New Belkin keyboard
by Volker Weber
I love my Belkin Bluetooth keyboard and have used it on numerous travels. Whenever I need to write a longer text for a report, I just whip it out of my bag, prop up the iPad and start typing. The battery seems to last forever and charges from my BlackBerry power supply.
Now there is a new one. It has all the same features, it's smaller and thinner, but it uses exactly the same technology and has the same physical dimensions for they keys themselves. So there is no training going from one to the other. Belkin moved the with to the front, the led to the left side where it wraps around the edge so you can see it from the top. And it know has a little thumb rest, which makes typing even more convenient.
As of today, Belkin does not sell the keyboard without the folio. The original one was glued in, and I removed it by applying quite some force. It took me about thirty minutes to remove all residue, and I had to put four feet in the corners of the keyboard since the bottom was not flat. I loved it anyway.
The new keyboard is now detachable. It's held inside a folio with velcro and it detaches and reattaches without any effort. The folio has improved a lot over the last one, but I still have no plans to use it. You have to slide the iPad into a frame much like the original scuba folio that Apple sold for the original iPad. Not my favorite design since it's not easy to get in an out. Belkin uses this design so that the iPad screen is protected when you close the folio and the keyboard rests against the frame and does not touch the iPad.
Usually I just throw the keyboard into my travel bag and protect the iPad with a SmartCover. If I need more protection, I use this folio:
The iPad snaps in quite easily. Works for both the iPad 2 and the New iPad. The folio folds in many ways so you can prop up the iPad in multiple angles. At home I don't use any covers at all, but when traveling this works very well for me.
