PADACS' Toccata Bluetooth iPad keyboard case now shipping in Australia

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 28 September 2010 17:03

Your IT - Mobility

Looking identical to the iPad keyboard Bluetooth cases reviewed on Engadget, elsewhere on the Internet and even to the Kensington KeyFolio, the Toccata's only difference appears to be the PADACS brand - and the world's most competitive pricing - plus it's nice and quiet to type on, too, with this article typed on the iPad and the Toccata, too!

Although there has been talk of a clamshell cases for Apple's iDevices, a couple of years ago for the iPhone (which never arrived) and then much more recently for the iPad, the first actual case with a Bluetooth keyboard to arrive for the iPad isn't a clamshell at all, but more of a folding folio, called the Toccata.

Closed, it's hard to tell an iPad is within (well, unless you're looking at the very top or bottom of the case where the iPad edge is visible), but opened up, the folio lies flat on any table or other flat surface (such as those cushioned netbook 'tables' you can prop onto your knees that are on sale in Officeworks for less than $15).

Available from iPhone and iPad accessory company PADACS, and being distributed in Australia by PC Range, the Toccata has a built in is a rubberised, sealed keyboard that's reminiscent of those rubber keyboards you see in fishtanks at computer shows, and while the keys are smaller than standard keyboard size and more in line with some netbook keyboards, there are reasons why sealed rubber keys were chosen.

To start with, the keys can end up touching the screen if pressure is applied to the front of a closed case, so to prevent any screen damage the keys are made from soft rubber.

Keeping the keys sealed also keeps out dust, crumbs and anything else that might otherwise get in between the keys of a regular keyboard, and it also helps to keep the keys a little smaller to fit into the iPad case dimensions.

A side effect of having rubber keys that I hadn't anticipated was an extremely quiet typing experience, something that's especially useful if you're taking notes in meetings, classes, conferences, seminars, lectures or anywhere where you don't want the clickety-clack of regular keys.

Sure, you could type directly onto the iPad's glass screen virtual keyboard and achieve the same effect (well, as long as you don't have long fingernails) but then you miss out on the additional accuracy that a physical keyboard brings, and even though the keys are smaller than true keyboard keys, two and a half days at a conference taking notes bore out the increased accuracy - at least for me, and I happen to be very proficient at the on-screen keyboard anyway, so this was a welcome and unexpected benefit.

The people on the tables around me at the conference were surprised to see a keyboard case for the iPad, and were even more surprised when they couldn't hear me typing, despite my fingers screaming across the keys at a very fast pace.

What's clear is that some will not like the rubber keyboard, wishing for a regular keyboard instead, while others will love the fact that an iPad case now exists with a very quiet Bluetooth keyboard that I, at least, found very easy to transition to for iPad typing.

Indeed, given the iPad's 10 hour battery life, I was able to use my iPad and the Toccata to take notes non-stop all day. Of course there were mid morning, lunch and afternoon breaks, but with a claimed 45 hours per charge and 100 days of standby time, I had plenty of battery for both the iPad and in the keyboard for more than an entire business working day, something very impressive after years of notebooks that lasted 2-3 hours max, even though notebooks and netbooks do exist with much longer battery life today.

Even so, notebooks and netbooks take longer to start up, have much louder keys and just aren't as cool as an iPad, but the PADACS case still has more going for it, like a great price - please read on to page 2!