About eight years ago, I didn’t have an iPad or an iPhone, I had a Dell Axim X5, Dell’s woefully ugly entry into the Pocket PC market. I loved the thing, especially in conjunction with a wonderful accessory that allowed me to collapse a roughly netbook-sized keyboard into the space of a small pocket notebook.
I’m sort of amused, then, to see Logitech dusting off this old approach to mobile keyboards with their new Logitech Fold-Up Keyboard for iPad, but it’s almost like they were taking stupid pills when they were designing it.
The big problem here is that instead of just releasing a tiny fold-out Bluetooth keyboard for your iPad that you could just tuck into your bag, Logitech tried to make it part of a case. The result is an iPad that looks approximately three or four times as thick with Logitech’s Fold-Up Keyboard attached as it is without it.
Then there’s the price. $129.99? Uh, no. I’d rather get their other keyboard case, which is $30 cheaper. I’ll pass. How about you?
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
18 responses to “Logitech’s Fold-Up Keyboard Is A Bulky Transformer For Your iPad”
–I Got an ĂPäd 2.64GB for $21.41 and my boyfriend loves his PanasonĂc LumĂx GF 1 Cámera that we got for $38.79 there arriving tomorrow by UP S.I will never pay such expensive retail prĂces in stores again. Especially when I also sold a 40 inch LCD T V to my boss for $657 which only cost me $62.81 to buy.
Here is the website we use to get it all from, http://www.EgoWĂn.com
..I Got an ĂPäd 2.64GB for $21.41 and my boyfriend loves his PanasonĂc LumĂx GF 1 Cámera that we got for $38.79 there arriving tomorrow by UP S.I will never pay such expensive retail prĂces in stores again. Especially when I also sold a 40 inch LCD T V to my boss for $657 which only cost me $62.81 to buy.
Here is the website we use to get it all from, http://www.EgoWĂn.com
Is it April the 1st already?
Why can’t Targus return with their great folding keyboard from the late 90s? I loved mine with my Sony CliĂ©s and other Palm devices.
I just p a i d $21.87 for an i P a d 2-64GB and my boyfriend loves his Panasonîc Lumîx GF 1 Camera that we got for $38.76 there arriving tomorrow by UPS.I will never pay such expensive retail prices in stores again. Especially when I also sold a 40 inch LED TV to my boss for $657 which only cost me $62.81 to buy.
Here is the website we use to get it all from, http://BĂdsFĂrst.Com
This thing is an abomination.
I just p a i d $21.87 for an i P a d 2-64GB and my boyfriend loves his Panasonîc Lumîx GF 1 Camera that we got for $38.76 there arriving tomorrow by UPS.I will never pay such expensive retail prices in stores again. Especially when I also sold a 40 inch LED TV to my boss for $657 which only cost me $62.81 to buy.
Here is the website we use to get it all from, http://BĂdsFĂrst.Com
It looks like crap!
This thing looks very very similar to those. Â the picture shows it half open which makes it look crappy, but it seems almost identical to the Targus ones to me.Â
The advantage here is that the keyboard can be “full-sized” so despite the criticism from the author, this is better than every other keyboard out there in terms of it being full-sized.
Personally I’ve never seen the point of the other keyboard cases for iPad because if the keyboard is small enough to fit in an iPad case then it’s basically no bigger than the one on the iPad itself or a bad netbook keyboard. Most iPad keyboard cases just turn it in to a bad netbook.
Don’t get me wrong, the picture didn’t turn me off. Hopefully the feel is as good as the Targuses’. I just miss their compact size. Back pocket territory. And I wonder why they don’t make them for the iPhone/iPad and other phones/tablets.
I got my Logitech Fold-Up Keyboard for iPad2 a couple of days ago – two glitches with it’s interface with my 32 GB WiFi only iPad2: Â (1) Made my screen freeze in the vertical orientation; and (2) I have lost all sound on all apps and webpages except for stored gallery videos. Â Both of these conditions persist even after parting the iPad2 from the keyboard; severing the bluetooth connection; and re-booting the iPad2. Â Logitech Tech Support has nothing in their records, etc. to address either problem – promised to pass on my problems to their engineers to examine it. Â Going to the Apple Store Genius Bar tomorrow to see if they can restore the functions with or without the keyboard attached. Â I recognize that it is a new product and that there are bound to be glitches – this is a pretty severe one though. Â On a positive, I love the design of this keyboard !