Accessory-Kickstarter iPad Keyboard Case

Back in April, I read a TIME.com story by my colleague Jared Newman about a Kickstarter project called Brydge. It was an anodized aluminum-cased rechargaable Bluetooth keyboard with a clamshell hinger which could be clamped securely to an iPad, turning Apple‘s tablet into a stylish, MacBook Air-like mini-laptop. My iPad was already my main computer, so I got excited and pledged $170, joining 3265 other backers and entitling me to the base-model Brydge. (A $210 model has built-in wireless speakers.) Sony Keyboard Cover 

As is normal with Kickstarter-funded gadgets, Brydge showed up later than planned, in somewhat different form than shown in the initial pitch. Its designers decided to ditch their original plastic hinge in favor of dual finger-like clamps, with shims which allow the keyboard to be used with the second-, third- and fourth-generation iPads. They also used a different keyboard layout than shown in their original video. And they missed their target of shipping in October. Sony Keyboard Cover 

But only by a few weeks — my Brydge arrived today. Before I had a chance to try it, though, I read a review over at Gdgt by my friend and fellow Brydge backer Peter Rojas and panicked a little bit. Peter gave it a score of 2.0 on a scale from 1 to 10 and said his was unusable — when he pressed the keys, they squeaked, stuck, or simply got jammed inside the case. Had I invested my $170 in a lemon? Sony Keyboard Cover 

Apparently not. I’ve set up my Brydge — I’m typing this post on it — and haven’t encountered any of the gremlins which Peter did. I’m hopeful that his unit was simply defective, and that when a Brydge functions properly, it…functions