Okay, I know we can all agree that the one personal gadget we absolutely cannot live without is our smartphone! As sad as it sounds, we are pretty addicted to our phones and need them to carry out a whole lot of tasks. Our daily lives would probably come to a standstill if someone confiscated all our phones. As handy, critical, and functional as phones are to us, we can always amp them up further with some useful accessories. There is a wide range of phone accessories that add to and upgrade your personal device, catering to your techy needs and requirements even more. From a pair of earbuds and its accompanying case that simply snaps onto your phone to an add-on modular camera system, we’ve curated a whole bunch of innovative and trendy designs that serve as the perfect sidekick to your precious phone!
The +Lens modular system by Shawn Wang relies on empowering the primary camera with add-on lenses – much like the way you snap lenses onto your DSLR. Unlike most smartphone camera-lenses, Wang’s +Lens system is both exhaustive and powerful. The system consists of four add-on lenses that come in a nice, AirPods-case-shaped box along with a holder that lets them snap right onto your iPhone 12. These lenses, apart from augmenting your iPhone’s photographic abilities, come with their own focus rings, giving you precise control over how you capture the world around you.
The PhoneSoap, as its name rightfully suggests, was designed for this exact purpose. Rather than using cleaning solvents, PhoneSoap uses UV rays to kill 99.9% of the bacteria and viruses on your phone in merely 10 minutes. PhoneSoap 3 is the smallest and most powerful product in the PhoneSoap family. Designed to be like a tanning-bed for your smartphone, the PhoneSoap 3 uses high-wavelength UV-C rays on both sides to sterilize your smartphone. Its large chamber fits phones of all sizes and even allows you to charge your phone using its internal 6500mAh battery pack! Just lock your phone and pop it into the chamber and PhoneSoap 3 runs a 10-minute cycle to deep-clean your device, entering even the tough-to-reach spots like the speaker-grilles. An LED indicator on the top tells you when the cycle is over, so you can take your phone out knowing that it’s completely clean after hours of touching hands, faces, and resting on unknown surfaces.
The CLIP is a wireless power bank designed to snap onto the back of your phone either using MagSafe (for newer iPhone models) or using an adhesive clip (for older iPhones and Android devices). In doing so, the device aligns with the smartphone’s wireless charging coil, allowing it to charge the phone’s battery on the fly, without any cables. However, the CLIP doesn’t just add an extra external battery to the back of your phone, it also adds a kickstand that can be used in both landscape and portable formats. A metal component (shaped sort of like a carabiner clip) wraps around the power-bank and can be opened out to let you prop your phone vertically or horizontally while it’s charging. Now that’s a mighty clever use of the MagSafe feature if you ask me. In fact, if you could extend the size of the power-bank and add slots to dock/charge your AirPods, this would be absolutely perfect.
Combining two of Monica Geller’s favorite things, cooking + cleaning, this neat toaster actually is a smart appliance that disinfects your phone. This conceptual toaster was designed to make disinfecting your phones a little easier and, honestly, more fun! Instead of the usual wipe down, this turns the task into a small interaction with the product that leaves you with a nice feeling instead of “I have to wipe my phone 25 times a day because there is a pandemic”. It aims to make the interaction between products and people more playful. The toaster also charges your phone while disinfecting it which is a nice way to reduce your screen time, I mean your phone is being “toasted” so you can’t take it out till it’s done! While the concept is still being developed, I assume it uses UV light to disinfect and sanitize the phone while wirelessly charging it.
The Waving Multifunctional Speaker is a perfect example of how form and function can help redefine a product’s design. The speaker isn’t just designed to act as an audio-playing device. It’s mindful of the objects and spaces associated with it. Given that wireless speakers are almost always used with smartphones, the Waving Multifunctional Speaker even doubles as a dock/stand for your mobile, allowing you to watch videos on it while the three mid-range audio drivers on the front pump sound out. The Waving Multifunctional Speaker even comes with a distinct wave-texture on its top which serves as a nifty area to rest stationery. Aware of the fact that most speakers find themselves placed on work desks, the Waving Multifunctional Speaker integrates a clever and convenient solution, allowing you to rest your pens and pencils on it while you work.
The TalkSocket looks exactly like a regular PopSocket-style phone-holder. It’s about the same size and shape, and it attaches to the back of your phone, allowing you to grip it better. However, it’s more than that… With a microphone on the inside and a nifty Echo-inspired LED ring on the outside, the TalkSocket is actually a miniature smart-speaker that allows Alexa and Google Assistant (which for the most part exist within homes) to actually be with you in your pocket wherever you go. The socket connects to and communicates directly with the Alexa or Google app on your phone. Talk to it as you would talk to a smart speaker and it instantly responds, without needing you to tap buttons or even unlock your phone. More importantly, though, it lets you override your phone’s existing voice AI for something you use every day, so if you’re more used to talking to Alexa at home (and you have all the Alexa-enabled smart-home devices configured already), you can just override the iPhone’s Siri and communicate with your favorite voice AI instead, telling it to order toilet paper for you, or shut the garage door as you leave the house.
Forget about individual speakers, you can now turn your smartphone into one, using this ceramic acoustic amplifier. Designed by Miguel Mojica, Wave Live is an acoustic amplifier that promises to pump up all your parties! At first glance, it looks like a simple decorative bowl, something you might place on your nightstand. However, once you place your smartphone in it, it translates and amplifies waves of music to create some powerful and resounding output. Featuring a surreal marble base, available in white and black, as well as in an intriguing striped pattern, the ceramic bowl showcases soft and minimal aesthetics. In fact, the amplifier even comes with a 30-day warranty! So, if you’re dissatisfied with the product, you can send it back, as long as it’s not chipped nor damaged!
In comes the NILS, a small USB-based charging cable that was designed to be more than utilitarian. Sitting around your wrist, the NILS looks like a stylish bracelet, with its braided-leather design, but it conceals within it, a Kevlar-based charging cable. Made to be a fashion accessory with a strong functional purpose, the NILS is a bracelet when you want, and a charging cable when you need it. The USB and charger jacks dock into one another, forming a metal pendant of sorts at one end of the bracelet. Pull them apart, and the bracelet turns into a cable that you can use to either transfer data, or to juice your smartphone. Available in a variety of colors, the NILS uses vegan leather around its exterior, giving it waterproof/water resistant properties (so you could step out in the rain with your NILS bracelet and that wouldn’t be a problem). The USB buckle uses a magnetic closure to hold it in place, while the cable itself comes with a Kevlar weave, making it practically indestructible.
iQiki is a notification indicator that does exactly what it sounds like it does! It utilizes LED-based lighting to notify you of any calls, messages, emails, updates, or any other notifications that you may be receiving. You can easily place it in your pocket, clip it onto your jacket or shirt sleeve, place it on your work desk, and the 12-led based lights will notify you when you’ve received a notification! It allows you to focus on whatever you’re doing without having to consistently check your phone screen for any important updates.