Amazon.

[via Gadget-O]

Designed by Jason Valalik and Chungming Ying, the i+Case is machined from a single block of aluminum, then it’s anodized. Laser etching completes the process. The case is lightweight and attaches to your phone thanks to four stainless screws. There are some buttons (volume, on/off, mute) that are micro-machined and designed to work seamlessly with the i+Case’s design.

You’ll need to pledge at least $65 over at Kickstarter to order your case. They are available in silver, red or black colors. This case will work with AT&T and Verizon iPhone 4s. The pledge includes shipping within the USA, and a small screwdriver to use on the screws. Expected delivery is in October – assuming the project is successfully funded.

[via DesignYouTrust]

The catch with the awesome looking LockCircle is that the thing costs $100 (USD), which seems like a lot for what it does. There were a lot of people out there wondering why the thing is so expensive when it was announced. Now with this video footage of one being made, it’s a lot clearer now why it costs so much. The LockCircle starts off as a round billet aluminum disc strapped to a CNC lathe machine, eventually taking the form shown in the photo above.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

It is so cool to see the billet disc start to spin and then the router bits come in and shave metal off to create the product. You really have to watch the video to see how the thing is made. My favorite part is seeing the laser etching machine burn the name onto the product at the end.

[via PetaPixel]

I quite like this keyboard case and since it only costs $49.90 (USD), it won’t break the bank. They keyboard is also styled with Apple Chiclet-like keys, which look very similar to the ones found on the 11.6-inch MBA. The only thing missing is a glass Trackpad.

With the impending July refresh of the MBA, you’ll just have to wait and see what kind of new specs those thin laptops will get. There are even rumors about an iPad 2 HD refresh in the fall, boosting screen resolution to 2048 × 1536 – but it surely won’t come with a keyboard.

[via DVice]

MicroRAX is a miniature building system made out aluminum that can serve a variety of purposes. Ken Kremer built this adjustable iPad stand using the little metal construction beams. I don’t know what he used to hold the iPad in place, but I’d use some kind of felt to make sure that the structure of the stand doesn’t scratch up the glass screen.

Ken also integrated adjustable hinges, allowing him to move the screen around and adjust its angle.

With its cool industrial style, it looks like an interesting little stand to have around. The overall build looks pretty simple, so you can easily reproduce it from these photos if you pick up some MicroRAX for yourself.

[via Make:]

The heavy-duty Alpinist Camera Case is a good way to keep your camera protected and ready to use. The case is made from aluminum and comes in black or silver colors. The outside of the case is etched and the thing looks really cool. It is made from aircraft grade aluminum for durability.

The locks on the case are made to stay closed if you drop the camera and the case has a ring made for securing it to your backpack or a climbing harness. The Alpinist is even water-resistant and has a foam interior that will keep your camera safe from impacts. You can get the cases in several sizes and pricing ranges from $60 to $120 (USD).

[via Uncrate]

Designer Joey Roth (of ceramic speakers fame) created this beautiful rectangular mouse, using primarily felt, a little bit of teak, and a sliver of aluminum on the bottom as a foundation (although it looks like there are some tiny felt(?) feet there to help it glide along too.)

The mouse offers buttons on either side of a scroll wheel, and an optical sensor on the bottom. While I’m not sure that a rectangle is the most ergonomically-correct design in the palm of your hand, I’m willing to cut the design some slack because it looks so good. Regardless, the thought is that the felt will gradually conform to the shape of its user’s hand.

This particular mouse is only a prototype, to be shown at the American Design Club’s “Use Me” exhibit at 45 Great Jones Street in New York, between May 13th and May 16th, 2011. I’m hopeful that Joey decides to produce these mice, as I think they look really nice. Hey, I made a rhyme!

[via Treehugger]

The bags themselves come in two flavors, 13-inch and 15-inch, which means that they probably won’t fit my oversize laptop, but will fit most laptops out there. There is a removable smart strap (which can easily be removed) and the bags are designed with a double clamshell design.

The bags will be released in a few months, but no word on pricing as of yet.

[via NotCot]

As its name implies, the Express Keyboard Platform is a slab of aluminum with depressions where an Apple wireless keyboard and Magic Trackpad fit perfectly. That’s all it’s for. It’s somewhat practical, especially if you use your Mac as an HTPC, or if you have a large monitor and sit far away from your desk, but equally important is that it’s stylish. It matches the peripherals. Not that ridiculous isn’t it? Then you read the price tag: $99 (USD), and its absurdity skyrockets once more.

Then again, BulletTrain clearly knows their market. Even if the keyboard and the trackpad also work with Windows PCs, the company ignores that and goes straight to Apple marketing speak. The Express Platform “reinvents the desktop keyboard”, it “literally looks like it’s hovering in the air”, it is “the ultimate mouse killer”, it combines with the peripherals to make – I’m not kidding – “a magnificent ménage à trois”. And my favorite – “it has a specially designed feature on the back that allows it to hang-on just about any nail or screw”. That’s Apple talk right there. It’s not a hole, it’s a specially designed feature.

The Express Keyboard Platform is definitely not a bad idea. It’s somewhat practical and it complements the peripherals nicely. But is it worth $99? If you think so, you can order it at  BulletTrain’s website. Apple keyboard and trackpad not included.

[via Engadget]

The notebook has a 15.6-inch screen with HD resolution and has lots of options when it comes to the processor. The user can opt for Intel Core i3, i5, and i7 CPUs. The notebook can have up to 8GB of RAM at 1333MHz. Graphics for the machine are via Intel HD series and an optional ATI Radeon HD 5650 mobile GPU with 1GB of RAM is available. Screen resolution is 1366 x 768.

The machine comes standard with a DVD burner and can be optioned with a Blu-ray drive that can read Blu-ray discs and burn to CD and DVDs. Power is from a standard 6-cell battery and an optional 9-cell is available.

There’s no word on pricing or a release date for the Inspiron 15R Alloy Edition yet, but you can find more information about the notebook over at Dell.

This new eBay listing was also made by Komanac for the local art show, Star Wars 33 & 1/3 Anniversary. It’s pretty large, at roughly 24 inches wide, 36 inches long, and 5 inches tall. It weighs somewhere around 4 to 6 pounds.

The aluminum Millennium Falcon has a starting bid of $200 bucks, and nobody has bid on it yet. Shipping this thing is significantly less that what I saw for the AT-AT. Plus, it’s guaranteed to make the Kessel Run in over 12 parsecs.

[via Boing Boing via Make:]

Under the hood of this nifty little box is a fully-functional Mac with 1.6Ghz Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM and a 80GB hard drive. The USB ports are on the left side of the keyboard, the Magsafe power connector on the right side, and there’s a DVI video port is on back for connecting a monitor.

As you can see from the pictures, the casemod isn’t 100% finished, but Bart says he’s just putting the final touches on the mod, adding proper sides to the box and tidying up the rough edges. All in all, I think it’s a great job, and I think Apple should start making these.

[via Cult of Mac]

The new Mac mini features a beautiful slim one-piece aluminum case, and measures just 1.4″ high x 7.7″ square. I also love how Apple managed to cram the power supply inside the case, so there is no need for a power brick at all for this new mini.

The system sports either a 2.4GHz or 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, and an upgraded NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics processor, which Apple claims is twice as fast as the previous Mac mini’s GPU. While it does get 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM, it is shared with main system memory, though. One of the best new additions is an HDMI port with 1080p output, which makes the new Mac mini a strong contender as a media center HTPC. They’ve also added a handy SD card slot for loading photos from your digital camera.

Of course, if you want to drive a 30-inch desktop monitor, the mini DisplayPort still cranks out 2560×1600 resolution.  One of the other things that has always irked Mac Mini users is that you couldn’t upgrade your own RAM. That’s changed. Not only can you put in up to 8GB of RAM, it’s as easy as turning the bottom plate to gain access to the systems two SO-DIMM slots.

So what’s not to like? If there’s anything to haggle about, it’s the price. Apple has increased the base price for the Mac mini to $699, putting it in the same price range as many very capable Windows desktop PCS.That said, it is a Mac, and if you just must have one, it’s still the cheapest way to enter the world of Apple computers.

And if you’re looking for something more advanced, there’s even a powerhouse Snow Leopard Server edition ($999 USD), which manages to cram two 500GB, 7200 rpm hard drives inside the mini’s mini case, and includes the top-of-the-line CPU and MAC OS X Server.

You can find more information on the Mac mini over at the Apple website.

The Ascent 2010 features a 2-in QVGA display that’s “protected by sapphire crystal,” stainless steel keys, a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash, a flashlight, and an accelerometer. Software features include a web browser, POP3/IMAP4 email client, GPS with pre-loaded maps, and custom Vertu software.

The aluminum-cased version of the Ascent has 8GB of memory and sells for $5340 (USD), while the titanium-cased Ascent has 32GB of memory and sells for $7500. See? Even the price is a perfect match for Tony Stark. Check out Vertu’s website for more details.

[via Bornrich]

As the picture above shows, the Mythos XTR-50 is meant to accompany the super thin LED TVs that are starting to come out of the market. But even if you don’t have equally slim TVs, the Mythos XTR-50 ‘s size make it a good bet for people with limited floor areas. When mounted to a wall, the Mythos XTR-50 has an overall frequency response of 92Hz – 30kHz. It has a sensitivity of 92dB, and an impedance of 8 ohms. The recommended amplifier power for driving the XTR-50′s is 20 to 100 watts per channel.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Check out Definitive Technology for more information and pics. If you’re already convinced that you want one, then it means that I’m a good salesman.  The Mythos XTR-50 is available online, but only for US citizens. It sells for $700 (USD) at both Amazon and Crutchfield.

[via Gearlog]