NIBIQÜ: a Surface-like keyboard case for your iPad

nibiqu kickstarter

Despite lackluster sales, Microsoft’s new Surface has been praised for its innovations. Windows 8 RT certainly doesn’t look like anything else on the market right now, and the tablet’s ultra-slim Touch Cover keyboard is an interesting concept.

In fact, a lot of folks are asking if there is something similar available for the iPad. There are, actually several keyboard covers that are compatible with Apple’s tablet, but none of them come closer to the Touch Cover than the NIBIQÜ…

The NIBIQÜ is a super thin — 3.55mm thin — cover for your iPad made out of TPU, polyurethane and aluminum. And it has a built-in 78-key keyboard with patent-pending dual curvature thermoformed membrane tech for type feedback.

In addition to the keyboard, the NIBIQÜ acts as a stand, allowing you to position your iPad in any inclination between 50 to 90 degrees. It also has built-in magnets, so you can attach the case to your iPad in either portrait or landscape mode.

Communication between the keyboard and your tablet is handled by an L-shaped adapter that plugs into your iPad 2 or 3 (they say they’re almost done with Lightning adapters). The connection is wireless and doesn’t require any batteries.

The NIBIQÜ is ready to start mass production, and the developers are hoping to raise $100k via a Kickstarter project to make it happen. If you’re interested, a pledge of just $89 puts you on the pre-order list for special edition green one.

I’ve gone all in on the iPad mini, so this doesn’t particularly appeal to me. But if I did more tedious work on a larger tablet, I’d be very interested in trying one out. Kudos to these guys for going against the grain here.

What do you think of the NIBIQÜ?