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iPad Keyboard Dock: Unboxing & Overview

2010-04-17
what's up everyone John Breton German TechnoBuffalo here this is gonna be a bit of an old-school on-the-fly unboxing I've got the iPad keyboard dock were here I'm actually on my way to a course and I needed to take notes so we're actually unboxing it live in my car at the end of this I'll attach a video of a demonstration showing you how it works but for right now I need this thing tonight which means I need to open it so I didn't think I could open something like this without sharing it with you so we'll take a look at the package you've got a picture of the keyboard on the front there's a dock sort of below the iPad which you can't see iPad keyboard dock on the back there's a little bit of a better picture of it and this is going to cost you 69 bucks no idea that is going to be useful or worthwhile or if I just threw 70 bucks away but at least if I wasted money hopefully I'll prevent you from doing the same although maybe it will be worthwhile and go ahead and open it up and I don't have the big ol knife here instead we're gonna have to use a key let's go ahead and dig in at least trying to get into one hand just want to hand it unboxing is harder than it looks I got a new respect for people I can do that broke the seal so to speak you can already see the comments unboxing fail alright peeling off the plastic or at least attempting to with one hand recording this just with the iPhone 3GS alright so let's go ahead and open this up looks like it just opened I don't know if they even included cable in here or not it doesn't look like they do which just the keyboard which i think is the same size as the Apple wireless keyboard and some documentation it's it's much heavier than you think it would be ah let's take a look at the keyboard because there are some actually iPad specific applications here I believe that takes you to the home screen I believe that pulls up the spotlight feature and brightness if that launches pictures that probably pulls up the on-screen keyboard that button does absolutely nothing and you got your music control the volume control looks like a lock button as well and then your keyboard I take notes oftentimes out just in pages having a full keyboard would be quite nice I've been bringing my Bluetooth keyboard with me because the iPad will pair with any Bluetooth keyboard but propping it up should be a little bit better option although another way to go just to pick up the iPod iPad dock and use a Bluetooth keyboard or just sort of prop it up yourself or don't prop it up at all but this is what this looks like in stay tuned after the video for a demonstration how this works and showing you what everything does let's continue the tour you've got the back support to support the iPad it's pretty sturdy metal there is your 30 pin count for the iPad sits in on the back you've got a 30 pin pass-throughs you can charge it or sync it or whatever and you have a second audio line out so you can hook up your music bottom of it there's sort of a view it's got some feet and the Apple logo which you probably can't see through the shadow and show you the thinness about the same thickness as the regular Apple wired or wireless keyboard and we guys I'm John writing from TechnoBuffalo with this super old-school probably really shaky unboxing of the iPad keyboard all right guys I will see you in the next video and also one point of notice it looks like it this draws all the power from the iPad no spot for four batteries you know something I was wondering about anyway john Retton jerk TechnoBuffalo see you next video alright guys so that's promised here's a less blurry cam look at the keyboard dock for the iPad at first blush it looks almost identical to the wireless keyboard that comes with the IMAX you can pick up for any other Bluetooth Mac you have however we've got this giant dock behind it which certainly makes it look a bit different as a size comparison if you put the - surabaya next to each other you'll see that they're almost exactly the same size the few differences other than the jetting out dock at the back here are some of the keys across the top you don't have function keys so there is not a function button down here as there is on the standard keyboard but there are some unique functionality of the keys up top here so this button right here is the same as pushing the home button on your iPad a button for universal search control the brightness pictures to bring up the on-screen keyboard that does nothing all your music controls fast-forward rewind pause and play you've got volume so you've got mute up and down and then a button that locks it oh that's a keyboard and typing on a technique experience is exactly the same as the typing experience on any of the other Apple Bluetooth keyboards let me go ahead and pop this in give you a bit of an example as to what it looks like and how it works goes and slides right in most of all actually the hardest things about the doc is getting it to actually go into the doc can be a bit difficult so I think that we've got it in there now check it out okay so we've got it now in the doc nicely positioned go ahead and move the camera up a bit so you can see the screen and see what happens so typing on this is very easy it's a great conjunction to have with a program like pages for example and go ahead and open it up and you go ahead and start typing any document you'd like or a paper anything that you needed to work with as far as spreadsheets it's a great program and it's a nice combination actually when I when I go to class and I starts I writing papers this is exactly what I use so here's a paper that actually wrote on the iPad it was just about two and a half three pages and you can open up Word documents and export as Word documents and you can do it and actually very easily and this does have full spellcheck so you can go ahead and check them type all I've to admit is a bit weird to always be touching the screen it'd be great to set some sort of mouth support but it's not bad if you're traveling or if you're in school the combination of the iPad of the keyboard is really nice for up for notating especially if you want something a little bit lighter and a bit less expensive than a full-size laptop this is a very good option you get a full full size keyboard it is gonna run me at 70 bucks let's go over some of the keystrokes and show you what they do move the camera up a little bit so you can see so if I'm open in any program so let's say I'm in Twitter if ik here hit this button upper left which is the home button this is same as hitting the home button on the iPad I've got a button here take your break universal search go ahead hit the home button again to the left and right brightness but just like it would on your Mac you've got a button that launches that picture slideshow go ahead and launch that and they're going with pictures it's one of my dad next button pulls up the on-screen keyboard and the place where it's relevant so if I'm sailing Twitter and I want to post new tweets and go ahead and compose one now if I didn't have the dock right here the on-screen keyboard would come up automatically but it's not and I can go ahead and start typing but if I want the owner to be keyboard - come on as well go and hit that button and it pops up I was a bit worried when I got this there was going to get delay between testing a letter and when it showed up on the screen actually shows up just as quickly as it does on any computer almost instantaneously it's quite nice so go ahead and hit close there I don't want to send that gibberish s tweet the next button does nothing you've got your volume controls the music playback will work just as you'd expect if you got iTunes running or a song or a video you can go ahead and pause and play the volume works pretty much as you'd expect as well you don't get the sort of beeping noise that you get when you're just a volume on your Mac but you do get two nice visual representation and last is the lock button which will lock it and any button will actually wake this up when it's locked so I don't have to hit the home button to unlock it I can't go ahead and push any button and the screen comes to life I don't have to do the lock screen slide to unlock overall I've been very very happy with the keyboard although I do want to use it for a little bit more to do a full review and see if it really isn't useful as I think it's going to be it's definitely stay tuned and stick around for that be sure to go to TechnoBuffalo for more information on this keyboard and all of your iPad and tech news create your own tech blog even monetize it and make some money putting in your own adsense code and talk to each other and our built-in social network any of you guys from John Rhett enger' and I will see you in the next video
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