PDA Keyboard and Case
$96, by Fellowes Inc.
For Windows and Macintosh
Requires Palm V or III or Handspring Visor PDA
For owners of Palm-type personal digital assistants who absolutely detest using the tiny plastic stylus to scrawl individual letters on a postage stamp-size screen, this latest gizmo by the technology geniuses at Itasca-based Fellowes is nothing less than manna from megabyte heaven.
The Palm or Visor PDA docks on the left panel of this clamshell-type case and to the right is a very usable QWERTY keyboard ready to accept serious text input many times faster than chicken-scratching letters using the Graffiti software built into the Palm operating system.
There are at least two negatives that a buyer needs to weigh. First is size. The case is much bigger than the Palm and simply will not fit easily into even the most ample trouser pocket. At 4 inches by 6 inches and an inch and a half thick, this brick belongs in one’s briefcase rather than pocket.
A second negative is that the hinge for the clamshell case gets in the way when one attempts to use the left-hand fingers to tap the keys on the left side of the keyboard. This makes text entry less smooth than with PDAs equipped with keyboards, like Psions.
But these are tiny thorns on a sweet rose of a device that provides a desperately missing link in the personal technology space. This keyboard works well enough that a newspaper reporter, for example, might well decide to use it with a Palm instead of dragging a laptop on out of town assignments.
At last.
