So I figured I would take a break from my regular posting to do my very first product review. In order for this product review to make sense I have to give you a little background. A few months ago I requisitioned an approval from the General in order to purchase an iPad 2 for our squad.
My sister, who has a 4 yr old son with cerebral palsy, had purchased an iPad for her family, and I was amazed at how her little man could navigate the device, and how he interacted with the educational and developmental apps they had loaded on her iPad. Of course the first thing I did when I got home was to go onto Youtube and sit amazed as i watched toddlers of varying ages easily use their iPads. I thought to myself, what better way to justify such an extravagant purchase, then to say that it wasn’t for me, but for our darling little Monkey. So I promptly filled out the appropriate requisition forms, all in triplicate, stating my case and patiently waited for a response from the General’s office.
Well, it took a while, but eventually the paperwork went through and the long awaited iPad 2 arrived at our barracks door. To make a long story short, the Monkey is now 19 months old and has just started to regularly use the iPad, using a couple of educational apps aimed at toddlers. It surprised both the General and I how quickly she picked up its use. So far, I think that the Monkey will get a lot of use out of the iPad, other than watching videos on it during car rides of course.
Eventually, when the idea struck me of writing this daddy blog, I of course envisioned myself writing it on the iPad. Our home desktop computer was out of the question, it is downstairs and attached to my home recording studio. The General’s laptop was also out of the question. Not that I couldn’t use it, but I didn’t want to be lugging it around everywhere, and it is just too big, too slow, and the battery life is the shits. So the iPad seemed to be like the perfect solution. Well, that is until I sat down to try to type anything of length on it. My fat ham hands coupled with a very sensitive and cramped virtual keyboard made typing on it quite the chore. I am a fairly skilled touch typist and having to revert to two finger pecking just irked me to no end. Enter my salvation, The Aluminum Keyboard Buddy case for the iPad 2 from M.I.C. Gadgets.
I first encountered this keyboard on my favourite tech website engadget.com. They have a short blurb on it which includes pictures and pricing, and a link to the M.I.C. Gadget store where there are videos posted. There are several other similar products out on the market right now, but all are priced over $100 and this was a problem. However the M.I.C. product was priced at a very reasonable $49.99. How could a gadget hound like me resist? I looked over the specs, watched the videos, and read reviews by individuals who had taken the leap and purchased this item. Everything looked good to me, so I placed my order.
Well as you can probably guess, I got it in the mail today and I am currently using it to type this review. To say that it met my expectations is an understatement. If you are a blogger with an iPad 2, drop everything and order one of these bad boys immediately. Sure it is smaller than a regular keyboard, but even with my ham hands I can almost type at full speed. I am used to using a full sized desktop keyboard and it only took me a minute to adjust to the smaller size.
It is a bluetooth keyboard, built out of aircraft grade aluminum with a finish that matches the back of the iPad 2. It only took a couple of minutes to get it turned on, paired to my iPad and typing away. When closed, the Ipad 2 fits snugly and securely, and it sure looks great. The chiclet keys shouldn’t be a problem for anyone who has used a laptop in the past couple of years, and the hotkeys, used for special functions on the iPad 2, are an added bonus. These keys allow you to adjust screen brightness, volume, and a host of other things right from the keyboard.
The M.I.C Gadget case is equipped with the same type of tiny magnets that Apple uses in its smart cover. What this means is that your iPad wakes up and goes to sleep when you open and close the case. Not a deal breaker, but a nice added feature. It is extremely light and barely adds any weight to my Ipad while feeling quite sturdy overall. The iPad 2 can be attached in landscape and portrait mode. However I don’t see why anyone would choose to use it in anything but landscape. The only drawback I can see for some, is that it has a fixed viewing angle. I haven’t seen this as a problem, and I only mention it to be fair and thorough. Overall I would give this a 5 out of 5 stars.
Just to be clear, I am not receiving anything for this review and have paid out of pocket for the keyboard. All in all, this is a great product in my opinion and exceeded my expectations. I figured I would pass this along in hopes that other bloggers out there who had iPads and might be looking for a product like this and might find this helpful.
That’s it for now.
Cpt. Benjamin Willard
![5904546971_13772f12be[1]](http://gadgetsoup.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/5904546971_13772f12be1.jpg "5904546971_13772f12be[1]")
