My Ipad 2 - Smart Cover...or is it?

After much debate, with myself of course, I succumbed to my desires of owning the ipad 2 and made the decision to go ahead and purchase one.  Now the decision was made by myself and my company's co-founder to go ahead and treat ourselves with the new gadget, now mind you, I had the Ipad 1 since my wife bought it for me as a birthday gift back in September although I told her explicitly not to, but thats another post altogether.  The 2 in my eyes was not sucha  dramatic iteration over the current device, the camera's are strictly wizz bang for me with no real core value, the tablet is not very comfortable to do long form video with, and as for facetime, I have used it once on my iphone 4 with a friend to make sure it worked, if I really wanted to see you when I speak with you, I would come visit.  Now I dont want to be a total hater, because I do love the device, i like the fact that they made it slimmer, and the weight difference is unnoticeable unless you are holding both devices at the same time, asnd I do think i may have noticed some speed improvements, not like iphone 3g to iphone 4 speed improvement, but some nonetheless.

Now this post is not so much about ipad 2 as a device because they are thousands of posts out there regarding the features and side by side analysis and what not, but this is more so about the ipad 2 smart case or cover and lack of back protection.  Now my ipad 1 was eternally encased in Apples original black ipad case to keep it protected at all times on all sides, but the new smart case left a bit to be desired, namely the fact that one side of the device would always be open to the elements and unprotected.  Now whats a guy to do to protect their investment and still have the functionality of Apples ultra-cool smart cover.....well here is what what my research brought me and what I decided to do:

1. You can get the special invisible shields( a number of companies make different versions of a similar net product, Zagg invisibleShield, Wrapsol, gelskins and a number of no-named ebay knockoffs of equal quality that are made for the front and back and are supposed to keep the device scratch free). My take on them:  I never do the best job wrapping gifts and dont want to spend 30/40$ on a film that is going to end up all wrinkled, and the most important thumbs down for me is the lack of any shock absorption whatsoever.  I get the scratch protection and believe the videos and the claims, however,  if I dropped the ipad from waist level, I doubt the film would protect against dents or internal damage
2. Try one of the silicone or tpu cases being hawked on ebay for $10 or so and hope that it is thin enough that the smart cover magnets will still connect and help power the device on and off.  Well I decided to try this route first as it was less expensive, and it usually included a screen protector which i am big fan of (always use one on my iphone 4 and other iphones).  so i went with a clear TPU case that had concentric circles in the back, was somewhat of a matte clear and had a special circle to highlight the Apple logo in the back.  Ordered on Ebay from US shipper as the $1/2 i could save by ordering from Hong Kong and waiting for 30 days was no good.  It arrived within 4 days, I immediately stopped working and tried out the case, which fit pretty well and felt like it provided protection.  Outcome, the case would not allow the magnets to hold the side of the iPad securely and would not properly hold the device in the typing position.  It would still wake/sleep from the magnets, but the smart cover would easily fall off when being carried.  

You read it right, 2 options, at least as far as I could tell when the Smart Cover needed to be a part of the protection, 'wow Dave, terrible blog post, this went no where' you might say....and if I were done and had given up I would agree with you however, I was not willing to accept defeat.  So I went a got my x-acto knife, it was actually a box cutter but i would suggest the xacto knife if you are patient and/or have one handy, and a sharpie fine point marker.  I traced the outline of the magnets on the TPU skin took the iPad out and carefully I cut the TPU case so the smart cover magnets would grip the case as if there were no additional case.  And after a few rounds of trimming and cleaning up my cuts VOILA...a perfect fit, essentially it is the equivalent of a book cover, and actually resembles one.  The ipad 2 feels safe and secure, all the corners are protected from the sturdy TPU plastic/silicone whatever the exact material is, I don't worry about putting the ipad down on the kitchen table, or the floor or my glass desk.

I went with the TPU because it is fairly rigid, I am certain that if I bought a silicone case and cut it to accommodate the smart cover, it would have lost its form and no longer properly protected the iPad.  My new case protects the ipad from both the elements and from moderate bangs and bumps(only my suspicion as I will not be testing it by dropping it on purpose).

Here are some pics of the finished project, I did not do a step by step as it is a fairly straightforward project, but if you would like some help, just email me or DM me at twitter @DLoz