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Use your iPad Camera Connection Kit for a lot more than just camera fun

By | June 2, 2010, 3:35am PDT

Summary: Forget Bluetooth or Apple’s external keyboard solution. Instead, use the iPad Camera Connection Kit and any old USB keyboard.

The folks over at MacLife have a great article that details seven features of the iPad Camera Connection Kit that most people probably don’t know about. Included in the list is using the $29 accessory as a way to plug-in USB keyboards, USB audio devices (including headphones and a microphone), removing items from a Camera or SD card, and even importing photos from your iPhone or iPod touch. It’s a great list, with instructions on how to perform each function, too.

I like the idea of using the iPad Camera Connection Kit to let me plug-in a USB keyboard. I’ve got a ton of travel keyboards lying around, and while I also have the Bluetooth-enabled ones, the wired ones don’t require any power, which is definitely a nice thing for travel purposes. Of course, you could buy the iPad Keyboard Dock, but that will set you back $69, instead of this versatile dongle for just $29.

The only downside to the iPad Camera Connection Kit is that it turns your iPad into a pretty ugly looking device (see the picture from MacLife.com below).

ipad with external keyboard

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Apple iPad, Camera, Keyboards, Hardware, Peripherals, Joel Evans

With more than a decade of mobile, Internet and wireless experience, Joel specializes in taking existing brands and technologies into the mobile and wireless space.

Disclosure

Joel Evans

Joel is a serial entrepreneur with his most recent business, CronkSoftware (cronksoftware.com), focusing on consulting and building games and applications for mobile devices. Joel has consulted for Microsoft’s Windows Mobile division and advises other companies on how to incorporate mobile into their existing brands and products. Joel purchases many of his devices and others are sent for review on a 30-day loaner basis and then returned to the supplier. If any devices are provided as “keeper” Joel will clearly disclose this in his reviews.

Biography

Joel Evans

With more than a decade of mobile, Internet and wireless experience, Joel specializes in taking existing brands, technologies and services into the mobile and wireless space. Joel is currently serving as the Managing Director of Cronk Software, Inc., a company he founded to offer full-service, end-to-end mobile strategy, design and development services.

Joel is the former founder and "Chief Geek" of Geek.com, a website praised by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and others as one of world's best sources of information for technology professionals and enthusiasts.

Joel also serves as a technology expert for a number of well-known publications and regularly advises corporations, analysts, journalists and bloggers on what the future of technology will bring. He brings decades of relationships with leading game publishers, online communities and publishers, along with both hardware and software product management and delivery expertise. Joel can be found online as "JoelGeek" and you can follow him on Twitter @JoelGeek.

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RE: Use your iPad Camera Connection Kit for a lot more than just camera fun
hjonck@... 3rd Jun 2010
@cjc82s You Do not have an iPad yet do you? Win7 would be a liability. It does everything you want 1/2 right. The iPad is an awesome Pad, which does amazing paddy stuff like - anything you have good purposefull, elegantly and well engineered software to do it with. Win 7 has none of these (yet). Keep to your Pc and enjoy the experience there.
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RE: Use your iPad Camera Connection Kit for a lot more than just camera fun
cjc82s 2nd Jun 2010
of course, the ipad was NEVER going to look ugly when attached to non-intended devices, was it? sorry, still not interested. not unless i can put windows 7 on it with the adaptor
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RE: Use your iPad Camera Connection Kit for a lot more than just camera fun
hjonck@... 3rd Jun 2010
@cjc82s You Do not have an iPad yet do you? Win7 would be a liability. It does everything you want 1/2 right. The iPad is an awesome Pad, which does amazing paddy stuff like - anything you have good purposefull, elegantly and well engineered software to do it with. Win 7 has none of these (yet). Keep to your Pc and enjoy the experience there.

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