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With many schools and colleges back in session, we are seeing the usual and predicable spike in accidental damage repairs in our service facilities. It’s very important to remember that a dropped computer, one with a broken screen, or one with any type of liquid damage–no matter how new–has no warranty coverage.

Small Dog has a ton of products to protect your Mac or iPod from impact and liquid damage. Keep in mind, though, that you still should avoid dropping your laptop or drinking anything near it. Here are my favorite protective products for Apple laptops.

“Speck cases”:http://www.smalldog.com/search/?find=speck are hard shells that are form-fitted for a precise and tight fit to your laptop. Available in many colors and textures, they are the best-selling and best-performing protection against impact damage.

The second part of protecting your laptop is a well-padded laptop bag like “those from Timbuk2.”:http://www.smalldog.com/search/?find=Timbuk2 These messenger-style laptop bags have lots of storage, look good, and provide great protection. If you prefer a sleeve-style laptop case, know that they provide less protection, but are still better than carrying around a naked computer. My favorite is the new “Hammerhead line,”:http://www.smalldog.com/search/?find=hammerhead named for CEO Don Mayer’s bulldog.

Jeremiah Johnson, assistant manager of the South Burlington store, likes the Incipio Feather line of cases, and has a review a little later in this issue of Best in Showroom.

The third element of a good protection plan is a keyboard cover. “KB Covers”:http://www.smalldog.com/search/?find=kb+cover makes a line of form-fitting super-thin plastic covers that’ll save your bacon if you spill a small amount of liquid on your keyboard. It only takes a drop of water to make it through your keyboard and onto complex (and very expensive) circuitry below. If you must drink near your laptop, you owe it to yourself to get a keyboard cover.

If, despite your best efforts to protect your machine (or if you didn’t protect it), your computer is dropped or spilled in, it is best to discontinue use immediately to prevent more damage. A dropped computer should have its hard drive preemptively replaced in most cases, and a computer that’s been spilled in should have a thorough inspection by a good technician. Our Technical Service team can often revive a damaged computer for hundreds, or even over $1,000 less than the same repair at an Apple store.

I am love with my iPad. It is easily the coolest gadget I have ever bought. After having spent the last few days playing with it non-stop, I have a much better sense of what it is and what it isn’t, as well as what its potential can be. I think the best way to explain my sense of this devil is to tell you about how I’ve been using it.

This is hands down the best device I’ve ever browsed the web on. The other night My roommates were out and I spent the evening chilling on the couch with my iPad just surfing my usual sights and listening to some iTunes. There was no TV in the background or anything. It felt every bit as intimate and cozy as curling up with a favorite book and enjoying peace and quiet. I’ve never had that homey feeling with my laptop.

The potential for games is also amazing, especially social games. The iPad was made to be passed around. Some friends and I were chatting in the living room while idly passing around the iPad and playing Worms HD. Each person would simply take their turn and then pass it to the next while the conversation simply filled the spaces in between. It didn’t have the dominating presence of a TV.

I’ve been using the Pages app as much as possible to see what kind of working potential this device has. I’ll admit that if I needed to really get a full paper done, referencing lots of sources and actively researching at the same time, I would choose a full computer anytime. But I have my iMac or MacBook Pro for that.

However, for writing a simple review like this one, or responding to quick emails, the iPad is a pleasure to use. Basically I’ve learned that the iPad is not a laptop. If you need to multitask with lots of windows and things going on, you want a computer. But if you just need to be able to reference or adjust documents, or keep in touch, or search the web on the go, the iPad has the possibility of replacing a laptop in a multiple computer set up. I have not opened my laptop once since I got this thing, though I did use my iMac once to write up a paper for school.

Most of all though, I’m loving the simple things. Listening to programs with the NPR app, or browsing the gorgeously simple New York Times editor’s choice app is great over breakfast, and feels much more natural than sitting in front of my computer. Streaming ABC or Netflix videos is incredibly easy, as is downloading and reading Marvel Comics.

It may sound like this is turning into just a list of my favorite apps which all do things I could do before, but that’s the point. The iPad is not about innovation in content, it’s about the experience and that experience is provided by the apps that developers put out. I hope developers keep up the good work, because so far the experience has been simply wonderful.