the temple of Apple

[julesjones]

So having bought an iThingy, I now need to buy all the expensive doodads to make it vaguely useful. I went home via the Apple shop in the Arndale, where I asked a couple of nice young men a question they could not immediately answer, that question being, "Is it possible to connect a USB keyboard to an iPad, because I have very bad RSI and need a gullwing keyboard, which devices seem to be sadly unavailable in Bluetooth."

One young man said, "I don't *know*, but I think it's likely you can using the camera connection kit, and I will go and get an iPad and a Mac keyboard to try it." And while he was doing that, the other young man fired up a browser on the nearest Mac and searched for Bluetooth ergonomic keyboards. (And found one, which while not the same model as my usual one, did look as if it might be a proper gullwing shape.)

And lo, the camera connection kit was plugged into the iPad, and the keyboard was plugged into the connection kit, and words appeared on the screen. And we were all three of us very pleased. They did warn me that while it works for most cameras it doesn't for all, and the same might be true of keyboards. If the particular model of keyboard I use takes too much power, it might not work. But I am informed that I have two weeks to return unsuitable widgets, so it's worth getting one to try it out.

So my first encounter with the helpbobs in the Apple shop was rather good. I was particularly impressed by the way the lads seemed genuinely enthusiastic about being asked a question they couldn't immediately answer but could attempt to solve by a practical test.

I did not buy the connection kit, leaving that for another day. But I now have a Smart Cover for it, which is an eye-watering price but a rather nice piece of design, and probably a necessity if I'm going to take it to cons with me.

Comments

[dreamatdrew]

1) My personal notation for all things i is "iThing"... glad to see someone else is in the neighborhood.
2) Apple tends to be rather good with stage 1 support. The problem comes in when they go to stage 2, which most other companies think of as, like, stage 5.

[julesjones]

There really is no other word for them as a group, is there?

Yes, I've heard things, not always good, about what happens if you need more than what amounts to an explanation of how to use it and what you need to buy to achieve what you want to do with it. But since the last Cult of Cupertino product I had anything to do with was a IIe, I may well be needing a certain amount of hand-holding. :->

[dreamatdrew]

There really is no other word for them as a group, is there?
Well, a friend of mine calls her iPod her "iThong" for reasons of pure hilarity, but....

My apple experience might be a bit more recent than yours (as in, I own an iThing from the original series), but apple has kinda been.... interesting on their support end since the 90s.

[green_knight]

First thing I was told about them (in 1990) was 'love the machine, hate the company'. I think they've improved since then...

I'm certain that iThings are related to Tribbles. They just... multiply. And you want to stroke them all the time. And people go around whispering 'shiny' in awed tones. The evidence is mounting.

[lexin.livejournal.com]

an eye-watering price but a rather nice piece of design

I think so, too. Though my iPad case (I went for the case rather than the cover) is red, and thus tends to show the dirt rather.

Having said that, I was looking, the other day when I was on a train, at a poor bloke who'd bought a powder blue iPad case and his was even worse.

[julesjones]

Oh dear, mine's powder blue...

[esmeraldus-neo.livejournal.com]

Early on, they were telling people the camera connection kits would ONLY work for cameras, but I couldn't figure out any practical reason this should be so. I never tried it, though.

[julesjones]

I suspect to avoid problems with it not working with some devices, and thus customers being upset that the thing labelled "usb port converter" did not in fact USB port convert.

The nice young men did say that some devices, including some cameras, simply didn't work with it, and that power drain was a significant factor.

(I'm not being facetious with the "nice young men" tag. They were indeed nice, and as for the young, I strongly suspect that they were not born until some time after I last had a meaningful relationship with a piece of Apple kit, to whit, a IIe. Would have felt like an Old Fart even without having a cane to lean on.)

[esmeraldus-neo.livejournal.com]

Entirely possible.

As an aside, the case I have for mine is the water- and shock-resistant Otterbox type.

What I would like is the Lifeproof kind, which is not water resistant, but completely waterproof, because I've spilled things more than once--freak accidents, truly. One drop of liquid through the back vent took out my Macbook Air. I have one on my phone, but for the iPad they're pricey.