Apple keyboard and Incase origami case

Apple keyboard and Incase origami case

The first setup I looked at was to just use the Apple bluetooth keyboard together with the innovative Incase origami case. There’s not much point in me writing a review of the keyboard as there are already a tonne out there. Suffice it to say that it’s built well, is full sized (minus the number keypad) and feels great. The case is the interesting part of the kit. Based on the japanese art of origami, the case folds into a stand for the iPad when you want to type. When you first put it together before you put the iPad in place it seems a bit flimsy, but as soon as the iPad is in place, its super stable and looks pretty neat too. There are velcro straps to hold it all together; I saw some reports that these might come unstuck after a lot of use, I’ll have to give an update at the end of the trip.

Zagg Zaggfolio case

Zagg Zaggfolio case & keyboard

The other setup I looked at was the Zaggfolio case from Zagg. The nice thing about this setup is that it combines the case and keyboard in one package. There are also function keys specially programmed for the iPad to search or mimic the home key (something Apple’s offering is lacking). The case replaces the Apple Smart cover if you have one, and the iPad sits face down in the case when not in use. Although this seems like a neat solution, I ultimately decided against the Zagg for a couple of reasons. First up, the keyboard isn’t full sized, but a little shorter as it needs to fit within the dimensions of the iPad. I’m a pretty fat-fingered typist at the best of times, so I was worried that the keyboard would end up just being too annoying. Secondly, because the case and keyboard are all in one, you can’t really go traveling without the keyboard and just the tablet. I think I will only be using the tablet for writing 5-10% of the time, so I don’t want to have to bring the keyboard along for the ride all the time.

First impressions

So far, I’m really happy with the keyboard setup. I really like the key-feel of the Appple keyboard, and writing an article like this is almost as painless on the iPad as it is doing it on my laptop. I’ve found a couple of gripes with using the keyboard so far; one general, and one Apple related. The first is that keyboard arrow key navigation doesn’t seem to be built in to Safari. If I’m typing a url or search term, auto-complete suggests some options and my muscle memory keeps trying to use the down arrow key to select an option. I assume this would be the same no matter what keyboard I chose and it’s just something I’ll have to get used to. The second gripe—and it’s minor—is that when I’m done with the keyboard, I have to remember to turn it off, else I don’t get the on-screen keyboard when I’m using the iPad. It’s easily fixed by switching bluetooth off, but nevertheless has been a little bit of a gripe from time to time. That said, I think an external keyboard is an essential accessory for the tablet if you are going to be writing more than the occasional email; so far my money is on the Apple / Incase combo.

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On the road again, and learning to be more like a car than a truck

For most of us, being connected all the time is as natural as breathing the air around us. A typical day for me involves checking emails on my ‘phone in the morning, working on my laptop during the day, and watching tv on the ipad at night. What happens if you take the laptop away? Do we need to have a laptop to be a functioning (and contributing) member of digital society? When Steve Jobs was interviewed about this a couple of years ago, he likened the relationship of tablets to PC’s as that between trucks and cars:

“When we were an agrarian nation, all vehicles were trucks…. but as we moved to a more urban society, now most people use cars, so that now something like one in every twenty five vehicles is a truck. PC’s are like trucks.” —Steve Jobs

I couldn’t agree with this more. I’ve seen how people have moved from having a desktop PC at home, to having a laptop—before long I should imagine its rare to see anything other than a tablet in the house. I can imagine a similar shift for many people at their workplace over time. Right now, the tablet is still in it’s nascent form in terms of both software and hardware. We are starting to see reasonable content creation apps becoming available (I’m writing this post on one now). As I’ve been planning my trip, I’ve tried to predict what sort of scenarios I might find myself in, and setting up my ipad in preparation for that. I’ll share these over the next couple of weeks as I get my stuff together for the trip.
I couldn’t agree with this more. I’ve seen how people have moved from having a desktop PC at home, to having a laptop—before long I should imagine its rare to see anything other than a tablet in the house. I can imagine a similar shift for many people at their workplace over time. Right now, the tablet is still in it’s nascent form in terms of both software and hardware. We are starting to see reasonable content creation apps becoming available (I’m writing this post on one now). As I’ve been planning my trip, I’ve tried to predict what sort of scenarios I might find myself in, and setting up my ipad in preparation for that. I’ll share these over the next couple of weeks as I get my stuff together for the trip.

“The greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.” —Bill Bryson

I’m excited to travel. Not just to parts of the world I haven’t been before, but also to find out what makes for a good tablet lifestyle. As Bill Bryson said in the quote above, one of the great rewards of travel is to experience everyday things anew. I think this is just as true for my digital journey as for the physical trip I’m going on. What I’m looking forward to are the unexpected changes in online behavior—both positive and negative—that will suggest interesting opportunities to differentiate and enhance tablet-living away from it’s PC roots.

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