Better late than never. Ladies and gentlemen, please meet the Across Mini - our hands-free case for iPad Mini. We have them in stock and ready to go, but we do not have too many, especially in colors.
We are in the final stages of design of a bigger and better version of the Platforma bag. We will make it lighter, simplify some things...
I apologize for the lack of updates. We were super-busy with production, plus the Internet in China is restricted, slow, and unreliable. Facebook is blocked.
This is a quick post. Please read this carefully, especially if you pre-ordered the Across for Air.
Here goes:
I just came back from China and brought some Acrosses with me, with more coming by plane next Monday (fingers crossed).
We will start shipping Acrosses today. We do not have enough of them to ship to everybody, but we expect to ship all of the pre-ordered cases in the first week of April - we are going to MacWorld 2014 in San Fran next Tuesday, so there will be no shipping of new Acrosses for the next week.
We will post pictures of new Acrosses; they are beautiful. The leather is softer, the cases are a bit lighter. We will be getting cases in various and awesome colors. A very limited number for now. More about this later, in a separate post.
There is one thing that we though we were going to have - but it we will not: the embedded magnets for the Auto on-off feature. The supplier was late, we did not have time to do it the right way, the switching was unreliable. I decided to pull out the feature. We either do it right, or not at all. Apple is now using two magnets instead of one, with specific polarity requirements and very tight tolerances. Not easy to do in a leather cases.
Is this a big deal? Not really, to most users. Our testing and surveys show that iPad is turned on and off much more often than when the case is opened and closed. The thing becomes even less important if you are using a password. Not that we are trying to find any excuses.
If auto on-off feature is super-important to you, please cancel the order is you have already placed it.
The prices of new cases will be higher than those of the previous generation. Labor and material costs went up, and the cases are even better than before.
The fit of these new cases is very tight - please be aware of this. You may think your iPad will not go in - it will. Every case we ship was tested by us here in the US with a real iPad, so we know it fits. You need to insert the iPad at an angle, and wiggle it in. Do it on a flat surface: on a desk or a table. Once the iPad is inside the case, flatten the border to stretch the leather a bit. Also, push it all the way in. The leather will stretch over time. We will post a video of how to do this properly.
Stay tuned! TTYL.
Serge at Strotter
As before, the new Across will be available in two options: genuine leather (GL) and a more affordable synthetic leather version (SL). The prices are $129 and $79 respectively.
People find more and more uses for Strotter hands-free tablet cases and bags. Some of them are really unexpected. Just like our products...
Looks like our Across (the hands-free iPad carrying case) is gaining momentum not only with students, but also with teachers. We have been approached by the folks from Florida and Minnesota. The Across case may be great in combination with iPad for controlling the Promethean whiteboard in classrooms.