Keyfolio keypad: An iPad version of a netbook

One of the best additions I’ve made to my iPad this year has been the Kensington Keyfolio keyboard. It’s a Bluetooth keyboard that includes a nice protective, leather case for the iPad. It also adds a stand capability to the iPad, one which works just great to browse the Web from bed in the morning if you’re getting a pre-dawn start on your work day. In a way, this adds the touch interface of the iPad to the concept of a netbook. The weight of the combined keyboard and iPad comes in at 2.75 pounds, so you’re right into the netbook weight category.

The Keyfolio has a great battery saving feature, pulling itself offline when you stop using it for an extended period. It doesn’t need to be resynced often, and you can bypass it by simply switching it off to use the iPad onscreen keyboard.

It’s a great product in the Kensington tradition: well built, lightweight, protects your iPad. Even can be used in a non-keyboard setting (i.e. just a case to use while reading your iPad.) Some say you can’t use it on your lap, but a nice lap desk (think Levenger) makes that possible, too. Big improvement over the on-screen keyboard.

Only the Apple iPad dock has better speed, but it’s not a traveling tool like this one. This keyboard recognizes and includes the cursor arrows, unlike some iPad writing apps whose softkey keyboards do not. I wish there were a shift key on both sides of this keyboard, and the apostrophe key has its own key that’s not in an intuitive place. You type a bit slower at first while using it, but get used to having those keys in unusual places. So far, very happy with this product. In a way, this makes the iPad a great alternative to the new MacBook Air, which at first glance seems like an iPad with an attached keyboard. The Air weighs a little more than the Keyfolio combo, and of course, it’s a full Mac. Just doesn’t have that touch interface, but a lot richer field of applications.

Keyfolio is $69.99 at Amazon today and worth every penny. I bought an Apple Keyboard Dock in the very first month of the iPad’s existence, but the Apple device doesn’t offer a landscape mode like the Keyfolio does. (Keyfolio won’t do portrait, in contrast.) But the Apple keyboard isn’t portable and won’t act as a stand for Netflix movies. There’s a lot to like here.

Zinio means to make a big impression by the iPad’s opening weekend. The company has been selling magazines (single-copy and subscriptions) for 10 years online and on computers, admittedly “before the market’s time” according to CEO Jeanniey Mullen. But fast-forward from the time of Windows XP to the Apple touchstone that boots up on a quarter-million laps this weekend, and you can see the numbers rising for publishers and their readers.

Zinio will offer 2,000 issues for purchase (and another 400 back issues) through its free app, something the company designed as soon as Apple released the iPad’s software development kit. The company knew that a digital reader with full motion and interactive hooks would be a lure to readers who expect more from a publication than just words and static pictures. As of Thursday the company wasn’t sure if it would make the initial April 3 iPad app rollout lineup that Apple controls, but the CEO was certain that Zinio was going to deliver business magazines like Smart Money (from the Wall Street Journal) MacWorld, Kiplinger’s, US News & World Report — even Oprah, Yoga Journal and Esquire. All will enjoy the full-screen experience of the new Apple tablet, she said.

The Zinio catalog has been available for reading on iPhone as well as the Mac and PCs, but the Mac version runs on Adobe’s Air platform. Zinio has been working on removing such technology that doesn’t run on the iPad, substituting HTML5 and XML.

“We started to look for opportunities to optimize our iPhone app for the iPad, and have been feverishly de-Flashing our [magazine] files and our reader,” Mullen said. “We’ve been rebuilding our infrastructure to support the non-Flash environment.”

Small business owners won’t see many focused titles that have been optimized for the iPad’s features this weekend other than MacWorld. But Car and Driver, Dwell, National Geographic, Sporting News Daily, Spin and Zinio’s own Viv magazine are coming online first with video features and slide shows that take a reader beyond a magazine’s traditional graphics and text. It’s going to add a new dimension to showing off a publication’s article during a presentation. Publishers will have the chance to create animated, interactive graphics that might bridge the gap towards a need for skills in Keynote, Apple’s presentation app. Read the rest of this entry »

A long list of apps ready for the iPad has emerged on the Web at appadvice.com, but two seem destined to perform business organization duties. Infinote turns the tablet into a canvas of endless capacity, to enable you to create notes quickly, color-coded and reorganizable by simply dragging them across the screen.

That’s likely to be the iPad at it’s best: the touch interface that delivers the index-card organization skills of the prior century, without all the erasing and the need for a full boardroom-sized table.

Infinote is going to sell for just $2.99, priced as any app for the iPhone. On the other end of the pricing scale, The Omni Group will be releasing its flagship OmniGraffle visualizer and process charting tool. While Infinote is certain to be worth its price, it will be interesting to see the takeup on an iPad program priced closer to Mac software levels. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s apparently a lot to complain about since Apple launched the iPad era yesterday. A gauntlet of Engadget writers gave a series of ho-hum, “who-needs-it” reviews today. Some wanted to chide Apple for not reinventing the personal computer, especially after the rumor mills and hypesters had lifted this tablet to breakthrough status.

It still looks to us like a good tool for a small or home office business. Apple wants us to believe this, or it wouldn’t have spent so much time showing off its Excel echo (Numbers) or PowerPoint knock off (Keynote) facets from the iWork suite.

In practice the iPad will have to deliver real-world results. What doesn’t look sexy and necessary onstage alongside Steve Jobs? (I know, CEO Paul Otellini of Intel, even if you put him in a clean suit at the 2006 Macworld.)

The complaints about a lack of phone ability are off base, though. You’d never put this thing to your ear, but if you use a laptop to Skype-call today, the iPad will permit you to do this. Permit, I say, because yesterday Apple dropped its restrictions so apps can use Voice Over IP, the engine that enables Skype, over 3G networks. Skype already runs on the iPhone.

But Skype illustrates one of the biggest questions about the iPad. The new device is supposed to be a step up from a smartphone, but not so smart as Apple’s laptops. Using Skype on a laptop enables an add-on like eCamm’s note-taker Voice Recorder. Since the iPad runs only one app at a time, how will applications like Voice Recorder and Skype integrate? Never mind multitasking, I just want helper applications. And how do we get our documents onto and off this thing? Please don’t tell me that iTunes is in charge of synchronizing that, too. Read the rest of this entry »