 |
Palm Ultra-Thin Keyboard for Tungsten T/T2/T3 and m515 PDA
Why carry a hefty portable computer around when you can carry the Palm Ultra-Thin Keyboard--a little folding keyboard with your PDA? If you don't need to do complex word processing, or spreadsheet tasks while on the move, a PDA and keyboard is actually a pretty ergonomic option. Hardware manufacturers realise this, and there are several keyboards for PDAs available nowadays. Palm's latest offering, their so called "Ultra Thin" keyboard, is suitable for any Palm PDA with the Universal Connector. This includes the m5xx series and the Tungsten T, which we used for testing. When folded the keyboard measures 139 mm x 99 mm x 13 mm, and weighs 165 g. It's a bit large for the pocket, but no problem at all for a bag. The driver is easily installed via a Hotsync--it takes just a few seconds to do this job. Then you are ready to start typing. The keyboard has been designed to be very thin and to that end it is made from two connected sections that fold in on each other when the keyboard is closed. These, and a pull-out rest for your Palm, are all there is to connect to the hardware, which is set up in literally a few seconds. The mechanism feels pretty robust. Getting your PDA in place is easy too, though the docking connectors aren't too well protected and might be vulnerable to bending out of shape. The keyboard is a little smaller than the average laptop keyboard, and so it takes a little while to get into touch-typing mode. There are plenty of shortcut keys for Palm functions, though, and with a little practice data entry is pretty fast--certainly a lot faster than with Graffiti. Anyone serious about getting text onto their Palm should consider a keyboard, and this one is a very light, portable, usable option. --Sandra Vogel
|
