Finding the right place for your high-tech gizmo

You’ve got yourself an iPod. But what’s it going to wear? This unlikely question is confronting more and more purchasers of high-end home and personal electronics these days.

Buying an iPod, iPhone, cell phone, plasma screen television or Blackberry is more than just a crippling financial transaction. It’s a commitment. Something as precious as an iPhone must be properly encased. You wouldn’t send your child off to school without clothes, would you? (Maybe you have to. You just bought an iPhone.)

Modern electronic items need wraparound chaperones for style or security or a combination thereof. A look at how we’re dressing some of the trendy gadgets these days.

That jogger has an iphone!

At the Sharper Image in Scottsdale, Andrew Ortiz has something for joggers who want to stay on the information superhighway. “Belkin just came out with a new armband for the iPhone,” says the assistant manager. “It also fits the 80 gig and 160 iPod video that just came out.”

Belkin’s black, neoprene armband (pictured) lashes the iPhone to the runner’s arm and lets them take connectivity to some sweaty places.

BELKIN

The flexible, washable $29.95 band takes a minimalist approach, wrapping the iPhone in a clear protective screen and letting Steve Jobs’ distinctive keyboard design face out, like a high-tech sleeve insignia; telling pedestrians, “I have an iPhone, and only run because I want to.”

High-end accessory stores, like Sharper Image and Brookstone, stock a limited variety of portable electronics cases and offer more online. Is style or security a bigger priority? “It’s more a combination of both,” Ortiz says. “They want something that makes their iPod or iPhone look good — some want something that will let them exercise with it — but at the same time they’re afraid they’ll drop it. It’s precious stuff.” In that spirit, Brookstone carries a $25 iPod Nano case that hooks to the body with a carabiner clip. The clear sheath shows off the iPod design and offers access to its control wheel and ports while covering the rest in hard acrylic. More complicated devices, like Blackberries, have spawned a variety of cases emphasizing quick access, utility or style. E-Access Solutions, an online store, features stylish leather Blackberry cases that load vertically or horizontally, as well as holsters and clear-front flip cases that offer quick access to screen and buttons, from $19 to $29.

Screen test

While portable electronics require some protection, the trend in home gizmos is more toward presentation.

Nikki DiBella, a designer with Ikea in Tempe, says the days of screen-hiding desks and entertainment centers are gone. “Media furniture looks quite different than it once did,” she says. Translation: The death of barrel-backed television sets means the boob tube is no longer an eyesore. “With the increase in popularity of flat-screen TVs and plasma screens, the media furniture that used to hold tube TVs may no longer be compatible.”

Flat-screen technology has changed television and computer storage. Thinner screens now allow for shallower entertainment centers, which allow families more floor space; and flat-screen technology has given monitors a more attractive look.

Pieces like Ikea’s Besta entertainment center ($665, pictured) actually use the television as the aesthetic center of the room. “At Ikea our media furniture selection has grown to include products ideal for showcasing plasma and flat-panel TVs,” DiBella says.

IKEA

The same holds true for computer stations. While Ikea still markets concealable workstations like the Alve ($369); the focus is more toward open designs, like the Mikael ($149), which frame the computer’s clean lines and present it as a feature of the room. Now, if you could only hide yourself and your coffee cup.