Belkin releases line of kitchen accessories for tablets
I dare you to find a promotional video of a tablet stand that isn’t showing a tablet being used for recipes in the kitchen. Tablets have become kitchen gadgets on a level that is far beyond niche, and some people have even integrated their iPad in their kitchen cabinet. For those who are not willing to go the DIY, semi-permanent route though, Belkin’s new line of kitchen accessories for tablets is likely the best choice.
The series consists of three products; a stylus/chef stand, a cabinet mount, and a refrigerator mount. The chef stand/stylus package is basically a table stand package. The stand is a pretty straight forward, dual position stand for holding the iPad while you’re cooking. The included stylus is slightly more custom though; it’s freakishly huge for a stylus, and looks very much like it belongs in a kitchen. It’s designed to be easy to grab from the included holder, and more importantly, easy to wash. It’s meant to be used when your fingers are messy from cooking and you can’t decide if smearing food on your iPad or smearing iPad on your food is the biggest blow to hygiene. Think of it as the tool that will keep your iPad and your food apart.
The next item in the series is a refrigerator holder. It attaches to your refrigerator with adhesive tape and holds the iPad 2 in place with a combination of magnets and gravity. Unlike the other two accessories this one will only work on the iPad 2, leaving out both the original iPad and any other tablet. Still, it’s a useful accessory if your countertop is crowded.
The final accessory is a kitchen cabinet mount. At first glance it looks like some sort of gym equipment that has been shrunk down to fit a hamster, and I actually had to go look at a picture of it set up to understand how it works. It has an adjustable grip for the tablet in the center, with two arms extending from it; one upwards and one backwards and up. The idea is to open a kitchen cabinet door and hang the entire holder from the edge of the bottom shelf. You then close the cabinet door over a very thin portion of the extending hand so that the entire thing hangs off the inside of a closed cabinet. Gravity will make the stand swing, which is where the second arm comes in to brace the entire setup against the underside of the cabinet. The result should be a pretty secure, hanging mount for your tablet that is both adjustable, removable and foldable for storing it in a drawer.
The accessories are priced at $40 for the chef stand and fridge mount and $50 for the hanging cabinet mount. If you buy all three you’ll naturally have room for three tablets in your kitchen, but since the stylus only comes with the chef stand I have a feeling that many people will pick up at least two of these for their kitchen. They all seem like great accessories that don’t try to fit every situation (like a lot of styli and stands do these days) but instead fit the kitchen environment perfectly.
[via iLounge]
