Mountie: Ten One Design

Multitask with the Mountie.

Juggling calls, texts, emails and apps between your phone and your laptop can be a cumbersome affair.  This becomes especially true when working out of the home or office where space can be cramped.  An unsuspecting solution to this issue comes in the form of the Mountie, a sturdy little gadget aimed at simplifying this process.

This little clip, produced out of Montclair by Ten One Design, allows for your iPhone, iPad or really any other similar device to be firmly clipped to the side of a laptop screen – allowing easy viewing and access to both devices at once.  And the product clearly has a Montclair pedigree.  According to one of the developers, its name was inspired by the daily commute past Montclair High School, home of the Mounties.

The first thing I noticed about the Mountie was the simple, sturdy design.  Its size allows it to slip right into any laptop bag, yet it’s still robust enough to affix a large tablet to a MacBook or any other laptop screen.  It comes with several different replaceable rubber pads, allowing it to get a more firm hold on thick or thin devices.  The sturdy clips lock in securely on both sides, and when the correct addons are used they hold a solid, steady grip.

The Mountie even holds your device at a slightly inwards angle, making it more easy to view both screens at once.  You can attach a device securely in portrait or landscape orientation, making it easy to use apps or watch video.  The rubber grips can hold more or less any devices together without slipping or leaving marks on your hardware.

I found that the Mountie has a myriad of uses, both for work and entertainment.  With a phone or tablet, it serves as an excellent second screen for watching movies or keeping up with Netflix.  You can keep an eye on incoming texts and calls while doing work on your laptop, which is especially useful if you use a non-Macintosh laptop or phone.  With an iPad and a screen sharing app such as Duet, the attached tablet can even be used directly as extra screen space for your laptop.  This comes in handy when you need to work with several different windows or tabs open on the go.  The Mountie also made for a handy charging stand, keeping my phone tethered to my laptop while making sure it was in clear view so I wouldn’t forget it.

The product is clearly made with multitasking, and even procrastination in mind. When I talked to Peter Skinner of Ten One Designs, he told me that he was using the Mountie on a daily basis, even when it was in development.  “I would be programming, but watching Netflix at the same time,” said Skinner.

All in all the Mountie is a durable, useful gadget that worked exactly as advertised.  The fit and finish on this product was impressive, and I imagine I’ll be using it for a long time.

  mountie, technology, ten one design