henrywei's Full Review: TARGUS UNIVERSAL PDA/KEYBOARD CASE - BLACK
The first thing I thought when I opened the shipping box was, "Wow, that's a small box." And, of course, when I opened the retail box itself, I thought, "Wow, that's a tiny keyboard." It truly is the size of about two Palm III's stacked together. Installation was easy; the CD-ROM supplied with the keyboard contained a driver for the keyboard and a PDF version of the manual. One Hotsync later, I was ready to roll.
The opening-closing mechanism is straightforward, and if you're reading this review, chances are you've already had a glimpse at how it folds up accordion-style. Despite a slightly flimsy feel at first, you start to trust the manufacturing more and more as you fold and unfold it a few times. Opening and locking it in place takes a matter of seconds, at most.
The Palm itself sits on a small stand that pulls out, flips up, and folds out, supporting the back of the Pilot as it is docked with the keyboard. It's a good design, but, to be fair, it is probably a drawback if you've thought about typing in your lap, which is nearly impossible without a hard, flat platform on which to perch the keyboard (unlike the GoType keyboard); the Palm will go flying off the back without support from below.
Needless to say, the action and "feel" of the full-sized keys themselves are incredible; I would almost be inclined to use this keyboard instead of my normal *desktop* computer keyboard, if it were available.
Think Outside, the designers of the keyboard, have also thoughtfully included stylus-holding recesses in the far corners of the keyboard, a nice touch and definitely useful, as sometimes you'll need to actually point and click on things -- but there are shortcuts as well.
It behooves the user and/or prospective buyer to read about the keyboard shortcuts in the manual. Think Outside / Palm have cleverly incorporated several ways to avoid using the stylus, which is no small feat considering that the OS was originally designed for pen-based input. For instance, the onscreen buttons such as "Done" and "New" have their own respective labelled Function Key + key combination; in addition, if there's a button without an already assigned and labelled key, chances are you can type Control-Cmd-(letter), where letter is the first unique letter in the name on the button. Trust me, this is a way more useful feature than it sounds.
Beyond that, there are 10 user-assignable Function+Key combinations to launch whatever applications you want, as well as an easy way to turn the backlighting on and off. Details like this make the keyboard incredibly useable, such that if you have a large-enough flat surface, you find yourself with no excuse not to use the keyboard.
One drawback I noticed was a noticeable delay in the appearance of letters -- but only in the specific situation where you move the cursor to insert text in a block of pre-existing text. It is definitely annoying, but does not change my overall opinion of the keyboard. This may or may not be improved in later versions of the driver.
Another drawback that I noticed is that the keyboard seems to create the illusion of faster battery consumption -- probably just because you wind up using your Palm so much more when you get the keyboard. But I did notice some funny business with the battery level popping down and up when I was and was not using the keyboard, respectively.
I wish Palm had also bundled some sort of word-processing software, maybe QEX/QED, (rather than the built-in Memo Pad which is limited to so many characters). Of note, though, I find the keyboard incredibly useful for writing and replying to email on the road and then syncing it when I get back home.
Also, though this doesn't apply to me, Palm users who need the HotSync port for modems or other attachments may be disappointed, as the keyboard takes up the port and prevents it from being used simultaneously.
As a final word of advice to those who are wavering between the GoType and the Think Outside / Palm Portable Keyboard, as I was before, I believe I made the right choice. This product has tremendous appeal both to those who need to be on the bleeding edge of cool toys, as well as those merely looking to maximize their investment in a palmtop computer.
Overall, the Palm Portable Keyboard is *the* truly useful accessory for your palm pilot, and will only disappoint you if you have no need to enter text on the road -- which is probably the first thing you should ask yourself about before buying the keyboard.
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