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MacRumors reports that Apple will be switching the functioning of the iPad’s orientation lock switch to a mute switch. 

Why Apple? Why? 

If I want to mute my iPad I can simply hold down the volume key. That’s why the iPad has a physical volume key.

I guess they really want to streamline and standardize their iOS devices. So this leads me to wonder whether or not the next generation iPad will even have the orientation lock/mute switch. iPhone 4 doesn’t have one.

Then again, it just sort of makes sense for there to be a screen orientation lock switch on the iPad. The device is bigger and it would seem a little less practical to need to double click the home button just to be able to lock the screen orientation (like you do on the iPhone). 

Leave it alone, Steve.

All 5 of these iPad cases are indeed much sexier than the stand that I am currently using for my iPad - a cheap $2.99 plastic frame stand. Needless to say, it does the job. If you’ve got some money to burn and an iPad that hasn’t learned how to stand on its own yet, then you definitely might want to give these 5 sexy iPad stands a look. Or, you can go and pick up a cheap $2.99 plastic frame stand like I did. 

By the way, my favorites have got to be the offerings from Elements Case (Joule) and Twelve South (Compass Mobile and BookArc). 

1. Joule by Element Case, $129

Features:

• Magnetically attached tilt foot at the rear allows for quick and easy view angle adjustments.
• Rubber pads at the bottom assure a firm grip on any surface.
• A velvet lined recess holds the iPad comfortably and securely.
• Designed and made in California.
• Limited quantities available.
• Designed With Both Landscape and Portrait Modes in mind.

2. Compass Mobile Stand by Twelve South, $39.99.

“Perhaps the biggest strength of this gorgeous sliver of steel is its versatility. Used upright as an easel, Compass lets you view and interact with iPad in both portrait and landscape modes, even if you keep your iPad protected in the Apple case. Use portrait mode for things like iPhoto slideshows, browsing the iBookstore or flipping through an online news article. Turn your iPad on its side, in landscape position, and Compass becomes the ultimate portable theater. Enjoy your favorite YouTube videos and feature-length movies anywhere you go, while keeping your hands free for popcorn and beverages.”

3. A-Frame by Griffin Technology, $49.99.

Features:

• Simple, beautiful table and desktop stand for your iPad.
• Holds iPad upright in landscape and portrait views or at a lower, wrist-friendly angle for surfing, reading and more.
• Stable aluminum a-frame design.
• Non-slip rubber cradle accommodates Griffin’s flexible and hard-shell cases and many others.
• Allows easy access to iPad’s dock connector for charging and syncing. 

4. ViewStand by Macally, $59.99. 

Features:

• Ergonomically designed to improve typing and viewing comfort.
• Durable aluminum construction with scratch-proof Thermo Polyurethane coating.
• Supports both vertical and horizontal viewing.
• Sleek design to match your iPad.
• Open to all connections and controls.
• Supporting stand included to prevent the ViewStand body from accidentally tipping over.

5. BookArc for iPad by Twelve South, $39.99. 

Features:

• Tabletop stand designed exclusively for iPad
• Hands-free use in four different viewing positions, including landscape orientation
• Elevates iPad for complete access to Dock Connector for Charging & Syncing

The iPad is undoubtedly the ultimate piece of “now” technology. So what happens when you take the crème de la crème of Apple touch technology and merge it with old school Apple tech. 

For instance, the Macintosh Classic. Released in 1990, the Mac Classic was the first Macintosh to sell for less than $1000. It had a 9-inch monochrome CRT display with a 512×342 pixel resolution, 8 MHz processor, 40 MB hard drive, and 2 MB of RAM. Two decades later, we have the iPad and its 9.7 inch LED display with a 1024-by-768-pixel resolution, 1 GHz Apple A4 processor, and 64 GB flash drive. 

What do you get when you merge the two? Leave it to the Japanese to show us.

Via Site Hirac. 

The Game: The premise of Sparkle HD is to return the light to a blackened forest by using your orb slinger to shatter the various orbs of darkness. You shatter orbs by connecting three or more similarly colored orbs together. The orbs appear on the screen as a string of misplaced and different colored orbs. You sling orbs at the quickly moving string of orbs in order to shatter them. There are 6 major levels that you must complete, which each levels containing about 6-8 smaller stages. Once you pass a major level, you receive an amulet. Each amulet is different and can assist you in various ways. My favorite amulet to use was the amulet of Luck. This particular amulet increases your luck and random events tend to turn up in your favor.

Graphics: The graphics are great for this type of game. A lot of fun, bright, and vibrant colors. 

Sound: Sparkle features quite a repetitive soundtrack. Or else, all of the tunes used sounded the same. The sound, however, does play an integral part of the game, considering that it gives you hints as to when you are about to die. 

Difficulty: Like the other 10tons Ltd. titled I previously reviewed, Azkend HD, I feel that the levels could have been a bit more difficult. I did not really get that feeling of gaming frustration that you normally get when you have difficulty passing a level. I found that I was usually able to pass a level after the first try. Of course, the later stages are harder, but still, I took no more than 2-3 tries to pass those harder levels. In fact, the final level I passed on the first try. 

Cons: I was really disappointed with the final level of the game, which, by the way, I passed on the first try. The level featured a blackened out screen exposing only the colored orbs, so you didn’t know beforehand where the orbs where going to move on the screen. Also, I think the speed at which the balls moved could have been increased for some of the harder levels. 

Final Thoughts: Sparkle HD is a great game for what it is. It looks great and is very responsive to your touch. It’s a simple game that you can enjoy in short spurts. Each level took no more than 2-4 minutes to pass. 

“No one travels without worries in Crowberry Woods anymore! Vast blackness has blanketed the once beautiful forest. Only small sparkles of light trickle through the all consuming darkness. Use your orb slinger to shatter the orbs of darkness before they release their destructive powers. Can you bring the light back, from a sparkle to full bloom? Explore three different game modes, multitude of greater magical amulets and powerups, and uncover the deepest secrets. Don’t leave the fair trees of Crowberry Woods unsparkled!”

Category: Games
Price: $4.99
Company: 10tons Ltd.

Buy Sparkle HD from the AppStore.

I saw a mention of Air Display on Twitter a few days ago and the 140 character tweet caught my attention. I quick trip to the developers website got me excited for the app, which at the time, was under review in the AppStore. Needless to say, the ability to use the iPad as a little companion screen to my 15 inch MacBook Pro peaked my interest. 

So I was quite excited today when I found that Air Display was available in the AppStore. The price seemed a bit high at $9.99, but oh well, I just had to test it out. 

Once you download Air Display from the AppStore and have it installed on your iPad, you are given a few more instructions on how to set up the app to work with your Mac upon first launching the app. 

First step is to download and run the installer for companion Air Display for the Mac. The Mac app is free (thank goodness it wasn’t another $9.99). 

Once you have Air Display installed on your Mac you are pretty much good to go. You should now see a new Air Display icon in the Mac menu bar. To set up your iPad as a second display, you launch Air Display on the iPad and then select your iPad from the Air Display icon on the Mac menu bar. You can set up the iPad to mirror your display or to act as an extension to your current Mac display. I configured Air Display to be used as the latter. All that is required, other than the two apps isntalled on your iPad and Mac, is a Wi-Fi network connection and both your iPad and Mac have to be using the same Wi-Fi network in order for the dual display feature to work. 

Set up was easy. However, getting the app to work, initially felt a bit buggy. I had selected my iPad from the Air Display menu on my Mac and waited for both screens to turn blue and then see the second additional display. Nothing. The iPad didn’t even initially appear in the Displays preference. After a minute (or two) of fiddling around, it eventually worked. However, I did notice that the display connection did get lost a few times. 

Once you have the iPad up and running as a second display, you can drag windows, icons, and even application specific palettes on to your new second display. And even cooler, you can take advantage of the iPad’s touch screen for items that are on your iPad display.

Air Display is definitely a pretty cool app, conceptually. There are obviously a few bugs that need to be worked out to provide more stability. For me, it didn’t “just’ work. I did have to fiddle around a bit, selecting and then reselecting my iPad on my Mac. However, when it did work, it was awesome. 

Category: Productivity
Price: $9.99
Company: Avatron Software, Inc.

Buy Air Display from the App Store.  

I mentioned last week that I had to unfortunately bring in my MacBook Pro for some minor servicing. This untimely event forced me to use my iPad as my main workstation. And man, did I need to get work done. 

Above you’ll see my setup. iPad where my MacBook Pro usually sits, Bluetooth Apple Keyboard, Bose Speakers, some external HD’s, a useless Magic Mouse (unless you have a jailbroken iPad) and Wall-E. 

The Apple Genius quoted me 3-5 days. It only took them 2 days to complete the repair and so I really only had about 1.5 days worth of full iPad usage. But for that 1.5 days I did use the iPad to continue the work that I was doing on a psychopharmacology paper that I had started on my MacBook Pro. 

Software

Three programs were essential to this “paper writing on the iPad” experiment. Papers for iPad ($14.99), GoodReader ($0.99) and Pages ($9.99). 

Pages is what I used to type with. If you’re not familiar with Pages then think of it as Apple’s equivalent to Microsoft Word. There will probably not be a version of Microsoft Word for the iPad in the forseable future, so your best bet when it comes to a word processor is Pages for the iPad. 

I use Papers on both my MacBook Pro and my iPad to store and sync all of my downloaded journal articles. It’s a great app and is so much better than having tons of paper articles littering my desk. If you’re an academic, you’ll love Papers. 

GoodReader is, I believe, an essential app for the iPad. GoodReader is (to some extent) the missing file management app that the iPad doesn’t come with. GoodReader not only handles massive PDF files, but it also opens MS Office, iWork, HTML, audio, and even video. Attachments via email that you normally wouldn’t be able to open, will probably open fine on GoodReader. 

Hardware

I did make use of my bluetooth keyboard and iPad dock. If you plan to do any type of prolonged writing on the iPad then I highly suggest purchasing a bluetooth keyboard and a dock or the bluetooth keyboard with the built-in dock.

So what did I think of the experience?

Short answer: You can get by using the iPad to write a long paper. At the end of the day, though, I still would have preferred my MacBook Pro. 

Long answer: You can get by using the iPad to do prolonged writing but you will miss using a full-fledged computer. The experience consisted of the following:

1. I emailed my unfinished paper from my MacBook Pro to myself (I did this at the Apple Store just before they took it away from me). I had been using Microsoft Word on the MacBook Pro prior to editing the file on my iPad.
2. I download the attached .docx Microsoft document from my email to my iPad. The document imported directly into Pages.
3. Pages handled my document quite well. Formatting was kept intact. Page breaks, footers, italicized and bolded fonts, and even references made it through okay. No funky weird characters upon import. Pages handled my Microsoft Word document flawlessly. This made me very happy.
4. Typing was done exclusive with my bluetooth keyboard. Like I said, if you’re going to do any type of prolonged writing on the iPad then a keyboard is a must. Seriously, a must. 
5. Pairing of the bluetooth keyboard to the iPad was easy to set up (you do this in Settings). 
6. I did noticed that whenever the bluetooth keyboard was paired with the iPad, the software keyboard would not appear on the screen. This was great as it saves a lot of real estate by not having a software keyboard on the screen while you are using a physical keyboard. 
7. When writing an academic paper, references are a must. This means that journal article are a must. And this means that you’ll be dealing with a lot of PDF’s. Fortunately, I had synced the articles that I already had with Papers. But for new articles that I searched for on the web, I used GoodRead to download those to my iPad. 
8. The main issue for me was the multi-tasking aspect. Whenever I write (on my MacBook Pro), I like to jump back and forth between the paper that I am writing and the different PDF articles that I am citing. This can become cumbersome on the iPad. If only because apps need to be relaunched whenever you navigate from them. The good thing is that both Pages and Papers remembers what you were last reading or working on. This is such a time saver and I am happy that they implemented this feature. As a side note, I should mention that Apple has announced multi-tasking in the next update to the iPad OS. So, once that happens, this complaint will be a non-issue.
9. After 1.5 days of writing just on the iPad, I was able to email my edited document directly from Pages. I was given the option of emailing it as a Pages, PDF, or Word document. I chose to send it as a Word document. If you choose to send as a Word document then please note that Pages will send it as a .doc file and not the newer .docx (this means it’s compatible with both old and new versions of Microsoft Word). I was then able to open the document later, in Word, on my MacBook Pro. Again, formatting was kept intact. I was happy.  

At the end of the day, if you know what you want to write and just want to get some no-frills writing done then the iPad will get the job done. If you’re a Microsoft Word user and am worried because there is no Microsoft Word native app for the iPad then don’t worry because Pages does a great job of opening and editing Word documents, while keeping formatting intact.

The only major issue that I had was jumping back and forth between writing and reading cited articles. On the Mac, I can do this with a quick Command-Tab keyboard combination. On the iPad, you need to press the home key, then tap on the app and then wait for it to launch (which, by the way, is very quick). But still, going from one step to three steps is a little annoying. Having said that, I can’t wait till the next OS update which will deliver multi-tasking and rid us of this slight annoyance.