How to use your iPad in landscape orientation with the keyboard dock or basic dock

It's much easier, faster and more comfortable to type on the keyboard dock or a Bluetooth keyboard than with the on-screen virtual keyboard.

The problem is that the iPad as configured forces you into placing it in portrait mode to attach it to the keyboard dock or basic dock.

This vexed me from day one and I vowed to figure out a simple hack around it until Apple adds a docking port on the long side.

But that's probably months, if not years, away.

In the meantime I've got stuff to do.

So I thought about it and thought about and asked myself, what would a BrainGenius do?

And one day the penny dropped.

I ordered a 30-pin dock extender cable (pictured to the right of the iPad in the top photo) and after it arrived played around a little bit and voila, there was the solution (photographed by my crack photography team), pictured above and below.

Note that for the setup to work, you need an iPad case.

I used Apple's because I already had it.

The ridge along the portion of the case holding the iPad serves to let the iPad's encased lower border rest securely on the top edge of the keyboard dock.

If you choose to use the basic dock, it's not nearly as stable.

The front flap of the case, folded back, serves to stabilize the iPad.

Moving the free flap away or towards you allows you to choose the perfect screen angle, something you can't do with the iPad in the dock in its portrait mode.

That's the case with the keyboard dock; with the regular dock, you're limited to a much narrower range of stable configurations because of the very different geometries of the docks.

I couldn't get the uncased iPad to remain stable using the keyboard dock without using other objects to keep it in place.

With the regular dock, it's nearly impossible.

I always keep my iPad in its case (it's just too slippery to hold securely otherwise) whether or not I'm using it in conjunction with a dock.

Note also that the on/off button must be on the left to use this hack because if you try it the other way — with the hinged part of the case down — it won't fit without covering up the function keys, plus it's unstable and it looks terrible.

As pictured, there's a 1/8 inch space between the front of the iPad case and the top edge of the function keys, so they work fine.

I found two sources for dock extender cables, here and here.

Both are far longer (19 and 24 inches, respectively) than necessary, so you have to coil them up and stick them between the two flaps of the case.

Maybe someone reading this post will twig and offer one about 8 inches long, perfect for the purposes of this hack.