CES 2016

Having acquired Bluetooth keyboard maker ClamCase last year, Incipio today announced five new high-end iPad keyboards under the ClamCase name, including one for the iPad Pro, three for the iPad Air 2, and one for the iPad mini 4. Some of the keyboards feature premium features such as an integrated screen for notifications, a built-in battery pack, and keyboard backlighting. Details and a photo gallery are below…

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Hunter Fan Company, one of the top manufacturers of ceiling fans, has today taken the wraps off of its foray into the HomeKit market. The company has announced a pair of connected ceiling fans that are WiFi enabled and support Apple’s HomeKit platform for communication. The ceiling fans are named Symphony and Signal and come in at $329 and $379 respectively.

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Welcome to the latest edition of Jeremy’s 5, my latest quick roundup of 5 interesting little things that aren’t big enough for full articles, but are still worth sharing with you.

My first edition of 2016 looks at two separate topics related to this week’s 2016 CES: first, Apple’s continued absence from the show, and second, the annual event’s seemingly declining interest to Apple fans. I also wanted to share some additional thoughts on Apple’s Remote Loop for the new Apple TV’s Siri Remote, the classic (but ever-evolving) iOS app Akinator the Genie, and the continued scourge of free-to-play games…

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Following the unveiling of its BreakSafe USB-C accessory earlier today, Griffin has now taken the wraps off of a new Apple Watch accessory. Dubbed the Travel Power Bank, the accessory is one the of the first battery packs we’ve seen for Apple Watch and it comes in a bitesize package.

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Hyper’s new iShowFast Lightning drive adds a few features not available from competitors: USB 3.0 for faster performance, support for files over 4GB in size, and new low power consumption features that mean you’ll never have to charge it.

Lightning thumb drives have become more popular in recent years. With a standard USB connector on one side and Apple’s Lightning connector on the other, the product allows iPhone and iPad users to quickly and easily transfer files between devices (iOS and desktops) or stream content directly from the drive to their device.
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Accessory maker Brydge has today announced a pair of new keyboard accessories for the iPad mini 4 and iPad Pro. The BrydgeMini and BrydgePro are on display at CES this week in Las Vegas and feature a variety of unique capabilities that the company hopes will make them standout from the growing number of keyboard accessories on the market.

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One of the biggest complaints regarding the 12-inch MacBook has been the ports, or lack thereof, that the device offers. The MacBook features just as single USB-C port that you use for everything, including charging. This means that the MagSafe technology that Apple introduced 10 years ago and that we’ve all come to love is nowhere to be found. A new accessory introduced by Griffin today, however, aims to fix that problem.

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Following up on its popular T1 solid state drive (SSD), Samsung today announced the Portable SSD T3, a tiny, shock-resistant sequel boasting faster speeds and a wide range of capacities. Unlike the T1, which used a USB 3.0 interface, the T3 uses USB 3.1 Type C connectors, which means it’s ready for direct connection to the latest 12″ MacBooks.

T3 also boasts read and write speeds of up to 450MB/second — much faster than typical external hard drives, and closer to the speeds of internal drives….

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If you have a 12-inch MacBook and are looking for an external monitor for it, Lenovo and Acer have each announced the neatest solutions yet, with a choice of 24-, 25- and 27-inch USB-C monitors.

Lenovo’s ThinkVision X24 Pro is the most basic, with a 1920×1080 resolution starting at $399, with availability in May. Acer’s H7 series monitors offer 2560×1440 resolution in 25- and 27-inch variants, and you’ll be able to get your hands on one of those next month, starting at $499.99.

Finally, Lenovo’s ThinkVision X1 is a 27-inch model offering 3840×2160 resolution, again from May, priced at $799 …

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Ford has announced that CarPlay will be coming this spring to all 2017 models equipped with its Sync 3 infotainment system. The 2017 Escape will be the first model to get it (like most car manufacturers, Ford starts selling its 2017 models early this year). The system will also support Android Auto.

Ford was one of the first car manufacturers to sign up to CarPlay, but aside from telling us it would be integrated with its own infotainment system Sync, the company had gone rather quiet since then.

If you’re now kicking yourself that you bought a 2016 model last year, don’t worry …

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