Freshly Squeezed Reviews: iFlex only so much

Posted by Frank Petrie Mar 23, 2006 at 1:49am

I bought a 20-inch aluminum display for my rig and have been very happy with it. I plan on using it as my second monitor when I finally purchase a MacBook Pro, in fact. The only bother was with my iSight camera—how to mount it.

Now, I could have went to the Apple Store up the street (yes, I have the fortune or misfortune of having an Apple store only one mile away) and purchased iSight Accessory Kit for US$29. But not only is it way overpriced (second only to Apple’s RAM prices), for the want of the magnetic mount, I’m then lumbered with a second of every other adaptor that came with the iSight. There must be another way.

Aha! iFlex may be the answer. Let’s see.

The Juice

“The iFlex is a fully shielded, high quality Firewire cable inside a carefully engineered all-metal flexible tube. It’s 18-inches long, and is specifically crafted with just the right stiffness and shape-holding rigidity to provide an easily adjustable stalk for mounting your iSight.” Oh really?

You notice immediately when you first remove it from the box, is that it is a quality piece of hardware. There seems to be a solid rigidity. Things are looking positive.

Until you try it. Then you notice immediately that the full 18” length of coil can’t support the weight of the iSight! I plugged it into one of the FW ports on the back of my display, stuck in the iSight, and watched the iFlex flex to my desktop. It was then that I noticed that in all the promo pictures that I found was that the iFlex is always coiled but never extended! (Yes, there is a shot of an iSight peering over the top of an aluminum PowerBook. But if you’ll notice, the iSight’s weight is being supported by the screen.)

The Rind

We’ve gone over that.

The Pits

Only half fulfills its promise.

The Pulp

This didn’t suit my situation at all. The real answer is for Apple to stop being so greedy and sell the iSight mounts separately so that you only purchase the one that you need for your situation. I’m willing to bet that if Apple made this move, they’d make more money than they do selling these kits.

What a pain.

Macsimum rating: 5 out of 10

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