Teach your tablet a thing or two about durability with these 100-year-old steel stands

By Malarie Gokey Published November 18, 2014

Popular mobile case accessory maker Griffin teamed up with Nashville-based Rail Yard Studios to create two gorgeous tablet stands: the Rail Slice and Rail Artifact. Both are built from reclaimed railroad steel first installed on the original Louisville and Nashville Railroad between 1906 and 1908, and can support small and full-size tablets in either landscape or portrait mode.

There’s nothing quite like the charm of old railway steel and the steel spikes used to bolt down the tracks. Just take a look at any flea market or shop in Brooklyn and you’ll find exposed brick, steel with great patina, and bare light bulbs hanging from copper wire. Industrial chic is in vogue. Now you can incorporate a bit of that rustic charm into your own life with these tablet stands.

The two stands are made of the sturdy and beautifully aged railroad steel, but there are slight differences in design. The Rail Slice Tablet Stand is made out of a piece of decommissioned rail and sports a milled hole where you can connect your charging cable. The hole also ensures that the tablet’s speakers don’t get muffled. Meanwhile, the Rail Artifact Stand is created out of two antique railroad spikes and a tie plate that once held the railroad together. The spikes give added texture to the piece and make it a real work of art.

“We know consumers are looking for unique and interesting gifts for the tech-lover in their lives so we partnered with Rail Yard Studios to offer hand-made pieces they can’t find anywhere else,” said Scott Naylor, VP of Product Development at Griffin Technology. “These rare tablet stands are American-made and the perfect way to preserve a piece of history in the digital age.”

The steel used to make both stands is more than a century old. It’s pitted in places and has a nice patina. Even when your tablet isn’t in the stand, it will look like a gorgeous sculpture.The stands are made by hand, so each piece is unique. Rail Yard Studios warns against setting your tablet in the stand unprotected, though, as the forged steel may scratch the tablet’s edges. Luckily, if you buy a Rail Yard Studio tablet stand, you’ll get your choice of a Griffin tablet cover for free.

The Rail Slice Tablet Stand and the Rail Artifact Stand cost $130 and are available for order on Griffin’s website.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

As DT's Mobile Editor, Malarie runs the Mobile and Wearables sections, which cover smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, and…

Mobile

Why I love the Kindle Scribe, and it’s not for reading or taking notes

A person using the Amazon Kindle Scribe and its stylus.

I really wanted to try an e-reader with a bigger screen, and leapt at the chance to spend time with the latest Amazon Kindle Scribe with its 10.2-inch e-paper screen. However, it wasn’t what I expected, and when I started to take notes using the stylus, it highlighted something I've known for a while: I'm terrible at physically writing anything anymore. It then prompted me to do something about it.
Lots of writing

Almost every word I share these days is typed, and has been that way for years and years. Every message, every form, every article, and every note is created digitally. If I write a word with a pen against paper, its in a greeting card, or something mundane like writing my name or address. Even then, it’s an effort not to write only in block capitals, because my cursive text is reduced to a barely legible scribble as my speed increases.

Mobile

Instagram is ramping up AI-powered age detection on teen users

The Foto and Instagram app on an Android phone.

The days of teenagers lying about their age on Instagram are over. Meta has announced that they're using AI-powered age detection technology to enroll teens suspected of misrepresenting their age to a restricted Teen Account.

Instagram's parent company announced the AI-driven crackdown on teen Instagram users in a blog post on Monday, saying that it's leveraging its AI, which it has been using to detect the age ranges of many of its users for some time, to detect accounts it suspects belong to teenagers who lied about their age to bypass safeguards, even if they have an adult birthday listed. Instagram said it is taking steps to ensure the AI is accurate and will correctly place teen users into Teen Accounts, but will give users an option to change their settings if their account has been placed into a Teen Account by mistake.

Mobile

This luxury Tag Heuer smartwatch has a $900 discount right now

The Tag Heuer Connected Calibre E4 in black with a Jomashop watermark.

There's been a longstanding thought process that says you can either have luxury or smarts. And we're not talking about life, but rather in watches. Smart watches are seen as a luxury but not luxurious. Old school watches are seen as smartly designed, but not "smart." The rising hybrid watch trend, however, shows that there is a lot of demand for luxurious smart watches.

Tag Heuer's Connected Calibre E4 isn't quite a hybrid, but it is most certainly of the luxury variety. Today, however, it has been marked down in price. By a lot. Tap the button below to see the Tag Heuer Connected Calibre E4 at a price of $1,450. That's $900 less than its retail of $2,350 and a discount of 38%.