The Gadgets Page

The Carson “HookUpz” universal smartphone adapter is a clever device that adapts any smartphone camera to just about any optical device, such as binoculars, telescopes, microscopes, and spotting scopes. This allows you to add the camera you already have to the optics you already have.

I use the the adapter with my image stabilized binoculars. This gives me an 18X telephoto lens that is image stabilized and easy to shoot through with results very similar to a DSLR.

The adapter is very simple to use: Just insert your phone and line up the camera with the aperture on the adapter. Then clamp the adapter to the eyepiece of the optic. The entire setup takes less than a minute to be very precise.

Once your phone is mounted to the optic, you can use the phone’s screen to observe through it and take pictures. The results with my binoculars were very good, and with my spotting scope the results were excellent.

There are some physical limitations you may run into with image circle size; you may get falloff at the edges of the image because the optic image projection is smaller than your phone’s sensor. Just crop the image to eliminate this effect.

I found the Carson Universal Optics Adapter to be reliable, clever, and well made. If you ever want to shoot through your optics with your phone, it’s the one-size-fits-all solution.

Carson’s website: http://www.carson.com/accessories/smart-phone-adapters/1468-

It looks like the Beats Pill+ will be released next month and cost about $225.

• Apple Announces Beats Pill+ Speaker Available in November for $229 – Mac Rumors

I haven’t been that impressed with Beats products, but this feature is really intriguing to me.

The new Beats Pill+ companion app will enable users to control the speaker using a smartphone, with features including the ability to control music from two Bluetooth sources and sync two Beats Pill+ speakers together for either simultaneous or dedicated right and left playback.

It’s cool that you can purchase two of them and get REAL stereo separation. The audiophile features aren’t impressive enough to conquer my doubts, however. The biggest problem I have with the Beats Pill+ is something so seemingly trivial that it shouldn’t stop me from buying one, but it does.

It doesn’t have a handle.

I want to be able to EASILY carry the speaker, whether it’s playing or not. I don’t want to put it into a backpack. I want to carry it. With a handle. That’s built-in.

I looked long and hard for a good speaker system that would let me play my music from my phone or the radio. I ended up going with the Sangean PR-D15.

It plays my music. It plays the radio. It can use rechargeable batteries. It cost me less than eighty bucks. And most importantly, it has a handle, so I can easily carry it. The Beats Pill+ might be super cool and all, but I want something that I can USE, even if it looks like a square box from the Eighties.

Beats Pill+ Image Via: The Verge: Beats’ Pill+ is its best speaker ever