Zis Mac
Alan Zisman on the Mac
Accessories to Make Your iPad More Useful
- 2010.06.29 - Tip Jar
Follow Alan Zisman on Twitter.
Popularity: 
Short link: http://bit.ly/952faa
A couple of weeks ago, I gave first impressions of my new Apple iPad. In brief, while it's not a full-fledged replacement for a laptop for most business users, it's surprisingly functional and fun to use.
Buying an iPad, though, is just the first step. The next step is to trick it out with physical accessories and apps.
On release day, Apple had a set of accessories available. Among them was the C$45 iPad case, which gives your new iPad a protective cover. It also lets you stand it up for either landscape or portrait mode viewing. Add the 99¢ Night Clock app and use it as a travel clock or as a digital picture frame to display slideshows of your photos.
Like Ford's Model T, Apple's iPad case comes only in black. For more colours, consider alternatives from Kingston, Belkin, Griffin, and others.
A $35 dock also lets you stand your iPad, though only in portrait orientation, but makes it easy to charge at the same time. An audio-out jack can be connected to a sound system; I'm leaving one plugged into my home stereo. (You can also use it with an iPhone or iPod.)
In my first look iPad column, I mistakenly said that you couldn't show presentations from the iPad plugged into an external monitor or projector. Apple's $35 iPad Dock Connector to VGA adaptor lets you do just that, as well as project photos, YouTube clips and other videos. It doesn't mirror what's on the iPad screen, however, so you can't use it to demo use of the iPad itself or use it with most apps. (Thanks to reader Stuart Bell for the correction.)
When in use, the iPad screen freezes. Video or presentation action shows only through the projector. Useful, but a bit less than I would have hoped. (Most video-out adapters for the iPhone also seem to be usable with the iPad - but with the same sorts of limitations.)
On the other hand, Apple's iPad Camera Connection Kit (also $35) does more than the name suggests. It consists of two small adapters, each of which plugs into the Dock connector. One lets you pop in the SD memory storage card used in most (but not all) digital cameras. When you do that, you can view the photos and videos on the card and copy them into the iPad's photo library - and later sync them with your PC or Mac.
The second adaptor has a USB port on it that lets you connect your camera with a USB cable - handy for cameras that don't use SD memory cards. In some respects, this provides the iPad with its missing USB port, and it can be used in several ways not officially supported by Apple. You can, for instance, use it to connect many USB microphones for use with an iPad recording app. Plug in an iPod or iPhone and import photos and videos. It doesn't work, however, with external hard drives or USB memory sticks, so you can't transfer documents to or from the iPad that way.
Some iPod or iPhone accessories may be usable with the iPad as well. iPhone headsets can be used with the iPad, and their built-in mics can be used to make phone calls on the iPad using Skype, TruPhone, or other apps. (Even without a headset, you can make these sorts of calls on the iPad if you don't mind speaking to a large tablet.)
iPod/iPhone chargers, however, don't provide enough power to do a good job charging the larger iPad, and Apple's older iPod Camera Connection won't work with the iPad.
I was able to plug my iPad into a Belkin car FM transmitter and beam
music to the radio. Plugged into the lighter socket, the device
provides enough power to run the iPad, but not enough to recharge its
battery at the same time. 
First published in Business in Vancouver, June 29 - July 5, 2010, issue #1079
Join us on Facebook!, follow us on Twitter, use our Google+ page, or read our RSS news feed
Alan Zisman is Mac-using teacher and technology writer based in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Many of his articles are available on his website, www.zisman.ca. If you find Alan's articles helpful, please consider making a donation to his tip jar.
Other articles by Alan Zisman
- 3 Ways to Use Microsoft Office on Your iPad, 2012.05.14. You can't run Microsoft Office natively on the iPad, but one of these workarounds may do the job for you.
- Adobe CS6: Why Buy When You Can Rent?, 2012.05.01. Adobe hopes its software users will switch to its $50/month Creative Cloud service rather than buy its software outright.
- iPad Dilemma: New iPad or Stick with the Old?, 2012.04.30. Compared with the original iPad, the New iPad has more power, a better screen, and a better camera, but does that really matter?
- More in the Zis Mac index.
Links for the Day
- Mac of the Day: Unitron Mac512, introduced 1985. Unauthorized Brazilian clone of the Mac 512K.
- May 23 in LEM history: 00: A computer I understood - 01: Mac: A dream fulfilled - 02: PowerKey - 03: 12" PowerBook better than 15" TiBook - 05: The First Macs - 06: What's in your workspace? - Picking the right laptop - Sun has set on the G4 - 06: Running your notebook using flash memory - 08: MacBook holds its own against Dell and HP
- Support Low End Mac
Recent Content on Low End Mac
- Lion and the End of Bootable OS X Installers, Frank Fox, Stop the Noiz, 2012.05.23. Mac OS X Lion is only available as an upgrade from Snow Leopard. Is this the end of bootable installers from Apple?
- Mac Pro on the Way Out or Changing with the Times?, Dan Bashur, Apple, Tech, and Gaming, 2012.05.22. No other desktop Mac offers a wide range of expansion options, but is that enough reason for Apple to keep the behemoth powerhouse Mac Pro around?
- iPhone 3D: Stereo Photography and 3D Movies for the Rest of Us, Anne Onymus, The Rumor Mill, 2012.05.22. Until now, stereo photography and 3D movies required expensive dedicated equipment. With the iPhone 3D, Apple will make it available to the masses.
- iPad 2 'Feels Like an Upgrade' from New iPad, Samsung Tops Apple in Smartphone Market, and More, iOS News Review, 2012.05.21. Also Apple to maintain tablet dominance, working in portrait mode, Wozniak would like to see end of walled garden, and more.
- MacBook Airs Top Ultrabooks, Boost MacBook Performance, MacBook Pro Update in June?, and More, The 'Book Review, 2012.05.21. Also Retina displays available now but costly, USB 3 expected in next MacBook rev, hybrid drives an affordable alternative to SSDs, and more.
- More links in our archive.
Recent Deals
- Best 12" PowerBook G4 Deals
- Best MacBook Air Deals
- Best iPad Deals
- Best Mac OS X 10.6, iLife, and iWork Deals
- Best iPod classic Deals
- Best 15" MacBook Pro Deals
- Best iBook G4 Deals
- Best Classic Mac OS Deals
- More deals in our archive.
About LEM Support Usage Privacy Contact
Follow
Low End Mac on Twitter
Join Low End Mac
on Facebook
Low End Mac Reader Specials
Macsales.com SuperSpeed SSDs from $58. Transform your Mac with an SSD Solution of up to 960GB! You won't believe it's the same machine! Once you experience an OWC SSD, no going back! - Macsales.com
Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Macpokeronline.com will show you how to download and play Poker on a Mac natively on your Mac in just minutes.
Favorite Sites
MacSurfer
Cult of Mac
Shrine of Apple
MacInTouch
MyAppleMenu
InfoMac
The Mac Observer
Accelerate Your Mac
RetroMacCast
PB Central
MacWindows
The Vintage Mac Museum
Deal Brothers
DealMac
Mac2Sell
Mac Driver Museum
JAG's House
System 6 Heaven
System 7 Today
the pickle's Low-End Mac FAQ
Affiliates
Amazon.com
The iTunes Store
PC Connection Express
Parallels Desktop for Mac
eBay
