Touchtype: A Case for iPad and Apple Wireless Keyboard
Touchtype is a Kickstarter Product Design project by Washington, DC based Salman Sajid, whi notes that among the spectrum of iPad typists, there’s a zealous bunch that swear by the Apple Wireless Keyboard, whose full-size width, familiar key-spacing and responsive tactile feel are all packed into a svelte form-factor that could only come out of Cupertino.
However, a shortcoming with the Apple Wireless Keyboard is that you have to lug it around separately from your iPad.
The Solution? Enter the Touchtype case – an iPad case that can also hold the Apple Wireless Keyboard.
Hide-away, Slide-away Storage
The Touchtype case stores the Apple Wireless Keyboard underneath the iPad – not on top (like most other keyboard cases). This means you have direct access to your iPad as soon as you open the cover. To use the keyboard, you move aside the elastic restraining loops and slide the ‘board out from its pocket.
It’s a Stand, Too
The Touchtype case doubles as an iPad stand. Simply fold the cover back and slide it into the tab on the back (similar to Apple’s iPad 1 Case) and enjoy your favorite typing angle. Works with the keyboard in or out.
Fit one, Fit All
The Touchtype case uses tense elastic to keep the iPad firmly in place. This allows it to easily adjust itself to any iPad (including the iPad 3 / new iPad). Since all the straps are symmetrically placed, you can put in your iPad with the Home button on the left or the right. The Touchtype case even has built-in magnets on either side to wake and sleep your iPad in whatever orientation you choose. There’s no such thing as wrong way round or upside down.
The Portrait Trick
Some people really like to orient the iPad in portrait mode when they want to do some heavy typing. If you’re one of those people, then the Touchtype case has a trick to show you. Laying flat, hidden underneath the iPad lies a second set of elastic straps. Simply rotate the iPad and slide it into these straps and revel in your vertical typing bliss.
Thin Will Always Be In
Why should Apple struggle to make the iPad thinner only to have it imprisoned in chunky keyboard cases? The Touchtype case understands the iPad’s pain. Every design decision when making the case was in pursuit of thinness.
Now the Hard Part
The Touchtype case comes in either a smooth gray polyurethane, a “wild espresso” leather, or a luxurious black leather. And the leather is not the tough, plasticky, “just so we can say it’s leather” type of leather, but real deal – made from top layer buffalo hide, with characteristic natural grains and that unmistakeable genuine leather smell.
The Plan
So far Sajid says he’s successfully submitted a patent application and had some prototypes made, and also managed to front some of the money to get a small shipment of gray and espresso cases produced (this is why some early-bird rewards ship earlier than others). The next step is to select the manufacturer for the black leather version.
For details on becoming a backer of this project (the minimum pledge is $1, and $47 or more qualifies you for the Gray Early Backer Special – a Touchtype case made from gray polyurethane at a limited-time 25% retail discount – US Priority Mail shipping included
This project will be funded on Thursday Jun 7, 1:37pm EDT.
For more information, visit:
http://kck.st/IAOGjW