coverity

Ultimate iPad 2 case roundup

Editors' note: Updated January 24 with nine new cases from Belkin, Camalen, Evio, Incipio, iSkin, Speck, and SwitchEasy. The original post published March 11, 2011.

We know that a lot of people who buy the iPad 2 are also going to buy Apple's Smart Cover. But then again plenty of folks prefer to shop for non-Apple alternatives, and we've got more than 70 iPad 2 covers and stands to show you.

Related link MacBook Air cases and covers roundup

Of course, this roundup only represents a fraction of the cases and stands available for the iPad 2, but we've tried to include many of the top cases available. It's also worth noting that while we've included a few sleeve-style cases and some back covers that are designed to work with Apple's Smart Cover, the majority of the cases are what we'd call "full" cases with protection for both the front and back of your iPad 2.

If you think we missed a good cover--or just have a favorite among the ones shown--feel free to post a comment. We'll update the list to include more covers and stands as they become available (we've added close to 20 new covers in the last month and have started to delete some of the less desirable cases as the list gets too long).

Click on any slide to begin the slideshow. Cases are listed alphabetically.

How to create a Facebook cover photo on your Android device

Shortly after posting about how to create a Facebook cover photo on the iPhone, I found an Android app that allows you to create and upload a cover photo straight from an Android device.

The app, Facebook Timeline Covers: D33P, is free. Once you upload your cover photo creation, however, it will be stamped with a watermark promoting the app. Let's take a look at how the app works.

The app has a straightforward approach; after launching and allowing the app to access your Facebook account, you cap tap on either the blank cover photo or profile picture to … Read more

Padintosh turns iPad 2 into classic Mac

There's something magical about the 1980s and Apple computers. The fashions sparkled. The computers were lovably chunky.

Hop into the DeLorean of your mind and go back in time by inserting your iPad 2 into Thumbs Up World's Padintosh cover. It instantly transforms your svelte modern machine into a classic Macintosh, right down to the dingy off-whitish color.… Read more

How to make the perfect Facebook cover photo on your iPhone

Getting creative with your Facebook cover photo for your Timeline can be difficult. What size do you make it? How can you incorporate your profile picture into the cover? You see all of these creative covers on other profiles, and want to follow suit.

So, where do you begin? Well, you can begin with our guide to customizing your cover photo. If, after reading that post over, you're still looking for a simpler way to create your cover photo, look no further than your iPhone.

As Mashable reported earlier this week, Facebook Cover Designer (available from iTunes) aims to … Read more

Solar-powered Kindle cover dropping at CES

With the first solar-powered Kindle cover debuting at CES this week, the "e" in e-reader could also stand for "eco-friendly."

The SolarKindle cover allows you to read all the Al Gore and Bill McKibben titles you can download in the greenest manner imaginable--no trees ground into pulp for the pages, no coal burned in power plants to charge up your Kindle's battery. In fact, the solar cover comes with a guarantee of three months of unplugged Kindle use under "normal sunlight environment"--I'm guessing that environment doesn't include Seattle in winter.

But, if you've fully charged your cover before venturing to the great Northwest, you will be able to use the built-in 800 lux LED reading lamp for up to 50 hours without having to tap your Kindle's main battery.… Read more

Princess Leia headphone covers: What took so long?

Princess Leia's famous head buns are joining forces with your favorite headphones through the power of Etsy.

Since George Lucas has an Imperial Army of lawyers at his disposal, however, the official name of these headphone covers on JacquieLongLegs' Etsy page is "Galactic Princess Headphone Covers."

The $24 covers are made from synthetic hair. That's not surprising. Headphone covers made from real Carrie Fisher hair would probably fetch about $500,000 on eBay.… Read more

iPad 2 dropped in lava in the name of marketing

If someone sends you a link to a video of an iPad 2 being dropped in hot lava, the only sensible thing to do--once confirming the link is malware-free--is to click it.

This logic seems to be the entire basis for a new marketing campaign from California-based ZooGue, which sells accessories for iPads and other devices. The aforementioned video features ZooGue CEO Tim Angel trekking to a lava flow in Hawaii to lower an iPad 2 into the magma, watch it plead for its existence with a cute "excessive heat" warning, then burst into flames and melt.… Read more

Apple updates iPad 2 Smart Cover lineup with dark gray option

Apple has quietly tweaked its iPad 2 Smart Cover color offerings. Gone is the candy-colored orange polyurethane Smart Cover, replaced by a sleeker, infinitely more subtle dark gray option.

Also adjusted are the original polyurethane colors of blue, green, pink, and light gray, each being made "more vibrant" according to sources reporting to MacRumors. As for the leather iPad 2 Smart Covers, "Apple has slightly tweaked the color on the navy version to make it 'more navy' than the original version," according to the source.

Perhaps the best tweak, though, is that Apple has now color-matched … Read more

How to customize your Facebook Cover photo

Like the header of a blog or a splash page of a Web site, the Cover photo is the first thing your friends and prospective subscribers will notice upon visiting your profile Timeline. To help you make the best impression upon your visitors, follow these tips for designing the best Cover photo.

Here are the basics:

The cover photo size is 850x315 pixels. Anything smaller than 850P wide will be stretched and pixelated. It's public. Anyone--friend or not--who visits your page can see it. It doesn't have to be you. Your cover photo can be a photo of … Read more

Learning from physics research to tackle big data

Companies are increasingly collecting amounts of digital information that are so large as to be unwieldy. It's no surprise that finding a way to securely store, categorize and recall this information efficiently is a huge advantage for any enterprise or organization.

The growth of information has introduced an entirely new category of software in the big-data arena, which includes a variety of databases, processing engines, and applications. The main objective of all of these tools is to make data more malleable and consumable so that it can be used in an easier way.

This week, CERN, the European Organization … Read more