TidyTilt: Smart Cover for iPhone 4/iPhone 4S

Want a Smart Cover for your iPhone 4/iPhone 4S?

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There have been several attempts to make a Smart Cover for the iPhone, but here's a cool one. It's called the TidyTilt and it's expected to be launched by January 29th of this year. The designers behind the product are two design students from Chicago named, Derek Tarnow and Zahra Tashakorinia. The design is nearly similar to that of the Smart Cover for the iPad 2, except there's one major difference, the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S don't have that magnet engineering that the iPad 2 does. To make the iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S work with this cover, there is actually a mount that has to be placed on the back of the iPhone. It is a stainless steel band that is stuck to the iPhone's rear end with sticky adhesive. The colored TidyTilt is magnet-integrated, so it clings to that stainless steel band that you put on the rear end.


It's called the TidyTilt because it can be used for two things. One, is that you can use it as a tilt so that you can view your iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S at and angle, the same way that the Smart Cover allows you to see your iPad 2 at a slanted angle if you lay it down with the cover mangled up. The second use is that because the TidyTilt is free-standing from the stainless steel band, you can use it as a headphone tidier, which you loop your headphones around and then close with the magnets on the edges. It can hold headphones or a USB sync cable. You can see it in action in the image below:

 If you're worried about magnets around your precious iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S, then have no fear, because the iPhone uses flash memory instead of magnetic hard disk drives. You won't have to worry about anything damaging your storage. The creators of TidyTilt warn though that the magnets from TidyTilt will affect the Compass application because it uses a magnetometer to find North, however you can return the compass's actions to normal by removing the magnetic TidyTilt while you use the Compass application. The only thing that I would worry about might be that adhesive - we don't know exactly how sticky it is or if it's bad for the back of the iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S because of the oleophobic coating on the glass.

 Basically, you can use it for many things, like sticking the iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S to surfaces that are magnetic, which makes things easier depending on what you're doing. One example in the video is someone sticking the iPhone to a white board so that they can read it while they write on the white board - probably to copy what is being displayed on the screen. So the TidyTilt is capable of not only making your iPhone easier to see at angles, and storing your wires, but also for making it accessible in difficult locations. You will also see that the stainless steel bezel that is put on the rear of the iPhone lifts it from surfaces, so that means that it will protect the back from getting scratched when you lay it on a table. They also show us how it can be placed on the back of hard cases as well as the rear of the iPhone itself.

TinyTilt appears to be made out of the same materials as the iPad 2 Smart Cover. It includes a hole for the camera lens (which personally I would recommend removing the TidyTilt for pictures). The cost for this accessory is $19 and you can select a color of black, blue, green, or pink. It's great for steadying your iPhone for a FaceTime call or watching a video. I think that this might be a cool little product to have for just $19, but there might be better alternatives out there if you look hard enough. I think I might pick one of these up. What do you think about the TidyTilt? Share in the comments.

Sources: KickStarter via Redmond Pie