There are a number of stands available for iPad but there are few, if any that are as well designed, engineered and thought out as the Skadoosh from JaDu Industries.

A Little History

JaDu is a company started by husband and wife team, Jazzy and Dustin, hence the name JaDu. Dustin has experience with design and manufacturing and when his brother showed him an article on the iPad (quite sometime before it actually launched), he realized that there would be a need for a stand. Jazzy thought that it would be a passing interest but before she knew it, the Skadoosh was turning out to be a beautiful, highly functional product. In a nutshell, within 3 months they were filing papers to register their business and begin the patent process on the Skadoosh. Dustin deals with most of the design elements, whilst Jazzy handles the finances and the running of the business. Fast forward to today and what was once a dream is now a fully fledged product ready for sale.

Simple But Complicated!

At first glance the Skadoosh looks simple and elegant, something you’d be more than happy placing on your desk next to your iMac or Apple Cinema Display, but it’s not until you look closely that you can see exactly how much attention and care has been put into creating it, you could say it is a work of art.

It’s all very well buying a product that looks the part but if it isn’t functional then it ends up being no more than a pretty paper weight. Thankfully the Skadoosh is not within this category, it is as functional as one could expect from an iPad stand.

Features

Let’s start with the basics. It weighs only 10 ounces (approximate), it allows for either portrait or landscape orientation of your iPad and is made from light weight aluminum.

Now for the more detailed features! Let’s first talk about other iPad stands on the market, they tend to be bulky, they only have one angled position or possibly 3 or 4 if you’re lucky and most are not the nicest looking and hardly compliment those sleek lines and design of the iPad itself. The Skadoosh has a small footprint, with a width of just 75mm and a depth (without support arm extended) of 120mm. To put that into context the depth is about the same as an iPhone’s length and it’s width is approximately the size of an iPhone screen width not including the home button or ear piece. It also has small rubber feet underneath that are very grippy ensuring it won’t slip around on shiny surfaces or move whilst changing the angle of the iPad. It’s very easy to put your iPad onto the Skadoosh in either portrait or landscape orientation, the iPad sits in a plastic cutout area (the rocker) and the back of your iPad rests against a rocker arm which has two rubber rings around it to stop it from scratching. In fact so much thought has gone into the stand that rather than just sticking a couple of rubber bands on the rocker arm to prevent scratching of your iPad, the aluminum underneath the bands has been cutout to allow them to sit in place perfectly without moving around.

The Skadoosh iPad stand has 10 positions to choose from when deciding which angle you would like your iPad. By simply pressing a button on the front of the stand you can adjust the angle by gently pushing or pulling your iPad and then letting go of the button. You also don’t need to worry about the arm moving when you’re typing or prodding around on the iPad screen, as the arm works on a ratchet system and clicks into place so that once the desired position is set, it won’t move. You can actually move the rocker arm forward without the need for the button and you will hear the ratchet system clicking as you move it, but as mentioned by Jadu, this is not advisable as eventually it may wear away the teeth on the ratchet.

Support Arm

When the iPad is sitting in the Skadoosh and is at its furthest angle i.e. it’s as far back as the Skadoosh will allow for typing or playing a game etc, there is a support arm that folds out from beneath the stand which stops the stand from tipping backwards. Once again this has been very well designed, the support arm folds out with ease and once folded back is the perfect size and dimensions for the underneath of the stand. It’s quite difficult to explain just how well this arm has been engineered, you really need to see it for yourself to fully appreciate its design and functionality. When extended the arm does of course add a bigger footprint to the Skadoosh and its depth becomes 191mm which is a tiny bit bigger than the width of your iPad, but only by a millimeter or two.

iPad Cases

One concern for many is a lot of iPad stands don’t offer the ability of holding your iPad with its case on. Again this is something that has been thought of in the design process. Currently the Skadoosh iPad stand can accommodate an iPad in its case of up-to three quarters of an inch. In our tests we used the SwitchEasy Nude case and it sat perfectly within the Skadoosh without any problems at all. Jadu Industries are currently testing an adapter that will allow for thicker cases and could be available at some point in the future, but in the meantime the Skadoosh will quite happily accommodate a wide variety of cases.

Charging Cable

Yet another feature of the Skadoosh is its ability to allow you feed your charging cable in from behind and charge your iPad whilst in portrait orientation. As you can see from the images there is a cutout that allows your 30 pin connector plug to have access to the bottom of your iPad and when viewing the Skadoosh from the front you’d never even know it was there.

Contents

There’s hardly any packaging with the Skadoosh, it comes in a small box and inside is a carry bag that holds the stand, that’s it. According to Jadu Industries the lack of packaging is by design in an effort to minimize the waste that ends up in the bin.

Would we recommend it?

Absolutely and without question. Let’s talk about price for a moment, the Skadoosh iPad stand is not the cheapest in the world, it costs $99.99 without custom laser engraving and $111.99 with engraving, but to be perfectly honest you’re not currently going to find a better stand, everything has been thought of. One thing we didn’t mention above was its portability. It’s so small, compact and light that taking it with you wherever you go is as simple as popping it in the carrying bag provided and stuffing it in your rucksack or briefcase, you’ll never know it’s there. It’s perfect for that next flight and it’s just as perfect for taking to work and allowing you to show off and use your iPad in style on your desk.

 

Overall

The ‘Skadoosh iPad Stand’ is head and shoulders above any other stand currently on the market, the attention to detail, the finish, the design and the functionality cannot be faulted. If you’re in the market for an iPad stand look no further than the Skadoosh, it’s an engineering masterpiece.

 

 

You can order your Skadoosh by visiting the JaDu Industries website and if you’re in the US you’ll even get free shipping.

Images

 

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