If you don’t capture every minute detail of your life and post it on social media and proceed to buy likes from Buzzoid, did it even happen? That’s one question that comes to mind when you first get a look at the RokShok – a new, highly Instagrammable way to propose to your partner. This (hopefully) one-time-use $40 smartphone case puts the engagement ring you’ve purchased on a pedestal right in front of your phone’s camera so you can capture whatever facial expressions pass over his or her face. Ah, just the ring presentation we’ve all dreamed of since we were kids, huh?

With roughly the profile of a phone case with a built-in backup battery, the RokShok is relatively incognito until you get to your chosen location, drop down on your knee and flip the case open to reveal the ring you’ve mounted inside. Then, both the ring and the subject of your proposal are right in the frame for a point-of-view shot of the action. Hopefully you won’t accidentally trigger it to open at the wrong moment, like when you’re walking over a sewer grate.

Once you propose, you’ll either have a memory you and your future spouse will want to look fondly on for years to come (and post all over Facebook at every opportunity, along with your future baby photos, meals, vacations and blurry sunsets) or a spectacularly masochistic play-by-play of the moment your heart was broken. Just be sure to give your special friend a moment to recover from their confusion about this phone-centric proposal before you make assumptions, start crying and throw the ring into an adjacent body of water.

Clearly, this kind of proposal isn’t for everyone. Not all of us want technology inserted prominently into our most special moments. But for others, it’s a cool way to document a life event that can be all too fleeting. It’s available for preorder on the RokShok website.

Apple Watch’s failure to catch on tells us most people probably don’t want to wear full-on smartphones on our wrists, but that doesn’t mean standard analog watches couldn’t use a bit of modernization. These concepts for technology-augmented timepieces include hybrid digital-analog designs, watches that communicate with your car, wrist-launched camera drones and a smartwatch Darth Vader would love. Some are cool ideas, some need work and others are downright terrible, but they might give us an idea of what’s to come in terms of wearable technology.

Nixie Wearable Camera Drone

Launch a camera zone from your wrist anytime you want with ‘Nixie,’ which uses motion-prediction algorithms and sensors to guide itself along four pre-programmed paths to capture full HD photos or video from the air. Weighing less than 0.1 pounds, it can connect with a smartphone for easy data transfer. Th idea is that the camera can capture whatever you’re doing and then fly right back, whether you want to take a quick selfie or record some kind of stunt. Mimicking the look of a wrist watch, it’s an interesting piece of wearable tech for sure, with one problem: it doesn’t tell the time, so if you like wearing a watch, you’ll have to double up.

Luxury Smart Strap for Analog Watches by Montblanc

If you can’t bear to part with your analog watch, but wish you could upgrade it somehow, this one’s for you: the Montblac e-Strap, which adds a 14.2-millimeter-wide OLED screen to the inside of your wrist. Connecting to a smartphone via Bluetooth, it works as a remote camera trigger, controls for a music player, incoming text and call alerts and physical activity data collection. It also has a ‘find me’ function in case you’re prone to misplacing your phone.

Simple, Elegant Watch Tells Time with Color Gradient

This watch needs no hour hand, using a color gradient to indicate the time. ‘Hidden Time’ by Jiwoong Jung has a minimalist look that’s constantly shifting as the minute hand makes its rounds, with the hard line between black and white telling you what hour it is.

Darth Vader’s Watch by Devon

What would Darth Vader wear? Los Angeles watchmaker Devon answers that question with its Star Wars watch, with a silhouette calling to mind the villain’s helmet, a strap modeled after his Sith gloves and a stand that makes it look like a TIE fighter. If you want one for yourself, you might have to do something villainous to get it: the price tag is a hefty $28,500.

Smell the Time with ‘Scent Rhythm’

‘Scent Rhythm’ doesn’t care exactly what time it is so much as it wants to help your body ease into each phase of the day naturally, aiding your circadian rhythms through the release of four different fragrances. Detecting a certain scent will give an a general “feel” of the time every six hours, activating our natural sense of time, called chronoception. The smells were specifically selected and timed to amplify the rhythms that help govern our sleep and waking cycles. First comes coffee, then a library-like smell of paperback books, then whiskey and tobacco, and finally chamomile. Like the idea? Designer Aisen Caro Chacin offers plans to build your own.

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We may as well admit that our smartphones have become permanent extensions of our hands, and accessorize them as such. While these indispensable palm-sized gadgets can already do everything from planning our trips to monitoring our pulses, a world of add-ons make them even more useful. These 13 companion gadgets including instant photo printers, rugged keychain chargers, grip-all tripods and $5 stocking stuffer speakers make great “I don’t know you that well” gifts.

Instant Mobile Photo Printer

Missing the instant gratification of Polaroid cameras, but don’t want to give up the convenience and compact profile of your smartphone? The Polaroid Zip Instant Mobile Printer is roughly the same size as most smart phones, and wirelessly prints photos in less than a minute using a special dye paper that requires no ink or toners. Packages of the printer and photo paper start at $129.99 at PhotoJoJo.

Universal Retro-Style Device Holder

Designed to mimic the look of classic swing arm desk lamps, the STAN positions your phone, tablet or eReader for hands-free use. Place it on your headboard to hang a tablet over your head for the laziest Netflix marathon of your life. Get it for $89.99-$109.99 at The Design Industry.

Luma Tiny Lampshade Night Light & Travelamp

Clip this tiny acrylic lampshade onto your phone, turn on your flashlight and you’ve got an instant night light requiring no extra power. The ‘Luma’ version is available for $9, or get the larger and more classic lantern-style Travelamp for $8.

Hobie Time-Lapse Photo Tool

The Hobie is a little spinning tripod that takes panoramic photos or record moving videos from a 360 degree point of view. It’s portable, adjustable and clips onto a basic kitchen timer at the base. Pre-order the basic version for roughly $36.

Gekkopod Adaptable iPhone Tripod

Wrapping its legs around objects so it can grip as well as a gecko, the Gekkopod makes it easy to mount a smartphone or compact camera to tree branches, bike handles, fences or any other convenient vantage points you may find along your travels. it can also be used on its own as a mini tripod. It comes in a variety of colors for $19.90.

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Chances are good that if you keep your phone nearby while you’re working, you’re going to be tempted to pick it up every now and then, checking Instagram and sending texts. Get in the habit of doing it compulsively, and you’re sucking away a lot of time that you should probably spend focusing on the tasks at hand. This lamp by designer Weng Xinyu aims to solve that problem by forcing you to give up your phone in order to illuminate your desk.

Consisting of a balancing lamp pole on a simple wooden tripod, the lamp leans its light source to the desk when it’s turned off. If you want light, you’ll have to insert your phone into the slot on the end of the pole. This turns the light on automatically and balances the lamp to its proper position.

Sure, you could cheat and find some other object that fits into the slot so you don’t have to give up your precious smartphone. But as we all heard from authority figures throughout our childhoods, the only person you’d be cheating is yourself.

“Superfluous information is flowing from everywhere,” says Xinyu. “The sense of priority is fading, resulting a precarious Balance between work and amusement, true and virtual life. It is time we ask the question, what do we really want? ‘Balance’ might help us find the inner balance in this information exploding society.”

Does your high-rise apartment or office tower look like a mobile phone? These ones do, and you can bet smartphone users inside them get REALLY good reception.

Telefónica Chile Building – Santiago, Chile

(image via: Celebrate Big)

The Telefónica Chile Building (Torre Telefónica Chile) in Santiago was designed by architects Seismic A&E and while the firm doesn’t explicitly say so at their website, the structure was clearly intended to house a mobile telecommunications company – in this case, Telefónica Chile (known since 2009 as Movistar).

(images via: Chilling In Chile, Dijitalimaj and Wikimedia/Diego Sepulveda)

The 143 m (469 ft) tall tower’s design was an attempt to ape the appearance of state-of-the-art mid-1990s mobile phones… considering the building opened in December of 1995, we’d say the architects achieved their goal. It’s odd, however, that planners did not foresee the continuing evolution of mobile phone design through the Telefónica Chile Building‘s estimated lifespan and indeed, only a few short years after it opened the design was already looking quite dated.

Omniyat Properties iPad Building – Dubai, UAE

(image via: WIRED)

Don’t let the name “iPad” fool you, this 23-story building concept from Omniyat Properties dates from 2007 and its design was intended to evoke Apple’s iPod MP3 player sitting atop a docking station. If the design doesn’t resemble an iPod upon first glance, keep in mind the edifice will lean back at a six degree angle.

(images via: Roberta’s Blog and LandvestDubai)

Omniyat Properties suspended work on many of its planned building designs as the late-2000s world financial crisis bit into investment budgets, and the iPad was one of those to be put “on hold” until better days arrived. By 2010 the design had been re-named “The Pad” for obvious reasons and according to Omniyat Properties over 50 percent of payments required to re-start work on this and other outstanding projects had been nailed down.

Bic Camera Building – Tokyo, Japan

(image via: Panoramio/alicemarotta)

The Bic Camera building in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district is one of about 40 Bic Camera stores in Japan, though it’s the only one that looks like a cellphone. The building’s facade is actually functional in a way, as the number buttons match the building’s floors and include a short description of what products may be found there.

(images via: Spicykarma and Kirainet)

Oddly for a building shaped like a cellular phone, the Bic Camera building in Ikebukuro does not specialize in mobile phone sales. Instead, this particular location predominantly sells computers, parts, peripheral devices and the like.

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