It's very easy to double-tap on the screen, then hit “Select All”… and it's even easier to accidentally hit the backspace key on your Bluetooth keyboard, causing the writing you were working on to go poof.

What's even funnier is when you're at the local coffee house doing this, and you realize you did it. Frantically leaping to your feet, muttering “awwwww shiiiiittttttt”, and then shaking your iPad like a four year old with an Etch-A-Sketch will cause the rest of the folks in the coffee house to laugh at you.

However, this WILL ensure you get your writing back.

Just got a smart cover for the iPad mini. Check it out.

It covers!

It Stands!

It lets you type!

That’s about it. I got nuthin’.

So, as I wrote earlier, I was very, very wrong when I thought Apple wouldn’t release an iPad mini. They did, and I just got my grubby little paws on one. Here’s a brain dump on what I think about it after spending a couple of days with it. I was going to post pictures, but I’m lazy, and it’s absolutely impossible to compete with the great shots over at iMore.com’s review of the iPad mini, so you’re just going to get a brain dump of my thoughts. Hey now, no whining allowed while reading my blog, so just deal with it. ;)

First, it’s tiny, and light. I know you’re thinking, No shit, Sherlock, it’s called the iPad mini. And you’re right, but adding the mini suffix to the name doesn’t convey how light the device is. It’s really light, if you compare it to the 3rd or 4th generation full-sized iPad. So much that I called that version of the iPad the iPad Chunky the other night. How small is the iPad mini? Well, let’s compare it to another device I have around here the Amazon Kindle Keyboard 3G (the 2 year old, black and white unit). This Kindle is probably my favorite as it’s light enough to read, yet substantial enough to not feel like a toy. How does the iPad mini hold up?

That’s not a device that feels heavy or big, by any stretch of the imagination. The iPad mini is only slightly larger in most of the dimensions (except thickness) but not by a large amount. This makes it very comfortable to use for reading. When you have each of these devices in your hands, the actual size differences are difficult to spot. I promised I wasn’t going to show any pictures, but what the heck here’s one of the mini next to the Kindle (and yes, that’s a Star Trek LCARS lock screen don’t judge me!)

iPad mini and Kindle Comparison – not much difference!

Next, it doesn’t feel slow or clunky, despite the A5 (iPad2-class) processor in it. The unit is basically an iPad2, but thanks to the iPad2-style screen (non-retina, 1024x768 resolution) the mini feels snappy enough for most tasks. (I can’t believe I’m praising the fact that the mini DOESN’T have a Retina Display.) Playing Asphalt 7 on it made it bog down only slightly on the really heavy graphic screens, but other than that, it seemed to zip right along.

As far as that display goes, did I want a Retina Display? YES, absolutely. My main iPad is a 3rd gen unit with the Retina Display, so not having it was very noticable to me, particularly when reading an e-book set to a small font. That’s about the only time I jonesed for the high-res display, though. For most things - consumption situations, like reading Facebook, Twitter or Web news - the screen was absolutely fine.

Of course, this being a 4G iPad, it also lets you have All The Internets at your fingertips, and its no speed slouch, either. In my regular coverage areas (at home in Gilroy, CA - and work in Mountain View, CA) I regularly got over 10Mbit/sec on download. Not only that but it works as a dandy hotspot. I ran a little longevity test with the screen off, the iPad mini stayed in hotspot mode for a little over 25 hours before the battery ran out. I suspect you’d exhaust your dataplan before you ran the battery out of the mini when using it this way.

So, let’s see: we’ve got what basically equals an iPad2, with much less weight and size. Is it worth buying? Well, that depends on your use model. If what you’re doing is mostly consuming media, reading, or websurfing, then the iPad mini is for you. If you’re going to do any kind of content creation, then you’ll probably want one of the mini’s bigger-boned siblings.

As for me? Well, thanks to working in the mobile space I’ve got access to this 16GB Verizon mini. And it’s not enough. I’m itching to get my own mini, but with more storage. It’s stupid - I’ve got a 64GB iPad3. Buuuuttt the mini is so damned handy and easy to haul around. It absolutely disappears in my ScottEVest jacket. It really is a great mix of portability and power. Despite my past opinions and writings, I find myself drawn to the mini. If you’ve been following me on the Internets at all, you’ll know that I don’t generally change my mind easily. This product’s made me reconsider what I’ve said ask my wife, that’s something unique.

So, it’s taken a day or so for things to gel in my head, but I finally have an opinion on the new products Apple released the other day. In case you’ve been living under a rock, Apple released the following products on 10/23:

• Brand new Retina-equipped 13” MacBook Pro
• Updated Mac Mini
• Redesigned, crazy thin iMacs (why? it sits on your desk. Who cares, it’s awessooommeee)
• iPad mini
• 4th generation iPad

In all, it’s a crazy reshuffling of the product line, but it’s the last two products on this list that made me twitch uncontrollably for a while. Now that the seizures have mostly subsided, I think I can pick apart their product strategery. Let’s begin with the iPad mini.

First, I have to say that I was wrong when I said I thought Apple wouldn’t release an iPad mini. I still think the Great and Powerful Jobs (may he rest in peace) wouldn’t have fragmented his market like that, but hey, I’m not in the inner circle at Apple, either. Apple released the iPad mini to a bunch of fanfare and hoopla in San Jose, and there was a tremendous fanboygasm from the collective Internet. The iPad mini occupies an odd niche in Apple’s marketing plan – price-wise it’s smack in the iPod Touch’s range ($299-$399), yet it isn’t down at the price range that some of its competitors occupy, like the Kindle Fire ($159 base price). What’s going on here? It seems that Apple is willing to chop some of the iPod Touch’s market to have a tablet that can compete with the Kindle Fire, Nexus 7, and Galaxy Tab 7.0.

This seems like an odd strategy for Apple. Apple rarely cares about what other companies are doing, and has traditionally said “Screw you guys, we’re going to define our own market.” Apple has truly embodied the philosophy of “If you build it, they will come.” That is, until now. It seems that either Apple is acknowledging a hole in their marketing plan for iPad, or that they think their 10” tablet-only strategy wasn’t good enough. Either way, it’s something we don’t see out of Apple often, and certainly something that Steve Jobs would have avoided (or denied) like the plague. Remember, the Almighty Jobs Himself had said The reason we [won’t] make a 7-inch tablet isn t because we don t want to hit [a lower] price point. It s because we think the screen is too small to express the software. As a software driven company, we think about the software strategies first. So apparently 7” is bad while 8” is good. Whatever.

Having said that, the iPad mini looks freaking neat, particularly in the 4G/LTE variant. I’ve got a ScottEVest jacket that I carry my fullsized iPad 3 in, but it’s a little heavy. Having a tablet that’s small enough to disappear in that jacket would be WAY cool. However , while I think the iPad mini looks neat, I’m on the fence about actually owning one. I use the on-screen keyboard of the regular-sized iPad in landscape orientation all the time, and I think the smaller 8” screen of the iPad mini would make that keyboard way too cramped for my tastes. I’m curious to try one, though.

For me, though, the huge surprise of the Apple announcement was the 4th generation iPad. I did not see that one coming, and I don’t think most of the other folks tracking the mobile industry did either. As someone who bought a fully loaded, retina-class, 64GB, Verizon LTE-equipped iPad back in April, I said this on Twitter when they announced this iPad:

And now my iPad sucks. Thank you, Tim Cook, for making that happen in SIX FUCKING MONTHS. Bill Childers (@wildbill) October 23, 2012

What I really meant by it was:

WHAAAARRRRGAAARRRBBBBBLLLL THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO LAST A YEAR GODDAMN YOU APPLE YOU HAVE DESTROYED MY INNER CHILD STEVE JOBS WOULD HAVE NEVER LET THIS HAPPEN GGRRRRRRR ARRRRGGGGH

After hyperventilating uncontrollably and choking back tears for about five minutes, I finally got my lizard brain under control and began to really think about what Apple did, and why they did it. Let’s start thinking this out.

First, the new iPad 4 has the new Lightning connector. It’s pretty obvious Apple wants to get all their devices on this connector as fast as possible, and rolling the retina-class iPad with a new version helps achieve that goal. This leaves the legacy products with the dead-ended, end-of-lifed Dock Connector: the iPad2, iPhone 4/4S, and iPods (Classic and Shuffle). Apple can start pushing its own Lightning-enabled accessories immediately, and this gives them leverage over their 3rd party accessory makers to start licensing the Lightning connector and technology. Remember, the Lightning connector is proprietary and “smart” in that it actually has an authentication chip in it. This means the connector MUST be licensed, and not reverse-engineered – and that translates to Mo’ Money for Apple.

Next – and I’m sure this isn’t something Apple takes lightly – until now, the iPad’s not had a good amount of buzz to carry it into the massive holiday buying season. Assuming Apple makes this move a permanent release timeframe for future iPads (Apple’s proven time and again we can’t COUNT on them to do anything) – now Apple has brand new shiny stuff just in time for Xmas. Yep, fresh off the boat from China, new blood diamonds tech gadgets for us greedy capitalist running dog pigs. (I’m not making a value statement here, honest. I’m one of those greedy capitalist running dog pigs, and I fall for Apple’s toys every. single. time. I feel good about buying tech, cause we help elevate China’s GDP and therefore their standard of living, just a little bit. At least that’s what I tell myself when I fall asleep surrounded by softly glowing, pulsing, little electronic gems of lust. Anyway, I digress.) New gadgets hot off the assembly line in time for Xmas means an even more frenzied lust at the checkout counter, which all plays into Tim Cook’s master plan to keep growing Apple’s coffers.

And last, but most certainly NOT least: Apple used this product release as a way to “fire all guns”, then “fire for effect” at the competition. Where Amazon released a couple new tablets, and Google comes out with the Nexus, Apple shows off not only two new tablets – each with their own brand new CPU designed in house – but some crazy designs like the new super thin iMac. It’s literally Apple declaring themselves “cock of the walk” (Just like Bruce Dickinson!) and daring their competitors to do their best to take a shot at them.

I may not be thrilled with the timing of the 4th generation iPad’s release, but in the end, it doesn’t matter what I think. Apple is going to continue to make the products they think they should make, and they’ll release them at the most opportune moment for themselves – NOT for their customers. And the thing is, the customers will buy them anyhow… because we are all addicted to the latest, greatest, fastest hit of opium off the tech gadget bong of Apple. And that’s exactly where Apple wants us, in the end.

Damn, now all of a sudden, my 3rd generation iPad doesn’t look so horribly obsolete.

tl;dr - I have cases for my iPhone and iPad that look like old books and I like them.

There’s a little company in Charleston, South Carolina that makes things you’ll like. How do I know this? Because they make things I like. TwelveSouth is a groovy twelve person outfit down in the south that concentrates on doing one thing: building cool accessories for your Apple stuff. Their story is a fascinating one if you are interested in American entrepreneurship and the startup mentality, but I’m here to concentrate on what is perhaps their flagship product: the BookBook iPhone and iPad cases.

I came across the BookBook iPhone case first. I was at the Apple Store before my buddy Jason Nassi’s wedding, looking for a wallet style iPhone case. I wanted to keep a couple of credit cards, my license, and some money in one place along with my iPhone, since I was going to be gussied up in a tuxedo and my daily carry philosophy of “stuff your pockets full of shit” was NOT going to work. The BookBook immediately caught my eye, as it didn’t look like a typical “wallet”. It reminded me of a well worn copy of Machinery’s Handbook that I remember my grandfather owning, and for that reason alone I bought the case.

The BookBook case for iPhone.

The BookBook performed absolutely great for what I bought it for. At this wedding, it let me carry the stuff I needed to have on me in one small, non-nerdly looking package. I particularly like the way it has a see thru slot for any identifying documents - that came in handy when getting carded for booze in Vegas.

The BookBook for iPhone case, open, showing off my awesome picture.

The BookBook case for the iPhone really does cradle the phone and protect it, as well as holding a few cards for you. It’s not perfect, though, and I have a gripe or two. First, the folks at TwelveSouth didn’t put a hole for the camera in the back of the case of the BookBook. To use your phone’s camera while it’s in the case, you need to pull up on the red tab and inch it up out of the case so that the camera’s clear of the case. I understand that this isn’t ideal, aesthetically, but not having fast access to the camera is far from a functional ideal. I was able to fix this by using a leather punch to punch a hole in the case. Second, the leather of the case tends to leave oily streaks on the iPhone’s screen. Not a huge deal either, but you do need to clean your phone’s screen more often. Neither of these is a huge issue, though, and shouldn’t keep you from getting a BookBook for your iPhone if you need a unique wallet-style case.

BookBook for iPad

Moving on to the iPad version of the BookBook is a familiar,yet different experience. Just like its little brother, the bigger version of the BookBook case is well made from leather (or a very reasonable facsimile thereof),in a supersized McDonalds mega-meal kind of way. Unlike the iPhone version of the BookBook, the iPad case has a lining that mostly prevents the leather from oilstaining the screen of the iPad.

BookBook for iPad - Open

In addition to the lining, the BookBook is designed so that the iPad slides into a little sleeve inside the case. This sleeve is held down with two snaps – and can be detached so that a little piece of rigid leather can flip out and elevate the edge of the iPad so that it provides a nice typing surface. This feature works better than it sounds – I find myself using the iPad in this mode a lot for notetaking in meetings and writing short passages. This blog post was written in this manner, as well.

BookBook - In typing position and ready for business.

There are a couple of other small details that are welcome additions to this version of the BookBook. There are two high-quality zippers that run around the edge of the case, keeping your iPad safely protected while its encased in the BookBook. The BookBook’s also got some rigidity in the front and back covers, and that also makes it easier to type on and use.

In closing, both cases are quite nice and they’re welcome additions to my iDevices. If I only had budget for one of them, I’d get the iPad version because it’s a little better thought out, but I recommend both if you’re looking for something that doesn’t look like plastic, glass, or aluminum to transport your favorite fruit-powered device.

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