Attention product developers at MacNally, Belkin, etc. For the love of all that is holy can someone please develop a foldable, portable external keyboard for both the iPhone and iPod touch. Am I the only one who has been dying for one of these to be out on the market? I know that MacNally had created a bluetooth external keyboard last year that never made it to the market due to the fact that it required a Bluetooth connection which was not available until this past week when the iPhone 3.0 was released. Otherwise you had to jailbreak your phone in order to to connect to a portable keyboard even to Apple's wireless keyboard.
So now that 3.0 is now available as is the bluetooth option to connect bluetooth devices to your iPhone there are no more excuses. I can't tell you how many people that I know and work with who would not think twice about ponying up for one of these lifesavers.
My copywriting partner Mark has an old Palm with a great foldable keyboard that makes him live the complete independent mobile freelance lifestyle. He loves to leave the office and go to the local Starbucks or coffeeshop to concept and work on his assignments. The freedom he is allowed because of this little jem is incredible. We both have an hour and a half one way commute into Manhattan and a good portion of that is spent on one train. And no more laptop, just my iPhone and my portable keyboard. But it has to be foldable. That is the key! Just think of all the additional blogs and articles I could be writing for you folks.
Keyboard
I want one for my iPhone, either BT or wired. Either way I don't care...
BT in 3.0
Well, it was a surprise when I first learned of the touch even having the chip. Evidently, the proper BT protocols are not available for this, because my iGO stowaway, which is a foldout portable keyboard does not work and is not even discoverable. Strangely, when you check out the iPod spec sheet at Apple, BT is not mentioned at all, though using stereo BT headphones with iPod is briefly covered in the updated user manual for 3.0. According to what I have found out on other tech sites, the A2DP profile was enabled in this release, which supports wireless stereo music streaming. I wonder what other things are hidden? This is kind of useful, I guess if I want my music to sound crappier than the native earbuds or coming from my Sony dock...
tip
Kevin, looks like you might've accidently added your BT image icon as a file attachment. To have it show in the body of your post, simply select the little yellow pix icon in the editor (it looks like a mountain with a sun). Then you can upload your pix to the blog, and select them to be included in your posts...cheers!
long ago
Heck I had a foldable keyboard for my HP jornada 10 years ago
Let's go Apple!
Thanks!
Thanks Nate. Will do. Still getting used to the interface. Darn rookie. Ha!
BT Apple keyboard
What about the Apple wireless keyboard? , it does not work with the Iphone?
100% agree
iPhone needs a portable keyboard! The iPhone is basically a computer. It needs a proper keyboard. It would give thousands the ability to leave the heavy laptop at home, while remaining productive on the road.
We can bank on the iPhone, file FAA-approved flight plans, respond to emails, and access Google Docs. Why not allow users to do all this quickly and easily while on the road.
I'd pay $100, instantly.
Apple's wireless keyboard
Apple's wireless keyboard will probably now work with the iPhone I would assume, but don't hold me to that.
But that defeats the purpose of trying to be laptop free. The beauty about my friend Mark's foldable keyboard is that all he needs to do is bring his Palm and his foldable keyboard which fits in his pocket. It would be a little hard to do that with Apple's wireless keyboard. The foldable keyboard I am looking for is definitely more for the business traveler and daily commuter, etc.
And I agree, I would have no problem throwing down the money for the portability and convenience factors.
Interesting
What I find especially interesting is that Apple is now quietly adding features that have been around in other Mobile OS versions for years (a universal search tool, cut/copy/paste and expanded BT profiles are some examples)...As pointed out quite correctly by feo2 above. The problem is that the iPhone and the touch are NOT actually computers with the same power, CPU and available memory of a desktop PC. The iPhone and touch work and are popular, because they do a few things really, really well and don't yet have to handle very much multi-tasking. Apple, it appears, is starting to go down the perilous road of adding expanded features and restricting the ban on 3rd-party app multi-tasking (not un-like several other mobile OS already out there), and will now learn what those of us used to running the other mobile operating systems have known for years. You may do a few things well on a particularly powerful handheld device, but device performance and stability are drastically reduced when you start trying to do many things simultaneously.
yeah, where's that keyboard
As the "Mark" Kevin mentions in his great blog entry, I can't tell you how vital my foldable keyboard is. Now, armed with that pocketed in my cargo pants, I can write whenever an idea hits, and I never feel chained to a flourescent-lit cubicle to do my work. Who knows, if the iPhone gets the bluetooth keyboard, I might cross over to the Mac side.
Foldable Keyboard
Count me in - I would love to have a foldable keyboard!
Absolutely!
I had one of these from Targus for my visor. It was the best thing on the planet.
For taking notes at conferences, for writing on the road, for doing longer emails on the run, for writing my book.
The ability to put them in your pocket and hike, bike, or do whatever is neccessary and then be able to have the capacity to write large quantities of text is awesome.
I paid $100 years ago and would easily pay that now.
This with any type of word processor is even better.
My second request would be for computer companies to start offering the ability to use dvorak type keyboard layouts. Most laptop, pc or mac keyboards don't have equal sized keys that can be reconfigured to a more efficient dvorak style layout.
Apple BlueTooth Keyboard easily pairs with iPhone iOS4
Apple BlueTooth Keyboard easily pairs with iPhone iOS4 on my iPhone 3gs. Now to find a small/foldable/portable one that does the same.