you can blame Willie do for this one
because he's just he's on the Internet
but this one is even more intense a
little bit because in the time that we
received the product there's also been a
dispute sort of launching off popping
off between this product and a different
product this product map is a B light
cardboard box you don't know what it is
and then you're like oh that's a
keyboard sort of thing and you're right
it is little cable on the inside but
what's unique about it or interesting is
that this keyboard aims to turn your
iPad pro into a full-fledged laptop type
of setup now you may recall in the past
other products kind of similar to this
particularly from a company called
bridge but without the trackpad that was
the missing piece it was the missing
link this puts you squarely into
matchbook territory now that you have
the keyboard the trackpad this one even
comes with like a magnetic cover for the
back of the iPad and this hinge system
that lets you fold down the iPad screen
as if it were a MacBook now of course it
all matches up in a space grey it's got
the chiclet style keyboard Apple has
positioned this new iPad in many ways
for marketing and even in the keynote as
a replacement for a computer what's a
computer the girl in the commercial
what's what's computer well
what's a pewter exactly Apple they put
out this product this is the smart
keyboard cover it's super thin and light
but the keyboard itself this soft touch
material I tried to live life without a
laptop and instead I replace my laptop
temporarily with an iPad pro in this
case and I started to miss the tactility
and the scale of a traditional keyboard
this baby goes for 200 bigs so these
aren't cheap even though they kind of
look and feel a bit cheap it just it's
it's so easy on and off
you want it to be versatile and work in
these various situations that's what
Apple is pitching in the first place
other products emerged like this one
from Logitech which gives you more
protection for the iPad as a case it
gives you tactile feedback on the
keyboard it gives you a similar form
factor but it eliminates the ability to
have the easy on off because now you've
got this rubber thing around the iPad so
then bridge came along they came along
with something that looked like this -
the trackpad and these guys took it to
the final place you might expect it to
go with the trackpad keyboard the full
thing you're now turning your iPad
essentially into a touchscreen MacBook
this company here is called Libre they
launched on Kickstarter raised 230
thousand USD 1,800 backers at which
point Bridge who has a product similar
to this they they were like let's go
ahead and and sue those guys all right I
don't know if they're officially suing
them but there's definitely a dispute
because this product looks like the
other product even though this one adds
the trackpad now all of this is
culminating in this moment right here
right now because the iPad recently got
some new software iPad OS which I talked
about on the show downstairs that aims
to make the iPad more like a laptop
which reignites this conversation about
the iPad macbook alternatives so those
hinges feel fairly strong to begin with
type-c this is an out DC out and then in
so to charge it up and I guess you can
get some power out of it to charge your
iPad from here oh four thousand milliamp
power built-in battery so sure you could
you could use this device to charge up
your phone or plug it into your iPad for
some extra battery life this is how you
do it loop and then you fold it down
when you go up like this it kicks up the
foot a little bit here this is the hinge
style that's causing the dispute and it
gives you a nice little angle to the
keyboard itself whew that feels a lot
like a laptop jack oh there goes the pen
they also include this back panel that
just slides in like that and now I guess
you can just carry this around right
like that
yeah it's magnetic it's magnetic as well
so you can pull that off put it on
whatever you choose one of the nice
things about this design you still have
a spot for the pain
the pen at the top but when you want it
out oh my god it comes out crazy easy
[Music]
but there's tons of friction when you're
going front to back that's sort of what
it looks like one thing I was worried
about was the multitasking from the
bottom there the pulling up like that
you can do it but just keep in mind you
got a ridge there to compete with so you
really got to make sure you're down at
the bottom of the display it's just
screened starting at the very bottom so
that's kind of cool and head over to
bluetooth oh I got it iPad keyboard here
we go
youtube.com/ look at that whoo it's so
strange every time you get the keyboard
input by default it keeps the on-screen
keyboard off when you have a Bluetooth
one attached so your screen real estate
goes up as well while you're typing you
can see more of what you're typing so
let's go ahead the quick brown they're a
little smaller
the keys are shorter this way but once
you've used it for a little bit you're
probably gonna get used to it the
trackpad is a different story because
you have to enable it I believe as an
accessibility thing and now you can see
the issue with reaching I'm not reaching
the bottom right now here you can use
that button to go home instead so you're
probably going to be using the gestures
less anyways so keep in mind this is a
prototype things could change about this
design at the moment I think the iPad
sits a little too low where the ability
to multitask and head home the gesture
from the bottom of the screen is a bit
screwed up if it's sitting all the way
down so if I push it all the way in all
of a suddent reach that section whoo I
got it working and it's uh better than I
expected
the pointer is like this target thing
hang on a sec here so assistive touch
scrolling sure has an auto hide feature
15 seconds it will auto hide so you can
see the screen better I guess alright so
it's this little circular style pointer
I think I'm gonna make it white it's a
bit brighter the scrolling is definitely
laggy err that's crazy you're definitely
gonna want to scroll like this it's a
tough one to analyze at this moment
because it's a type of feature that
Apple's letting you use but is it really
encouraging that you use if I had to try
a mouse now like is that how a mouse
Scrolls on here here's a mouse
yeah the scrolling is still a bit wonky
the pointing is good it's okay but it's
still not what you might be used to on a
laptop and definitely when you're using
the trackpad even more so it works but
it's a little laggy so what can I say
maybe this is the reason why bridge
didn't release the trackpad version of
their keyboard case for the moment even
though they say they're working on it
this is still a touch based OS when you
start introducing these traditional
input methods like a keyboard and a
trackpad which is what you would have in
an environment where you couldn't reach
up and touch the screen now there's this
overlap my experience with this trackpad
right here sort of showcases some of the
drawback but it also showcases how good
the touch input is on something like
this it does support gestures it does
work as a trackpad but for me
particularly with an iPad you're gonna
want to reach up and touch it anyways so
I don't think the trackpad should be the
biggest differentiating factor for you
the keyboard and battery on the other
hand will probably increase your
productivity you can imagine will Apple
releases another version the next
version of the software and possibly
they improve the assistive touch or make
it a more native feature and now people
are happy they had the track pack ready
to go overall it's a pretty cool package
it's still not enough for me to give up
on laptops because all these flippy
versatile eggs
apples to me don't offer enough of an
improvement in functionality for what I
do where I still want a solid slab
I want a thing more like a laptop iPad
is good but it's still not a laptop