The Apple iPad is wildly popular, having sold something like 8 million by the end of October 2010. So it’s no wonder that some of the more fanatical iPad lovers have made some awesome ipad case mods to them, most of which you should definitely not try at home! Here are a few highlights of the mad iPad case mods world.
1. Macintosh Classic
For those who want to get really old-school, how about an iPad case mod that’s based on a Macintosh mod that’s based on classic 1980s arcade games? Also known as “The April Fools Joke Heard Round the World,” Wired magazine’s iCade spoof arcade cabinet for the iPad made its debut April 1, 2010. Alas, Apple bans apps that run on emulators, which means that the iCade will probably never exist in the real world.
Source2. iPad Car Mod
Some iPad case mods actually make sense: a man named Alan Daly created a wooden mount to embed an iPad into a kitchen cabinet. You can easily take it back out by unplugging it and sliding it up and out. Daly says he uses it for things like watching videos, and using the Epicurious app for recipes and shopping lists. Now that’s a pretty awesome iPad case mod!
Source3. iPad Guitar
So you want to learn to play guitar. Are you still thinking about your basic wooden box with six strings? Get with it, dude! A DJ named Franz Keller (“Franz K”) turned an iPad into a wearable iPad guitar DJ frame called the Mantaray. Though it’s one of the more bizarre iPad case mods, it’s not an April Fools joke. You can watch it in action on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfE5R5mPy4I&feature=player_embedded#!.
Source4. iBook Mod
Some of the (admittedly few) naysayers about the iPad complain that it doesn’t have a traditional keyboard, and that on-screen typing is a pain. Well, iPad mod expert Jack Zylkin has answered that complaint, and how! You can not only have a QWERTY keyboard for your iPad, you can make it from that old six-ton cast iron Underwood manual in the attic. It’s guaranteed to make your typing even slower than using the on-screen keypad. And as iPad case mods go, this is one “case” that is the opposite of portable.
5. iPad Skateboard
Jeff King and Chad Knight went and turned an iPad into a skateboard.
The iPad when turned off might look like a high-tech cutting board for chopping up onions, but skater Chad Knight, alongside “Built to Shred” host Jeff King went a bit further with their iPad mod: they made a case that turned it into a skateboard using totally high tech methods like gluing it to the wheel base with Bondo. So, did it shred? Well, yes, sort of. Once. But it’s a pretty fair bet that even thinking about doing this to an iPad will void the warranty instantly.
6. Dolphin Friendly iPad
If you’re jealous that your neighbor / sister / co-worker has an iPad and you don’t, you should skip this next mod. A bottlenose dolphin named Merlin now has a specially waterproofed iPad, which he uses alongside dolphin researcher Jack Kassewitz of speakdolphin.com with the goal of developing a human-dolphin language interface. There’s as yet no word on what Merlin’s favorite iPad magazine app is.
