Macworld at CES: More standout gear

08.01.2011

If an is a bit too much for you, how about an iPhone-controlled ball? The , available later this year, is a small (74mm across) robotic ball that pairs with your iPhone over Bluetooth and uses an iOS app to let you control the ball as it rolls around the room. An internal RGB LED can glow any of thousands of different colors, and the iPhone app can even “push” data to the ball, with the ball responding by turning different colors depending on the data. (The company’s PR examples include color changes based on weather forecasts or stock performance.)

Accessory vendor Scosche teased the company’s new FreedomMIC, a Bluetooth lavaliere-style microphone that can pair with your iPhone or iPod touch, providing a wireless mic for audio and video recording. The company said you’ll even be able to iPhone video-recording functions from the microphone—useful if, say, your iPhone is recording you from across the room.

The company was also showing an upcoming cable, the SyncAble Pro, that looks like a standard USB-dock-connector cable for an iPhone, iPod, or iPad, but the 30-pin dock-connector plug flips out of the way to expose a MicroUSB plug—perfect for charging your Bluetooth headset or syncing a smartphone that connects via MicroUSB.