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This iPad Case by Zugu Checks All the Boxes (New Olive Color)

(Sponsored Post) By Austin Durr on Thu, 09/21/2023

Zugu’s iconic iPad case is sleek and modern while providing military-grade drop protection. As a result, Zugu has amassed an impressive following as Amazon’s highest-rated iPad case. Just one of its 75,000+ five-star reviews calls it "The absolute best…I actually feel safe around my kids with this case." Far from an overnight success, Zugu has focused on making one product, and consistently improving. For over twelve years, Zugu engineers have toiled away in pursuit of the perfect iPad case. They’ve refined, tested, and refined again—and it shows.

 

When the good folks at iGearUnlimited contacted me asking if I’d be interested in reviewing their customized cases I first checked out their website and saw what seemed to be a quality product. Then I watched their promotional video (see below), and was even more impressed. And then I went ahead and ordered a folio style case, and not only continued to be impressed, but now I feel like I can now unreservedly recommend their products to all of our readers here at iPhone Life.

 

First of all, how great it is to be able to get a quality case for an iPad with an image of your choosing decorating it! The iPad is already so personal to so many of us; it’s a great plus to be able to customize its protection as much as we can customize its innards.

UPDATE (08/09/2012): in the comments section below, I elaborated on deinterlacing. Note that I'll devote a complete article / tutorial to these subjects (using X.264 / HandBrake / Episode to deinterlace etc.) some time. Before that, it's mostly HandBrake's (default) decombing that will be your best friend.

UPDATE (08/04/2012): THIS thread has a lot of discussion of the subject. Remember to prefer my statements to ones that state the opposite! (The thread is full of factual errors.)

Original article:

UPDATE (07/07/2012): answering a question HERE, I've run some VERY serious CPU usage tests (see THIS for the methology; I used "top" on my iPad 3) and found out the following:

The InfiniDock and Springtomize 2 combo (can be used together to give the highest configurability; see below for related remarks) does not add any CPU usage when
- the device shows SpringBoard
- 10 icons are put in the dock, even with card roll and scrolling (via InfiniDock) enabled
- the maximum number of icons are displayed in each row

UPDATE (02/21/2013): I've re-tested the current versions of XBMC and compared it to the current AVPlayer(HD) versions on both the iPad 3, 4 and the iPhone 5.  AVPlayer and AVPlayerHD have proved out to be considerably better, which means XBMC is still not recommended for WMV playback.

Of XBMC, I've tested the following versions:

- official 12 Eden (currently available from their official repo as the default version)

- the iPad Retina-friendly version (more info)

- the latest (21/Feb) nightly build (13 alpha)

More info & discussion HERE.

UPDATE (24/05/2012): the new (2.3) version has just been approved by Apple. It has, among other things, improved UPnP support:

 

 

In my tests, directory listing indeed worked with Majestic. However, streaming didn't (all I saw was a black screen) and downloading have turned out to be VERY slow - more than an order of magnitude(!!!) slower than with GoodPlayer, under exactly the same circumstances. That is, UPnP-wise, this app still has a lot to be improved...

 

Several MacRumors forum members (see for example THIS thread – BTW, my first post there also contains an 1:2.35 movie playback screenshot) have asked me for my opinion on the recently released , free(!) QQPlayerHD (iTunes link).


(main file list dialog; the screenshot also shows the one and only menu available in the app. Click the image for the original-sized one.)

In the last few days, I've participated in several discussion threads in the Phone Cameras / Tablets & Apps forum of DPReview. (See for example THIS, THIS and THIS). In order not to have to repeat the same facts again and again in future discussions, I've decided to dedicate a complete article to the question of using the iPad as a photo frame.

While, in the last week, several multimedia players have been updated (including my favourite, GoodPlayer, which, among other things, has clearly improved its DVD playback support in the current, 5.0 version), one of them I've already (quickly) reviewed (see THIS and also the comparison videos HERE), RushPlayer has received the most updates and new functionality. This is why I'm dedicating a separate (quick) article to it (but, currently, no other players).

Over at DPReview, answering a question (thread HERE), I've elaborated on playing back both 1080i60 and 60p videos created by the new, highly recommended and popular Panasonic FZ150 camera so that this info can also be included in my forthcoming iOS Multimedia bible. As the info can be of interest to people before the Multimedia bible is finally published (which takes at least one additional week or two), I dedicate a separate article to the question. (Note that this article applies to all other cameras producing MTS, M2TS or TS – and not MOV / MP4! - files.)

I've dedicated several articles (latest one HERE) to converting videos into MP4 (M4V / MOV) files so that they can be played back by the H.264 decoder of even older-generation iDevices. In the current one, I elaborate on how how you can play the output files with the built-in, stock Videos application. This article also belong to my Multimedia article series, in which I plan to publish a “Streaming multimedia over your local Wi-Fi” in the next few days and, then, finally, the real Multimedia bible.

I have a second-generation Apple TV set-top box, and really enjoy using AirPlay to stream movies from my iPad to my 42-inch HDTV. It's fun how simple it is. If you have an iOS device and Apple TV on the same WiFi network, you simply start playing a video and tap a button that gives you the option of playing the movie on your TV instead of your iPad. If you need to go out and want to continue watching the movie, you simply toggle back to the iPad and continue watching.

In order not to have to update it much, I've been waiting for the (new) iPad (3) and postponing the publication of both updates of my previous major PDF reader / Web browser roundups and also new, iPad-specific articles like multimedia playback. Now that the iPad 3 is here, I, at last, start publishing all these articles, starting with the long-promised video player roundup.

Before it gets published (which will take at least a day or two, as I still want to add stuff like network share support and video output to external monitors / AirPlay clients), however, I publish a quick article comparing the

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