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CES 2013 roundup: From a ring mouse to a $650 iPhone case

Lucien Elements' $650 crocodile-skin iPhone 5 case was among the most expensive smartphone cases at CES.
(Salvador Rodriguez / Los Angeles Times)
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The Consumer Electronics Show has a dizzying array of tech accessories, but every once in a while, a few of those find a way to stand out. Here are some of the ones that caught my eye.

Lucien Element’s $650 iPhone 5 case

In a world of iPhones, there are cases and then there are cases. Lucien Elements makes the latter, specializing in luxury cases for iPhone users who want to protect their phones with style. Their top product at CES? A $650 crocodile-skin case with studs for the edges of the iPhone. To put the price of this case in perspective, an unlocked 16 GB iPhone 5 costs just as much. More surprisingly, though, is that Lucien Elements has a $750 case it didn’t even bring to the show.

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Genius Ring Presenter

Touch screens and track pads are taking over, but there was a mouse at CES that managed to impress me. That was the Genius Ring Presenter, a tiny mouse that wraps around your fingers like a ring. The Ring Presenter has a small pad that you can move your thumb around to direct the mouse. To the sides of the pad, are click-able buttons you use as you normally would on any other mouse, and on one of the edges is another button that can be pressed for a laser pointer.

Flygrip

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As more companies come out with 5-inch phones, holding them with one hand will probably become an issue. That’s why I was relieved to find the Flygrip, a small tool you stick on to the back of your phone that has an ring-like panel that pops out. After you slide your middle and ring finger in, you can use the Flygrip to hold on to your mammoth-sized phone with one hand -- you can let go of the phone with your other fingers, hold it facing down and it won’t fall. The $30 accessory also doubles as a phone stand.

CordCruncher

If you hate tangled cords, then you might like the CordCruncher headphones. A Kickstarter project, the headphones are attached to a cord inside a latex sleeve, which can be stretched and coiled. When you’re done using the headphones, for instance, grabbing the latex sleeve from both ends and stretching them out recoils the cord back into the sleeve in a neat and organized fashion. The makers of the $25 CordCruncher headphones used CES to launch a new color: neon green.

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