DrDaveC's Full Review: TARGUS UNIVERSAL PDA/KEYBOARD CASE - BLACK
(Updated 4/19/00) Palm has just recently shipped my pre-ordered "Palm Portable Keyboard" and it just arrived today. Not bad considering I only ordered it 4 days ago and it wasn't scheduled for released until the 2nd week of March.
Overall: This thing is awesome!!!
As those who have been following this product closely know, this is Palm's private label/Rebadging of the Think Outside Folding Keyboard, AKA The Stowaway Keyboard. Retail price $99.00+S&H, for me in CA, $116.62 total. Palm sells 2 versions of it: one for the Palm V/Vx series, the other for the Palm III/IIIx/IIIe/IIIex/IIIc series. The difference being in the type of hotsync port on the PDA and thus the keyboard.
Note, the Palm Personal/Profession series will not be officially supported until their software driver for this series comes out in a few weeks. They will however mate to the III series keyboard without difficulty. I don't know if other 3rd party keyboard drivers will work with this keyboard until the official driver is out.
The keyboard itself is amazing. It folds up in fourths (see Think Outside's web site for details) to the size of two Palm V's stacked on each other (w/o cases). Considering it's mechanical complexity, it seems fairly sturdy. A cradle/support platform expands out to hold the Palm V at about a 45 degree reading angle. The mating of the Palm V w/ the cradle could be more definite, but it is secure; gotta tug a bit to get the thing off the keyboard. A form fitting, nicely done, neoprene case is also included. The keys have a normal spacing and good travel similar to that of a laptop keyboard. The layout is very good, getting use to some of the special combinations (as listed below) will take a little practice. No extra batteries are needed, it runs off the Palm V and the power consumption is supposed to be minimal.
The software driver for the keyboard is fairly extensive. Functions for opening the Four main Applications (Calendar/Phone Book/To Do/Memos) are defaulted to 4 dedicated keys on the right side of the keyboard. You can define up to 9 other applications to open w/ a 2 key sequence. In addition, other commonly used screen commands such as: New, Edit, Done, Cancel, Details, etc are easily accessed. There are a myriad of ways to highlight text for cutting and pasting. It would be nice to be able to define more of these yourself though. Some of the 2 key sequences are slightly awkward however, this will probably improve w/ practice on my part and is not a major problem.
I was able to use the built in Memo Pad and Mail program w/o difficulty (what a vast improvement in usability and decrease in Graffiti frustration). The other built in Apps also worked well (note, the TAB button is what you use to move through fields, Shift+TAB goes backwards thru fields). Smart Doc and Secure Memo also worked flawlessly. There is a key to access Menus w/in programs, but you have to tap on the screen to select a menu item, it doesn't seem to recognize the built in arrow buttons to navigate menus (boy that would be nice!).
Documentation is basic but thorough. Software is on a CD-ROM, only one .prc file need be installed though. The rest is documentation.
Unfortunately, you cannot use the other serial resources while the keyboard is hooked up. ie. IR Port will be tied up as the keyboard uses the same Serial Communications resources that the Palm OS uses to control both the serial port and the IR port.
Overall, this is an excellent product and the software driver works as promised. No crashes so far. I was able to enter data SOOOO much faster than with graffiti and the portability and size cannot be beat.
Things that would be cool:
A pass through port so a hot sync cable could be hooked up easily w/o taking the thing apart. Can't use the modem or comm port while using the keyboard anyways so this is a reasonable omission.
A charging port for the AC adapter would be REALLY nice, then you wouldn't need a laptop at all, this think would REALLY kick butt.
(This paragraph added 4/19/00): Even w/o the AC power, I suspect a Palm V w/ this keyboard will still have more endurance than most of the high powered laptops (approx 3-5 hrs max). I'll try this out and let you folks know. The "Stay On In Cradle" option in the Preferences does not recognize the keyboard so the power will go down if you don't hit a key for longer than 3 min(or whatever your auto shut off setting is).
Better interaction w/ the drop down menus that are brought up. This may be a limitation of the OS as these may be mapped to screen touches only and may not be easily implemented.
Now all we need is someone to write a really good text editor that would interact well this this keyboard and all it's extra special keys and functions.
Added 3/8/00:
Someone asked me to compare this keyboard with the GoType! Keyboard, the reply I gave is as follows:
I have only played w/ the GoType keyboard in the store, but It seems to be a pretty good product. It is a bit less portable as it doesn't fold up. The vertical key travel seemed more like that of a desktop keyboard.
The various one key/Hotkey sequences for the OS defined default screen buttons such as OK, Cancel, Details, Done, Cancel do NOT appear to be supported on the GoType! keyboard (someone correct me if this is wrong) as it has been integrated into the "Official" Palm Portable Keyboard. This is something I consider a definite plus as the less moving between screen touches and the keyboard you will need to do, the faster the whole process will be.
Perhaps we will see more software in the future supporting the various hardware keyboard products now available.
Just had another thought, though the Keyboards for the Palm series PDA's may remove the ability to use another device via the Com port (and IR port), this limitation may NOT exist for the Visors. The Visor version of a keyboard would work through the USB capable port, however a Modem hooked up via the Handspring Springboard Expansion port COULD potentially work just fine even with a Keyboard hooked up. This will be interesting, as this could be a real laptop killer.
Keeps Your Stowaway & PDA Safe and Sound Easy Access Front Compartment, with Loop Closure, Holds Your PDA and Business Cards Zippered Secondary Compar...More at Amazon Marketplace
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.