The Skadoosh iPad Stand
Monday, October 25, 2010 at 12:50AM Pretty soon after buying my iPad I realised that I needed a stand for it. Four things that I immediately wanted to do were:
- Be able to prop my iPad up on my bedside table so I could watch a film whilst lying in bed.
- Be able to work (or watch movies) when I’m out and about. Typing on a flat iPad is very uncomfortable.
- Be able to sit on the sofa with the iPad on a lap-tray so I can write some notes, catch up on email, etc. whilst I’m watching TV and spending some recuperative time away from my Mac.
- Be able to use my iPad as my ‘Twitter device’ during the day at my desk. Having Twitter active on something other than my Mac is better for productivity because it is less distracting.
My main considerations for a stand was that it should be stable (pretty important for an iPad stand really) and portable. Additionally, being able to leave my iPad in its case would be good and having a stand that is attractive was definitely a nice-to-have feature.
I stumbled upon the JaDu Industries Skadoosh by accident. When I came across it there hadn’t been much coverage of it at all but what coverage of it there was sang its praises. It seemed to match all of the criteria I had for a stand so I paid $99.99 (the price has now dropped to $69.99 and there is now also a black version) plus $10.00 for international shipping and two weeks later it arrived (in fairness they dispatched it very quickly so the delay was in the postal systems). Also, be aware of import fees. In the UK I ended up paying £11.22 for VAT (our sales tax) and am £8.00 handling fee from our postal service.
My first impressions were that it was a gorgeous stand. It’s very small and portable and I wondered how well it would support the weight of an iPad. In landscape the stand works beautifully. However if you have your iPad in a vertical orientation you will probably want to use the fold-out arm which adds additional stability to the stand. The arm doubles the footprint of the stand and is slightly problematic on small surfaces such as airplane and train seat-back tables but I imagine that most people would have their iPads in landscape in most circumstances anyway.
The angle of the iPad can be adjusted from vertical to around 30 degrees, the latter being a nice angle for typing. The stand is low enough and unobtrusive enough that it is possible to type comfortably on the iPad when it is fully reclined.
So, in conclusion, the Skadoosh is a great stand. It’s not the cheapest available but the price certainly reflects the quality. It is small and compact yet keeps your iPad stable and secure and I’ve absolutely no regrets about buying it.
You can find some photos of the Skadoosh along with some more information about it at the JaDu Industries web site.
iPad, jadu, recommendation, skadoosh in Product Recommendations