[product review] Pong iPhone Cases

360° view of Pong’s “Sleek” edition for iPhone 6

Hi folks!

I’m pleased to bring you another product review — this time, a second offering from the fine folks at Pong, experts in cell phone radiation reduction/fried brain mitigation. [read my review of their iPhone 4/4S case from 2011 here]

Before covering my iPhone 6 with the Pong Sleek Case, I had a major issue of constantly dropping my phone. Not only does the Pong case’s materials provide me a considerably better grip than without, the case has been drop tested and certified up to US military specs for drops up to 6.6 feet high. I drop my phone far less now, and when I do, I stress a lot less about it because I know my drastically overpriced phone is adequately protected. The case fits rather snugly on the phone, so be prepared not to remove it too often. If you do find yourself needing to and struggling to remove the case, simply refer to this video from Pong’s YouTube channel for a procedural walkthrough.

360° view of Pong’s “Rugged” edition for iPhone 6

Additionally, from their research backed claims, I know that this case is deflecting more than half of the radiation that was otherwise headed towards by brain with every call elsewhere, thanks to its gold-plated antenna (verified by an independent, third-party study — see below for the link, or watch this video link). I try not to think about how much I was letting through prior to suiting my phone up with this case.

Furthermore, Pong makes an aesthetically pleasing, subtle and understated, yet unique looking case. The “Sleek” comes with easy access to the volume, ringer, and power buttons on either side, speaker and jacks on the bottom, and top panel. Great for someone wanting to minimize the aesthetic interference a case usually veils a phone with, while providing great safety and durability at the same time.

The “Rugged” on the other hand, covers the volume and power buttons, gives marginal access to the ringer switch, closes the top panel, but keeps good access to the bottom speaker and jacks. A little bulkier, but it’s obviously built to endure high levels of abuse. If you’re hard on phones, this is the edition for you.

Personally, I enjoy and appreciate this phone case on a number of levels, and I’d bet you would too. Order one for yourself today!

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More tech and specs from the manufacturer:

Pong Technology Reduces Your Exposure to Mobile Phone Radiation.

Total Radiated Power is a measure of the radiation your mobile devices are emitting. TRP isn’t bad. In fact, it’s what gives you a strong mobile connection. Pong’s patented antenna is unique in that it doesn’t decrease the TRP of your mobile device. It maintains your signal and redirects that radiation away from your head and body. That’s good for your phone and even better for you.

How Pong Technology Works:

Pong cases are embedded with a patented, micro thin, gold-plated antenna, that reduces exposure to potentially harmful cell phone radiation while maintaining the phone’s signal — it may even boost your signal by up to 25%. The Pong antenna couples with the antenna in your phone and redirects radiation away from you. Results from tests in FCC-certified labs show the Pong Sleek Case for iPhone 6/6s lowers your radiation exposure by up to 67% below a bare phone (or up to 89% below the FCC SAR limit). What’s more, it was verified in an extensive, independent test by WIRED MAGAZINE.

What Parents Should Know About Radiation:

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) states, “In theory, children have the potential to be at greater risk than adults for developing brain cancer from cell phones.” According to the NCI, this is due to the still-developing nervous systems and smaller heads of children. Pong cases give you an easy way to proactively protect your children from exposure to radiation.

4′ – 6.6′ Drop Protection

Beyond protecting from radiation, Pong cases provide protection from 4′ to 6.6′ drops, and are drop-tested to U.S. military specifications.

Available for:

iPhone 6/6S, 4/4s (iPhone 7 version coming soon!), iPad 1,2,3,4, Samsung Galaxy S4 & s5. “Sleek” and “Rugged” versions both available for most devices.

Connect with Pong:

On Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and their website.

Win Vancouver Canucks Tickets, Free Shipping Day, Pong Cell Phone & Tablet Cases

If you win, you'll probably get to see these two decide who's going to let in the most goals that night.

Culture in Vancouver is holding a sweepstakes. Enter in your name, email and location for a shot at one of five prizes (each “experience” has been uniquely tailored with themes ranging from Theatrical to Culinary — Their grand prize includes Canucks tickets, valued at $800 (not sure where the seats are, but at that price, assumably they’re good ones), as well as hotel accomodations for 2-3 nights, a visit to the private vault of the Vancouver Art Gallery, live theare, touring the Vancouver Aquarium, and dining at fabulous restaurants such as The Teahouse in Stanley Park, Seasons in Queen Elizabeth Park, and Lift Bar and Grill in beautiful Coal Harbour. The sweepstakes will end with the drawing of the final winner on January 6, 2012.

http://www.cultureinvancouver.com/sweepstakes/

Culture in Vancouver was started by Tourism Vancouver (with the help of Vancouver-based digital agency, smashLAB), who’ve been around since 1902. They’re a business association representing approximately 1,000 members in tourism and related industries/activities. Their purpose is to effectively market Metro Vancouver as a destination for leisure, meeting and event travelers. Their goals are to attract visitors to the region, encourage them to stay longer and ensure they return. Meanwhile, for those who live in the Metro Vancouver area, the campaign encourages them to take in some of the many events happening in their own city. They highlight the vast amount of arts and culture available in Vancouver; and promote all types of culture as accessible, from opera to burlesque; and encourage people to try something different. Most importantly, their campaign helps to establish Vancouver as a cultural destination.

Learn more at www.tourismvancouver.com and  www.cultureinvancouver.com

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December 12th is Free Shipping Day in Canada. Online Christmas shoppers might wanna take advantage of this one.   Nearly 100 current e-retailers are involved in Free Shipping Day Canada include Under Armour, Best Buy, Toys R Us, Gap, Old Navy, SportChek, Apple Store and many more. Check their website FreeShippingDay.ca for full listings. Might as well save a few bucks this holiday shopping season if you can!

Free Shipping Day was created by Canadian-born Internet entrepreneur Luke Knowles.

A recent article in Entrepreneur highlighted small business participation in Free Shipping Day, mentioning the event “virtually guarantees a bump in sales.”  According to a Forrester Research survey of North American online shoppers, “75 percent of participating consumers said they would shift to another retailer at checkout if shipping was not free.” What’s equally interesting is that free shipping boosts sales tremendously. In October 2010, online retailers found it to be “the most effective promotion they can offer to drive sales during the holiday season.”Merchants can register to participate by filling out a simple form on the website.

FreeShipping.ca  allows Canadian shoppers to access free shipping codes year round — as well as a dozen other frugality-related websites.

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At long last, I finally upgraded my cell phone from my 4 year old Motorola KRZR to an Apple iPhone 4S, after the predecessor decided it no longer wanted to display anything on the screen. After much debate between Apple, Android, and Blackberry, I concluded that Apple is the leader that everyone’s trying to keep up with and just jumped in. My jump to the smartphone world has been enjoyable thus far.

Since my plunge, the fine folks at Pong Research were kind enough to send me a new protective case for my iPhone 4S. I have to be honest and admit that I’ve been avoiding getting a case, because I like the way the phone looks without any coverings, and I don’t see why a phone manufacturer would make a device made to be all covered up. BUT, I also don’t want a cracked screen and would like to avoid breaking my phone and having radiation seep into my brain.

Below is some more info on them, and why you should probably get a case for your phone too. From them, preferably.

Pong is the leading maker of phone and iPad cases that have been proven in FCC-certified labs to protect consumers cell phone radiation. (In May, the World Health Organization classified cell radiation as potentially carcinogenic.)

Just in time for the holidays, Pong has launched a stylish, new collection of cases for the iPhone, BlackBerry, iPad and iPad 2. Unlike any iPad cover on the market, it can be folded into five different vertical or horizontal positions, each of which is optimal for a different iPad activity, i.e., watching videos, reading, typing. The patent-pending design also has a convenient sleep/wake function. Available in a variety of colors, Pong cases are easy to put on and take off, work anywhere in the world, range in price from $49.99 to $99.99 and are available at www.pongresearch.com.

Pong’s new and innovative cases are the perfect gift for anyone who is a heavy phone and/or iPad user, is health conscious and concerned about radiation exposure and/or loves tech gadgets.

About Pong Research Corporation

Founded in 2011, Pong is the world’s leading maker of cell phone and iPad cases that protect smart phone and tablet users from the wireless device radiation that the World Health Organization classified in 2011 as a possible carcinogen. Developed by scientists out of Princeton, Harvard, UCLA and MIT, Pong cases have been tested and proven in FCC-certified labs to reduce the level of exposure to wireless device radiation by up to 95% below the target set by the FCC. Pong embeds in each case a patented and proprietary technology that redirects and redistributes the cell phone radiation that would otherwise be absorbed by the user’s head and body. Easy to put on and take off, Pong  cases fit a variety of iPhones, BlackBerrys and Android phones as well as the iPad and iPad 2, are available in a variety of colors and styles and have been designed and tested to work anywhere in the world.  For more information, visit www.pongresearch.com.

About Cell Phone Radiation

In May 2011, the World Health Organization (WHO) classified cell phone radiation as possibly carcinogenic to humans. The WHO based its findings on a large, international study coordinated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer that showed an increased risk of a certain type of brain tumor called glioma from regular use of cell phones defined in the study as 1,640 hours or more of cumulative use. In consumer terms, that equates to slightly less than a half hour of daily use over a 10-year period.  Adding to the evidence is a separate 2011 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), which found that 50 minutes of cell phone use affected brain activity in the area nearest to the phone. Concerns about SAR have led the FCC to impose strict SAR limits on cell phones and tablets and mandate that Apple, Blackberry and other cellular device makers warn consumers not to put their cell phone directly against their head or body when using it. Unbeknownst to most consumers, these warnings can be found in all cellular device manuals. Suggestions on how to limit exposure to cell phone radiation, such as texting, using the speaker, or turning the cell phone off when not in use, are not always possible or practical. In addition, the FCC warns against the use of products that claim to shield or block cell phone radiation because they can actually increase the user?s radiation exposure. Making matters worse, shields can also negatively impact a device?s performance.

Why Roberto Luongo is Like A Fax Machine, The Crustacean Job Crunch, and the European Style Excuse; amongst others.

I’d like to take a moment to thank you folks, my loyal and/or re-routed from links on other websites’ audience.  Last month was again, an all-time high for reads, and marked the 10,000th read of this non-sense.  That’s a pretty low readership compared to other bloggers, but I think it’s pretty good for a guy who rattles off his random thoughts at 2 am 5 times a month.  It’s fun to see that people read this stuff, and voluntarily choose to come back again.  I’ve even had a few of you mention to me in person that you read and enjoy the blog, and that’s been pretty cool too.  So, thanks everyone!  I’ll do my best to continue to entertain you, (hopefully less often) stir up controversy, and generally thieve relatively unimportant moments of your life away from you that you’ll never get back 🙂

Alright, on with the show…

Mike Gillis tried to fax Luongo his termination, but got a busy signal. Oh well, only 11 more years...

 

Why on earth does faxing still exist?  It’s like laserdisc-like invention that we seemingly got too excited about too early, and then made waaaay too big of a commitment to.  It was a pretty revolutionary idea for its time, no question.  But by the time email rolled around and made it obsolete, every business in North America was still too proud that they had their shiny new fax numbers listed in the phone book, and weren’t willing to give them up.  And like the gasoline engine, or Robert Luongo’s 12-year strangling overpayment deal, we’re in too deep and/or just too proud to get out now.   

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After all man’s technological advancements and inventions, the power still goes out when it gets stormy. Can we solve that already?  We can broadcast a zillion useless channels to every TV on the planet, move ourselves with every form of transportation imaginable on and off the planet, and even create objects capable of leaving the solar system; but we can’t quite figure out how to keep the lights on when grey clouds roll in and it starts to rain.

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so, the iPad is basically just a big iPhone that doesn’t make calls? What do I need one of those for?  Of all the things I need to carry around that doesn’t fit in my pocket, is an oversized electronic rectangle one of them? 

Any iPad owners out there?  Are you happy with your purchase?  In 200 words or less, tell me why or why not, in the form of a comment. 

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We recently discovered water on the Moon & Mars, which we previously believed to be barren,  and found shrimp-like creatures living in frigid Antarctic  waters… Does anyone else get the feeling we don’t know as much about the universe as we thought we did?

How long until we start sending Honda Asimo’s to other planets to settle new civilizations?  And of course, how long until they become self-aware, and enslave the human race?

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Are we done using the “it’s European” excuse to wear ridiculous things skinny jeans, faux-hawks, and man-purses  in North America yet?  Can we just let the Europeans be the Europeans already??  Have we still not learned anything from Seinfeld???

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It’s unfortunate that misogyny is a negative word. Everyone likes massages, don’t they?

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Girls that have been told they look like their dad, or their brother, or some other male, probably shouldn’t get boy haircuts, right?

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Do you think the job market is as tough for crustaceans and other sea life as it is for humans?  Example: the Alaskan Pollock fish that are masquerading around as crab and being sold as imitation crab meat, just because they’re lower in cholesterol and cheaper; do you think they’re putting hard working real crabs out of work?  Yeah me neither.  The crabs are probably pretty pumped about not being swiped out of their existence and being boiled to death, I’d say.