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| Home >> Handheld & PDA Reviews: Think Outside Stowaway IR Wireless Keyboard for Pocket PC and Palm OS | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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User Submitted Think Outside Stowaway IR Wireless Keyboard for Pocket PC and Palm OS ReviewsDate: 2008-08-17 Excellent IR stowaway keyboard I have had this Think Outside Stowaway IR keyboard unit for over 12 months and it has performed flawlessly with no problems whatsoever. Other important and notable features: 1) Very small, light and portable 2) Very easy to open and close, but it should be used on a flat surface and not your lap for best results 3) Very low power drain (it requires two AAA batteries), especially compared with Bluetooth-based keyboards 4) Very fast and reliable IR connection (with easy alignment) is readily made with the Palm TX 5) Very nice zippered case provided by the manufacturer Nothing else is left to say. I very highly recommend it. I have used many other stowaway keyboards and have had many many compatibility and driver problems, etc. to solve (way too many, but especially with the Pocket PC type PDAs), but not for this one! Some people have also complained about a slow response to typing (with delayed key action on the screen), but I have not experienced this situation at all. Date: 2008-07-01 Works with Palm Centro and Xplore M98 smartphones... but This works flawlessly with the Xplore M98 smartphone (www.xplore.com.hk). I have also used it with Palm's latest Centro PalmOS based smartphone. I find it better to use this one rather than a bluetooth one because of one simple reason: BATTERY LIFE. When you use Bluetooth, you're activating yet another two way RF radio inside the phone, which drains the battery A LOT. With an IR device, the Palm is a PASSIVE receiver of the IR beams sent by the keyboard, which is in turn powered by two AAA batteries. I said "but..." on the review title. And that's because the tiny "arm" that holds the IR transmitter can only get up, say 100 degree radius from the device. And Palm changed the location of the IR port in the Centro from top (traditional on early PDAs) to the right side on the Treo 680 and the Centro as well. That means that you cannot use it on the centro UNLESS you place the IR arm at the rightmost position, AND you tilt the centro a bit to the left. Just a bit. Of course, being a hardcore hardware hacker, I jut cut a hole the same diameter of an index finger on the plastic case that didn't let the arm move a bit further to the right. This way the IR emitter aims directly at the Centro's IR port while being perfectly vertically aligned. Hope this helps. FC Date: 2007-09-23 Works great This keyboard works great with my Garmin iQue 3600, folds nicely and is well made. Date: 2007-09-11 High Marks I give this keyboard high marks. I have just gotten it and this is my first day on it. However, it is pretty easy to get used to and intuitive. Even the "hot keys" function is great. My first test was to write some computer code, because this requires numbers and special keys. Because the keyboard is color coded (blue, green, and white), getting the character desired is intuitive. People have complained about the fact that the keyboard does not lie flat in your lap. True, but a book, even a paperback, makes this an easy workaround. I also read about the choice between IR and Bluetooth. Here is what I found. IR is less expensive and batteries last longer, while BT allows you to use a wider range of devices and does not require the beam to be aligned. Thus with a BT you could put the screen up on the desk and the keyboard in your lap, or some one of many configurations. But I took the IR and it works fine. THis is much easier than carrrying a laptop. Date: 2007-08-26 Sure beats using graffiti or typing with a stylus I haven't had much time to use this keyboard yet, but it feels well made and the keys are almost as large as the ones on my Dell Latitude D610. When typing with it I've made more mistakes than with other keyboards, but I can definitely input text far faster than other means on a Palm TX. Also it's faster and easier to type on than a BlackBerry, and I've been a happy user of BlackBerry's QWERTY keyboards for years.
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