Keyboard recommendations?

[stevejohnson460]

Friends

The hinge on my Palm Wireless Keyboard just broke. A call to PalmOne reveals that BROKEN HINGES ARE NOT COVERED UNDER WARRANTY! (Another example of PalmOne's sterling warranty program, I guess.)

So, I'm in the market for another external keyboard. I never liked the PWK's lack of dedicated number keys, anyway.

What external keyboard do you recommend?

Thanks
sj

[Cyker]

I have a Stowaway BT, and I have to say that it's very nice to type on!

However, it is only 4-rows (No dedicated number keys), and has proven itself to be ridiculously delicate - I've had to RMA it twice now due to one half of the keyborad stopping working...

[stevejohnson460]

I hate to go back with a Palm product right after having one fail, AND after their refusal to honor a warranty claim, but there don't seem to be many alternatives.

Will the Palm Ultra-Thin keyboard work with the T3?

[Lance]

I know you might hesitate to go with another PalmOne product, but I really have enjoyed the latest universal wireless keyboard from them. It has a dedicated row of number keys, too. It works with Palm devices as well as Pocket PC devices.

Pictures of the PalmOne Universal Wireless Keyboard (http://www.palmfocus.com/palmukbpics.htm)

Purchase Information at Buy.com (http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10381187&loc=101&sp=1)

Take care,
Lance

[stevejohnson460]

Nice pics, Lance. Thanks.

Durability issues? How long have you had it?

[Antoine]

I second that vote for the palmOne universal wireless keyboard. I have it and quite like it for all except the angle that it holds my T5. For some reason, I tend to always get glare with it. I usually have to set it forward a bit more, but other than that I like it.

[Lance]

Nice pics, Lance. Thanks.

Durability issues? How long have you had it?Well, I got it when it came out in October. I posted the pictures on November 1, 2004. I do not use it a lot, but it is one of the better made keyboards I have used. The infrared arm seems a little flimsy, but its flexibility insures it does not just break off. It uses 2 "AAA" batteries, and I have yet to replace them. I hope this helps.

Best regards,
Lance

[oz-nom]

I'll second (3rd?) support for the PalmOne Universal Wireless Keyboard (PUWK). I use it daily and extensively. Although I love it, I do have some issues with it, especially the key placing (why place the '?' key to the right of the cursor keys?).

The other issue I have is that I have had to return it to P1 for repair/replacement - the keys on the far right of the keyboard were intermittently, but increasingly often, failing to respond. Ever tried to type without access to cursor keys, backspace and, sometimes, return key and punctuation? The worst part is that there is no P1 agent in Australia - it has to go to Singapore and could take as long as 4 weeks for return! Given how much I use it, and the terrible timing of it's failure, this could be a very long month...

However, I suspect this is just "one of those things" - I would still recommend the PUWK. It's small, light and responsive with almost full size keys. I can type almost as quickly on it as I can on my desktop.

And a small correction on Lance's post: it uses two triple A ('AAA') batteries. Battery life is excellent. As noted above, I use it extensively (6 hours or more some days) and it still has 75% power remaining. I purchased in November, and have been using daily since then, with the heavy use beginning in mid-Feb.

Cheers,
Tim
PS Thanks to Lance - it was his posts last year that provided the information I needed to purchase. Very grateful.

[ackmondual]

I'd recommend against the Eforicty Universal WL keyboard.

Amazon doesn't let reviewers change the ratings nor the tagline. Again, I'd recommend against it.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00027T5BQ/qid=1111990415/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1_etk-electronics/102-2074589-9508163?v=glance&s=electronics&n=172282

[stevejohnson460]

I spent a couple of hours yesterday trying to repair the broken hinge on my Palm Wireless Keyboard. I succeeded . . . in breaking the other hinge, too.

So I repaired BOTH hinges (with my spouse's help), but the keyboard won't lay flat, and wobbles especially badly whenever I press the right-shift key.

I ordered a Palm Universal Wireless Keyboard from Amazon.com today for $49.99. I'm so mad at Palm's warranty policy, I would have ordered from almost any other vendor, but there just aren't that many good choices out there. Satisfaction with the competition seems even lower than with Palm.

Think Outside's Bluetooth keyboard interested me, but several reviewers said they had to return theirs at least once for failure to register keystrokes on the right half of the keyboard. Plus, it's expensive. (BTW, Think Outside manufactures the Palm-branded IR keyboard I ordered)

I wonder what the results of a "Keyboard Poll" would be?

[ackmondual]

question

For those of you who use wireless keyboards via IR, how many of you have the following problems:

-battery life (in my case a single AAA) lasts at most 2 weeks.... and that's when the keyboard was mostly idle, as in not being used
-The keyboard driver interferes with functions like hotsyncing
-the palm's auto-off feature won't work with the keyboard driver enabled
-the driver is automatically enabled after soft resetting

thanks

[terpkristin]

I have the Palm UWK that I use with my T|C when I have things to type that are relatively long (including a portion of my thesis when my computer died). I've had good experiences with it, and am sort of "rough" on it in the fact that I put it in my bag in an unpadded pouch when I'm not using it (see http://gimpygal.blogspot.com for a picture of my bag and its contents, to get an idea of what the PUWK sees).

In terms of battery life on the PUWK itself, it's alright. I'd say a few weeks of moderate use is typical for the batteries to die down (in my case 2 AAA's). The battery life of my Palm is a little shorter than normal, since it does take power to do the IR...
I've had no problems HotSync'ing with the driver ON or OFF. I did, however, download the updated driver from the P1 website.
No problems with auto-off either (sometimes annoyingly so if I'm thinking too much and the thing auto-off's).
I've had no problems with soft resets and the driver. I do a lot of beta testing of various programs (as you know, ack :)), and haven't run into problems with the driver after crashing my T|C.

Hope that helps...

/tk

[ackmondual]

Oh, should have mentioned, most of the soft resets are invoked on my own. The only time the driver has forced me to do a soft reset was trying to HS when it was enabled. It just hangs there in the cradle. Other resets are from testing games/apps or the run of the mill problems that stem from a T3 and needing to soft reset.

You should consider getting that utility that lets you set the auto off to never. That's been helpful for ppl in your case. I forgot to manually turn off my T3 or disable the driver 3 times since i have my kb. Twice was in the cradle, so no harm done, but the other time was lying on the desk. A 100% charged T3 went down to 12% the next morning. Still had some juice left so i quickly charged it back to normal. That kind of stuff will *NOT* be good to have on a long trip from home.

Nice site BTW. You're done with UMD or alr back for grad school or what?

[oz-nom]

I know it's not normally the done thing to be nice to PalmOne, but they've outdone themselves. Positives also to DHL (the courier company). I was told that replacing my faulty keyboard would take "at least 2 weeks", and probably 3. The keyboard was sent last Thursday, the day before Good Friday (a public holiday in Australia). DHL guarantee delivery the "next business day" which, when I asked, would have been yesterday (Tuesday) as Easter Monday is also a public holiday.

"So what?" you may ask. Well I received my new keyboard, from Singapore, today! Brand new, in the packet, and working as advertised. I am absolutely delighted as my mid-semester break ends today and I have my keyboard ready for lectures tomorrow.

Thanks to P1 & DHL for exceeding expectations and greatly assisting my work & study commitments.

PS I'm posting to this thread as a follow-up to my comments in an earlier post.

[oz-nom]

question

For those of you who use wireless keyboards via IR, how many of you have the following problems:

-battery life (in my case a single AAA) lasts at most 2 weeks.... and that's when the keyboard was mostly idle, as in not being used
-The keyboard driver interferes with functions like hotsyncing
-the palm's auto-off feature won't work with the keyboard driver enabled
-the driver is automatically enabled after soft resetting

thanks

My experiences of the PUWK:

Battery life?
5 months and going strong (75% according to the keyboard). Heavy use over the last few months, some use every day (at least 30 minutes), and 4-8 or more hours on 3 days a week.

Driver interfering with functions?
None. All functions the same, with or without the keyboard & driver (although MarkSpace tried to convince the keyboard was causing problems with MissingSync - it wasn't. The culprit was on my desktop).

Auto-off feature?
Works as normal.

Driver automatically enabled after reset?
I honestly don't know as I rarely have cause to disable it. Generally I want it enabled.

Overall:
I love the keyboard. While not perfect, I find it excellent for my needs and use it at least as much, if not more, than my handheld alone. Landscape has become my "normal" viewing mode on my T5...

Cheers,
Tim

[stevejohnson460]

I have the Palm UWK that I use with my T|C when I have things to type that are relatively long (including a portion of my thesis when my computer died). I've had good experiences with it, and am sort of "rough" on it in the fact that I put it in my bag in an unpadded pouch when I'm not using it (see http://gimpygal.blogspot.com for a picture of my bag and its contents, to get an idea of what the PUWK sees).

In terms of battery life on the PUWK itself, it's alright. I'd say a few weeks of moderate use is typical for the batteries to die down (in my case 2 AAA's). The battery life of my Palm is a little shorter than normal, since it does take power to do the IR...
I've had no problems HotSync'ing with the driver ON or OFF. I did, however, download the updated driver from the P1 website.
No problems with auto-off either (sometimes annoyingly so if I'm thinking too much and the thing auto-off's).
I've had no problems with soft resets and the driver. I do a lot of beta testing of various programs (as you know, ack :)), and haven't run into problems with the driver after crashing my T|C.

Hope that helps...

/tk

Hmm. Never had ANY of the problems above.

[stevejohnson460]

The new Palm Universal Wireless Keyboard arrived today. There's a problem . . .

http://www.1src.com/forums/showthread.php?t=83926