Comments on: Review: Palm Portable Keyboard for m500 Series

Great Review! This is really a must have addon. I totally agree with everything that you have written. Although I do feel that the Palm should have been centerd on the Keyboard, and good call about the nylon case not being there a real disapointment. When are the Styli coming out for the m500 series especially the floating point? Then my Palm will be complete.

How fast can this keyboard type? I have one for my Vx but hardly use it even for long emails because the input speed is way too slow - even slower than my Graffiti or Jot writing speed. I would hesitate to buy this keyboard for my m505 if the input speed has not improved.

Still only one UART in m500 Series? That's too bad. I own a Palm
V with PPK and a Nokia 8210, and I would have liked to start a
telnet session and just type away instead of grafitying my
commands.

I hope this ships soon. I ordered mine from Palm on March 19th and it's still hasn't shipped yet. Can't wait to get it.

Can anyone provide any info on how this new PPK is different when compared to the PPK for Vx, weight-wise, design-wise...etc?

Thanks

Sulla

Before I delve into my comments, anyone with a PPK might want to check out Paul Nevai's LapTopHack available at PalmGear that helps you enjoy laptop functionality in all apps with a PDA keyboard (PPK or GoType!).

From the review:

>>One of the few drawbacks of the PPK is that it absolutely requires a flat surface to use. It simply isn't possible to use it in your lap.

Not true. As a former owner of a GoType! keyboard, which I loved, I was a skeptic about the ability to use this on a lap as well. However, I have found that it works fine on a lap and as a commuter on a busy train, I frequently have had to use it on my lap. The placement of the PDA connector places its weight on or close to your left leg and the placement of the middle hinge is in between your legs so that the tension gives it support. Of course this give a slightly more "spongy" feel to the typing compared to having it on a table or a notebook (as in 3-ring) on your lap, but not much. And it works just fine. I still can type 60+ wpm while it is on my lap.

>>However, in this site's Forums I asked if anyone with Stowaway keyboards for previous Palm models had problems with them wearing out and several people assured me they had ones that were quite a few months old and they were still going strong.

Yes, I concur. I've been using mine extensively for over a year and have had no problems whatsoever.

>>The version that worked with the V series came with a light fabric case that protected the outside from scratches and also prevented the keyboard from coming open inside a bag or purse.

As a non-V series owner and having purchased one separately, I've never had a fabric case. However, with its design I would find it hard to imagine how it could accidentally pop open inside a bag or purse. If you have one, try it if you dare. I say "if you dare" because I think you would have to literally throw it against a hard surface and hit the button at just the right angle with the right force to do it. But I don't know. As a Y-chromosome carrier I don't use a purse. Anyone had a problem with this?

Don't mean to take away from a good review, but just felt that these points needed clarification "from the field." The Stowaway is not only a "cool tech toy," but something that truly increases productivity.

I was thinking about buying a Visor Edge, but I couldn't find any keyboards that are compatible with it. Any idea when or if a keyboard is coming out?

But what happened to the flowered wallpaper? ;)

Isn't this the exact same keyboard as the one they make for the III and all the other models? Just curious why the long review when it has already been reviewed for the other models? What else is new other than the connector?

......was supposed to be portable? You'll have to excuse me as a new palm user (m505 1 month old). If I cant use this keyboard on my lap during a flight or commute, where does the practicality take over from a laptop? If i'm going to have to find a desk or other solid platform in order to use a palm keyboard. I might as well bring my own "desk" ala a laptop computer. It just doesn't make any sense. Actually except for a few great programs (Avantgo,Tealecho,Palmreader,Splashmoney) I have been very disappointed with my $450 investment. I thought that palm would know enough by now not to release a product until there were periphials and support from 3rd party venders. What a crock. I've been waiting for my Palm modem connectivity kit for a month with another month projected as of last friday. It took me three weeks to get a crappy case with a dysfunctional beltclip. If it isn't CLEAR yet, I'm a very unhappy new Palm customer. Maybe I should have found this site earlier and then I would have been educated as to which models and manufacturers really live up to the PDA hype.

Chad "unhappy camper" H.
P.S. At least I didn't complain about the screen, I actually like it ;-)

Rachel Wild from Think Outside dropped me a note:
> I did want to let you know that indeed the PPK is a full-size keyboard.
> US standard for full-size is 18-20mm and, as you know, the PPK is 19mm.

So don't pay any attention to me when I referred to the PPK as being "almost" full sized.

---
News Editor
Palm Infocenter

Now that the keyboard is finally shipping, where the heck are the monitor, CDRW and SCSI RAID array attachments???

i think palm are a bunch of ****s for not shipping the m50X keyboard with the neoprene case. they probably want to force consumers to buy additional cases, at exhorbitant prices. as if that would help their company right now. morons.

on the other hand, i do love the keyboard with wordsmith. great input rate, good feel. i'm just getting more and more frustrated that i ever upgraded my Vx.

I owned a PPK for my Vx and bought a new one recently when I upgraded to the m515. Obviously, I like this keyboard. That said, I can't believe the reviews, like this one, which say things like

"The PPK comes with an application that acts as a driver that makes the keyboard work exactly the way you would want it to."

Almost immediately after plugging in my first PPK I was extremely disappointed to find that, while there was this handy key available to pull down a menu, there was NO WAY to select a menu entry. Your hands had to leave the keyboard to pick up the STYLUS to select the menu entry and then go back to the keyboard and continue typing.
This is incredibly frustrating and, to me, is an extreme flaw in the driver. If you are doing nothing but typing long blocks of text at a time, then the keyboard is fine, but don't think you're going to use the keyboard to use the PDA the way you normally do (i.e., rapidly switching from app to app). Keyboard/stylus swapping is way too onerous for that to be real.

Think Outside acknowledges this problem in their keyboard README but these drivers have been available for years now and they haven't fixed it. Meanwhile, third party apps like Wordsmith and pedit have built in their own support to do just this sort of thing.

It is mystifying to me why reviewers gush so much about the wonderful engineering in this device (which is indeed marvellous) and omit or completely gloss over this incredibly poor usability concern.

Any idea how the stowaway compares to the Go Type keyboard for the m500 series?

A few days ago, I purchased one of these keyboards for delivery, and have been running over the concerns in my mind: is it easy to break? Will it last for a long time? Et cetera.

I am very pleased to hear that it will work for a long time and will most likely work with future Palm handhelds.