For Writing and Real Work, iPad Needs a Keyboard Dock [Review]

The weirdest thing about using Apple’s iPad Keyboard Dock is that you are constantly reaching for a mouse — a mouse that isn’t there, of course. The iPad doesn’t support mice. Instead, you should be tapping and swiping the screen.

Using the keyboard to work with the iPad takes you out of the multitouch mode and puts you back in mouse/keyboard mode. And while you can use the keyboard in a limited way to navigate the iPad, you can’t use many of the desktop shortcuts you’ve learned over the years, like Command-Tab to switch apps.

So using an iPad with a keyboard takes a little getting used to, but the $69 iPad Keyboard Dock is a very handy accessory, with a couple of caveats.

The iPad Keyboard Dock is just like one of Apple’s standard aluminum Bluetooth Keyboards. It has the same look and feel, and high build quality. It’s clean, solid and well-made. The Chicklet keys are durable and easy to type on. The iPad slides easily into the integrated dock connector and stays there.

On the back is a standard Dock Connector port and a 3.5mm audio port for plugging the rig into a pair of speakers. The keyboard can be used alone (it’s powered by the iPad), or plugged into a 10W charging brick, or a USB port on a Mac/PC. I have it plugged into the AC power brick, and use it as an overnight charging dock when the iPad isn’t in use.

The key setup is similar to a standard keyboard but some of the function keys are iPad specific. There are the usual music and screen-brightness controls, but also a Home button, which brings up the iPad’s Home screen. There’s a Spotlight search button that launches the search screen; a button to activate Picture Frame mode; and a Keyboard button that summons the on-screen keyboard.

There’s also the notorious blank button, which was the subject of much prerelease speculation, but actually is blank for a good reason: it doesn’t do anything.

The rest of the keys are pretty standard. There’s the usual Command, Option and Shift keys, which can be used for many of the standard cut/paste/select all commands.

I’m not much of a keyboard jockey but I am accustomed to using the arrow keys to move around documents and folders. While the iPad keyboard arrow buttons can move you up and down documents, they don’t work on the Home screen or several apps, such as navigating song lists in the iPod app.

Also, because of the placement of the iPad’s Dock Connector, you can only use it standing up in portrait mode. It’s no good for docking your iPad to watch a HD movie in landscape. It’s also awkward to use with an ergonomic keyboard tray. Because the iPad sticks up and backwards, you’ve got to slide your keyboard tray all the way out. It may not fit many trays.

If this is an issue, it may be a better idea to get a standard Bluetooth keyboard and one of the many iPad stands on the market.

But all in all, the iPad Keyboard Dock is very handy for charging, and is indispensable for writing anything longer than a few lines in email.

Leander Kahney

Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.

Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.

He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.

Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.

Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.

Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.

Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.

Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.

Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.

He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.

Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.

You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.