Apologies for the lack of fresh posts lately. I’ve been working on the next episode of our dockStubz: The Problem Solver series. Episode 2 will feature the dockStubz’s charge conversion functionality, as you may have been able to gather from the image above (which is an actual screenshot from the episode). We finished filming it late last week, and now I’m on to editing. Stay tuned for the finished product, coming in the next week or two.
**UPDATE**
The winners have been selected! Huge thanks to everyone who participated!!! Congratulations to our following Twitter friends:
@osxdude
@MikeShea1
@cirdan12
@steider
@fabianvs
@cindyanne22
@barryoneil
@SPlatkus
@michaellongo
@d900man
If you didn’t win this time, don’t worry. This was our first giveaway, but certainly not our last!! Stay tuned here at the blog, on our Facebook page (we’re new there, so any “Likes” are much appreciated!), and @cablejive on Twitter for the latest on any new promotions / contests / other fun stuff.
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I’m proud of the steps CableJive’s social media platforms have made over the past few months, and none of it would have been possible without you guys! As a result, now seems like the perfect time to run our first giveaway!!
From now until the clock strikes midnight (EST) on July 22nd, 2011, enter to win one of our hit clutter-reducing travel sized sync and charge cables; the iStubz, miniStubz, or microStubz (you choose which you’d prefer). We’ll be selecting 10 lucky winners at random, so if you like free stuff, here’s all you need to do to enter:
I’m a regular old freedom-loving American. Like every single American I regularly treck across Purple Mountains Majesty, fill with the warmth of liberty at the sight of a soaring Bald Eagle, instinctively chop down any Cherry Trees in sight, and have a native inability to “drive 55.” Also, like all Americans, I love a good deal. And it’s even better when I get the chance to give out those deals. So in honor of this Independence Day weekend, I would like to pass these savings on to you:
From now until July 5th on the CableJive web-store, get a ridiculous 40% off all our iStubz cables by using the coupon code: iStubz40
Need something other than an iStubz cable? Take 20% off anything else in the store with the code: GW1776
Coupon codes are entered during checkout. You may use both codes when placing your order, if applicable. So go on and start celebrating Independence Day by participating in the new great American pastime; online shopping!
Listen-up all you Android, Blackberry, Kindle, Nook, or any other type of Micro USB connected device users! We’ve finally made our first official foray into your world, and hopefully we can make life a little easier for you. Our smash hit iStubz and xlSync cables are now available for your devices too! Need a super-short charge and sync cable for travel? Look no further than the CableJive-official microStubz cable. Or, are you on the other end, and need extra length? Then the xlSync for Micro USB is your answer. What’s that you say? You need a regular length cable?! Well, we have those too, but their less exciting.
They’re all on sale right now and available on the CableJive store and Amazon. We’re pretty fired up about these, and we hope they can help as many people (or more) as their older brothers did. (Or is it cousins? Cable family trees are confusing).
As many cars thankfully have these days, mine has a simple AUX input so I can listen to audio from a variety of sources while driving around. In my car this input is conveniently located right under the stereo controls, on the front of the system. For a while I had a regular 1/8″ to 1/8″ cable connected for listening to music from my iPhone 4. Audio quality was fine going through the headphone port on the iPhone (as good as it could be coming from there), and I was able to connect power to the 30-pin port on the bottom as well. Of couse, this meant that I had a loop of cables connected to both the top and bottom of my iPhone anytime I wanted to listen and charge at the same time. In addition to being cumbersome for anyone-especially a driver who may need to quickly answer a call or change songs (only when stopped of course)-this setup also prevented me from being able to store my iPhone in any convenient areas in my car (such as the designated phone port, where I also keep a near continuous supply of Orbit Wintermint gum). The result being that I’d usually just leave everything strewn about the passengers seat or cup holders. Not a good look, amongst other things
The +USB Line Out Dock Cable really cleared these issues up quick. It allows me to run high quality line out audio from my iPhone through the AUX input and charge it at the same time all through the 30-pin connector on the bottom. This makes storing and handling my iPhone significantly more convenient while it’s connected to the stereo system. It might not sound like a huge difference, but it’s been an enormous help. One of those little things you deal with every day, but it’s not until you STOP dealing with it that you realize how much of an improvement has been made.
For the photo above, I connected all the CableJive products I keep in my car to show how they’ve helped me maximize my available options, and turn my system into an all-in-one music-bumping device-charging machine! As stated above, the +USB Line Out Dock Cable provides both the audio (via my car’s AUX port) and charging connections. I also used a 6 ft. dockXtender cable to extend the length of that 30-pin connection and run it under my seats so I can keep it closer to me on the drivers side without having to leave the wire dangling in front. The dualCharge provides the power via my car’s DC power port (AKA the artist formally known as the cigarette lighter port). I keep both an iStubz and microStubz cable in my center console for use with the extra USB port the dualCharge provides, incase any of my passengers need to juice up as well.
So, there’s my setup (it normally looks much cleaner, but I wanted to squeeze everything into that picture). We’d love to see how YOU use CableJive products to get what you want out of your car or home audio system. Feel free to share your story or pics with us at information@cablejive.com.
You may recall back in April, when we announced the updates to our xlSync cable. These included some minor external and internal upgrades, but the most important change we made improved the compatibility of these new cables with the iPad and iPad 2 devices.
We initially designed the xlSync cable before the launch of the first iPad. It worked great with all iPods and iPhones already, and in our tests it seemed to work well with the iPad also. However, over the months we continued getting reports from some customers that the xlSync cable wasn’t charging their iPads as well as they’d hoped. Long story short, our team was able to isolate that issue, and resolve it with these newly designed cables.
To confirm these new xlSync cables perform exactly as they should, we put one head-to-head against the standard sync cable that came with the iPad. In this test, we connected an iPad and iPad 2 to their OEM power bricks (which were both connected to the same power strip. This can be seen in the photo above). The iPad 2 was charging via it’s OEM sync cable, and the iPad 1 was charging via the brand new updated xlSync cable. After 45 minutes of charging here were the results:
iPad 2 charging w/ standard sync cable: +14%
iPad 1 charging w/ updated xlSync cable: +14%
There you have it. More than double the length of the standard cable, and you lose none of the charging power. Both the white and black xlSync cables have received this update, and are now available to purchase for your iPad (or any other i-device) charging pleasure.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU0CLxVWErE&w=480&h=390]
This week, we sold our last duraSync cable in its current form. The duraSync was a vision we had after hearing from so many customers who were fed up with their sync cables failing or breaking on them. We were proud to offer the most durable sync cable money can by, and stand behind it with a lifetime warranty.
Today, that pride is not lost. While version 1 of the duraSync is no longer available, we are going back to the drawing board to make it even better. We’ve started formulating ideas for this new and improved version and we want your thoughts. To let us know what you’d like to see in the next duraSync cable, feel free to send your suggestions to service@cablejive.com.
To sign up to be notified when this new and improved duraSync cable is available, go to the duraSync product page.
I would never recommend a product to anyone that I haven’t physically used myself, so I was eager to try out the new Nest stand before we made it available for purchase. If you aren’t familiar with it, the Nest is a slick, compact, multipurpose stand which was originally designed with the iPad in mind, but works with a number of smartphones and other media devices (ex: Kindle, Nook, etc.). I was using an iPad 2 in my tests, so for the purposes of this blog post, I’ll be referencing that.
At first glance, the Nest looks like a tiny desk tray for holding small necessities (more on that in a bit). However, upon closer inspection, you’ll notice that a co-molded, non-slip rubber surrounds the entire “lip” of the tray. This same rubber can be found on the “sticky feet” on the bottom of the Nest. That rubber is the key here. All you need to do is place your device on the Nest screen-up , so the back is sitting against the rubber. I was skeptical at first, but was quickly (and pleasantly) surprised at how well the Nest both stays in place itself, and how securely it gripped the iPad. Also, I found that it held my iPad at a great, usable viewing angle.
The Nest is nothing, if not versatile. In addition to the standard use outlined above, it also holds a hidden slide-out cradle so you can keep your device at an upright viewing angle, great for showing media to your friends/family/coworkers, or for simply kicking back and watching something yourself. And remember when I said that it looks like a tiny desk tray for holding small necessities? Well, that’s because it triples as one of those too (I’m currently using mine to hold my iPod shuffle and an iStubz cable)! That same tray works great if you want to use the Nest as a holder for your smartphone (quadrupling as a stand for those as well).
After spending some time with the Nest, I was more than reassured of it’s quality, and I’m happy to see it introduced into the CableJive line of products. If you’re looking for a great smartphone, iPad, tablet, or e-reader stand for your desk at work or home, the Nest is an excellent solution. It’s available now, and comes in both white and black.
A couple of months ago, we added the great Otterbox Defender Series cases for iPhones into the CableJive lineup. It’s our first offering in the case market, so we figured we’d start with our favorite. Today, there’s another reason to get your Otterbox Defender cases from us. We just took $5 off the price of each, bringing them down to $44.95. Get ‘em now, at a new low price, from a company you can trust.
At the end of Tuesday’s blog post, I mentioned that the first entry in our new “dockStubz: The Problem Solver” video series would be released within the next week or so. Well, I’m happy to report that I was able to get it finished sooner than that. Without further ado, here’s Episode 1:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJn0Wjp4HuU?hd=1&w=640&h=390]