I made the mistake of buying one of these. It's the Brookstone Keyboard Case for the iPad 2…and come to think of it, I made two mistakes. One was buying it at all and the second mistake was buying it off the Brookstone website where it was a hundred bucks — forty smackers more than Amazon sells it for.
You stick your iPad in it and then the keyboard connects via Bluetooth. It's a handsome case for carrying but I found three problems with it. One was that flap in the front that gets in your way when you try to type. Another is that the keyboard is a bit sluggish, lagging a hair behind your typing appearing on screen. That's disorienting. Then, lastly, we have the biggie: The iPad has a sensor which turns off its screen when you close its cover…but the Brookstone case doesn't make a tight enough seal so the screen stays lit, draining your battery.
It's very disappointing since I usually like Brookstone products. Anyway, I was out for a walk last evening so I dropped by my local Apple Store to see what, if anything, they had that would be better. It turned out they don't carry anything of the sort but I had a very nice conversation with a nice lady who worked there. She recommended a few keyboard cases that Apple neither makes nor sells, and I guess we talked about that and iPads in general for about fifteen minutes. It dawned on me that if Best Buy usually had employees this sharp and knowledgeable, they wouldn't be in trouble. Every time I visit an Apple Store I'm amazed how rapidly someone rushes over to wait on me, and how they all seem to know the products and the relevant technology.
On the way out, I saw a little girl, perhaps nine years of age, playing a game on a store display iPad. I don't know what the game was but she was having a hard time getting anywhere in it She moaned out loud in exasperation and a store employee rushed over to see if she was okay. She was…but I heard her ask the employee, "Do you have an app that lets you cheat on games like this?"