i-phone case with a built in flash

Jester 2 months ago

Not a bad case. The flash portion is novel and works almost as advertised (just 4 seconds, no option for the constant on feature). However the purple is a...unique color. Wouldn't have picked it out myself but I won it in a contest, so beggars/choosers and all that. Also, there seems to be a slight gap in the lower left where the two pieces meet, but that might have been due more to the shipping from the contest to me than the manufacturing (they threw it in a plain manila envelope with no padding or anything. Again, beggars/choosers).

Linda Bear 2 months ago

Just saw this on the Today Show with Hoda and Kathie Lee. They had it listed for $19.99 from Quirky.com. What is the true price?

frogmanxl 3 months ago

Got mine last week... I agree with the comments from Jenny Tyler, Tessa Gegg and PizzaStained. Nice to have... but that is about it.

Jenny Tyler 3 months ago

What happened to push once, on for 10 seconds, push twice leaves on indefinitely, push three times and it goes off. This is not the product I have been marketing or thought our community created. Was this change reviewed by the community as it is a socially developed product right?

Tessa Gegg 3 months ago

I got mine today too. I agree with pizzastained. The bottom piece slides out a little too easily and I am afraid as well that it may pose a problem in the future. Everything else looks and feels great. It does make the phone bulkier but if I had gotten an otter case it would have don't the same thing. Overall though, it's great.

Michael McCoy 3 months ago

Got mine today. The fit is snug and the light works great.

PizzaStained 3 months ago

I got my beamer in the mail today. Extremely easy to install the iPhone into it. When you press the button on the side, the LED (which is bright enough that if you look into it you'll see spots afterwards, so don't look into it) will shine for 4 seconds (I timed it). Holding down the button doesn't change this behavior unfortunately, so using it as a flashlight will be annoying. If there's some switch or something to change that behavior I didn't see it.

The button makes it a little annoying when I hold the phone with either hand. It seems like it would have made more sense to have the button farther up. Holding the phone with the left hand is a little more annoying due to the button, holding it with the right hand makes its very annoying as the button jams right into my palm. Neither of which would be annoying if the button was higher up.

Another thing is the bottom piece that slides off. It seems to slide off a little too easily. I'm afraid that while in my pocket, it could slide off, or even in general use. Only time will tell if that fear well placed or not.

It looks sleek. It feels smooth.

Overall I'm a little disappointed. I thought it would have been a little better designed in terms of functionality. I've never used any other iPhone cases before, so take that into consideration when reading my perspective.

Kathleen Lydon 3 months ago

I love the color choices. I think the previous options looked a little on the cheap side. Maybe quirky will add a few more colors down the road, like they did with the PowerCurl. I think gray and white would be great additions!

Jennifer Harris 3 months ago

The new colors are hideous! The other color options were amazing! There's not even a white option. I did want one but I can't stand the colors.

Digital Mania 3 months ago

Where is the Quirky's Beamer, like this one??:
http://www.gearlog.com/2009/11/quirkys_beamer_iphone_case_tha.php

Digital Mania 3 months ago

This model does not resemble the pictures of the project, the colors are different, the product is larger than the pictures of the project. I do not confirm my order.
I am disappointed to have waited so long for a result as poor.

Janet Evans 3 months ago

Only two colors? Boo. What happened to all the funky colors in the pictures? I feel like we were promised one thing and are getting another. With that said I hope it's done soon. I know I'm going to live it if it ever shows up

Gerard Bain 4 months ago

@Matdredalia - That may very well be the case for you, so you are welcome to your opinion. However, I seriously doubt if Apple is going to have any trouble whatsoever selling millions of units of the new iPhone, and many of the buyers are going to be replacing 3G and 3GS iPhones. Moreover, you have completely missed the point of my previous post--if Quirky can't shorten its development/production cycles significantly, I think that people will be very hesitant to pre-order any products. And if there aren't enough pre-orders, the products won't be made. Most items already struggle to meet their target threshold, so anything that contributes to fewer pre-orders is a serious problem. I really do hope that the Quirky team can address this issue soon and best of luck to them.

Matdredalia 4 months ago

@Gerard - I hate to tell you, but your point would be what's null-in-void, not the beamer. I'm sure you've noticed that the economy is tanking. Those of us who can afford our toys feel lucky to be able to do so, and very few of us who have already shelled out the money for an iPhone can really afford to go buy another one. For those of us who will be sticking to our 3GS's and 3G's even, this is a really, really sweet deal. It may not be out for another month or so (possibly longer), but I won't be buying another iPhone for at least a year or more. The Beamer is definitely the way to go for those of us who don't want to drop money on another phone.

Gerard Bain 4 months ago

The Beamer was a great idea when it was first proposed last November. But now it is essentially obsolete since the next iPhone will almost certainly have a built-in flash, and may very well be available before the Beamer even launches (no offense, people, but I am highly skeptical about Quirky's projected launch dates). I love what Quirky is trying to do with social design, but if it can't get a better grip on its' design/production cycles, it's just not going to work. I see a lot of potential here, so I really do hope it works out. And since I pre-ordered a Beamer months ago, I will at least play with it a little once it finally shows up before sticking it in my pile of old, no longer relevant, accessories...

Gerard Bain 4 months ago

Jeremy Baylis 5 months ago

My suggestion was to make it work with the iPhone and make it a combo battery powerpack and have the flash work via the apple software and actually sync with the camera, so it flashes when you take the picture, or turns on when you video. That would have been useful, this is just another battery needing gimmick. This goes against the whole all in one apple philosophy. I own a apple air juice or some stupid name, and I can charge it and my iPhone at the same time, to worry about finding those stupid little watch batteries all the time, forget it. If they would have added the flash to a powerpack I definitely would have been a customer.