After you’ve convinced yourself to get an iPad, you need to decide which accessories to get. Apple knows full well you’re likely not going to use the device as it is. While you can skip getting anything extra, the iPad is one gadget where much of the gear actually sounds requisite. Snagging one or more of these should be included in your “iPad budget.”
1. iPad Dock ($29)
While the iPad comes with a charging and syncing cable, it’s too big a slab of hardware to sit flat. A dock lets you do that upright, all while composing an email, viewing a slide show or reading a document. It can also connect to your stereo system with an audio cable, apart from supporting the iPad Dock Connector to VGA Cable (in case you want to blow-up the screen) and iPad Camera Connection Kit (for grabbing photos from your digicam).
2. iPad Keyboard Dock ($69) or A Wireless Keyboard ($69)
No matter how good Jobs makes it out to be, an onscreen keyboard is a terrible way to compose long text. You need a keyboard – either the Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard paired with the dock above or a Keyboard Dock (which also brings the same features as the standalone dock).
3. 10W USB Power Adapter ($29)
Because you’ll want to charge it to a wall outlet eventually. Guaranteed.
4. iPad Camera Connection Kit ($29)
It’s disappointing enough that the iPad comes with no camera. Worse, you will need to juggle two adapters to either connect it directly with your digicam’s sync cable or load photos from an SD card. But such is the price you pay for sleek, slim and light hardware. The iPad has mad support for images (JPEG and RAW formats, pinch-to-zoom, slideshows and instant back-up), so you’re more likely be using it with your digicam than not.
5. iPad Case ($39)
Personally, I’ll hold out for one, with dozens upon dozens of third-party iPad cases and covers likely to come out in the next few months. If you can’t wait, though, Apple’s case looks gorgeous, with a very useful triangular kickstand that props the tablet up at comfortable viewing angles. I still think that the kick stand should have been a build in feature but maybe we will see that in the next version of iPad. (Yes, expect one in less than 12 months).
[Apple]
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