Brydge Kickstarter project literally bridges gap between iPad and laptop

The iPad, and tablets in general, truly are magical devices that are slowly taking control of the personal computing market. But there are a few reasons that that tablets haven't entirely taken over.

One of the issues users have with their iPads as a total personal computer is typing. It's not as natural or as big as a normal keyboard, even on a small laptop, which makes it good for short emails, but sort of a nuisance when it comes to the longer stuff.

The Brydge (yet another astoundingly successful Kickstarter project), seeks to remedy this problem, letting users type normally, fully using their iPad like a laptop. Basically, the Brydge keyboard clips on to the iPad to make the iPad into a Macbook. It looks the part, and has an integrated speaker system built-in too, to complete the transformation.

The designers, Sam Gordon, Brad Leong, Eddy Vromen out of the San Francisco bay area, came to the idea after deeming that other attempts to connect the iPad to a keyboard were unsuccessful:

"This idea of turning your iPad into a high quality laptop seemed obvious to us and we were shocked when we could not find any accessory that accomplished this. So we set out to make such a product from the highest quality materials that would compliment your iPad perfectly."

The Brydge is made of aluminum, not only for the purpose of streamlining it with the iPad ascetically, but also to make it more sturdy that the competition. However, the materials make it cost more to produce, which is why the trio turned to Kickstarter.

The hinge that holds the two together is patent-pending, and allows for almost 180-degrees of positions, so the iPad can be seen at a variety of different angles. It even closes like a laptop, putting both devices into sleep mode.

And the connection? It's Bluetooth, so no cords.

It's clear there is a demand for this product, as the designers have raised over $500,000 of their goal of... $90,000. The units are promised at around $150 each.

Watch the video (and see more photos below):

[Co.Design]
Images: Brydge

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com