Monday 28 May 2012

iPad Accessory Review part 2

Earlier, I looked at the useful audio accessories for the iPad as that is my speciality, but there are a couple of important tools that I use often for general teaching and iPad management that are worth looking at too!


Griffin Multidock
This is essentially a docking station that houses up to 10 iPads. You can use it as a stand alone changing station where you can plug each iPad in using the included right angled 30pin to USB leads. This works well and beats having to plug each one in to a different socket on the wall (which we had to do while we were waiting for it to be delivered - about 3 months!). The other important reason for us  was that you can connect all 10 of the iPads to iTunes at the same time which makes updating and syncing them all easier as they are all in one place. It is quite sturdy, as it is made from sheet metal and has a security bar that locks the iPads in the dock when they are charging, this is a bit of a gimmick as you could break the bar off the housing quite easily, so I wouldn't rely on it too much!
The guide that it comes with misses out an important procedure, so I've made made a clearer one here...

Apple iPad VGA Adaptor
We got some of these adaptors so that we can plug the iPad in to the projectors we have in each room. All I had to do was plug in the 30 pin connector to the iPad and connected the VGA lead that usually plus in to the computer, turned the projector on and there it was - a massive iPad screen! Everything that you do on the iPad is mirrored on the projected screen and the quality is about the same as the computer. Personally, I would connect the audio out to speakers as the audio quality from the iPad speaker isn't that great but it might not be so easy to do with different set ups. This is well worth getting, if you want to use it to teach with especially if you want to show images, web sites, and with the Apple Keynote app you can do presentations with it - I haven't tried this yet, but I've seen it in action and is next on my list!

IK Multimedia iKlip
Although this fits in with the audio accessories review, I found myself using this more for general teaching. 
Essentially this is a holder for the iPad that fits on to any microphone stand and can be used in portrait or landscape mode. As we have lots of microphone stands 'hanging around' this is a great way of having the iPad within easy reach it works best on stands without a boom arm as you can just slip it on, however you can use it to hold the iPad on the up part of the stand and have a mic on the boom arm if you need to use a mic and look at the iPad screen at the same time.
The iPad slips in to it smoothly, without scratching the surface but you need to set the orientation before you put the iPad in as it requires undoing a screw that is recessed behind where the iPad sits. This a bit of a pain as some apps work better in portrait mode or vice versa and it would be nice to change it on the fly, but i suppose its to keep it secure. There is at least a twist lock to tilt it up and down to get the right angle for you to work with. If you are using it with the VGA adaptor for presentations then the adapter hangs out and the weight of the VGA lead tends to pull on it more so it would have been nice to have a little lead clip to stop this from happening. There are other stands and holders out there which I haven't tried but this is one to try out if you have access to a mic stand (or add £20 for a basic stand).

3 comments:

  1. Outstanding review about iPad accessories. Keep up the good blog.

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  2. iPad is the best friend I've ever got just Hold it in your hand and you are hooked by its size, feather weight and sheer quality. Apple was late with the iPad mini but in my view they really have hit the spot.

    iPad Keyboard Case

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