Intoxicase Unbottles Imagination

Newcomer Spicebox had one of the most talked-about items at MacWorld: the Intoxicase. Intoxicase and Intoxicase Plus are sturdy, rear-mounted bottle openers. The basic model ($35) is exposed, while the Plus ($45) hides the opener in a recessed metal door. The idea? Well, you often can’t find a bottle opener when you need one. But you ALWAYS have your iPhone with you. Frats are going to love this. Here’s a video.

The Intoxicase also has a free app that goes with it. It keeps track of how many bottles have been opened, to help you find your car (if you’re having trouble getting oriented), and to call a cab if you need one. These guys have thought of everything important.

Taiwan’s Alljack showed off some interesting new media-room speakers that you don’t find just anywhere. These are sleek-looking, handmade, diamond-encrusted (the gems are mined in Russia) speakers that may grab more attention by their looks than from the audio you play. We assume they sound great; Alljack wasn’t demonstrating the sound on Jan. 26. Designed for the “1 percent,” the price tag is cool, also: $68,000 each.

HyperJuice external batteries come in the colors of the rainbow. No more of this boring old black or white stuff anymore.

HyperDrive’s Cloud FTP unit can turn any USB-connected storage drive into a wirelessly accessible one that can be shared with Apple iOS devices. This solves some growing problems for iPad and iPhone users, especially when storing music and video.

Walking around the show floor at MacWorld 2012, attention is immediately drawn to the bright red 1966 VW Microbus of TuneUp, a service that fixes iTunes music collections so that users can find everything they need to find. With storage becoming more of an issue all the time, users can remove duplicate tracks, fix mislabeled song info, and add in album art, all with this one app.

Virtual desktop IT, which is enjoying a lot of traction these days, is getting a refresh, and Splashtop is one of those innovative updaters. You simply log into this cloud service (which already has some 3 million users, including some large enterprises) from any device with a browser, and you can work on your desktop or laptop that’s sitting on your desk at home or the office. Go here for details.

Similar to Splashtop, but with some extra twists, Nivio’s nDrive offers its own online and offline storage, access to its own app store, file and print, and a score of other features. The company, started in the U.K., is now in the United States. Check it out here.

Fast-growing Neat Company, which makes office and portable devices that scan documents and store them into PDFs and other files forms for easy access, is adding a cloud element to its service later this quarter. In addition to storing business information, such as travel receipts, personal health records and others, in the device, it will soon be available in Neat’s own secure cloud for even better access. Go here for information.

The Mobile Apps Showcase was easily the most popular place to be on the MacWorld show floor on Day 1. There were literally hundreds of new ideas to see.

Plenty of imagination-as well as sparkly bits-went into these handmade iPhone cases that you will see nowhere else. If you’re looking to make a statement with your iPhone, here’s one way to do it.

PolkAudio, which makes high-end Bluetooth headsets, wowed the crowd with a daredevil-type fellow on a trampoline, who demonstrated some extreme maneuvers on a snowboard, high in the air.

Now here’s something interesting: a silent disco-DJ, playing music at an event directly into wireless headsets for dancers to hear. Nice for passersby to not have to deal with loud music, but it does look a little funny to see the dancers and not hear any music.

Foursaken Media is a company with a sense of humor that builds Websites, video games, software and almost anything else for a computer screen. “We are four brothers who are absolutely obsessed with our work and strive to create products that make others feel the same way,” their Website reads. Go here for more information.