Landscape orientation with physical iPad keyboard possible, thrilling
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted April 26th 2010 11:59AM
posted April 26th 2010 11:59AM
When "Joe," our favorite bloggin' anesthesiologist, sat down for his daily Twitter session (he takes social media very seriously) he couldn't get past the fact that Apple's hardware iPad keyboard was oriented in portrait mode. Pretty weak, right? Well, fear not, iPad users! It seems that your basic dock extender cable will let you attach the keyboard and orient the screen however you desire. Now all of you proud iPad users can get back to worrying about things like protecting your phalanges and Flavor Flav wannabes.
[img]http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/03/100309-screengrabswm2.jpg[/img]
Ok that didn't come out right. Let's try again. http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/03/100309-screengrabswm2.jpg
FAIL.
if i wanted to do this i'd just use a laptop or netbook, and have usb, hdmi, vga, esata, etc. etc. etc.
I will use $500 to buy a notebook.
I struggled to find a use for this thing, but I jumped out and bought two first of last week and took them to a tradeshow. They worked really well for roaming sales guys who were showing off product, showing slide shows, and videos. Laptops were always too bulky, and you had to turn them on, and blah blah blah - they were a hit for that. It also gave everyone a chance to keep up on email.
Honestly, I'd never have bought any (even one for me who tends to buy the next thing Uncle Steve makes) if we hadn't been in the middle of a bunch of tradeshows, but I can honestly see a use for them now. Great demo product for salespeople, kind of useless otherwise.
@dbw1977 A few of my sales guys use the HP tablet PC for on the tradeshow floor demos.
They are great because we have developed a Flash/AIR based Kiosk. We actually can hand the tablet to who we are talking to and let them touch/swipe/watch the presentation.
Further, we have a Bluetooth numeric keypad. Which rocks since it gives us 19 keys (there are a couple extra than a normal keypad) that the salesperson can press to launch part of the presentation. For instance, when a perspective client says, "so how much is a..." we can press the "0" key and the pricing appears on the tablet.
It works really well. I was hoping we could swap the 3 HPs we have for iPads before Apple announced the project. But it is a no go. We just don't have the time/desire to redevelop our kiosk in Objective-C. Honestly, Flash is more suited for this type of work anyway. And, second, we have not been able to to get the keypad to work with our test iPad here in the office.
Long reply - but the point is that I feel that the HP Slate, the Dell android tablets, and others coming soon will be far superior devices for a salesperson to carry around. It is VERY cool when you hand your tablet to a prospect. It gives them a toy to touch containing your sales pitch and it holds them there. It seems even the busiest exec will hang around if he is holding your computer. Finally, it attracts co-workers. Everyone wants to see what guy X is holding.
@Anatidae I never really took time to even look at other tablet style machines, I was going for a little of the "wow" factor. The industry we're in is catching up technology wise, but can still be pretty far behind in some cases, so having something to show people that there is still a lot of media buzz on (beyond just tech blogs, but more traditional media outlets) somewhat grabs their attention.
Not sure if we'll continue with the iPads, depends on how tech savvy my sales people are and if they can maintain them on their own, but the concept of the tablet/pad is something we'll keep using - great idea for a carry around sales presentation that's ready to show in 10 seconds.
@dbw1977 If ever you get bored of those "otherwise useless" iPad's, I'll gladly buy them off you. I'm sure I can find good use for them, other than walking around a trade show, trying to look Flash.
Only Apple could take us back to the dark ages of computing and call it progress.
Maybe this is just me but does having a dock/keyboard, iPad, and extension cable to lug around seem like more work than just taking a Macbook with you?
If you want a effin keyboard get a notebook!! Ugh ipads are so stupid
Why don't you pay $200 bucks less and get both the screen and the keyboard. It is called a netbook...
And why would you buy this and not a laptop?
@retro77
Okay, I'll bite. Because the iPad is always on. There is no booting your computer. Because I get a better user experience when I browse the web, Safari on the iPad is blazing. Because I do not have to worry about malware or security patches. Because the apps are very inexpensive, many are free. Because the screen is beautiful on this form factor. Because I can use it anywhere and carry it with or without a bag. Because it is an excellent ereader
My son loves Star Walk and children's books that are unlike any he has seen before. My wife uses Weather Bug and Netflix. I like reading the newspapers in the morning with a user experience that emulates holding the real thing without the ink on my hands. We all like reading ebooks from Amazon and iTunes. Other than that- not much use for an iPad.
@dio777
AHAH better internet browsing?
NO FLASH MORAN!
please close your word hole now and leave the internettings
@AppleDrank
Doesn't affect me, pal. Not enough to matter.
@dio777
lol "excellent ereader"...were you talking about SONY's ereader there buddy? aaahh....
@AppleDrank
Who is Moran?
This is revolutionary!
just buy a laptop then.... jesus.
Dear Engadget,
Maybe you like all these flame wars, but this is getting ridiculous. There is little to no point in clicking on the comments section on any posts anymore. Why aren't you patrolling your boards. In the comments on this post alone you have people swearing at each other, pointless trolling, and on and on. What used to be a reasonable community has become kinda pointless.
Are you banning people and the rest of us are somehow unaware of it? Maybe its time to post something about what you are doing, how people are expected to behave, what might happen if they don't, etc. Cuz right now this isn't really your blog anymore.
Can you say: R.S.I? I can feel the pain in my neck already
May be a resourgence of things like this
http://www.wirelessground.com/stblke.html
http://reviews.cnet.com/keyboards/celluon-laserkey-cl800bt/4505-3134_7-31645178.html?tag=also
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20003419-1.html
The last one was available with BT as the Stowaway. I have the first and last from PDA days, and they work fine with the iPad. Don't really take up much room, and likely make a little more typing more palatable.
I'm confused. Is that a USB keyboard plugged into the dock cable? Does this mean that you don't need the camera connection kit for USB keyboards?
here's an idea:
GET A REAL LAPTOP.
To the tedious Pavlovian Luddite kneejerk "get-a-laptop" crowd:
If you engaged your imaginations for a millisecond, you might realize that there's a difference in where a laptop and a tablet can comfortably be used. Both are desirable. However, a laptop can never be used as a tablet, but a tablet with a detached keyboard can be used as a laptop.
My money's on the tablet.