If you’ve been to an electronics store or an airport (I repeat myself), you’ve probably noticed the colonization of these places by iDevice accessories. Cover, cables, converters and a bewildering assortment of headphones. There are many accessories to complement your iPad VPN. I like music as much as anyone, but I stick to (another) pair of headphones that cost as much as the flight I’m about to take. With that being said, here are the accessories that are essential to me.
Telefunken XO iPad Pen – It’s not cheap, but after getting bored with other vendors’ crayon efforts, treat yourself to the only iPad VPN pen that actually works. Kudos to Telefunken for regular app updates that add functionality and improve performance.
AppleTV: Okay, so it’s not exactly an *iPad* accessory, but it’s a beautifully implemented way of bringing iPad content to an HDMI TV or projector. For whatever reason, the ubiquitous iPhone docks for stereos never seem to fit iPads and I’ve never seen a 30-pin extender that allows cheating. Solution, AppleTV and an HDMI cable: quality tunes, movies or just funny videos of cats in all their 50″ plasma glory.
Kanex ATV Pro – The eagle-eyed read the article above and scoffed – most office or meeting room projectors don’t have HDMI! AppleTV is just a home theater toy! Well… not quite. The clever folks at Kanex have produced the ATV Pro, an Apple approved HDMI to VGA with 3.5mm audio output. And it’s powered via HDMI, so there are no messy cables. Together, these two make it possible to walk into any meeting and look pretty stylish while presenting wirelessly from your iPad, even if the projector is older than you are.
Many businessmen use their iPad VPN to listen to music while on the go. Headphones – The ones that came with your iPad are fine, but can greatly improve the long-term (an hour or so) experience of listening to music on your iPad VPN. This is a puzzling area, so rather than recommend just one model; I am going to make some general recommendations. First, noise-canceling (active) headphones and full-size headphones require more power than most; This can be a concern if you plan to fall asleep listening on a flight and wake up to find that the battery is dented.
Some audiophiles using an iPad VPN swear by the rather scary-named ‘in-ear-canal’ type of headphone. I personally can’t stand them and find the only thing worse than using them as a price: you can spend $200 on a set. Better (for me at least) is the infinitely nicer sound of ‘canal-buds’. These are cheaper, a huge step up from Apple’s standard, and best of all, they don’t sound like a segment on “America’s Funniest Insertion Tragedies.” (A show I would totally watch if anyone is in the industry.)
A Quality Case: A little lower on the cool list, your iPad case protects not only your $500+ investment, but the data you have on it as well. Sure, you might have a backup, but that’s no help if you showed up to your meeting with a banana-shaped iPad and no presentation. While they’re great, Apple cases with a magnetic screen cover aren’t up to the job of protecting an iPad that you might drop on tiles (check), sit on (check), or step over (Che… long story, it was I’m not honest). I have yet to find a case for the second and third generation iPads that is as good as Apple’s “moleskin” for the iPad 1.
A MiFi: A MiFi is a cell phone without a phone or a screen. Simply put, it’s a 3G modem with a built-in battery and enough operating system to connect to a cell phone and broadcast over WiFi. So even if your iPad is Wi-Fi only, you can still access the network anywhere there is a signal. This assumes you have an airtime contract for your MiFi, but it’s when you’re traveling that this really makes sense. When you arrive, simply purchase a prepaid or pay-as-you-go contract from a local operator and insert it into the MiFi. You now have access to the Internet through your iPad, cell phone, or even laptop. And you can share it with traveling colleagues or just bask in the glory of being the only one without a massive data roaming bill when you get back!
If you have an old Android smartphone, these can be used as MIFI via their connect feature. Whether you use an older smartphone or a MiFi, keep in mind that these units don’t support more than five connected devices, so don’t give out the password to too many people or you get locked out!
There are many accessories that will complement and help you get the most out of your iPad VPN. Make sure to always keep your iPad VPN safe and secure to get the most out of your device.