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Comment by cletus | Hacker News Reader

Really? A wooden cover for the iPad 2... with magnets. That's what makes the top of HN?

I can see this belonging on Engadget but what's the value here?

Don't get me wrong: I have an iPad 2. I love my iPad (1 & 2). I just don't see how a wooden cover for it is HN-worthy.

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A few reasons (as far as I'm concerned)

1. Startups could learn a lot about presentation from this guy. I don't know about anyone else but I was struck by the video's simple, matter of fact style. No flash or funny animations. Just a smart guy showing what his company had done (and then thanking me for my time)

2. People deify Apple too much. Apple's great but you can compete with them if you put some effort into it. Sure most people won't want a wooden iPad cover but some will and it very well may be enough to make a profit off of.

3. Some people might want a wooden iPad cover and this lets them know about it (isn't that the same thing all those "Tell HN" threads do)

For a community centered around startups I think those insights are valuable which is why I up-voted it.

> No flash or funny animations. Just a smart guy showing what his company had done

Well... the product does come from Holland. Try watching some Finish videos if you want more of that. People in both of those countries are pretty straightforward in life (based both on personal experience and anecdotes, YMMV).

Actually, being from Denmark, this is one thing that annoys me about a lot of Americen advertising. It's awfully obnoxious and in-your-face.

Not a fan of Billy Mays, I take it.

Yeah, being from Holland I never understand why the presentation of stuff from other countries is so over the top, even for simple things. But it seems to sell though, so probably a lot of people like it. I personally like a paragraph (or less) saying what it does + 1 or 2 good pics. No videos please.

Agreed. It's not about it being an Apple-related gadget as much as it's a classic case of entrepreneurship. Rapid/agile. Heck I wouldn't be surprised if they've only built a few units so far for prototype testing, and they won't even bother to ramp up production until they start getting real orders in. Lean manufacturing, I guess.

Startups can learn something from almost any webpage on the internet. HN at this point of time has more mac fans than cultofmac.

It's good design, and good design is a recurring theme on Hacker News.

I think people are still recoiling from the shock of the brilliance that out-shines the sun that is the Smart Cover™ (© Apple) and what super-awesome things it means for future generations (better than flying cars, clearly, now that we have Smart Covers™. Maybe bread that toasts itself! Smart Bread™!). The world is forever changed; I see the light; All bow before Steve Jobs!

</ partial sarcasm>

Partial, because I do think it's likely people are still recovering from "why didn't I think of that"-itis (or maybe "why didn't someone make this sooner"-itis). Apple just one-upped the entire world of things-that-cover-things, possibly by a greater degree than Tupperware that burps so you know it's keeping things fresh. It takes a while to re-define your place in the world when something like this first comes into existence - until then, everything is awesome: flowers smell more flowery, covers cover more completely, and computers compute like never before.

I'm still unconvinced about the smart cover. The magnets are a neat hack, but I've found that with my various (metal backed) i-Products that if they are out of a full body jacket their metal cases scratch, scuff and loose their shininess very quickly.

Additionally a 'full metal jacket' cough provides some protection from getting wet and that seems to be #1 priority in Apple's product doco that you should never ever do.

I'm just referring to the cover's shinyness - it turns the ipad on and off, it has magnets, and it attaches without any attachment points cluttering its body. Simple, but very much something that nobody has done with tablets before.

It's just awesome. That's why.

That's a useful, precise criterion if I ever saw one!

I should put this moment in a diary or something. The moment my 'cool. awesome!' response was entirely dampened by my 'wow. fetishization much?' response.

I don't even own a lawn yet :[

Really? A wooden cover for the iPad 2..

yes. it's much more ingenious than iPad 2 if you think about it.

In fact this thing made me consider for a second that maybe I should get an iPad.

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