I came across a link to made2dock‘s site on MacRumors, and those docks looked damn sexy. At the time, the only offered dock was the dock-IN-case. I contacted the owner about the possibility of making one that is sunken into a desk, similar to Belkin’s In-Desk Dock, but with more hotness. The owner was an absolute pleasure to deal with, being extremely helpful and cooperative, and the result was the product now known as the dock-IN-desk.

My new desk setup:

I just moved into a house that I’ll be living in for college for at least he next two years, and this just looks gorgeous on my desk.

My iPhone 3GS fitting snugly in the dock with my Incase Slider case on it.

The quality with which this was made is amazing for the price. Also included in the box were some foam strips, which I places around the base to ensure that the dock can’t move in my desk. Because of this, I don’t really have a picture of it OUT of my desk, so below is a photo taken by made2dock:

Something many people were wondering about was how the dock affects the sound coming from the iPhone’s speakers, and I am very pleased to say that it is virtually unchanged. Located here is a video of me playing some music and then putting it in the dock, demonstrating both the ease of which you can put the phone in the dock as well as how well you can still hear the sound afterwards.

So my basic conclusion? This is a ridiculously high quality product for the price you pay. I wouldn’t think of having any other dock for my iPhone after this.

This was something being asked for by a couple o’ people and I got this fine little case today, so here we go.

VAJA HOTNESS!

Looks nice methinks…

First, some commentary on the overall design. From a thread over at MacRumors it became clear that a lot of people hate the overall concept of just something to slide the phone into. For me I think it is great because I can still use the phone without having a case get in the way, plus when I get back to college I plan to add a tiny pocket to it or something to slip my student ID and key into, and thus all I’d have to grab out the door would be this thing.

I think it is handy and looks slick. I came to realize it was really a matter of taste.

So. this is the “classic Retro Slim Bag for Apple iPhone 3G” by Vaja. They offer a number of customizations, with quite a few colors and two types of leather. I got mine made with Vitelino leather, with an Azabache (jet black in Spanish) body, and an Azzurro (blue in Italian) stripe. With shipping, this cost $68. And what do you get for that?

I’ll tell you what.

MAD PACKAGING!

You pull a box out of a large slip-cover. Open the flap and there’s your case. I liked it quite a bit… Unfortunately my box got damaged in shipping because it was just shipped from Argentina in nothing but a padded envelope, but I digress…

Beneath the case is a white slip-case with pictures of other Vaja products and a different quick blurb about their company on every card.Finally we get to the case itself… A quick note: These pictures were taken after I had put the phone in the case once, so it is slightly stretched out. When I removed it from the box originally, it was COMPLETELY flat.

I personally love the finish and texture. Some better lighted photos to show some better detail are below.

Now, the only frustration I have with this case… As I said, when it came to me it was completely flat… This makes it VERY difficult to insert and remove the phone for the first few times. After the leather is stretched out a bit it works like a charm, but it takes a considerable amount of force to get it in and out the first four times or so.

The inner material is leather I believe, but it has a very soft and felt-like feel to it.

These are some pics of the iPhone in the case for the second time. It was VERY hard to get it to move the first half in or so, but afterwards was very easy.

And again, some overly lighted shots to show the texture of the leather.

So my verdict on this case? Like it. Have a feeling I’ll love it when I work the leather in more. It honestly could have been made with JUST a tad bit more material and have been a hell of a lot easier to use, but I digress.

The materials and quality of the seams and everything is incredible. Vaja really has no equal when it comes to those two aspects. I really can’t compare it to anything, it’s just lovely. I’m so impressed with their quality that I’m highly considering ordering a wallet from them as well. And this thing looks the price I paid for it. It simply reeks of quality. I simply can’t stress enough how nice the case feels to hold in my hand.

With the ridiculous quality and the large amount of customization options, I feel Vaja is definitely worth the price. All of their products have a wait period for them to manufacture it. For this, it was listed as 14 days and I believe took about 12. Some of their other cases are listed up to 45 days which seems quite long to me, but likely to easily be worth it.

As I said, I’m lovin’ this case, and the only negative to it is the break-in period. Like I noted earlier, some people don’t see the utility to the design, but I am clearly not one of those people.

Bottom line: You get what you pay for. If you want an incredible quality case and have the money to dish out on it, I would highly recommend Vaja.

Feel free to drop any questions my way if you have them.

Kind of unnecessary to review this, but still, someone from a forum or two was curious about it so here I go.

First off, my apologies and embarrassments: The Reventón is my favorite car ever. Period. Yet if you look down, you may notice I’ve been calling it the Réventon. DAMN YOU ACCENT MARK.

Moving on…

The Reventón is actually the first model car I’ve ever owned (or at least, the first one I’ve had since I was a kid… I know I had a Lamborghini Diablo when I was 10 or so), so it was quite an experience.

For this scale, there are three choices:

-Bburago
-Mondo Motors
-MR Models

Out of those three the MR Models one is by far the best one. This comes from the fact that it is handbuilt and ridiculously detailed. It is also a Limited Edition of 500. These two facts coupled together lend it to have a price usually in excess of $300. There is also another version of this floating around on eBay that is a Limited Edition of 20 that is the car plus an engine that sits next to it that is handbuilt by MR as well.

How appropriate that the $2 million dollar car’s model is as equally unaffordable.

So unless you have a lot of money to burn, your options lay between Bburago and Mondo Motors. I actually do plan to get the Mondo Motors one day and will do a direct comparison then, but reading opinions online, the general consensus I get is:

-Mondo Motors has sharper detail
-Bburago’s paint is more accurate
-Mondo Motors has the rear wheels inaccurately inset

So, enough about options, on to the one I actually have…

There she is!

The matte finish shows far better in these pictures. Very eyecatching and different from a standard car, I simply love this beauty’s paint job.

Shots of the engine and engine cover. Hot damn I love that glass on the back, although I believe it is mainly derived from the LP640, but still.Of not here is my main complaint with this thing… The brake light above the engine cover is just a poorly applied sticker… Not to happy with that. I might try to repaint it at some point to look better but until that day comes I must shamefully deal with it.

The boot, engine cover, and doors open, as you can see. The interior detail is decent enough but leaves a bit to be desired, although perhaps I’m spoiled by looking at pictures of the MR Reventón where it has actual pieces of carpet inside…In addition, I believe that the detail on the unique wheels falls quite short from the detail on either the Mondo Motors or the MR Reventóns.

There’s that menacing front. Only surpassed by the incredible back which, as you saw earlier, was actually quite well executed.

My conclusion? I got this for $35, which I consider a hell of a deal, and am perfectly satisfied for what I got. As far as it stacking up to the Mondo Motors version, I’ll revisit it if the day ever comes that I get one of those. Same goes for the MR version. At the moment there is also talk of one by AutoArt, who I believe is widely considered to be one of the best producers of scale models, so we shall see where the saga of the car that I’m 90% sure could fly if it wanted to shall go.

I shall leave you with some glorious hi-res eyecandy. For more pictures, feel free to visit SeriousWheels. While not as high resolution as the ones below they have quite a lovely collection.

Enjoy.