Twelve South Makes Awesome Stuff for Your Mac
A few months back I made the switch from iMac to MacBook Pro + Cinema Display. Mostly for the added portability the MBP brings to the table. One problem I was presented with right out of the gate, was where to put the MBP while I was working. I have an mStand, but I don’t really need the extra screen real estate, and the size of my physical desktop pretty much nixed that approach anyway. I resorted to simply lying the MBP down on my desk, which was less than ideal. It took up a lot of space, and I found that it would get quite hot. I almost expected to see scorch marks on the desk when I picked it up after a long day working in Photoshop.
“Ohhh, What’s This?”
Then one day, while on a routine trip to the Apple Store, I noticed a lovely little box in the accessories section. It was the BookArc, from Twelve South – a perfectly designed stand for MacBooks that matches the style and elegance of the Apple hardware. The price tag was a bit steep, but I hadn’t found any other viable solutions, so I bit the bullet and returned home with a BookArc.
As soon as I had it all set up, I took a few photos, uploaded them to Flickr and mentioned my fun new accessory on Twitter. Within no time, there were piles of comments and faves on Flickr, and the tweet was re-tweeted dozens of times. It seemed people had been wanting something like this, and I happened to be the guy to “discover” it.
I’ve had my BookArc for just over 4 months now, and have nothing but good things to say about it. I have much more free space on my desktop, and my MBP runs much cooler than it did when I had it lying on the desk surface.
I guess word travels, and the Twelve South folks caught wind of my tweet. I heard from them directly, and they thanked me for spreading the word about their product, then asked if I would like to check out another of their MacBook products – the BackPack. Not one to turn down free stuff, I willingly accepted their offer. To my surprise, they sent a pair of BackPacks for me to demo. At first, I didn’t realize you could use more than one on a single Cinema Display, but indeed you can.
BackPack is a small, adjustable shelf that sits on the stand of an aluminum iMac or Apple Cinema Display. Naturally, it matches the aluminum finish and is made with the same love and attention to detail as the BookArc.
Personally, I don’t have a whole lot of use for the BackPack. I think it would be better suited in an office environment where desk space is limited, or where the back of your screen is easily visible. But it has made a great shelf for my camcorder dock, which is a big chunk of shiny black plastic. So at least it’s not in my line of sight any longer.
Want One? Take Your Pick!
Being the awesome folks they are, Twelve South have offered up a BookArc and BackPack for the taking! All that’s required is that you leave a comment letting me know which accessory you would prefer and why you want it. I’ll be picking 2 winners (1 for each accessory) at random, after 48 hours from the time of posting.
More Deliciousness
At this time, Twelve South have 2 other accessories for MacBook available. Surfacepad is a leather coat for 13″ MacBooks, and Bassjump, which was just announced last week, is a standalone sub-woofer that runs on a single USB cable.