About that Smart Cover...

Hi all,

I've seen the new iPad demo with the Smart Cover. It's cool, but I have to wonder - is it really going to work?

I mean, I can see that it covers up the front of the iPad, and it has magnets and makes that cool 'phwip' sound when it closes, but...

But if I'm Joe Average iPad user, once I open the cover I'm going to have a choice to make. I want the cover out of the way. Do I a. turn the cover back on the hinge so it's on the back of the iPad, like 'turning the page of a magazine' according to the sales pitch? Or b. take the entire cover off and put it somewhere?

A. is problematic because if I 'fold' the cover back, if I'm like most iPad users I am now gripping the iPad back in my grubby fingers to use it, and those grubby fingers are now resting solidly on the buffering cloth backing that will, once I use the Smart Cover again, be resting flat against the iPad's screen.

So, how long is it going to be before that soft, clean buffering cloth backing on the Smart Cover picks up the oil and dirt on my hands? Or the peanut butter from the sandwich I had for lunch? Or the pizza grease when I set my iPad with its folded-back cover down on a table without realizing somebody's unsturdy paper plate had been there? What do I do with a Smart Cover with a dirty/oily/smudgy cover backing? I can't throw it in the wash. And I certainly can't use it as a cover, because all that gunk will be transferred to my iPad screen. I'll have to throw it away and buy a new one - at $39 a pop!

Option B isn't any better, for the simple reason that if I un-magnet my Smart Cover from my iPad, chances are pretty good that sooner or later I'm going to lose it. Then I'll have to buy another one...at $39 a pop.

Does anybody have any thoughts? Maybe I'm just looking for something to gripe about today...