My idea this week is an accessory to transform the whizzbang iPad into a simple practical object that may be useful around the home, in this case a bookend.
I will probably buy an iPad at some point. It is a beautiful object and is apparently wonderful to use. I don’t think I’ll read books on it as a paper book has higher resolution text, is about four times lighter and doesn’t need a battery. The iPad will definitely be a success as an entertainment device, looking at photos, reading an e-magazine, watching a movie and visiting websites, but whether it will become a ‘useful’ thing is a bit of an unknown. Hopefully the people who make the software apps will come up with something that turns the iPad from a delightful luxury item into an essential piece of equipment. Maybe one day we will look back and think ‘what exactly did we do before the iPad?’ or maybe we’ll think ‘Well, it made a stylish bookend’. Your comments are very welcome…
You can see my other Apple related work I did for Esquire magazine’s 75th anniversary edition a while back here. If you’re new to my site check out the other fifty ideas I’ve had by going to the home page and scrolling down. Follow future ideas via Twitter/Facebook/RSS/Email
Dominic Wilcox 
Very nice. Gotta’ make that a real product. Seriously!
May may a good way to act as a display stand with a slight tweak. Go for it.
Brilliant.
Thanks Andy
What happens to the books when you want to use the iPad?
The books fall down so you shouldn’t do that. It’s a bookend now.
You’d just have to buy a second iPad, obviously.
iPad = luxurious bookend. It will never be a useful item. Well, it will be if you if you produce the ibookend, but then it’s just useful but not practical because of it’s high price tag. 🙂
It’s a complicated thing
So what happens to the books, when you take the Ipad out…
The books would fall of course. Why would someone dismantle their bookend?.
iBookEnd…
Ich dachte schon, dass das Ding doch noch einen Sinn hat. Wirklich sehr stylisch von Apple muss ich sagen Gefunden bei variationsonnormal. Share on Facebook……
Ich verstehe, ich glaube, danke
won’t it scratch the screen of the ipad?
a $400 bookend?
no
I have a feeling with such heavy books resting on the ipad, it will eventually break the ipad, or bend/scratch the aluminum back part due to the constant pressure of the ipad with the actual slot of the ibookend.
is this a joke? Come on guys, April fools was a week ago…. seriously.
Let’s just hope, the iPad will not be the (paper) book’s end. 😉
Err..
Good idea, but why do you put it in the other way around? The display could show the list of books on this shelf – kind of a library helper… 😀
Ah yep, that’s me. I can’t think of a use for one either…
Val
Ha ha ha this has got to be some king of wind up!
The most horrific idea of this product is, that iPad really tries to be (or is?) The End of all books. Buy it, and you will place it next to very last paperbook you ever bought. Next books you buy are inside the iPad…
I have a great iPad idea. Human Subtitles. Speech recognition linked to iPad, then display on the screen what the person is saying. Then i can understand all you freakazoids.
Here’s one I did earlier https://variationsonnormal.com/2009/08/19/personal-subtitles/
no, i hope it’s not…
no, i love paper books. they won’t be gone.
no, i love paper books. they won’t be gone. thank you
Nice technology! we should appreciate it because we are benefited from it! 🙂