Wirecutter is one of my favorite sites for reviews and recommendations for almost anything that you can buy. The site often reveals the most popular picks of the month (for example, here is one for August 2019), which I assume is based upon Amazon affiliates links, and this type of post is an interesting way to learn about products that others consider useful enough to spend money on them. It occurred to me that I can also see the total number of items purchased on Amazon as a result of a link on iPhone J.D., and that provides some insight into products that I have reviewed here which lots of folks have found interesting enough to purchase.
This is a slow week in the world of iPhone news since everyone is focused on the new Apple announcements coming next week, so I thought that this would be a good time to follow Wirecutter's lead. Based on the Amazon data that I can see for the first eight months of 2019, here are the top ten most popular Amazon picks based on iPhone J.D. reviews:
1. Anker Lightning cables
I've reviewed lots of different types of Anker Lightning and USB-C cables over the years including the following:
- Anker PowerLine 10ft Lightning (review 8/15/19)
- Anker PowerLine+ C to C 2.0 cable (review 12/17/18)
- Anker PowerLine+ (review 1/3/18 and 11/22/17)
- Anker PowerLine+ II (review 1/3/18)
- Anker Powerline+ USB-C to USB 3.0 Cable (review 5/16/19)
They are good cables and they have held up well for me. If I need to buy a new cable for my iPhone or iPad, the first thing I do is find out if Anker makes the kind of cable that I need and, if so, that's typically the one that I end up buying.
2. Weego Jump Starter 22
I've purchased two of these. I use the Weego Jump Starter 22 in my own car, and I like that one because it also provides power to a USB port so you can use it to charge an iPhone, iPad, etc. My wife didn't think that she needed that USB port for power, so she has a Weego Jump Starter 22s in her car. I love these devices because they are compact, super easy to use, and can save your bacon if you ever have a dead battery. As I noted in my review, that actually happened to me once after a business trip when my car was parked at the airport. Finding someone to jump my car would have been difficult, and it would have been impossible to get another car close enough to mine to perform a jump. But with the Weego Jump Starter, it took just minutes to jump my car. What could have been a disaster ended up being only a very minor annoyance.
3. Canopy by Studio Neat
The Canopy by Studio Neat is a cover that protects an Apple Magic Keyboard, so you don't have to worry about something knocking off one of the keys while you are traveling. Better yet, it folds up into a stand to hold your iPad behind the keyboard giving you the same type of setup you would have with a laptop computer. I've been using the Canopy several times a month ever since I first reviewed it in 2017, and as I noted in my 2018 post, you can also use it with the most recent version of the iPad Pro. I was just using the Canopy this past weekend, and I still love it.
4. HyperDrive 6-in-1 USB-C Hub for iPad Pro
The HyperDrive 6-in-1 USB-C Hub for iPad Pro is a small device that looks great when it is attached to an iPad Pro and provides almost every type of connection that you might want to use with an iPad Pro: 3.5mm Audio Jack, USB-A, SD and Micro SD memory card, USB-C, and HDMI. The only other connection I might want is VGA, although I have to admit that it has now been a few years since I was forced to use VGA when connecting to my iPad; pretty much every projector I encounter nowadays supports HDMI. As I noted last month in my review, I've been using this device for much of this year, and it is really useful. It's like the Swiss Army Knife of connectors for the iPad Pro.
5. Fisher Chrome Clip
I reviewed the Fisher Chrome Clip way back in 2015, and I haven't used it myself since I started using an Apple Pencil 2 almost a year ago. But if you still use the first generation Apple Pencil, this tiny clip which usually costs about $5 to $7 on Amazon is fantastic. The clip lets you put an Apple Pencil in your pocket and attach it to your pocket. And when your Apple Pencil is on a desk, the clip prevents the Pencil from rolling across the desk (and potentially on to the floor). When the folks at Fisher designed this simple chrome clip, I'm sure that they had no idea how useful it would be for an Apple stylus.
6. ADIRSports Acrylic Universal Treadmill Bookholder
To encourage myself to use my treadmill more, I purchased the ADIRSports Acrylic Universal Treadmill Bookholder soon after New Year's (my review) so that I could place my iPad Pro on my treadmill and watch videos while I am on the treadmill. It does a great job of making time go by much faster, and it even encourages me to stay on the treadmill even longer to get to the end of an episode. If you have a newer treadmill, it probably already has a shelf to hold an iPad, but if you have an older treadmill like I do, this $20 purchase greatly increases the usefulness of the treadmill.
7. Apple AirPods
When I'm on that treadmill, doing chores around the house, taking a break from work as I have lunch at my desk, and a million other times, you'll often find me using my Apple AirPods. They are one of my favorite Apple products of all times. I reviewed the first generation of AirPods in early 2017, and my only complaint was that after two years of heavy use, the battery started to wear out and wouldn't last as long. Earlier this year, I reviewed the second generation AirPods, and they add some nice new features. Just a few days ago, I was using my AirPods connected to my Apple Watch as I was walking around the neighborhood, and it is fantastic to be able to just take those two devices and nothing else. If you don't own AirPods yet, you are missing out.
8. Lutron Caséta Lamp Dimmer
My favorite Lutron Caséta devices are the in-wall dimmers, which I reviewed back in 2015. But this year, I noted that you can use a Lutron Caséta lamp dimmer not only as a way to turn one or two lamps into smart lamps but also as a way to extend the range of the entire Lutron Caséta system. One lamp dimmer placed in my upstairs bedroom allows me to extend the Lutron Caséta system to cover my entire house. As a result, I can control lots of different lights in my house using my iPhone or my Apple Watch, and I have rules so that certain lights go on and off automatically based on the time of day or other event, such as a trigger by a motion detector. And you can share controls with other family members, so my wife can use her iPhone too — or she can just tap the buttons on the wall or on the dimmer to manually turn lights on or off. It's a great smart home system, and you can start small with just a few devices and then add more Lutron devices over time.
9. Apple Pencil 2
I loved my first generation Apple Pencil, so I was surprised how much more I would love the second generation Apple Pencil. It fixed all of the minor problems with the original Apple Pencil and then added great new features, such as the ability to tap the side to switch between drawing tools. I gave the Apple Pencil 2 a glowing review last year, and it continues to be a product that I use virtually every day. I was just using it last night to annotate some briefs and take some notes as I was preparing to be a judge in a moot court, and I'm sure that I will be using it for other tasks today. One of the main advantages of the iPad Pro over other iPads is that it supports the Apple Pencil 2.
10. AirFly by Twelve South
The last item on the top ten list is the AirFly by Twelve South. The main use for this item is to create your own Bluetooth connection for the audio on an airplane, so that you can listen using your AirPods or some other Bluetooth headphones. But you can also plug this device into any audio source with a headphone jack to provide it with Bluetooth capabilities. As I look at my review again, I am reminded that I connected the AirFly to my Fifth Generation iPod (which I purchased back in 2005) to give that old technology the ability to work with my new AirPods. It ended up being the last time I would use that iPod, which I really loved and used so much in the days before the iPhone, because the device died shortly after that.
Each of these 10 items is incredibly useful, so I'm not surprised that lots of folks purchased these items after clicking a link on iPhone J.D. I haven't used the AirFly very much since I posted my review, and I no longer need to use the Fisher Chrome Clip now that I have the second generation Apple Pencil, but I still use every other item on this list, and I can still recommend all 10 of these items.