accessories

You might have a Smart Cover for the front of your iPad, but what's got its back?

Well, if you hate scratching its aluminum backside when you rest it on some surface impregnated with a million microscopic razorblades, BlueLounge's Kicks can ease the pain.

These thin silicone-rubber rails from the Los Angeles design studio stick to the back of your tab with a light adhesive from 3M that keeps them securely in place.

They're lightweight and flexible, and won't leave a mark if you remove or reposition them.

Kicks, which follow BlueLounge's Cool Feet pads for the Apple tablet, come in packs of four, priced at $11.95. … Read more

The MacBook Air is Apple's new mainstream MacBook, and though the latest version is undoubtedly the best, there are still aspects of this slim laptop that could do with accessories. The Air achieves an excellent balance of design, performance, and battery life, but it still leaves out some features that many people consider essential to their laptop experience.

Consider these accessories a way of mending the missing pieces and providing true MacBook Air road warriors with all the tools needed for a worry-free Air-based lifestyle.

Click through for our picks. Did we miss any? Are there even better examples … Read more

You already knew your iPhone could take the place of your camera, calculator, alarm clock, stopwatch, and e-reader. But did you know it can pull fan duty as well?

Without a doubt, the wackiest iPhone accessory I've seen this month (and possibly this year) also has the wackiest name: Newest Cool Dock Fan Gadgets Cooler.

The Newest Cool Dock Fan Gadgets Cooler (or NCDFGC for not-so-short) is a portable fan that plugs into your iPhone's dock connector. It's available from PandaWill for $6.99 shipped. According to the vendor, it's compatible with the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and iPod Touch.

Based on the pictures (there are more on PandaWill's site), it appears the fan can rotate a full 90 degrees, pointing straight down from your iDevice or off to one side. In other words, it can blow cool air onto your lap or the person sitting to your right. Anyone sitting to your left is outta luck, cooling-wise.… Read more

Your iPhone already controls your life, so it might as well control your television, too.

Plenty of apps let you use your iPhone as a remote control, but when an app alone isn't substantial enough for you, you can turn to the new VooMoteOne. This consists of a clip-on external device in combination with an app. The whole kit and caboodle costs $99.

Your hundred bucks makes you a god among your household appliances. Follow the straightforward setup wizard and then lord the VooMoteOne over your electronics. Turn them on and off at will. Make them sing louder.

The app allows for profiles so you can set up specific bundles of electronics for each room. The app contains a large database of devices, but it can also learn a new device if you point the old remote control at the LED transmitter on the bottom of the VooMoteOne.… Read more

The Toshiba Thrive Honeycomb tablet has garnered a lot of interest due to the fact that one, it's a tablet in the year 2011, and two (and maybe more importantly), it offers a heftier, more laptop-like experience than other tablets with its full ports and removable battery.

The Thrive's identity crisis doesn't end there, however, as Toshiba offers a number of accessories, including swappable back plates that let you literally change the device's color. Using the same color tablet day in and day out can get boring, and Toshiba offers you a healthy way to spice things up.

To be sure, it's a superficial change that doesn't change the device's functionality, but it could make you more excited about using your tablet, at least for a while.

I've compiled a number of photos of Thrive's accessories (including more functional ones) here.… Read more

Inductive chargers combine coolness and convenience like few other gadgets. Just lay your phone on a special pad and presto, it recharges--no dock, no wires, no fuss, no muss.

Unfortunately, they tend to be expensive. The Energizer Qi system I reviewed a few months back, for example, was $90 for the pad and $35 for the special case that makes the iPhone, um, inductable. Ouch.

Ah, but how does 20 bucks sound? For a limited time, and while supplies last, Best Buy has the Powermat Wireless Charging System PMM-1P4-B19 for iPhone 4 for $19.99, plus sales tax in most … Read more

If you're into time-lapse photography and/or panoramas--or want to get started with them--and you have a camera with an intervalometer, Camarush's clever and inexpensive Camalapse mount sounds like a useful accessory to throw in your bag. Based on the same mechanical timer technology as a conventional egg timer, the Camalapse rotates up to a maximum of 360 degrees in one hour. You attach a small (less than 1 pound) camera or camcorder to its tripod mount, and optionally attach the Camalapse to a tripod, wind it up, and you're off and autorotating. You can also stack … Read more

While CNET cannot endorse any form of drug paraphernalia, I would like to give credit to the creators of the iHit iPhone case for not dancing around their product's real intention--especially since that honesty might cost them funding and retail opportunities.

The name says it all. The iHit is an iPhone 4 case intended to hold one joint, presumably for emergency use. Of course, it could also hold a single standard tobacco cigarette, but think of the serious smokers you know. They'd need about 24 iPhone cases a day to cope with their habit. The iHit is for the wake-and-bakers. If you're confronted with a jonesing Grateful Dead fan threatening to play an endless guitar solo if he doesn't take a trip to the laughing tree, you can whip out the iHit. … Read more

A major user complaint about the Canon PowerShot S90 and its followup, the S95, wasn't about image quality, but about how slippery they are. There's at least one custom grip out there that I know about, but if you don't need something quite so special, check out Flipbac's little stick-on grips.

Made from silicone, the inexpensive grips can be attached to just about any point-and-shoot. And because they are silicone, they bend easily allowing you to wrap them around just about any camera body.

Slapping one on your camera is a peel-and-stick affair, so within seconds … Read more