daviddennis's Full Review: TARGUS UNIVERSAL PDA/KEYBOARD CASE - BLACK
An outrageously clever device
The idea of producing a Palm keyboard that folded so you could take it anywhere was, in my view, absolutely brilliant. When I compared this and the GoType in the store, I realized that I'd get a lot more use out of this one.
The industrial design is superb, just about perfect for the application. I can certainly see where my $ 99 went; this is without a doubt an expensive thing to make. You open the little case, unfold it and push the three slices together to make a keyboard. Presto!
Unfortunately, this will not work well without a hard surface to place it on, which might make it inconvenient for note-taking in class or similar functions. The Palm itself is propped up using a little stand that folds out of the unit. On your lap, it won't work well. You could always bring a hard surface with you, but then it's almost as big as a notebook computer. However, battery life is much better than a notebook, and the "instant on" feature is undeniably helpful, so this still might make the perfect notetaker.
The keyboard has an exceptionally good typing feel, comparable to my IBM ThinkPad. If they'd added a TrackPoint like pointing device, most of my problems with the unit would have gone away - but i doubt that would have been consistent with the collapsability of the device.
If you type very fast, you will find a perceptible delay between when you type something and when it appears on the screen. If you type even faster, you'll find it loses characters on occasion. So don't stress it too much if you want the best results. Fortunately, I don't think this will affect the vast majority of users.
Erratic Operation
The main complaint I have with this unit is that it doesn't seem to be as well thought out as I would have liked. Here are a few examples.
Scrolling lists, like the address book, work rather oddly. Since there is no concept of a currently selected item, you can't use arrow keys to move around and press enter to select. But you can type in the "Look Up" box and press enter to select. If you have selected something in the look up box, you can't use the arrow keys to move from that selection. I found this severely hampered my moving around in the list.
If you found someone in the lookup, hit enter to select, you reach a screen with "Done", "Edit" and "New" options. In pretty much any other operating system, you would be able to tab through this list with the keyboard; on the Palm, this won't work. There are buttons on the keyboard that correspond to "New" and "Done"; puzzlingly, there is nothing for "Edit". Instead, the screen sort of sits there, mockingly, as I reach for my stylus.
You can page up and down in the list using the "Scroll" keys (the arrows FN-shifted), but then you can't select using arrow keys. Frustrating.
Other people have said that the Palm folks did a commendable job in adapting this keyboard to use with the Palm; I'd give them a much lower grade because of the frustration I felt with the arrow keys and edit.
This keyboard's reason for being
If you have a brilliant idea and you want to capture it before it's too late, your laptop probably won't boot fast enough, and Graffiti would be too painful for words. So you reach for your Palm keyboard, hit the "Memo" button, punch "New" and happily start typing away. Or use one of the many spreadsheet programs available for the Palm. This is a fantastic thing, not to be underrated.
At the same time, I think the software could have been done better, and setup is too time-consuming for simple name and address entry. So unless you want to type large amounts of text on your Palm, I probably wouldn't buy this. As an extremely fast typist and keyboard lover, this was probably an essential for me; unless you're a real keyboard addict, I doubt you'd get as much use out of this as you're thinking.
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