The more I review compact keyboards and keyboard folios, the more I am inclined to believe that the best keyboard for an iPad is no keyboard. The new Verbatim Ultra-Slim Bluetooth Keyboard (US$84.00) added ammunition to that argument.

The Ultra-Slim keyboard is typical of its class: it is small, lightweight, has good battery life, and connects to your iPad or iPhone through Bluetooth. In fact, the Ultra-Slim is probably the slimmest and lightest (6.9 ounces) Bluetooth keyboard I've seen. And that's exactly where I have a problem with it.

Make no mistake: the Ultra-Slim is perfect if you want the lightest possible keyboard around for Mac, iPhone, or iPad. But my concern is that so much effort went into making this keyboard compact that it's almost impossible to use. My current gold standard for keyboards is the Apple Wireless Keyboard. The one I have has given me years of flawless service, I can type quickly and accurately on it, and it's compact enough that it has traveled with me on trips where I want to use a keyboard with my iPad.

The Apple Wireless Keyboard is just a bit over 11 inches wide, and a little over 5 inches deep. The keys are nicely spaced both horizontally and vertically, and it's a fantastic keyboard for fast typing. Now let's look at the Ultra-Slim Bluetooth Keyboard. It jams approximately the same number of keys into a keyboard just over 8.5" wide and about 4.5 inches deep. As a result, there's no spacing between the keys at all, and it's quite easy to accidentally press two or more keys -- even with small hands like I have!

How small is that keyboard? Well, if you hold up the Verbatim Ultra-Slim next to the virtual keyboard on the iPad, they're about the same size. There's a hint here, folks -- if you think the iPad's keyboard is too small, then the Ultra-Slim is going to be too small for you as well.

Gallery: Verbatim Ultra-Slim Bluetooth Keyboard

Charging is done through a standard USB to micro-USB cable, and there's an on-off switch right next to the micro-USB port so the keyboard can be turned off to save battery life when not in use. There's also a button to enable discovery mode on the keyboard.

Getting back to the keys on the keyboard, they're just too small. Take the shift keys, for example -- the left one is about .75" x .5", the right one is about .4" square. On the Apple keyboard, they're 1.5" x .675" each -- a ton of space by comparison. Verbatim made the insane move of cramming even more keys into the bottom row of the keyboard than are on the Apple keyboard. The Apple keyboard has an fn key,a control key, two option(alt) keys, two command keys, the space bar, and the arrow keys in the bottom row. The Verbatim keyboard jams two Home button keys, a key to hide or show the iPad's virtual keyboard, and the backslash key into that same row -- 13 keys in a small space.

One other gripe is that some of the keys are in totally non-standard positions. For example, the quotation mark key that's normally next to the Return/Enter key on a Mac keyboard is squeezed between the left shift key and the letter Z. The backslash is on the bottom row instead of on the right side of the "QWERTY" row of the keyboard, and the delete key is on the top row instead of the number row.

Verbatim threw a number of iOS device-specific keys onto the top row, including a lock key, search key, brightness keys, cut/copy/paste, reload, rewind/play/fast-forward, and volume keys. These are fairly standard with most Bluetooth keyboards designed for use with the iPad

Conclusion

All things considered, I cannot recommend the Verbatim Ultra-Slim Bluetooth Keyboard. It's too small for any reasonable typing, many keys are in non-standard locations, and the price ($84) is ridiculously high. Apple's Wireless Keyboard is only $69, Logitech's Tablet Keyboard is $70, and there are generic Bluetooth keyboards that look much more comfortable for use with an iPad for as little as $13. Just yesterday, TUAW reviewed the AmazonBasics Bluetooth Keyboard that is regularly available for as little as $29.99.

My advice? Either learn to use the virtual keyboard on the iPad, which I've actually found gets much better the more you use it, or get the Apple Wireless Keyboard.

Verbatim Ultra-Slim Bluetooth Keyboard is tiny, overpriced and flawed originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

During December and January, The Unofficial Apple Weblog is soliciting your nominations and votes for the best products for Mac, iPhone/iPod touch, and iPad. We'll start with nominations in a category, and then tally your votes for the top-nominated products a few days later. The winner in each category receives the highly-coveted title of TUAW Best of 2011.

In the next category for the TUAW Best of 2011 awards, we want to know what you consider to be the top iPad utility app of the year.

Before you enter your nomination into the comments at the bottom of this post, please be sure to check that the app you're thinking about is listed in the utilities category in the App Store.

What's in this category? Apps like the Photon Flash (US$4.99) and Skyfire ($4.99) Web Browsers, iHandy Calculator HD Pro ($0.99), Living Earth HD ($1.99, on sale for $0.99), Air Display ($9.99), and 1Password Pro (on sale for $8.99).

There are thousands of additional apps in the utilities category, so let us know what you think is deserving of the Best of 2011. Leave your nomination in the comments below. Voting starts soon!

Nominations close at 11:59 PM ET on December 31, 2011.

Nominate your favorite iPad utility app for TUAW's Best of 2011 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 29 Dec 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

During December and January, The Unofficial Apple Weblog is soliciting your nominations and votes for the best products for Mac, iPhone/iPod touch, and iPad. We'll start with nominations in a category, and then tally your votes for the top-nominated products a few days later. The winner in each category receives the highly-coveted title of TUAW Best of 2011.

In the next category for the TUAW Best of 2011 awards, we want to know what you consider your favorite iPad productivity app.

Before you enter your nomination into the comments at the bottom of this post, please be sure to check that the app you're thinking about is listed in the productivity category in the App Store.

Some of the top apps in this category include Pages, Penultimate, Notability, GoodReader for iPad, PDF Expert, and Skitch for iPad. But there are thousands of other iPad productivity apps, one of which may be your favorite and a potential winner.

It's up to you to tell TUAW about your favorite iPad productivity app. Leave your nomination in the comments below. Voting starts soon!

Nominations close at 11:59 PM ET on December 30, 2011.

Nominate your favorite iPad productivity app for TUAW's Best of 2011 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 28 Dec 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Chinese manufacturer Foxconn is growing again, with recent reports stating that the company is doubling the size of one of its production lines in order to keep up with production for current and future Apple products. The Foxconn Science Park in Zhengzhou is undergoing a $1.1 billion expansion, which will double the current output of about 200,000, with more than 130,000 workers kicking out tons of products for sale all over the world.

The facilities are apparently going through constant updates, so Foxconn is pushing for more and more production all the time, rather than waiting for a big plan to finish and then updating everything. But by this time next year, the work is all scheduled to be finished, which should make for getting plenty of iPhone 5s out the door.

Foxconn looks to be the most direct and open beneficiary of all of Apple's success, and it's wasting no time at all in expanding its operations to make even more money off of the sustained demand for Apple's products. You have to wonder what the endgame of this looks like, if Apple ever decides to go with another production line. I don't know if there will ever be another company that would need this kind of setup in the same way. We'll have to see.

Foxconn doubles factory size to meet iPhone demand originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 27 Dec 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

If you have that new iPhone you received for the holidays, you're probably looking to load it up with some apps that will enhance your mobile experience. Let me suggest some of the best of the free apps. Of course, everyone will have their own list, but here are my 5 favorites that I think most new iPhone users will love to use and to show off their new iPhone.

If you're a news junkie, by all means get Zite, newly released for the iPhone. It sets you up with news categories of interest to you, then learns what you like by keeping track of stories you click on. Over time, it gets smarter and smarter, so in essence it creates a personalized magazine for you. Their are other news readers and aggregators, but the presentation of stories in Zite and its ability to learn make it my first choice.

Glypmse is one of my very favorite apps, the kind of app I would pay for if it wasn't free. While some of the location-tracking functionality it offers is covered by Apple's iOS 5-only Find my Friends feature, Glympse is more flexible and cross-platform to boot.

With Glympse you send a message (email or SMS) to someone with information on your location; the link is set to expire when you want it to, so your friends can't track you indefinitely as they can with FmF. Let's say you are meeting someone for lunch. When they get your message, they click on the included link, and Glympse loads a map showing a moving pin (that's you) along with your ETA. The person you are meeting doesn't need an iPhone, just any web-capable device, including laptops. It's a great service, and in practice I've found it to be super reliable.

Tango does what Apple's FaceTime won't do, which is to allow you to video conference with another cellphone using 3G (FaceTime requires WiFi). Tango has added clients for Android and Windows Phone, so it's a great way to visually keep in touch with friends. I even tried it with a friend touring China and it worked. An update last week allows you to leave video mail for your Tango buddies.

For more intellectual pursuits, try the recently released TED app. It's a collection of great talks from people in the arts, literature and the sciences. The app has been updated to work with Airplay, so you can stream the audio to another device like an Apple TV 2. I try to watch a TED talk at least once a week, and it's always a treat.

Finally, for pure fun, try Action Movie FX. From the creators of the new Mission: Impossible movie, you can add rather impressive special effects to your own movies. With the free version you can add a missile strike or a car crash to your own video. It looks great, and the price is exactly right. Reviews are glowing. There are some other modules you can buy, like a tornado or helicopter crash, but I was fine with the free effects. It's more fun than you should be allowed to have for free.

Enjoy that new iPhone. These free apps should help get you started. I'll add one bonus free app to the mix. Don't forget the free TUAW iPhone app to help you keep up with the latest and greatest Apple news. Happy Holidays!

New iPhone? Try these must-have free apps originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 26 Dec 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The goose is cooked, the cookies crumbled, the wrapping paper thrown away and the relatives released to their neutral corners. Finally, you can get down to the post-holiday fun of setting up your new iPad, or transferring your data from your old PC to your new Mac! Unfortunately, the end of a long day of cooking, eating, drinking and merry-making might render your personal IT skills a bit less than optimal. Whatever shall we do?

We're here to help. Got a pressing Mac, iPhone, iPod or iPad setup question? Wondering how best to arrange your iTunes store accounts, chat with Siri or configure iCloud? Leave a comment here, hit us up on our Ask TUAW Twitter account, or swing by our Facebook or G+ pages. We may not be able to answer all the questions, but we'll help as much as we can.

TUAW Help Line: holiday gift questions & answers originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 25 Dec 2011 20:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The goose is cooked, the cookies crumbled, the wrapping paper thrown away and the relatives released to their neutral corners. Finally, you can get down to the post-holiday fun of setting up your new iPad, or transferring your data from your old PC to your new Mac! Unfortunately, the end of a long day of cooking, eating, drinking and merry-making might render your personal IT skills a bit less than optimal. Whatever shall we do?

We're here to help. Got a pressing Mac, iPhone, iPod or iPad setup question? Wondering how best to arrange your iTunes store accounts, chat with Siri or configure iCloud? Leave a comment here, hit us up on our Ask TUAW Twitter account, or swing by our Facebook or G+ pages. We may not be able to answer all the questions, but we'll help as much as we can.

TUAW Help Line: holiday gift questions & answers originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 25 Dec 2011 20:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

You know who you are. It's Christmas Eve, your stockings are yet to be hung with care, and there's a dismayingly large gap in the "gift gotten" column of your personal Nice list -- or maybe you haven't figured out what the last three days of Hanukkah are going to look like when it comes to gift exchanges. Don't panic; we're right there with you.

While physical gifts may be more difficult (though not completely impossible) to get at this stage, the intangible options are still on the table. Some of the best ideas for late gifting were summed up this week by Andy Ihnatko in the Chicago Sun-Times and Chris Breen at Macworld, so be sure to check their lists (twice, even).

If you've got a pair of giftees on your list who are craving new cellphones -- or, more to the point, slightly previous-generation cellphones -- MacRumors notes that Best Buy stores are running a special 2-for-1 deal on the iPhone 4 32GB model, today only. Apple no longer has the 32GB iPhone 4 on the product list, so this is an inventory dump; still, it's an inventory dump that works in your favor. Both phones need new 2-year contracts.

The growth in the installed base and reach of iOS devices means that you no longer have to head for a specialty retailer (or an Apple store) to get compatible accessories. Every local Radio Shack, Walgreen's, CVS, Staples or Rite-Aid carries iPhone and iPad accessories, albeit often cheap and crappy ones. An extra pair of iPhone-friendly headphones or a set of iPad screen covers would make a dandy 'light' gift, and an SD card or Bluetooth mouse could make the holiday brighter.

As Chris Breen's story points out, sometimes the best gift is the one you give of yourself. Assisting a family member with app updates, backup setup or remote access configuration might help them all year long. Making sure that Logmein or iChat are properly configured for remote support can also save you aggravation and travel time later on when that new Mac starts behaving oddly. You can always send a pretty email certificate that your relatives can print out and stick up on the wall for quick reference.

The list of digital-only gifts is, of course, very long -- Andy I's story cites most of the usual suspects, including of course gift certificates for all the nicest places. He points out that a Flickr Pro account is ideal for shutterbugs, and that while Spotify doesn't offer gift subscriptions, streaming music competitors Rdio and Pandora both do; so does Netflix, for that matter.

Andy also noted something I knew long ago but had forgotten: you can gift an entire iTunes playlist, even if you don't own all the songs in the list. Just drag tracks directly from the iTunes store listing into the playlist, then under the Store menu in iTunes, choose 'Share Playlist...' -- you'll get a dialog offering to publish or gift the playlist. Keep in mind that gifts of individual tracks or full playlists are only redeemable in the country of purchase; you can't do iTunes gifts for far-flung overseas family.

Finally, there are the gifts that really keep on giving: learning opportunities and charitable contributions. You could simply send some dough to your recipient's favorite cause, but the fun of giving might be enhanced by one of these charitable apps.

For the Mac or iOS user who wants to expand their horizons and sharpen their skills, there are plenty of solid last-minute additions to place under the virtual tree. Both the Amazon and Apple ebook stores include instructional titles like the Missing Manual, Apress or Take Control offerings. (New Mac OS X 10.7 Lion users might particularly appreciate this one.) For visual learners, it's easy to get great tutorial content from vendors like lynda.com, covering a wide range of creative computing topics. This year's crop of screencast content is particularly rich for Apple's new Final Cut Pro X, with great courseware from Larry Jordan, Manhattan Edit Workshop and Izzyvideo among others.

As you scramble to find something perfect at the last second, take a mindful moment to breathe, relax and enjoy your blessings with your family. Of course, thanks to the honey-voiced hypnotherapist Andrew Johnson, there's also an app or two for that.

Holiday Gift Guide: Procrastinator's Edition originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 24 Dec 2011 19:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple's Newsstand app, which premiered on iOS devices with the release of iOS 5, was designed to improve the sales of newspapers and magazines by giving publishers their own virtual shelf space in a highly visible app. Several other publications have already touted their success stories with Newsstand, and now Popular Science is joining the chorus.

The magazine, which is undoubtedly popular with the tech crowd, published cumulative subscription numbers recently. As reported by AllThingsD's Peter Kafka and visible in the chart at the top of this post, PopSci not only saw a leap in subscriptions the second week of October -- coincidentally the time when Newsstand was launched -- but since that time has been capturing new subscribers at a faster rate. The numbers are courtesy of Mag+, the tablet publishing arm of PopSci publisher Bonnier.

Kafka notes that he personally uses the New York Times app less often than he did before it moved to Newsstand, and would like to be able to pull items off of the Newsstand shelf so that they're closer to other items that he uses quite often. How about you, TUAW readers? Do you find that you read magazines and newspapers more or less often now that many have moved to Newsstand, or do you avoid Newsstand at all cost? Leave us your opinions in the comments.

Popular Science sees boost from Apple's Newsstand originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 23 Dec 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A leaked memo from media giant Gannett Company reveals plans to buy thousands of iPhones, iPads and other accessories to use in news gathering.

The memo, from Gannett Newspaper President Bob Dickey says that the new devices "will help our journalists meet the demands of the new news cycle, one that requires agility in real-time reporting, social media and greater emphasis on video storytelling, further increasing our competitive advantage." Does that mean there's an app for all of that?

The equipment, in part, will add to 'digital workstations' at company locations around the country. The equipment is due to arrive next month, and will be followed by extensive training.

Throughout journalism, print and broadcast reporters are increasingly using consumer cameras and phones to gather and create content. Gannett has been very aggressive in digital media. Its iOS versions of USA Today have been very popular, and it's interesting to see that the company is turning to Apple not only for distribution, but also for the hardware and technology to collect stories and media as well.

Gannett Co. reportedly buying iPhones, iPads for journalists originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 22 Dec 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.