Breffo Spiderpodium lends a hand (or eight)
The Breffo Spiderpodium is a simple, yet effective way to hold your small gadgets in place during any of a variety of activities, but only if you have the imagination to make it work for you.
- North American Car, Truck and SUV of the Year (NACTOY) Awards Juror
The Breffo Spiderpodium is a simple, yet effective way to hold your small gadgets in place during any of a variety of activities ranging from driving to biking to just watching a movie, but only if you have the imagination to make it work for you.
The Spiderpodium consists of eight flexible, rubber-coated wire arms protruding from a rubber center. These arms can be bent and posed in pretty much any direction, orientation, or shape and will hold their position. Breffo's plan is that you'll use the arms to wrap around your small electronic devices, holding them in the orientation of your choosing.
We were able to, for example, attach a smartphone to a vehicle's dashboard air vents for easy access to the screen for selecting music, answering calls, and viewing maps for turn-by-turn navigation. People who use their GPS navigator in multiple vehicles can leave the bulky suction cup cradle in one vehicle and use the Spiderpodium to hold their device in place in other cars.
We were even able to successfully suspend a GPS device and a smartphone from our vehicle's vents during testing. The Spiderpodium's stability during spirited driving will ultimately depend on your skill in positioning the spindly widget, and the anchor to which it is attached, but we experienced no catastrophic failures with a variety of devices.
Outside of the vehicle, we found the Spiderpodium useful for holding an iPhone in an optimal viewing position while watching a video, and holding a point-and-shoot camera in place for timer-shot self portraits, but the applications of this deceptively simple accessory are only limited by your imagination. Breffo actually maintains a gallery of user-submitted photos on its Web site, which is a good place to grab ideas.
Aside from your imagination, the Spiderpodium's other limitation is the weight of the gadget being held. Just how much weight the Spiderpodium can hold depends, again, on your creativity in positioning it, but we'll just say that you shouldn't expect to hold anything heavier than about a pound. Bulky items, too, are out of the question.
Our Spiderpodium was delivered in a skeletal white finish, but Breffo also offers a black version. Regardless of color, the Breffo Spiderpodium carries a suggested retail price of $19.99.