I was out having dinner with my beautiful wife late last night, and as we were walking around afterwards we were both stunned when we saw this…
Christmas decorations. At a retail store. For sale. In mid-August.
Dude. Hurricane season isn’t over! The turkey for Thanksgiving is still happily trotting around at the farm! The Halloween decorations are still in storage! Are retailers truly this desperate?!?
Ok, I think that was a cool robot ornament, but I didn’t buy it on principle, dammit!!
Preface : there’s a TL;DR at the end.
Long version : I’ve been working with over 30 iPads for about a month now in the corporate world, and I’ve got to say, it has been an interesting experience.
The number one problem I have with the iPad right out the box is that you just can’t hold the darn thing for prolonged periods since it has a smooth aluminum-like back and a glass-like front. I think the iPad just isn’t ergonomic at all.
While I think “pressing” a simple recessed finger / palm space on the back of every iPad would solve the problem (or even “dimpling” the back of every iPad in a very tight “U” pattern), I know Apple never trades design for functionality.
Since I didn’t want any of the iPads saying “howdy” to terra firma, I decided to buy three iPad cases for myself and a three iPad cases for each corporate location to see which one was the best. I bought Apple’s iPad case, Incase’s Convertible Book Jacket iPad case, and Belkin’s Grip Swell iPad case. Here’s what I found….
*** APPLE’S IPAD CASE ***
The first case I put on the iPad was the one from Apple.
Right up front, the case feels like some very high-tech industrialized rubber/hard-plastic hybrid. I honestly think this is what the “Dark Knight” Batman suit is made of.
Getting the iPad into the Apple case was a bit snug, but once it was in, there was no “wiggle” space and the iPad felt like it wasn’t going anywhere once it got in there.
Tucking the long flap under the iPad seals the case…
…and the iPad is ready to go.
Looking on the outside of the iPad, the case allows full open access to the docking port on the bottom of the iPad…
… the headphone and sleep button on top…
…and the volume and rotation-lock buttons on the side.
The cover flap is slightly smaller than the edge of the case, but it still fully covers the iPad screen and is actually a brilliant design (I’ll explain why when I get to the InCase review).
The Apple iPad case also has a small flap on the back that allows you to swing the cover back around and tuck the cover flap securely into it.
You can use this flap to stand the iPad up for reading or passive activities…
…or lay it down like a raised keyboard for gaming and more input-intense activities.
Depending on what you’re doing on the iPad, this is a very useful feature, and most of the corporate locations said it came in very handy.
Also worth mentioning is that in the time I’ve been using the Apple iPad case and tucking and un-tucking the cover into the back, the back flap hasn’t lost any of its’ strength. I am worried eventually it might start to move away from the back, but so far, even in the heavy-use corporate environments I had it in, they have been a resounding success.
Now for the “bad” things…
First, the main problem all of the corporate locations had with the Apple iPad case is that it doesn’t offer a lot of “bumper” protection along the sides and edges of the iPad. Yes, it feels like Batman’s suit, but no one thought that Apple’s iPad case would prevent any damage from a drop of about two feet or more. Every corporate location preferred the “secure” feel of the InCase Convertible Book Jacket for their daily use. (more on the InCase next)
The other problem I have with the Apple iPad case is simply aesthetic… it’s a major dirt magnet.
These photos show what the Apple iPad case looks like after a week’s worth of use in an industrial environment with no cleaning.
The good news is that dirt and spills almost always clean off. The bad news is that if you want your Apple iPad case to keep looking new, you’re going to be cleaning this case constantly.
The Apple iPad case is very pretty, sports a very modern design, adds almost zero heft and girth to the iPad, and offers some decent elemental protection. It’s a great buy, and I think it is perfect for individuals, high-end “sheltered” corporate use and activities that don’t involve warehouses and industrial environments.
I rate the Apple iPad Case case 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Apple? If you treat the outer cover with something more stain resistant, I’ll change it to a five star rating.
*** INCASE’S CONVERTIBLE BOOK JACKET IPAD CASE ***
This case is like watching a heartbreaking game from your favorite team on opening day. Everything is absolutely perfect for the first half, but then…. they completely blow it at the very end. The whole game is ruined because they screwed up so badly, and in a way you just can’t believe.
First off, let me talk about getting the iPad into the Incase Convertible Book Jacket case. This case is a rigid design that doesn’t feel like you’re forcing the iPad into a rubber suit. This case is cut so perfectly that the iPad fits inside of it like a machined part. Absolutely perfect!
Once you slide in the iPad, you just close the large velcro flap on the side…
…and the iPad is ready to go!
The exterior of the convertible book jacket’s case is remarkable. It resisted weeks of heavy industrial use at all of the same locations the Apple iPad case was at and it still looks brand new.
There’s a elastic band that stretches around from the back to keep the case closed when the iPad is not in use…
… and the case has more “open” access to the docking port on the bottom of the iPad…
…the volume and rotation lock buttons on the side of the iPad…
…and the headphone and sleep button on the top of the iPad.
Once again, the strength of this case is remarkable. The inside of the case allows for post-it notes and attachments for reference, and the “pleather” feel is quite pleasant to the touch. The back, sides, and cover are reinforced with heavy material that doesn’t give at all when pressed. The iPad also feels rock-solid secure in this case, and the “book” feel gives the iPad some good heft and stability.
The addition of this much bulk to the iPad may be a bit much for personal use, but for heavy high-traffic use and for industrial/corporate environments, this case gets my recommendation!
Well… almost.
There’s one critical error that I can’t believe Incase let slip by quality control. It involves the elastic band and the cover flap.
Incase made the cover flap flush-even with the perimeter of the case that covers the iPad (see the above photo). This would have been fine if not for the elastic strap.
After just two weeks of using the elastic strap, every single Incase Convertible Book Jacket….
…warps. Permanently.
Even when you remove the elastic band, the warp will remain. Putting the elastic band back on doesn’t help at all.
If you leave the iPad on, you can clearly see how bad the warp is, even with the elastic band on…
You can always press down on the warped cover to press it back down flush with the screen and case…
… but as soon as you let go, it will pop back up again.
I simply can’t believe no one in Incase quality control caught this before it shipped. This bulge defeats the whole purpose of the screen cover, and makes the Incase look pretty ugly when compared to any other case.
The Incase Convertible Book Jacket a wonderful, thick, heavy case, and it feels like the iPad would be able to survive just about anything when it is tucked inside. Even though I rate this case lower than the official Apple iPad case, I would prefer this case for use in heavy-duty high-traffic high-use corporate environments. (Plus, every single store manager I work with has chosen the InCase Convertible Book Jacket for the iPads that are working in their industrial environments. They just don’t use the elastic band!)
I rate the Incase Convertible Book Jacket 3.75 out of 5 stars.
Incase? Just trim a little bit of the screen cover away from the perimeter just like Apple does with their case. That will keep the exterior flap from reaching flush with the bottom edge of the case and will also keep the cover from getting warped by the elastic band. I’ll happily give you five stars with this one major modification.
*** Belkin’s Grip Swell iPad case ***
This case is a solid bronze winner. There’s nothing wrong with this case at all! There’s just a Gold and Silver medalist in the competition.
To start with, the Grip Swell is a drop-in easy border for the iPad. There’s no cover protection at all. Just put the iPad in the center…
…and slide the Grip Swell along the perimeter.
Done!
The exterior of the Grip Swell allows full access to the docking port on the bottom…
…the rotation control on the side is exposed, but the volume control is covered by the rubber sheath.
The headphone jack on top is exposed, but the sleep button on top is also covered by the rubber sheath.
The back for this color variety is very easy to hold on to with one hand. I could probably use this case all day if I had to.
The only problem with this case is that if you grab the iPad too close to the edge, the sheath will sometimes slide back with your fingers, giving you that very expensive WHOOOP CATCH THE IPAD!! feeling for a brief moment, even though it’s not really going anywhere.
Unfortunately, no corporate location wanted these cases, mainly because the rubber perimeter seemed a bit too “giving” and there was no screen cover. I would recommend the Grip Swell for kids at home, light personal use, and some short-distance travels. The lack of a screen cover isn’t a deal breaker, but if the iPad is going to be next to or packed along with anything else, I would choose the Apple iPad case or Incase iPad case over this one.
I rate the Belkin Grip Swell iPad case 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Finally, a side-by-side comparison of the three cases…
From top to bottom, here’s the Belkin, the Apple and the Incase iPad cases.
And from left to right, here’s the Incase, the Apple and the Belkin.
TL:DR….
APPLE’S IPAD CASE : 4.5 OUT OF 5 STARS : USE FOR PERSONAL OR LOW-IMPACT ENVIRONMENTS. MOST ATTRACTIVE CASE OF THE BUNCH.
INCASE’S CONVERTIBLE BOOK JACKET IPAD CASE : 3.75 OUT OF 5 STARS : BEST FOR INDUSTRIAL ENVIRONMENTS. THE COVER FLAP WILL WARP UPWARDS.
BELKIN’S GRIP SWELL IPAD CASE : 3.5 OUT OF 5 STARS : USE FOR KIDS AT HOME AND LIGHT PERSONAL USE. MIGHT BEND BACK IF GRIPPED TOO CLOSE TO THE IPAD’S EDGE.
Every Monday I like to post some music to start the week off on the right foot.
This week….
U2 – BEAUTIFUL DAY
Kelly Clarkson – My Life Would Suck Without You
Tecupae – Sueño Contigo (Featuring Cabas)
Enrique Iglesias – I Like It
…and finally, the cheesily epic Def Leppard – Pour Some Sugar On Me
Here are some news stories from this week that I think the mainstream media completely missed out on. All links are from legitimate news sources and not the fringe / wacko sites.
! JUMBO EDITION TODAY !
* Sound the alarms! Raise the shields! Batten the hatches! Swab the poop deck! Wal Mart is RAISING prices!! “32oz bottles of Windex shot up 50%, 12 oz box of Quaker oaks went up 65%, and 50oz Tide went up more than 50%.” [CONSUMERIST] and [NY POST]
* A study says gently shocking the brain improves memory and both verbal and motor skills. Cool! So Tazers are not only good for restraining bad guys, it makes them smarter too! Good to know! [NEW SCIENTIST]
* Some headlines I just can’t improve on… “Why Google Became A Carrier-Humping, Net Neutrality Surrender Monkey” [WIRED]
Zee Pope!
* Hey Hollywood. Call me! I’ve got this script for a movie called “Inferno”. Here’s the pitch : The main character, David, is a priest who was a former ex-con. (We find out mid-movie he killed a local pedophile who had molested his brother as a teenager.) David’s quiet, but has a good heart underneath all the angry exterior. David’s like a surrogate father to the local kids, and even though some adults don’t like him, the kids all do because he’s much easier to relate to. One day David finds out some of the kids he’s come to love have been killed. The autopsy shows the kids were molested then dumped in an alleyway by the church. After a little looking-into, it’s obvious that a visiting priest did it. David tries to get the visiting priest put away, but the cops say he doesn’t have enough proof, and the church does nothing about it. Eventually, both the church and cops tell David to STFU about it. The visiting priest leaves to another parish, and David finds out kids are getting killed coincidentally as the traveling priest gets to their city. David then goes off on a “and you shall know my name is the LORD” payback spree, starts with that one priest, and then proceeds to wipe out all the corrupt priests and people who covered for them, and makes his way to Rome for the big mind-blowing finale. The movie revolves on whether David is really a bad guy or just a good guy “chosen” by God to fulfill his will. The sad part is that this is actually based on what’s really going on as the Pope just REFUSED TO ACCEPT THE RESIGNATION OF A BISHOP WHO WAS COVERING FOR PEDOPHILE PRIESTS. [IRISH CENTRAL]
* You ever use those $1 coins? Me either. They’re heavy, take up too much pocket space, and I get the side-eye when I try and pay for my tacos with them down here. But the US apparently thinks they’re all kinds of 31-flavors awesome as… “the US government is building a stockpile of $1 coins. The hoard has topped $1.1bn – imagine a stack of coins reaching almost seven times higher than the International Space Station – and the piles have grown so large the US Federal Reserve is running out of storage space.” Dude! As an extra bonus, “the Fed estimates it already has enough $1 coins to last the next 10 years.” [BBC.CO.UK]
* Didja ever notice that when you’re talking with someone that has an accent, you ever so slightly speak like they do? Turns out that it’s normal! “People who interact with a person with a different accent subconsciously mimic their twang because they want to “empathise” with their conversation partner, psychologists claim.” [TELEGRAPH.CO.UK]
* On a somewhat-not-really-related note, people who speak multiple languages have different personalities depending on what language they’re speaking! It sounds nuts, but it’s apparently true! [CBC.CA]
* “A simple 15-minute brain scan could help doctors diagnose people with autism.” Science rocks. [GUARDIAN.CO.UK]
* Slightly important lead-in here that *nobody* in the mainstream media is repeating… “The IMF has effectively pronounced the U.S. bankrupt… we will see… dramatic increases in poverty, tax, interest rates and consumer prices.” Wow. The IMF? And Bloomberg confirms we’re in deep dark cold waters now? OK, crazy thought here, but howzabout we STOP THE DAMN WARS WE DON’T NEED TO BE IN and save all of those lives and money we’re wasting on those two foreign countries we’re never going to change a damn thing in? Howzabout we start with that and go from there, yes? [BLOOMBERG]
* …oh, and by the way, the “bankrupt USA” isn’t the only bad news. Apparently there’s a little thing called a “derivatives bubble” with 1.5 quadrillion dollars tied up in the whole enchilada that’s about to pop, and when it does, “there won’t be enough money in the entire world to fix it”. OK, this is nuts. Is 1.5 quadrillion? Losing the cutsey abbreviation, that’s $1,500,000,000,000,000. My fingers are tired from just typing that! [SEEKINGALPHA.COM]
* Turning off the lights? In America? Seriously? [NY TIMES]
* 15 more stats that things really are getting worse. [INTEL DAILY]
* Some news articles sum up how I feel perfectly… “As we enter our ninth year of the War in Afghanistan with an escalated force, and continue to occupy Iraq indefinitely, and feed an endlessly growing Surveillance State, reports are emerging of the Deficit Commission hard at work planning how to cut Social Security, Medicare, and now even to freeze military pay. ” The headline? “What a collapsing empire looks like”. I sincerely hope this is all NOT coming to pass. But things aren’t looking too good, and the person who was SUPPOSED to change all this crap decided to puss out. [SALON]
Speaking of….
*** WARNING : HIGHLY UPSET VOTER RANT BEGINS HERE ***
“Change you can believe in?” Ah, no. Here’s 4 reasons from this week alone as to why…
* #1 “The Obama administration is pressing Britain, Germany, Australia, and other allied Western governments to consider opening criminal investigations of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and to severely limit his nomadic travels across international borders, American officials say.” So let me get this straight. A man does the press’ job of revealing all the screw ups and clusterfucks of the never-ending war, illustrates the fallacies that happened under the BUSH regime, and OBAMA wants him arrested tried overseas? [DAILY BEAST]
* #2 “In one of the first military commissions held under the Obama administration, a US military judge has ruled that confessions obtained by threatening the subject with rape are admissible in court.” Wow. This is just flat out wrong. Add this to the pile. [RAWSTORY]
* #3 A federal agency confiscated a Louisiana State University sample on the BP oil spill because BP hadn’t sanctioned the study and demanded the sample’s return. And this was OK with the Obama administration? [FLORIDA OIL SPILL AW]
* #4 And finally, how much does it cost you to go to the beach? For me? Counting gas for the car, scuba gear prep, and maybe a new toy or two to dive with? Ballpark? $100. Maybe $300 on an all-day trip with some nice rental equipment. If I wanted to go NUTS and bail to Hawaii, a flight and high-end hotel package for a whole week on the main island currently runs $2k on Expedia. Now what could you do with £50,000 pounds (currently $79,480 dollars) per day? Ask Michelle Obama! That’s how much she’s spending in Spain PER DAY for her vacation. What kind of gold-plated hotel does that get you into? Is she renting James Cameron’s whole fleet to go scuba diving with? Oh, and as a extra special bonus, it’s the taxpayers who are paying for a big part of this tab! Let them eat shellfish! [DAILYMAIL.CO.UK]
It’s painfully obvious now that neither Democrat or Republicans will fulfill my deepest wish and end the “lookin’ for tarr’ists” wars, but at least the Republican party isn’t outright lying and pretending to be something they aren’t. And failing to end the wars they promised they would. And failing to stop all the illegal wiretapping they promised they would. And failing to push through the “everyone covered” healthcare bill they promised they would. And failing to Allow five days of public comment before signing bills they promised they would. And failing to keep that “no family making less than $250,000 will see any form of tax increase” they promised they would. And failing to “negotiate health care reform in public sessions televised on C-SPAN” they promised they would. Having said all that, do I think the Republicans are any better? Nope!! It’s a douchebag and turd sandwich choice between these two parties!
*** HIGHLY UPSET VOTER RANT ENDS HERE ***
* Want an example of the legendary Apple hubris in action? The new iPhone operating system update apparently kills the iPhone in-car connection for most vehicles that have it built in. Apple’s response? Telling every car owner to go back to their vehicle’s dealer, put their car in for service, and update their vehicle’s firmware! “Apparently, devices using iOS 4 are not compatible unless the manufacturers bother to update the firmware on the head units, which seems highly irregular.” A bit! [NEOWIN]
* Speaking of Apple hubris, their latest iPhone update is 579 megabytes! 579 megabytes for a phone update? What exactly did these idiots forget at launch day that mandates a 579 megabyte update? Multi-colored numbers on the dial pad? [NEOWIN]
*** WARNING : ANGRY AT A LAW ENFORCEMENT SCREW-UP RANT BEGINS HERE ***
* So some policemen show up at a burglary, and when they enter the home to look for the burglars, they find the homeowner has a gun collection in the home and… they confiscate them all? What? The homeowner is a legally registered gun owner, and the cops seized everything because “Even if he’s a registered gun owner or not, that just seems like its too many rifles.” Seems? SEEMS? Oh, and as a bonus, “At the current time we’re taking the firearms for safe keeping as evidence until we can further investigate this,” says Deputy Chief Lindmark.” Excuse me, Deputy Fife, but that’s absolutely none of your legal or personal business how many firearms a private citizen legally owns! Absolutely! None! You don’t get to confiscate on a whim under the BS “for your safety” banner, and you sure as hell don’t get to violate the rights of an individual that is under NO suspicion of ANY crime just because his private collection is bigger than yours. The proper response would have been to secure the premise, ensure the homeowner was aware of the trespass and was satisfied his premise was no longer under any threat, and talk about the private citizen’s collection at the local coffee shop after work. If your “spider sense” went off for whatever reason, you should have gone to get a warrant from a judge. THEN you could have grabbed everything you wanted! But judges tend to hate handing out warrants for “spider sense” activity, so you would have to use facts, which I hear are really quite annoying for knee jerk reactions. I hope the homeowner sues the hell out of every cop that was part of this illegal seizure, takes a big permanent chunk of Deputy Fife’s yearly paycheck, and then pops the city with a cash KO to remind them not to hire gestapo punks who think they’re above the law. [MY STATELINE.COM]
*** ANGRY AT A LAW ENFORCEMENT SCREW-UP RANT ENDS HERE ***
* In Virginia, an illegal alien killed a nun in a DWI car crash. Now Virginia is wondering if maybe Arizona has the right idea. Not good. [YAHOO]
* A church protests at strip club, so the strip club protests outside the church! I can’t tell whether this is classic detente or a stalemate. Either way, it’s hilarious. [DISPATCH]
* And finally, Vladimir Putin HIMSELF put out TWO wildfires in Russia flying “an amphibious firefighting airplane”. Wow. This dude doesn’t even want fire to mess with his country. Why wasn’t he in “The Expendables” movie? [RIAN.RU]
That’s all I got! Back Monday!
** Actually posted late late Sunday because my internet connection was, once again, all kinds of Smurfed up this weekend. I need to be in a certain spot in my home for the Sprint wireless stick to work. Sucks? A bit.
Once again, another product has been found to contain Sulfoaildenafil, and once again the FDA has pulled the product off the market.
According to the official release by the FDA, “Prolatis’ is conducting a voluntary recall after being informed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that lab analysis has found Prolatis’ to contain Sulfoaildenafil, an analogue of Sildenafil, an FDA-approved drug used as treatment for male Erectile Dysfunction (ED), making Prolatis’ an unapproved drug.”
It wasn’t hard to find these guys. (No pun intended). According to the Prolatis website, “Prolatis™ was developed as a fast acting sexual performance enhancer.”
Giant red-flag-on-fire much?
I love scuba diving, and I really enjoy swimming among all the marine life that’s in the ocean.
Having said that, this next video is really beautiful, and completely nuts at the same time. Right around the :23 mark….
Chuck Patterson posted that video where he said he… “was SUP surfing with a couple friends and 2 sharks circled us for about 15 minutes. the next day, i decided to go back out at around the same time and take my GO PRO HD HERO camera (gopro.com) mounted on a 10 ft pole and do some exploring. Sure enough within 5 minutes a 9 ft shark came out of no where and circled twice and slapped his tail on my board before disappearing. then a minute later a 7 ft young juvenile Great White swam circles around me for 12 minutes. It was an unreal experience that I will cherish forever.”
Awesome. Slightly unnerving, but awesome!
One of the most commented posts so far is the one where I listed an FDA recall from November 2009 about a product called “Stiff Nights”.
Back then, the FDA said “Stiff Nights, a product marketed as a dietary supplement for sexual enhancement, contains an ingredient that can dangerously lower blood pressure and is illegal.”
Stiff Nights got yanked pretty quickly, and everyone was upset how fast it was pulled. Well here we are in August of 2010, and guess what? Stiff Nights is now getting yanked with a bunch of others at the same time. (Would you believe me if I said no pun intended?)
Junior high humor aside, today the company that makes all these products said they are… “conducting a voluntary nationwide recall of products sold under the following names: Stiff Nights, Aziffa, Size Matters, Erex, Mojo, Hard Drive, Eyeful, Red Magic, Straight Up, Zotrex, Monster Excyte, WOW, Xaitrex, Verect, Prolatis, Xytamax, Maxyte, Libidinal, OMG, OMG45, and Zilex (with Golden Spear).”
Mojo? Isn’t that a cartoon character? And OMG? Why not LOL while you’re at it?
Anyhow, apparently, all of these products have sulfoaildenafil.
Sulfoaildenafil!
DUN DUN DUUUNNNN!!!
Sulfoaildenafil is basically sildenafil, a Viagra knockoff. And since this ingredient isn’t listed on the products, and that “the undeclared ingredient may interact with nitrates found in some prescription drugs such as nitroglycerin and may lower blood pressure to dangerous levels”, the FDA says they all gotta’ go!
All of the products listed “with manufacture or distribution dates prior to June 17, 2010 are being recalled” even though “no illnesses or adverse effects have been reported to the company to date in connection with these products.”
I’ve only seen a few of these red spiders in our yard and on our garage door, but they’re a color and texture I’ve never seen before.
Click and check out the original size to see it larger…
A reddish-orange abdomen with a bright yellow pattern down the center line, a faint pink cephalothorax that actually looks “raw”, and over-bristled legs. (This fellow apparently lost one on his left side.)
Maybe he just molted? Regardless, I’ve got bug-spray-the-yard duty this weekend.
I found this at the local HEB not too long ago and had to share. (For those of ya’ll that don’t know, HEB is a big giant supermarket chain that’s mostly in south Texas)
A big First Alert Carbon Monoxide detector marked down from $22.99 to .25 cents.
When they mark stuff down for clearance, they ain’t fooling around!
Every Monday I like to post some music to start the week off on the right foot.
This week….
Desperate Union – Don’t Forget Me (Angel)
Mike Posner – Cooler Than Me
Eurythmics – Would I Lie To You?
John Mellencamp – Authority Song
and finally, Aerosmith – Rag Doll
