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Targus Stowaway Portable Keyboard for Cassiopeia E-125

Targus Stowaway Portable Keyboard for Cassiopeia E-125

List Price: $99.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Turns the iPaq into a laptop replacement
Review: I recently upgraded to the Compaq iPAQ from my beloved but battered old Palm III. What a difference! But adding the Stowaway keyboard was the crowning touch to the new machine, for I can now use it as a laptop replacement on most business trips. When I take business trips, I usually need e-mail access and light word processing. With pocket versions of Outlook and Word, the iPAQ meets that need, but anything beyond the shortest messages or notes is hard to enter using either character recognition or the soft keyboard. But with a Stowaway keyboard attached, entering extensive notes and writing long e-mails is a breeze. I was at a conference this past weekend at which everybody around me was using lap tops. I zipped out my Stowaway keyboard, whipped it open, snapped on my Palm and was the envy of everyone in sight.

The Stowaway keyboard is really a remarkable device. It folds down to next to nothing - smaller than a paperback novel. It slips easily into a jacket pocket. Yet, it unfolds into a near full-size keyboard with remarkably accurate and 'life-like" action. It is actually easier to type on the Stowaway keyboard than on my Dell laptop. Taking notes or entering multiple contact data, let alone writing e-mails of any length, is now a breeze.

Why did I subtract one star? Mainly because I have been unable to get the keyboard to hot dock, which is supposedly can do. Also, the keyboard cannot be used on your lap or other soft surface. Unless you have it on a hard surface, it tends to sag in the middle. Finally, why is there no delete key? Those quibbles aside, however, I highly recommend it to any power iPAQ user.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A marvel
Review: I didn't expect to be impressed by this little gizmo but I was blown away when I took it out of the box. It's about the size of the Journada when folded and then unfolds to a very useable keyboard. The position of some of the keys - like the backspace key - need getting used to and one cannot use the control keys for the same sort of funtions as with a regular keyboard (as for bold and underlining) but it is fantastic when one has a great deal of data to type in and a laptop isn't available for typing and then synching. I sure as heck didn't really need one but, now that I have one, I use my pocket pc at work more since I can keep it set up to make notes to myself.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Functionality, give it an 11!
Review: Wow what a great tool. This thing is sweet. It matches the Jornada very well and when placed on a flat surface, it is exceptional. If I were to be able to give 4.5 stars, I would give that because, it will not function properly unless completely flat and the cover tends to scratch. If you're using the Jornada for Email, definitely make the purchase. The program buttons are excellent. TC

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Increase your productivity
Review: This keyboard attaches easily and with the IPAQ provides a very lightweight and small (although somewhat limited) alternative to carrying a notebook computer especially when you have to work on a small airplane tray table or in a meeting. The keyboard plus Word works well for correspondence, small documents, etc. This is a must for Excel if a lot of numeric data needs to be entered as both speed and accuracy are greatly enhanced. As with the parallel Palm V keyboard, this one has an excellent touch, attaches easily (although not as easily as that for the Palm V), and is about the size of the PDA when folded. Well worth the money.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Stowaway in use everywhere. In use at school It's awesome!
Review: The Visor is a perfect thing to help you in school. It isespecially good for taking notes. But what if you aren't that goodwith Graffiti? What if your writing is slow and you can't keep up withthe teacher? That's why the Stowaway exists. It is a full sizedkeyboard that folds up into a unit just larger than the Visor. Trustme, it's not just for students, anyone who needs to write more than afew pages a week will benefit from this. The Stowaway is the bestportable keyboard I've ever used. It is rated for up to 7 millionstrokes per key. which is plenty. I don't think that you will be usingthe same Visor in 10 years, with the rapid increase of PDA technology.It uses the same keys as the IBM Thinkpads, but even compared to anylaptop I could get my hands on, I find the feel of it is unique in awonderful way. It might be that it uses a special kind of key, sothat, no matter how you touch the key, it will go down in a parallelfashion, so that all keys go down the same way. This is unlike theGoType keyboard, which uses a different kind of key, that is cheaper,and does not go down evenly. It's amazing that it's full size, and yetcan still be as small as my Visor. (Actually, it's a tad bigger thanmy desktop keyboard!). I've tried the GoType keyboard in stores, butjust couldn't get used to the small keys on it. The Stowaway is a workof art; it was even featured in a recent exhibit at the New YorkMuseum of Modern Art!

I use my Stowaway everyday now, in school,at home, on the bus. (I'm writing this review on it RIGHT NOW!) It'samazingly simple. You unfold it, snap it together, bring out the standto hold the Visor in, and then you plug the Visor in. Because of theinguinty in it, the Stowaway won best design for a computer product,from PC Magazine; Beating out the iPaq, and the Apple G4 Cube! It is alittle hard to get used to, try rotating it in, one side first, andthan the other. Turn your Visor on, and you are ready. The angle inwhich the Stowaway holds the Visor is just perfect. It is easy to readand to use. It's actually so nice, I now read all my Avantgo andeBooks with it, just tapping the down key to get more. It's a loteasier to read when it's propped up in the Stowaway...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Almost there!
Review: I've been using this keyboard for about a semester now, for anything from taking notes, to jotting down directions. It's just one of those things that you didn't know you needed. For those fast typers, this is extremely beneficial for lectures, meetings, etc etc. I can never imagine going back to paper and pencil.

The only drawback is the fact that it becomes very easy to miss a few keys here and there having been so used to a full-sized keyboard. I would occasionally slip despite having used it for quite a while. Another thing is the response time, there is a split second lag (seems like half a second?) from the time of the key stroke to the display for the character. What does this translate to? Well it could mean anywhere from 1~10 characters not being displayed, thus preventing you from spotting the typos immediately. This may not seem like such a big deal but it can potentially become quite irritating when you have a bunch of words getting mixed up.

All in all, it is a very useful tool for those who do more than simply keep phone numbers and calendar events on their Visors. It is also more portable than the one-piece Landware GoType. And yes you'll get the usual "wow"s and "oooh"s from perfect strangers... if you're into that kind of stuff.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: I'm ten times more productive now...
Review: We iPAQ users have been waiting a while for this keyboard and now that it's here, I can imagine how I worked without it.

My first impression of it was how it stores (folded). The folded keyboard is rock solid -- it doesn't need a case unless you are concerned with scratches to the finish. It is about the same size at the iPAQ.

The package comes with an 'L' shaped adaptor so that you can charge your iPAQ while it sits on the keyboard. It also comes with a small instruction booklet and a CD. You install the CD on your desktop or laptop, then sync your PDA to to install the software.

Unfolded, the keyboard is much more 'real' feeling than I thought is was going to be. There are dedicated keys for Pocket PC specific apps like Word, Inbox, Excel, Contacts, etc. The keyboard is about the same size as my laptop keyboard, with nearly the same feel.

On problem I did notice was that there is a sharp edge where my wrists rest, but I will try to sand or cover it in the near future.

Some things that keep this from getting 5 starts (but I really wanted to give it 5 five stars):

- The connection REQUIRES the iPAQ to be in portrait mode, so no using a landscape utility to work with (unless you are really good reading sideways)

- The keyboard requires a solid flat surface. If they had included some sort of bar or other device that would lock the center hinge, it would work much better on a softer or uneven surface (like your lap or a bed).

- You still have to use the stylus quite a bit on menus and dialog boxes. For a touch typist, this is a pain.

Being a touch typist, my input speeds are probably 3-5 times what they were with transcriber and about 7 times faster than the virtual keyboard.

I use this mainly in places where my laptop won't fit such as an airplane seat or in meetings where I want to be a bit more discreet (although it gets a lot of attention).

As I said, I can't imagine going without this device. A real engineering feat.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Pretty Damn Cool
Review: I like this thing. It is very compact. It is easy to use. When I showed my family/friends, they thought it was the coolest thing (that's if you're into impressing people). I got it with the Targus Case that is especially made for this, and they work well together. I highly reccommend this product.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Product
Review: I recently bought this product to replace the need for a laptop. I didn't have any troubles hooking my Hanndspring onto the keyboard. But I have to admit it did take a day or two to get the hang of it. The keyboard doesn't drain much battery and hasn't given me any problems. Its light weight and great for taking notes. The software was user friendly and easy to get on to my Handspring. If you are having trouble hook the Visor into the keyboard trying lining up on of the clips on the keboard with one of the slots on the bottom of the keyboard first then just snap it into place.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great new product!
Review: The Targus Stowaway Keyboard makes it easy when using some of the best features of the iPAQ, such as MSWord. If you think that the excitement stops there, your wrong. This nifty keyboard fits right in your pocket and is as small, if not smaller than the iPAQ. Its built in application buttons, and programable buttons make it 10 times easier to navigate the iPAQ, but don't worry, if you ever get lost in your own little iPAQ world, just hit the TODAY button on your keyboard and your right back home. Although it is a little hard to connect when the CF slot is attached, it can be done, and in no way affects its performance. I would recommend this product to anyone who owns an iPAQ and for its farely low price of ... it's well worth the value.


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