Cool Things

Cool Things: Coffee-Colored iPad Smart Cover Made with Real Coffee

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Coffe Color iPad Smart Cover

The photo above shows a gorgeous coffee-colored iPad Smart Cover – but it’s not a color you’ll find in the Apple store range. It’s the result of a DIY project involving actual coffee being applied to the Smart Cover.

This is the creation of simeon, one of the developers at twolivesleft – makers of Codea and other apps and games.

Simeon decided he wasn’t seeing quite the aging effect he had hoped for on the tan Smart Cover, so he decided to create his own.

I’m not too careful with my cover. I chose the leather cover thinking the more scuffed and damaged it got, the better. I wanted it to look worn. Unfortunately after only two weeks of use it did start to look worn — on one side only.

As you can see in the above photos the right side of the cover is darkened in the place I usually hold it while reading.

This asymmetry wouldn’t do. I had a wonderful, horrible idea: I’d stain the cover with coffee.

[click to continue reading…]

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Square Stand: iPad-Based Complete Point of Sale System

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Square Stand

Square Stand is a new iPad-based point of sale system – from Square, makers of the clever little credit card readers that plug into iPads and iPhones.

The Square Stand offers merchants a wealth of slick features – ‘all for the price of a cash register’.

Ready to use in minutes, Square Stand works with Square Register, the free point of sale application, and gives merchants access to real-time analytics, robust reporting, and a delightful experience for their customers. Square Stand features an integrated card reader that keeps information secure from swipe to payment, and easily connects to the hardware accessories businesses need, including a receipt printer, kitchen printer, cash drawer, and barcode scanner. Merchants can lock their iPad in place and secure the stand to their countertop, making it easy to tilt and rotate the stand and complete orders quickly. Square Stand works with an iPad 2 or 3, with a version for iPads with Lightning connectors available later this year.

More than a dozen local merchants around the US are set to start running their businesses using Square Stand this week – including several with multiple locations.

The Square Stand is priced at $299 and is available for pre-order today – at squareup.com/stand. It’s also expected to be in Best Buy and other select retailers in early July.

I’ve never been involved in that sort of business, but the Square Stand looks so cool I’d almost like to be. I have used a Square reader and it has always worked very well.

What do you all think? Are any of you small business owners / merchants who could use a system like this in your environment?

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iPad Hit by a Foul Ball, Shrugs It Off

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Need any proof that the iPad’s made of pretty stern stuff? Well here ya go. It took a direct hit from a foul ball at a girls softball tournament in Iowa – and it appears it didn’t miss a beat.

I’m not sure it’s recommend by Apple to test this out in your local batting cage, but still, good to know.

 

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Cool Things: LEGO Custom Dock Kit for iPad Retina & iPad mini

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Lego iPad Stand

Here’s a cool looking new iPad accessory – the LEGO Custom Dock Kit for the iPad Retina and iPad mini, from The Daily Brick.

This is a custom dock for your Apple iPad (with Lightning Connector) made entirely out of Lego. It has been designed to stand your iPad up on your desk and allow you to charge it or sync with your computer. This dock also has an added back support (with rubber grippers) to reduce stress on the connector.
To stop the cable connector moving around, it is held firmly inside the dock using Lego clips, you can repeatedly dock/undock with no issues. There is a slight backward angle on the dock to help you use it when it’s on your desk. You will receive all the Lego parts required to build the dock.

There are 79 pieces in the kit, and the assembly instructions are available online (in case you lose those that are sent with the kit).

LEGO iPad Dock instructions

When Apple stopped making iPhone docks, The Daily Brick made a LEGO iPhone dock – and now they’ve extended the line to iPads that use Lightning connectors.

The LEGO Custom Dock kit for the iPad Retina / iPad mini goes for £19.95 – around $30. You can see more detail and place an order on The Daily Brick’s product page for it.

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Cool Things: iPad Insight on a Surface Tablet

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iPad Insight on Surface tablet

Sleeping with the enemy. iPad Insight on Internet Explorer on a Surface RT tablet in a Microsoft store.

Yesterday I visited a Microsoft for the first time, and spent a lot of time playing around with the Surface Pro and Surface RT tablets. Once I’d had my fill of trying them out I couldn’t resist firing up iPad Insight in the IE browser. I would have done this sooner, but I never knew we had a Microsoft store in Austin.

I was really considering buying a Surface to really get to know it, and I still am – but with perhaps even greater reservations than I had before spending some time with them. The Surface Pro is just way too much like a laptop or ultrabook for my liking. It really just doesn’t feel much like a tablet at all. Two of the Microsoft product advisors even agreed with me on that sentiment.

So I spent  more of my time with the Surface RT. I explored switching between its Desktop and Modern modes quite a bit and had a quick look around its app store. I wasn’t wowed by the Surface RT, but I didn’t hate it either. I might still end up picking one up at some point – or maybe I’ll just wait on their rumored ‘mini’ version.

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Cool Things: Penguins Playing iPad Games

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This just in: Penguins love iPad games – even of they’re games designed to be played by cats. Or at least a pair of penguins at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California sure do. Two young penguins called Jeremy and Newsom, who are not mature enough yet to take part in mating [...]

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Cool Things: iPad Orchestra & Beethoven’s 5th

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Well here’s some iPads being put to a creative use. It’s an ‘iPad Orchestra’ taking on Beethoven’s 5th with the Salt Lake Pops. Here’s a little more intro on the video: ArmorActive is proud to show off the Digital Orchestra – Beethoven’s 5th, collaboration video with Devin Graham. This video was all in good fun [...]

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