Logitech Keyboard Case for iPad 2

Logitech Keyboard Case for iPad 2
I recently picked up a new case for my iPad 2. I had previously been using the Apple Smart Cover, which I like, but this case has a built in keyboard, and I decided to try it out.
The case, which is also Zagg branded, is made of aluminum, and feels vey well built.
It doesn't attach to the iPad, rather the iPad fits into it, and there are soft bits on the edges to hold it in very snugly, so it doesn't fall out when you carry it.
The case feels very well built, and the look matches the iPad very well. It includes a cutout for the dock connector, so you can charge your iPad in the case, and another at the top for the headphone jack. The iPad goes into the case with the screen facing in, offering excellent protection for it, and my only issue with the design is that it leaves the back completely exposed.
Since the iPad just sits in the case, when you want to use it, you just lift the edge and it comes out, you don't need to take it out of the case. When you want to use it, there is a cutout above the keyboard that the iPad fits into in a landscape orientation, allowing you to use it like a laptop.
The keyboard, made by logitech, is excellent. It is rechargeable, and uses a lithium polymer battery, meaning you don't need to worry about memory. You can charge it whenever you want, and it comes with a small USB cord so you can charge it from your computer, or any standard USB charger. Logitech says the battery will last several weeks of normal use, and although I haven't had it very long, it hasn't died yet. The keys are similar to the Apple keyboards with individual chicklet or island keys. It is very nice to type on, and although it is small, I got used to it very quickly. It has a standard keyboard layout, but also includes function and media keys along the top row. There is a home button, search to bring up spotlight, a slideshow button to bring up photo frame mode. It also includes a button to bring up the on screen keyboard, cut copy and paste buttons, media control keys - forward reverse and play pause - mute volume down and volume up. The bottom row keys are Apple compatible, so it has a command key rather than a windows key.
Setup was really easy, the keyboard is bluetooth, so all you need to do is press the connect button, select it on the iPad, and type in a code on the keyboard and you are ready to go. It has an on/off switch, but they keyboard also goes to sleep if left idle, and a single keypress will wake it back up. Using the keyboard did not seem to have any no
This is an older case, but I still found it available online for between $80 and $100, however I found mine at costco for $50.
Overall a good buy, I really like this case, all that is left to see if how long the battery will actually last, but having used many other logitech products, I expect it to last a long time.
Back of the case




The Keyboard




iPad in the case




Setup for use.




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Backups, backups, backups

I would like to take just  a moment out of my day to remind everyone how important backups are.

I recently had a drive die in my main computer, and without backups I would have lost everything. I'm going to go into more detail about my actual backup strategy a bit later, but I'd like to point out that without having good backups, a minor annoyance might have been catastrophic, as the issue happened without much warning at all.

Even if you just put your important files on a USB drive and update is regularly is better than nothing.

 

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New Info

You can now find this site at koronistt.com , and the new contact email is feedback@koronistt.com

The old address will still redirect to the correct one, but please send any emails to the above address

 

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Crashplan

I recently wrote about various cloud backup services, but I left out one major service: Crashplan. As Crashplan is the service I am actively using, not just testing, I felt I should go a little more in depth into it.

Crashplan (from a company called Code forty-two) offers both free and paid backup options, both cloud and local. The free option allows you to back up the selected files to either other machines on your network (also running Crashplan), to external hard drives, or to friends computers (again, your friends need to be running Crashplan)

If you want Crashplan to backup to the cloud, you need to purchase a subscription to Crashplan+ , which offers options for 10Gb of space for $24.99 /year, or unlimited space for $49.99 /year. Their prices get lower if you buy for longer periods in advance, a month to month plan is also available. If you need to backup more than one computer, Crashplan also offers a family unlimited plan which allows you to backup up to 10 computers, again with unlimited storage, for $119.99 /year. Again, you can get a better deal for signing a longer contract.

The application installs on your computer and you can run it to change your backup settings, although the backup service is actually running all the time. The interface has a large number of settings and options for you to chose from, although it works fine out of the box if you don't feel like tinkering.

One of the reasons I chose Crashplan is that their unlimited storage plan really is just that: unlimited. You can push up as much data as you want, and they won't have any problems with it. Another nice feature is that you can set how often you want Crashplan to create a new version of a file as a backup, and how many versions you want to keep. As well, you can select how long you need deleted files to be kept before they remove them, including an option for never purging deleted files. This also means that if you have files on an external drive backed up, they won't be deleted if you forget to connect it every 30 days.




The settings page also allows you to chose how much system resources the program is allowed to use, and you can set it up with different options depending on whether your computer is idle or not. You can choose how much bandwidth it uses to upload your data, as well as computer CPU that is allowed to be used.

A feature of Crashplan I have recently found useful, is the ability to adopt backups from another computer. For example, I recently upgraded my main computer to Mountain Lion, and I decided at that time to do a fresh install, instead of an upgrade. I restored most of my files to their original locations from a local backup, but when I installed Crashplan on the "new" system, it asked if I wanted to adopt the old backups. Once that was done, it recognized that the files were the same, and didn't try to re upload them, saving me time and bandwidth.

Out of all the cloud storage services I've tested, so far, Crashplan has been my top choice, and I actually bought a one year subscription.

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Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid Drive

A few months ago, I decided that the hard drive in my MacBook Pro needed to be upgraded, as the machine came with a 320 GB 5400 RPM drive, which was fairly slow.
I would have liked to get an SSD, since the performance gains over standard drives are quite impressive, but for the amount of space I wanted, the cost would have been quite high.
What I found instead is what Seagate calls a hybrid drive,which combines traditional spinning drive storage with fast flash storage in a single drive. The model I bought i
contains a 500GB 7200 RPM hard disk, and 4GB of flash storage. It was me expensive than a standard drive, but still a much better value than an SSD. The drive works by monitoring your most commonly accessed files, and caching them on the flash storage, giving you SSD like speeds for the files you access most frequently. This is all taken care of by the firmware on the drive, so it doesn't require a specific OS or drivers. The fact that the drive is 7200 RPM rather than 5400 provides a performance boost as well.
In my laptop, I noticed a performance increase nearly right away, and although I did perform some basic benchmarks on the boot time and performance on the old and new drives, I can't seem to find the results currently. Numbers aside, the new drive performs very well, and the laptop seems to run much smoother in general than before I installed the hybrid drive.
I have been using the drive for a few months now, and have not noticed any issues with it, reliability or performance wise, although, with the platter part of the drive being faster, it is a bit noisier than the stock drive. I have not noticed a difference in battery life or heat output.
In addition to the 500/4 GB model I bought, they also have a model with 750 GB of storage and 8GB of flash.
So, if you want to squeeze some more performance from your laptop, but need more space than an SSD gives (while still being affordable), I highly recommend this drive.
Pricing (approximate, may vary by retailer, Canadian dollars)
500 GB / 4GB $109.99
750 GB / 8GB $189.99
For comparison, prices for 500 GB of SSD space are around $500 on average.

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