I’m gearing up to watch the Olympics for the next two weeks, but it doesn’t mean ugly tablet cases will slip by and will not get noticed by me. This week there were a couple of good accessories, but once again some of the manufacturers were too concerned with protecting the tablets, rather than delivering a whole package of looks and functionality. Let’s take a look together.

The FlipStand from Felix is not a bad accessory, don’t get me wrong. Its genius design allows users to quickly transform the tablet stand into a protective shell, but that’s about it, I’m afraid. Yes, the integrated stand feature is excellent: there are 22 viewing angles to choose from. But the case doesn’t deliver enough impact protection and doesn’t look attractive either.

Multi-position integrated stand feature doesn’t make up for poor looks and protection

And now comes the Folio Trio from Kensington. It’s a wonderful case for businessmen, for 90’s businessmen that is. In this day and age who in their right mind needs that many features packed into a single accessory? There’s a notepad, not one but many pen and stylus holders, a range of pocket and card slots, and wait for it a 3-ring paper binder. Seriously? A binder? And yeah, the iPad also fits in there somewhere.

A portfolio tablet case overloaded with features, some of which are not really useful today

Griffin presented the iPad Air version of their popular rugged tablet case line – Survivor. Just like before the case shines in protection department shielding the tablet from damage in full compliance with the US Department of Defense standards. But in my opinion they took the protection way too far, the case came out rather bulky. There’s an integrated kickstand to make up for this, but it’s hardly enough.

Great tablet rugged case in terms of impact and other damage protection, but way too bulky

This week’s winner is the Tough Armor from Spigen SGP. This is an excellent example of how to make a rugged case, but retain the beautiful design, Apple came up in Cupertino. The case follows the attractive lines of the iPad Mini, but delivers decent impact protection thanks to the unique Air Cushion Technology. The case is light and acceptably slim, and the screen gets to be protected too.

Slim and lightweight rugged case offering tough protection without ruining the looks of the iPad Mini

The rumors about the Samsung Galaxy S5, and the successor to the HTC One as well widespread celebrations of Facebook’s 10 year anniversary were overshadowed by the announcement of the new Microsoft CEO this week. Satya Nadella replaced Steve Ballmer, rising through the ranks from his previous position as Executive Vice President of Microsoft's Cloud and Enterprise group. Nadella looks into the future with confidence and says he’s not afraid of change in order to keep the company as the leading software and hardware maker.

Satya Nadella replaces Steve Ballmer as the CEO of Microsoft

2014 Sochi Winter Olympics kick off tonight in Russia. And all news agencies are preparing to cover the event, expecting an unprecedented show. Well, they should, considering it cost Russia $51 billion, more than all the previous Winter Olympics combined. The man who in the eyes of many is personally responsible for Russia winning the hosting rights, President Putin, will surely be there tonight to witness the Opening Ceremony. He’s been recently spotted looking intensely at something on his iPad. Well, it might’ve been the Opening Ceremony practice, or Plushenko’s closed performance, but Vladimir Putin made the right choice of protecting his iPad with an original Smart Case from Apple. The choice of color comes without a comment.

Vladimir Putin has chosen the original Apple Smart Case to protect his iPad from damage