Turn your iPhone into an iMac for $30

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iclooly

The iClooly (I think I could have come up with a better name than that) from Pyramid Distribution is an aluminum desk stand for your iPhone 3G or 3GS that pivots for use in landscape and portrait orientations. There are cutouts for the docking connector, earphone jack and wake button, making it a nifty little stand for watching movies or using your iPhone as a clock.

19 thoughts on “Turn your iPhone into an iMac for $30”




  1. Gadgeteer Comment Policy - Please read before commenting
  2. Would be great if 1) there weren’t a ton of better looking docks available and 2) the iPhone actually worked with bluetooth keyboards.

  3. @adam : jailbreak it…they have an app that will open up the bluetooth stack to allow keyboard AND mouse!!

  4. . . . come to think of it, IF the Apple iSlate is like most of the guesses/rumors say it will be, a larger version of this would be a hit . . . .

  5. @adam, @Jackie : Except that nothing gets rid of the onscreen keyboard anytime you input to the iphone/ipodtouch, and so far the person that did manage to get the onscreen keyboard to go away…can’t utilize the real estate normally covered by the keyboard.

    Until Apple writes their OS/API specifically for allowing external devices instead of the onscreen keyboard, it is a poor implentation. Nothing like the Palm devices.

    I do have the bluetooth app for my iPod Touch but I would only give it a 3/5 stars, the blame being on Apple.

    Yeah, I will never again buy a bunch of accessories for phones and PDAs because they are too specialized and most of them are useless after a year or two.

  6. This is brilliant!!! OH, except using a device as a desktop computer that lacks multitasking is sooooooo 1980’s. Or is that 1970’s? I can never remember which. I’d look it up on my iPhone, but if I close this and go look I loose it and have to go back again and find it…… there being no multitasking and all.

  7. Why couldn’t you just open multiple web pages? That’s what I do on my iPhone. Mine keeps about 6 open at all times, allowing me to always quickly shuffle between them. Multitasking isn’t required for internet surfing…

  8. That’s right, you keep saying that you yourself…. “don’t need multitasking, don’t need multitasking, don’t need multitasking……”

    Of course, that’s until paramount leader Steve Jobs announces to great fanfare and the sound of trumpets that the iPhone now supports multitasking. Then it will be the greatest ever technological achievement by the human race to date.

    I find it most amusing, thinking back to 1984 and the launch of the Macintosh, that Apple and Mr Jobs created a commercial, in the style of a scene from Orwell’s “1984”. People were mindlessly locked to the PC / IBM world, and Apple was “setting them free”. At the time it was most certainly true too, and true innovation was being released by Apple. From B&W DOS screens to Apple’s GUI (albeit ripped off from Xerox after Job’s was shown around their Palo Alto laps), it was a great leap forward. These days we are handed rubbish, and told it is the greatest thing ever, that has no flaws whatsoever. We had a device with no tethering, and were told that we didn’t need it. We mindlessly said, “yes, you are so right My Jobs, you are always right.” Then Apple gave us tethering, and history was re-written. The iPhone has tethering. The iPhone has always had tethering. Mr Jobs has always been a keen supporter of tethering. We are told what we want from Mr jobs, and we are told it is the best, and we mindlessly follow like the good drones that we are.

    Now we are about to see a new invention that has never been seen before. Apple is about to invent…….. THE TABLET!!! OMG!!! I can’t wait!! Imagine it, a computer built into the screen, and you hold it in your hand. Nothing has ever come along like this before. Of course, some people will say that there is already something based on Windows that does that, but history will be suitably re-written stating that they were always really heavy, and clunky, and crashed all the time, and no one ever bought one.

    I am a Mac user. I use Macs for graphic editing, and have spent many $$$$$’s on the hardware and Adobe software. It’s a great machine, but what I am sick and tired of is the Apple BS that goes on and on and on. Guess what, the bloody thing crashes, and locks up, and has go slows, and does strange things, just like the PC, and you know what else, my iPhone only has enough charge for one day, and it also occasionally crashes. I once had someone seriously tell me that I could save my battery life by turning off push email. I told them I clould save even more battery life by never turning it on and using a Blackberry. They couldn’t understand my point. The point being, WHAT IS THE USE OF PUSH EMAIL IF I HAVE IT TURNED OFF?!?!??! If the device can’t do what it is supposed to do, I might as well use something else. The point is that I love my iPhone, and have heaps of great apps on it, but please stop with the BS that it is the greatest, the best, and perfect. It bloody well isn’t!!! All of you out there, wake up, break free from Big Brother Steve Jobs, think for yourself. You can like the device, and still criticize its failings, because it has them, they are real, and its only about complaing about them that we have any hope of getting them fixed.

  9. All that ranting, yet still, multitasking isn’t required to surf multiple web pages. Personally, I don’t need multitasking on my iPhone. If I did I wouldn’t have bought it, I would have opted for something that suited my needs a little better. As it stands, the iPhone was exactly what I was looking for. It does everything I need it to, and in a way I want it done. In fact, I used to always be on the lookout for the latest, greatest cell phone, snatching each one up for full retail price when it was released. I would very soon start noticing things I didn’t like, lose my adoration with my new gizmo, and start looking all over again. I never even considered the iPhone due to the fact it was attached to at&t. I finally made the jump, decided to try it out, and guess what? I haven’t browsed the specs of another phone yet. I couldn’t even tell you what phones are available right now, and this coming from a guy that has a drawer full of WM and Android phones that are now dust magnets. I used to buy two per year trying to find my “perfect” phone. I’m glad I finally did find it, because now I enjoy using it each and every time. Thanks, Apple, for making a phone enjoyable for those of us that don’t find multitasking important…

  10. @Justin : wow, you’ve got lots of angst regarding Apple. Chill man, we all use what is most suitable, regardless of brand.

    @Kryptik : you sure can look up multiple webpages without multitasking. I could be wrong, but if you ever needed to look up something on, say, a dictionary app or a map app, then you have to close Safari and you lose your place on the webpage. That might be what Justin is ranting about.

  11. Hey chriszz,
    When you close Safari on the iPhone and open it again, it opens right back to the last page and spot you were on. As I said before, I keep 5 or 6 tabs open in Safari at all times. That way when I open the browser, they are all right there waiting on me, all on the last place I left them. For those that need multitasking, I agree that iPhone is not the phone to buy. All my previous phones had multitasking, and since I didn’t need it, it was just an extra step to close the running programs down to free up resources so the phone would run properly. I mean, if I really wanted multitasking I would simply reactivate either my G1, Touch, Touch Pro, Touch Pro 2, Diamond, Treo, etc. Or, I would just buy a new phone.

    As it stands, I don’t. Nor do I understand why folks presume to think that because multitasking is a deal breaker to them, I need to keep telling myself I don’t really want it to accept that I don’t have it. That was the point I was trying to make regarding Justin’s rant.

  12. Justin, if multitasking is clearly that important you should either 1) do something about it like jailbreak the phone or 2) switch to a different phone.

    Apple, and all companies, do what they do – getting angry over it and insulting everyone who enjoys their products by saying ‘wake up’ and ‘think for yourself’ isn’t constructive or polite. No one is being forced to buy Apple products, and if you’re this upset you should vote with your purchasing power and buy different products.

  13. Hey guys,
    Lot of heated arguments over a cute little iMac.
    I’ll wait for a mini aluminum BT keyboard to complement it.

  14. Apple says they have the greatest products? Newsflash that’s what everybody does. Do you really expect Steve Jobs to go on and on about the lack of multitasking on the iPhone? That would be like Google not mentioning the $179 price for Tmobile Nexus applies to new customers only. That was left to be discovered by Tmobile users trying to buy the phone themselves. They all do that.

    What Apple does do is it stirs competition. I lost track of how many tablets or “slates” were presented at CES last week. With Apple’s take on the tablet computer eminent it’s what everybody talks about. That and Apps 🙂 It’s good for them and it’s good for us (the consumer).

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