I was really bummed when Peter broke it to me that Proporta’s Advanced Pane Protector was an April Fool’s joke. I was really hoping they’d expand into a car model, because mine is a bird magnet. Oh well. At least Proporta have a ton of other fabulous accessories.

Have you ever been on a long car trip and had a gadget die on you halfway there? Then you decide to make the best of it and play with something else. Unfortunately, this isn’t your lucky day — that one’s dead, too. Now the rest of your family is jumping in and demanding that their gadget get recharged first, and there’s only one cigarette lighter socket. You’re all in a small enclosed space with hours left ahead of you. This could be disaster — if you didn’t have the Dual Power Car Kit.

Coming next week, the DPCK converts one cigarette lighter socket into two USB sockets. Proporta include a range of connector kits to work with all your different gizmos. They also throw in a reversible bag and anti-theft stickers, like a non-threatening techie version of "Beware of Dog." You know, the whole one socket issue is the reason I don’t really like Bluetooth GPS receivers for driving, but the DPCK solves the problem of one task draining two devices and takes care of security as well.

Another gadget problem that has been driving me up the wall for months is finding a flexible sport case for the iPod nano. Most sport cases are a clunky one-piece jacket welded to an arm strap. That works fine during a workout, but what about after? You have to pry the iPod out of the case, burning about as many calories as you did during the workout, and put it in something that you can actually carry around.

Fortunately, Proporta have all the angles covered. The Sports Kit starts with a funky dual-skin silicone case and adds a removable armband. For added protection there’s a hard plastic screen protector and one of the neatest iPod ideas ever, a splash guard. The guard fits over the bottom of the case to protect the connector opening, freeing up the silicone skin to leave a cutout there for access. If I had one of these I finally wouldn’t need to freak every time I hit a puddle on a run. As if all that wasn’t enough, the kit also includes a lanyard and a belt clip. With all those accessories, once the silicone skin goes on it can stay there through practically any situation.

I used to think that when Proporta said "Everything Covered" that they just meant they made cases for a whole bunch of stuff. Between these two kits, I’m starting to think that Proporta’s next release may look something like this:

Be Sociable, Share!

•