I find the iPad a good, complementary "mate" to my Mac. And ImTOO has introduced the US$59.95 iPad Mate (http://www.ImTOO.com/ipad-mate.html), which is a good, complementary mate to the iPad.

It can convert any video or DVD to play on the iPad. That's a nice feature, though if that's all you need it for, check into the RipIt/Handbrake combo instead. However, if you need to transfer iPad contents to and from your computer and iTunes, iPad Mate is definitely worth a look. It works similar to iTunes and also supports the iPod, iPhone, and iPod touch.

This iPad video converter lets users convert and transfer videos, music, and DVDs for the aforementioned Apple devices to iTunes (though you'll need to close iTunes first). In fact, you can set items to transfer even if the iPad isn't connected, and they'll make the move when you sync the tablet device to your Mac.

ImTOO iPad Mate’s built-in DVD ripper will convert and rip DVDs to iPad while utilizing dual CPU cores for fast conversions. That said, it's still not as fast as RipIt, the $19.99 tool from Little App Factory (http://thelittleappfactory.com). But iPad Mate offers more flexibility.

It automatically adjusts video size and resolution for iPad, iPod, or iPhone with the option to customize and adjust the video quality if you wish. You can create your own playlists, edit soundtrack information, preview DVD movies and videos, capture movie images and add artworks.

Currently, iPad Mate supports over 60 video and audio formats, including HD videos. Plus, it supports the iTunes 9.1 library.

Is ImTOO iPad Mate for Mac for you? Yes, if you need an assistant -- or perhaps go-between is a better word -- for your and Mac. With it, you can back-up or copy movies and music between them without iTunes. (If it would only do iWork files, as well. Sigh.) And imTOO iPad Mate can sync iPad files to iTunes. You can add your comments on your music files and rate them with a star icon. Plus, you can take snapshots of your favorite images while previewing and save them as JPG, PNG or BMP files.

imTOO iPad Mate requires Mac OS X 10.4 running on an Intel-based Mac. Multiple language interfaces are available, including English, German, French, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese and Japanese.

Rating: 8 out of 10

-- Dennis Sellers