Tablets such as Apple’s iPad 3 hold the promise of serving as fully-featured mobile entertainment systems, offering increasingly amazing viewing quality — but in a form factor that is far from perfect for the task.
For example, holding a tablet at the right angle and most comfortable position for an extended period of time (such as while watching a multi-hour long movie), is a tiresome chore that can be easily alleviated through the use of a stand. Likewise, having the ability to share video and other content with others — or of enjoying it yourself on a big screen — adds an entirely new dimension to a tablet’s capabilities.
Its real value may be as a harbinger of future technologies, combined with an oh-so trendy “green” manufacturing approach that will only become more commonplace in the future.
Enter Kudo and its ~$200 KudoCase for the iPad (www.kudocase.com), which uses light to power the device and corn grain to protect it.
According to the company, the case’s new solar ink technology works with outdoor and indoor light to provide up to 10 days of use, based on an average of two hours usage per day. The nature of the technology still requires periodic powering from a wall outlet, however, but the extended battery and USB power-out charger, make it easy and offer a way to charge your phone, camera or other device, using KudoCase’s solar power output.
Like many iPad cases, the KudoCase features an automatic sleep and wake function built into its flap, along with a stand for better viewing. On this unit, however, the stand is usable in both landscape and portrait mode.
A built-in whistle locator makes your iPad easy to find, beeping in response to your whistle; while the integrated HDMI connector provides more ways to use the device, connecting it to big screen TVs, portable projectors, and other video systems.
As cool as this case is, its real value may be as a harbinger of future technologies, combined with an oh-so trendy “green” manufacturing approach that will only become more commonplace in the future. In the case of the KudoCase, this green approach uses organic, biodegradable corn grain for the housing; while an organizational partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation leads to the planting of a tree for each Kudo registered, offsetting any potential carbon footprint left behind from the manufacturing process.
But consider how the Kudo enables the iPad to be used: transforming the tablet into a high quality, high capacity, portable digital media acquisition, storage and playback unit that is easily extended into a group viewing and presentation system, via its HDMI port — with a nearly neverending runtime.
Think about what this means to the future of adult media consumption and you will have an inroad into the needs of tomorrow’s audiences, and a guideline to opportunities for serving them.