Macenstein

It would appear that the iPhone has not only caught the attention of the media and consumers, but the accessory manufacturers as well. In addition to the usual gang of speakers, charging cables, and headsets, we are starting to see some unusual iPhone accessories appear on the scene. One such offering is the PED3 by THOUGHT OUT Company.

The PED3 is essentially a video viewing stand for your iPhone or iPod touch, and while at first it may not seem like it should be, it actually turned out to be one of cooler and more useful iPhone accessories we’ve tested, although it’s likely an accessory you may not realize you want until you’ve tried it out for a while.

Design

The PED3 actually consists of two pieces – the stand, and the cradle. Somewhat similar to elevated laptop stands like Rain’s mStand, the PED3’s base is molded from a solid piece of metal, and it’s heavy (relatively speaking). The weight is designed to make sure your iPhone does not topple the PED3, and the unit feels very sturdy.The cradle is made of the same black metal as the base, and has 7 rubber padded “fingers” which tightly hold your iPhone in place. There is also a rubberized bumper in the center of the cradle which protects the back of your iPhone from making undesirable contact with the cradle.

The cradle can rotate a full 360 degrees (or 360,000, if you are bored), meaning you can pretty much use set the PED3 to any viewing angle you want, although odds are you’ll choose from straight vertical and straight horizontal. You can attach the cradle in one of two angled holes, each tilted slightly differently to help you find the most comfortable viewing angle.

The bottom-most fingers of the cradle are positioned wide apart from each other, providing enough room for your iPhone’s charging cable to attach, and the base has a vertical slit running up it which allows you to thread your cable though to keep it out of the way. There is a separate iPod touch model with only one “finger” at the bottom of the cradle, to allow for the touch’s headphone jack. I actually found I enjoyed keeping the iPhone in the PED3 while charging as opposed to just letting it sit flat on my desk. Like many of Apple’s products, the iPhone is as close to a work of art as a piece of consumer gadgetry can get, and the PED3 provides a perfect stand for showing it off.

Issues

I really liked the PED3, and couldn’t find much to complain about. I feel the price ($39.99) is a bit high for the type of accessory it is, although I find the build quality is excellent. It is not so much a question of whether it is worth $40 as whether it is worth $40 to you, if that makes any sense.

The only potential design problem I found was that the two lower fingers of the cradle are actually positioned in such a way as they cover a good 70% of the speaker/microphone openings, and can conceivably block audio or the microphone. Given how anemic the iPhone’s speaker phone is, odds are you won’t be using the PED3 to make hands-free calls without the headset plugged in. I actually use the headset for 90% of my calls, so this wasn’t an issue for me, but in speaker phone tests I did find the audio slightly muffled, but not as much as i would have thought. I originally thought if this was an issue I could get around this by simply flipping the iPhone around in the cradle, but unfortunately the two fingers then block the headphone jack and press down the sleep/wake button, which of course prompts you to turn the iPhone off.

THOUGHT OUT Company actually suggests you can bend the fingers slightly to keep them from obstructing the mic and speaker if you find it to be an issue, but as I said, it wasn’t a problem for me, although I will admit I primarily used it for watching videos while hooked to headphones or an external speaker, charging the iPhone, and just all around showing it off. Perhaps if I had more friends I would have used the iPhone as a phone more and been bothered more. None of this is of course an issue if you are an iPod touch user, as THOUGHT OUT makes a separate model for the touch with only 1 lower “finger”, allowing access to the headphone jack.

Conclusion

The PED3 is designed to provide a hands-free viewing experience for your iPhone or iPod touch, and does it with style. It’s padded cradle rotates 360 degrees and elevates your gadget off the desk like the work of art it is. iPhone users may run into an issue with the fingers muffling the iPhone’s speaker/mic, but we did not. iPod touch users however, have no reason not to rush out and pick one up.

The PED3 by THOUGHT OUT Company.

Price: 39.99

Pros: Quality build, provides stylish hands-free viewing/charging for your iPod or iPod touch, good looks help show off your iPhone without drawing attention to the stand

Cons: A little pricey for an iPhone stand, cradle fingers may block your iPhone’s mic/speaker ports