Micro Wireless Link Pc Wireless Folding Keyboard Palm Only See Note

Rating:
Summary: Good hardware.
Review: First thing: This keyboard is not "Palm only". I bought it to use wih my Ipaq 1945 and it works well. It's the Micro Innovations Wireless Link Keyboard (TKB680PK), and according to Pocketop (another company that sells the same keyboard) there is no difference between this keyboard and the TKB700U model. So, at this moment there are three entrances at amazon that sell the same product.

This little keyboard is an excelent hardware. It's big enough form me to type almost as quickly as on my desktop computer, (I've got used to it very quickly) and still it's very small when closed (not much bigger than a Palm M500). The idea of using smaller ridged keys on the first and third rows (the central key row uses full size keys) gives an excelent combination of size and functionality. My feeling when typing is of a laptop keyboard, although it's a bit smaller. I've read some reviews that criticize the fact that there is no tab key present. I was surprised when I noticed that there is one. The Esc key functions both as tab and Esc key. It does not bother me that there are no number keys, as I don't use them very much (you can type numbers pressing the "num key" and the correspondent letter). The punctuantion signs you would usually find at the number keys can be found with the letter keys, pressing them and at the same time the "Punct" key. It's very usefull that letters, numbers, functions and punctuation signs are impressed with different colors on the keys (white, red, blue and green), so you can quickly visualize them. It doesn't bother me also the "grooved" shape of the space bar. It's a very inteligent solution to allow the space bar to be higher than the other keys. One last quality I see on this keyboard: it uses common AAA battery (and it comes with a duracell alcaline one). All these reasons made me not regret buying this keyboard instead of the targus universal wireless one, which would be better if it wasn't so big and heavy (it's almost impossible to carry it in your pocket).

For iPAQ 1900/4100 users like me there's an incovenient: the stand does not have a mirror to use with the lateral infrared. I've read some reviews that suggest to use a screen rotation software so that you can point the pda infrared receiver to the keyboard. As I didn't want to do that, I made a litle aluminum mirror to use with the stand. I keep it inside the keyboard when it's closed and it works very well.

I've said this is a very excelent piece of hardware, with lots of original and practical solutions to keep at the same time a good functionality and small size. My congratulations to the engineers that designed it.

Unhappily I can't say the same thing about the drivers... I have not used the Palm drivers. I haven't even opened the cd that comes with the keyboard because there's no 1945 Pocket PC 2003 driver there. Micro Innovations does not have drivers available for iPAQ 1945. Pocketop does, but you have to pay $10 for it. As I don't think it's legal to sell drivers for a universal keyboard that claims it will be the last keyboard you will ever have to buy (because it's a universal keyboard), I've got the link to download the driver from a reviewer that thinks like me.

The driver works well and almost always you want to use it. Sometimes it hangs and you have to do a soft reset, which is not very good. The PPC drivers does not allow to modify character repeat delay or repeat rate. It does not have screen rotation capacity for those who want to use it. It does not permit the direct use of accented characters (the manual says you have to tap the screen and choose the character you want, which is absurd). This is real a problem for those like me that usually write in Spanish and Portuguese. Happily, you can configure macro commands, so I've configured "Cmd key + a" for á, "Cmd key + e" for é, and so on. After memorizing all the combinations I created it's a good solution. Of course I cannot use these key combination to insert text anymore...

I hope some day Micro Innovations will came up with a good (and free) driver for my 1945 iPAQ. Meanwhile I'm using the Pocketop driver, which looks like a beta test more than a finished one.

Rating:
Summary: Good hardware.
Review: First thing: This keyboard is not "Palm only". I bought it to use wih my Ipaq 1945 and it works well. It's the Micro Innovations Wireless Link Keyboard (TKB680PK), and according to Pocketop (another company that sells the same keyboard) there is no difference between this keyboard and the TKB700U model. So, at this moment there are three entrances at amazon that sell the same product.

This little keyboard is an excelent hardware. It's big enough form me to type almost as quickly as on my desktop computer, (I've got used to it very quickly) and still it's very small when closed (not much bigger than a Palm M500). The idea of using smaller ridged keys on the first and third rows (the central key row uses full size keys) gives an excelent combination of size and functionality. My feeling when typing is of a laptop keyboard, although it's a bit smaller. I've read some reviews that criticize the fact that there is no tab key present. I was surprised when I noticed that there is one. The Esc key functions both as tab and Esc key. It does not bother me that there are no number keys, as I don't use them very much (you can type numbers pressing the "num key" and the correspondent letter). The punctuantion signs you would usually find at the number keys can be found with the letter keys, pressing them and at the same time the "Punct" key. It's very usefull that letters, numbers, functions and punctuation signs are impressed with different colors on the keys (white, red, blue and green), so you can quickly visualize them. It doesn't bother me also the "grooved" shape of the space bar. It's a very inteligent solution to allow the space bar to be higher than the other keys. One last quality I see on this keyboard: it uses common AAA battery (and it comes with a duracell alcaline one). All these reasons made me not regret buying this keyboard instead of the targus universal wireless one, which would be better if it wasn't so big and heavy (it's almost impossible to carry it in your pocket).

For iPAQ 1900/4100 users like me there's an incovenient: the stand does not have a mirror to use with the lateral infrared. I've read some reviews that suggest to use a screen rotation software so that you can point the pda infrared receiver to the keyboard. As I didn't want to do that, I made a litle aluminum mirror to use with the stand. I keep it inside the keyboard when it's closed and it works very well.

I've said this is a very excelent piece of hardware, with lots of original and practical solutions to keep at the same time a good functionality and small size. My congratulations to the engineers that designed it.

Unhappily I can't say the same thing about the drivers... I have not used the Palm drivers. I haven't even opened the cd that comes with the keyboard because there's no 1945 Pocket PC 2003 driver there. Micro Innovations does not have drivers available for iPAQ 1945. Pocketop does, but you have to pay $10 for it. As I don't think it's legal to sell drivers for a universal keyboard that claims it will be the last keyboard you will ever have to buy (because it's a universal keyboard), I've got the link to download the driver from a reviewer that thinks like me.

The driver works well and almost always you want to use it. Sometimes it hangs and you have to do a soft reset, which is not very good. The PPC drivers does not allow to modify character repeat delay or repeat rate. It does not have screen rotation capacity for those who want to use it. It does not permit the direct use of accented characters (the manual says you have to tap the screen and choose the character you want, which is absurd). This is real a problem for those like me that usually write in Spanish and Portuguese. Happily, you can configure macro commands, so I've configured "Cmd key + a" for á, "Cmd key + e" for é, and so on. After memorizing all the combinations I created it's a good solution. Of course I cannot use these key combination to insert text anymore...

I hope some day Micro Innovations will came up with a good (and free) driver for my 1945 iPAQ. Meanwhile I'm using the Pocketop driver, which looks like a beta test more than a finished one.