Let’s be honest folks, March 2^nd, 2011 will go down as a bad day for iPad case makers. Why? Apple just announced the iPad 2 and it is as beautiful and magical as expected. Any case designer worth their salt would salivate over designing a case for this. So why the long face? Well, March 2^nd is also the day that Apple announced that they are getting serious about accessories. Really serious.

Honestly, it's about time. For a product like the iPad, the case is key. It defines your interaction with the iPad and has a far greater impact than Apple probably anticipated. Have a bulky case? Well then, you think of your iPad as being bulky. Have a case with an unstable stand? Well then, you think your iPad isn’t that great to watch movies on. Have a case that has four elastic pieces hold it in place? Well then, you completely miss out on the simple elegance of the screen.  Have a case that has jewels encrusted on it and cost $1,000? Well then, you’re and idiot with terrible taste. Why on earth would Apple let others control the iPad experience? iPad cases are  a necessity not an accessory, end of story.

So what did Apple do? In true Apple fashion, they designed something truly brilliant. As Steve Jobs pointed out during the presentation: "This isn’t a case anymore.” It’s everything. It protects the screen, it cleans the screen, it attaches magnetically, it puts the iPad to sleep when closed, wakes it up when opened and comes in a myriad of colors. Oh and it folds back to create a stand. And the kicker? It appears to be designed in collaboration with Product (RED), so a portion of the proceeds go to fight AIDS in Africa.

I wish that I could be a little bit bitter here, but I'm just in awe.

Bravo, Apple.  Mindbogglingly well done. Again.

You up for another naming session? It’s time to name the brand new bobara iPad cases and this time, I promise to use one of your suggestions: so put your thinking caps on!

So far, I have designed two cases: a black leather case with contrast green stitching and a brown leather case with contrast orange stitching. The front flap folds back to transform the folio style case into a stand. The stand works at four different angles: two standing and two typing, so you can optimize the position for your viewing or typing pleasure.

The covers are masculine and simple, yet classic and elegant.

I open it up to you!

So what did we end up naming the bag? We’re calling it The East End Tote. Thinks it’s boring? Let me explain. The name has two levels of meaning: one practical and one personal. I grew up on East End Ave in NYC and spent the summers on the East End of Long Island. While East End Avenue is very quiet and peaceful compared to the rest of New York, it is also classic and sophisticated. The street that I grew up on hasn’t changed much in the last 50 years: all the buildings are prewar and someof the doormen have greeted the same residents every morning for the last 40 years.  The area reminds you of a time in New York when Audrey was having breakfast at Tiffany’s, not a time when the ‘Real Housewives’ were getting their previous breakfasts liposuctioned out at Dr. Walden's.

So, it was in this mindset that I designed the East End Tote. It is subdued enough to carry to work or school, but interesting enough to carry on the weekend when you are out to lunch with friends. It fits everything that a smart woman would need for the day but isn't bulky and overbearing. The bags has four interior pockets, one exterior slip pocket, a removable computer sleeve and another padded interior computer sleeve that can be used for your MacBook or your iPad. It’s for the woman who cares about quality, organization and craftsmanship over a superficial label.

You be the judge. What do you think?

On a side note, thank you for all of your great name recommendations. I must admit, I really like Dawn’s idea of calling the bag ‘Twiggy.’ That was a fantastic idea and I will definitely keep it in mind for future bags. In fact, I am currently working on a smaller bag for the 11’ MacBook Air and iPad and I think that Twiggy would be a great name for it.

So, I have a confession to make: bobarra was lie.

As some of you may know, I named bobarra after my little sister, Lara.  As a little kid, she was always jumping around and bursting with energy- singing one song or another. Her favorite, not surprisingly, was the name song: ‘Lara, bara, bo bara, fan-nana-nana-fo-fara. Fee, fi, fo, fara. Lara.” So pretty soon, she became Lara-Bara and then just Bobara.

So, honestly, she was never Bobarra, she was always Bobara. Unfortunately for me, someone else had apparently decided that bobara.com was a good url and my attempts to buy it from them were met with silence. So, I rationalized myself into thinking that bobarra wasn’t that big of a difference and launched under that name.

A few months ago, I was poking around and found that the owner of bobara.com - the guy who had ignored my numerous purchase offers, had just let it expire. Oh spam filters, sometimes they really bite you in the but. So I bought it.

And now bobara is an honest site.   

Stay turned for more riveting stories. . .

Bobara (in 1990)

I may be going out of my mind. I love naming. It’s usually my favorite part of the whole design process, but right now, I’m completely stumped. I’ve designed my favorite bag to date and I can’t for the life of me come up with a name for it.

Here are the details:

-       designed for smaller Apple laptops (specificatlly, the 13” MacBook Pro and MacBook Airs)

-       inspired by early 1960s American fashion

-       dedicated iPad compartment

-       a plethora of other neat pockets throughout

-       It’s simple, elegant and profoundly useful

Any ideas? All thoughts welcome!

Faux python? No. Purple leather? No. Fringe? No.

It’s Day 3 of the manufacturing trip and my account manager has finally come to terms with the fact that I am not trying to create an ‘it’ bag.

I know, it’s a shocking revelation, but it’s the truth. We are not designing for next season because to put them in a season would be to give them an expiration date. We’re designing a bag that you could carry today, tomorrow and a tomorrow in 2015.

So that’s what we’re trying to do here, people: timeless. I’ll be back tomorrow with what that means. I've seen too much hardware, bright pink and shiny patent leather to even attempt a definition today.

Just Say No

It’s Day 2 of my overseas manufacturing trip and I've run into the same problem which I always seem to meet: I’ve designed an impossibly expensive bag. In the past, I managed to do this by creating scalloped details that required all sorts of intricate cutting and stitching techniques. This time, I did it by designing a bag that called for exceptionally expensive materials- namely leather.

Truly fantastic leather is hard to source. The greatest tanneries are few and far between and despite what you might think, they aren’t all in Italy. There are wonderful tanneries in India, Vietnam, China and Taiwan, you just have to find them.

Today, we discovered a wonderful tannery that makes supple and luxurious leather, but it comes at a serious price, both in dollars and time.

Frustrated by the obstacles, Simon (my account manager) suggested we look at some ‘vegan leather’ alternatives (ie pleather). “They are so good now, you can barely tell the difference,” he assured me. All right, I thought, let’s take a look at this stuff. To my surprise, he was right, there are some great leather alternatives out there, and, from five feet away, it’s hard to tell the difference between the two. The hand feel of vegan leather, however, is just different. It's much lighter and has the slightest hint of rubber. It’s sort of like sugar vs. nutrasweet: the overall effect is the similar, but the real thing doesn’t have a lingering aftertaste of the artificial.

It has taken me a long time to track done such an exceptional tannery and despite a few roadblocks, I'm certainly not going to let this one pass by. It's true, when it comes to leather, there is no substitue for the real thing.

Oh Apple. I love you and your press events so much.

In case you missed it, Apple held their 'Back to the Mac' event today and as usual, it did not dissapoint. Steve welcomed two new MacBook Airs to the Apple family: one 11.6", 2.1lbs version and a slightly larger 13.3", 2.9lbs version. 

It's as if the iPad and the MacBook had a child and she got all the good genes. I mean really. . . life is pretty much complete.

So here is my question for you: if you were to get a new MacBook Air, would you want a cute bag with a dedicated padded compartment or would you just go for the standard sleeve/whatever-bag-you-have-on-hand option?

 

Golfers had TigerGate---the tale of the horny golfer --- to keep their office water cooler talk hopping, and now gadget geeks have GrayModoGate --- the tale of the drunken Apple engineer. I usually go to US Weekly for my gossip fix, but not anymore. I’m all about the tech blogs these days. There is no logical reason for me to be writing about this topic- other than the fact that I can’t stop thinking about it.

 

To summarize, a prototype of the next generation walks into a bar, gets lost, gets found, gets sold, gets dissected, gets published, and then, to top it off, its temporary home gets raided by the cops.

 

Gizmodo has literally opened Pandora’s Box and, as a result, has to deal with the wrath of Apple’s legal team. I’m sure that there will be some very valuable leadership lessons learned here.

 

From Apple’s perspective, I think that they should have thought a little bit more about their reaction. It would strike me that raiding the home of one of your biggest evangelists ---or at least the guy who speaks to all of your biggest evangelists --- is not smart. Clearly, this is not going to leave a lasting bruise, but it is, as Jon Stewart pointed out, a little 'big brother'esque.

 

I’m not saying that Gizmodo is in the right here, or the victim. Quite the opposite, I think that paying $5,000 and prematurely letting the cat out of the bag is a little sleazy. Additionally, I have a hard time arguing that the interest of the public was served (which is what the Gizmodo lawyers are 'allegedly' doing). This would be arguing like arguing that the public good is served when the paparazzi stalk Tiger. Sure, we may like seeing pictures of him in a hoodie at a sex rehab center, but that doesn’t make it right.  Some things are private: whether private from a corporate perspective or a personal perspective. And as long as the public isn’t harmed by corporate secrets, they should remain so.

 

And we’re not in the clear either. We’re the ones who pay for the tabloids and we're the ones who derive pleasure from finally hearing about the future from someone other than Steve Jobs. And then we blog about it.

Okay, so it’s been awhile. I’ve been busy. . . busy forgetting that I had a blog that I should update. I think I was waiting for something big to happen. And then I was waiting for another month after that big thing happened to actually write about it.

 

So here’s the big thing: the iPad.

 

The iPad is many things. Actually, it’s everything. It’s your TV, your library, your ‘computer equivalent’, your stereo...and once you start adding in all the apps... In truth, its applicability is hampered only by the creativity of the user. If you don't think it's gamechanging, it's because you haven't thought about it enough. Alright, so now that I've got the obnoxious, condescending part of this post out of the way, I need your help. 

 

The iPad is a lot of things, but here’s what it’s not: protected. If ever there were a device screaming for a protective case, this would be it. So I’ve spent the last two months working on developing one. I’ve got the aesthetics of the cover down, but I’m looking for your advice with the functionality of it. After many meetings with product engineers and manufacturers, I am left with the following quandary: either I can design it to maximize its functionality as a case that can be used as a typing stand or I can design it to maximize its functionality as a case that can be used as a tv/viewing stand.  In order to do both, I would have to sacrifice the simple elegance of the cover and at the same time undermine the pure beauty of the iPad and I’m not willing to make that sacrifice.

 

What would you rather see? A case that facilitates your ability to type on the iPad or a case that serves as a perfectly angled viewing stand? I’m all ears!