We’re seeing lots happening with the return of the stylus, ever since the Samsung Galaxy Note made it’s appearance. iPad apps galore encourage the use of styluses, and even paintbrushes galore. The above is Cipher, a credit card sized stylus is from Quirky Labs meant to be easy to grip and transport.

Our only question is…can we just use a credit card?

(Source: likecool.com)

New app Instead- now in beta- was designed to help non-profits who are looking for a tech-forward way to get their message out and raise funds. Rather than create individual apps for each non-profit that asked them for help, software studio Ovenbits decided to make one app to help them all through mass micro-donations and shifting behavior. Instead works by asking you to live slightly below (or within) your means, and give the what you would have spent on a luxury to a worthy charity. For example, if a friend asks you to drinks, you can pass, open up Instead and donate $5 that would have other gone towards booze and a hangover to one of the many charities participating. When they launch publicly, Instead plans to add more features that will encourage giving with social challenges and gamification. 

(Source: GOOD)

Here come the tech-savvy brides! The wave of Gen Ys getting married in the last few years have made the traditional (and stressful) party planning process take a huge step into the digital age. Inspiration boards on Pinterest and Stylemepretty have become go-tos for young brides, and wedding invitation designs now come with corresponding wedding website templates. Enter Appy Couple, the next step in the modernization of wedding planning. The service creates customized apps for couples who want all their wedding info at their guests’ fingertips. Timelines, maps, weather reports, photo galleries and more are all integrated into a simple app the couple design themselves. And, of course, it comes with a free coordinating wedding website. Though still in beta, invitation-only Appy Couple has a wait list of over 7,000 couples.

If my daughter sends one more errant email to a client or leaves Fruit Ninja running and draining the battery on my iPhone one more time I will cry! Well, enter the BubCap. This clever little contraption goes over your home button and child-proofs your smartphone and tablet computers. Though it’s easy for an adult to press it’s a little trickier for a kid. So   you can let them play what THEY want to play without fear of them heading anywhere they shouldn’t!   www.PaperclipRobot.com   $5.99-$9.99 (for a four pack)

June can’t come quickly enough to save our iPhone. Call us clumsy but if we crack one more screen we’ll, well, CRACK! So come June we’re getting our Shock on.  The G-Glass series is a self-adhesive screen protector that can withstand 10x the pressure of a regular screen protector while still allowing full touch screen capabilities.  Available for the front and back of your device, this super slim protective screen can be used with or without a case.  The Shell Shock G-Class series repels scratches and shattering and is applied in one simple step. Shock On people.

$39.99-$49.99 www.cellaris.com (available early June)

Filed Under: On The Dot—360° Panoramic Video From Your iPhone

There are plenty of fun little iPhone camera add-ons that give a fish-eye look or a color filter, but the Kogeto Dot is far from a petty extra. The Kogeto Dot Panoramic iPhone Lens is a game-changer for those who love to capture and share the world around them. The easy snap-on lens enables users to take full 360° photos and video using just an iPhone. With the dedicated app, simply hold an iPhone face-down, let the iConic lens capture your awesome surroundings, then upload for viewing on Kogeto’s website or the Looker app. Users can swipe the screen to “spin” around and experience that concert/mountain peak/road-trip all over again. You’ve got to see it to believe it; check out this Coachella video to (re)live the madness, or experience this snowboarding run from all angles. 

There’s a… Nap for that? The science of sleep is now available in the Apple App Store in the form of Dream:ON, an app that claims to be able to shape users’ dream by playing a soundscape to evoke the sensation of being in a certain environment. With themes like “Space Shuttle,” “Wild West,” and, “A Trip to Tokyo” these dreams are sure to be adventures. Dream:ON was developed by British psychologist and professor Richard Wiseman, who made the app to conduct a mass experiment by prompting users to submit their dreams, which will subsequently be analyzed by researchers. Using an app as a widespread participation study is innovative, and with a free app and the potential to manipulate your dreams, why not Dream:ON?

Filed Under: If Angry Birds Were Born in ‘82

This is too good.

In yet another example of iPad doing it better (Alice in Wonderland app, anyone?), programmer Petros Vrellis has turned Van Gogh’s Starry Night into an interactive, whimsical thrill of an iPad app for art nerds, allowing users to create swirls within swirls inside the original (almost like blowing bubbles). For $2 on iTunes.

“Be together when you’re apart.” The new app  Pair will help you do just that, with a shared timeline just for two and a “thumb-kiss” feature that make the iPhone vibrate when the long distance couple both touch their screens, connecting them just like all of the movie scenes where the inmate and his girlfriend put one hand up to the glass. However, Pair will not insure against the inevitable fate of the long distance couple.

(Source: )

We’re not sure what is better about this app- how adorable it is, or how adorable the story behind its creation is. Kaitlyn Trigger knew nothing about computer programming but taught herself to program in time for Valentine’s Day. She created Lovestagram for her boyfriend of 2 and a half years- her boyfriend who just so happens Mike Krieger, the co-founder of Instagram. Aw, techie love! Lovestagram turns any Instagram photo into an instant digital Valentine. 

(Source: instagr.am)

BeerMe is the digital equivalent of having a bar tending best friend in every bar in town. There are just three simple steps to ensuring that you can track down your favorite craft brew whenever it’s on tap in Los Angeles: input your favorite beers into BeerMe, follow your favorite bars from BeerMe’s curated list, then rush to the nearest bar to enjoy a pint of local Idiot IPA. 

We love beer, we love curating, and we love the find-a-favorite platform that BeerMe is pioneering.