Hands On: Belkin FastFit Slim iPad Keyboard

Belkin FastFit Slim iPad KeyboardSince the day the iPad came out, I have always been a big fan. However I have never really been able to get on with the on-screen keyboard. I think typing on the screen feels somewhat ‘numb’, and typing large volumes of text is almost out of the question. Which is why I am a big fan (and owner of many) bluetooth iPad keyboards.

In a previous review I wrote about the Kensington KeyFolio, which had taken pride of place in my laptop back… That was until the Belkin one came on offer on Groupon.

I had nothing against the Kensington one, asides from the fact the case was a little bulky and it added a bit of weight to the iPad. The Belkin one on the other hand couldn’t really be much smaller or lighter.

The keyboard features a whole raft of function keys, which gives quick and easy access to some of iOS’s harder to find controls.

It also features a magnetic strip, which keeps they keyboard neatly attached to the iPad and wakes the iPad when the screen is lifted. So the keyboard also acts as a screen protector of sorts.

The next feature may divide the masses, as the keys on the keyboard provide that reassuring ‘click’ as they are pressed. Most other bluetooth keyboards seem to stick to a rubberized key, meaning less noise.. After spending several hours using both, I think I actually prefer the click of a plastic key!

The good:

  • The click of a plastic key
  • The multiple screen positions
  • The quick access function keys
  • The magnetic strip
  • Supports AutoWake

The bad:

  •  The click of a plastic key (if that bothers you)

The bottom line:

This keyboard is perfect if you are an infrequent iPad traveller, who just needs something to ease the pain of on-screen typing. If you are a more frequent traveller, you may want to consider something slightly more robust, perhaps the Kensington Keyfolio

Rating:

Rating: 4

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Stress test your Mac CPU

Terminal

When it comes to diagnosing hardware issues on Apple hardware, sometimes they can be difficult to track down. Especially when the issue only occurs when the Mac is under load.

However, there is a unix command you can use to stress test the CPU from the OS’s Terminal. Although you’re not lightly to find it without knowing it’s there.

The utility called “Yes” is a simple application, which you call from Terminal. Upon executing the command in Terminal your CPU will rapidly race up to 100%

Terminal

To initiate the test, launch a Terminal window, type the following command and press return:

Yes

As soon as the command commences, you will see your terminal window filling with Y’s, this is how it stresses your CPU. Once you are done testing, you can cancel the stress test using Ctrl + C.

The Yes unix app accepts any character or numeric value as a parameter, and outputs it repeatedly into the Terminal window. For example, if you open a terminal window and type:

Yes 4321

The command will output 4321 repeatedly until stopped. So to really test your CPU you could pass:

Yes 84803802380237823783428723487902387423827394

Some Mac’s have been known to suffer with an issue causing them to shutdown after 15 minutes of intensive CPU usage. Should you find your Mac does this when under load using Yes, you may want to get in touch with Apple Tech support.

It can also be used to pipe the parameter to another application, therefore forcing an app which normally requires interaction to run no-interactively. Which makes Yes both a very powerful, and a very dangerous tool.

For example, should you want to delete all the files in the current folder without responding to each prompt you could use this following command:

YES | RM *.*   <- Do not copy/paste this into terminal

The RM command would immediately start removing files of any extension in the directory, using the Yes commands output as confirmation of the delete.

So – as you can imagine, this could be a very dangerous command used in the incorrect way. However, it is a goto command used by the Genius’ bar in Apple stores.

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