Palm 3169WW Universal Wireless Keyboard
by Palm
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List Price: Our Price: $4.45 You Save: $64.55 (94%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Palm 3169WW Universal Wireless Keyboard
Customer Review: Keyboard is only OK, and there's a better option for $15 more
Summary: 3 Stars
I've had one of these Palm keyboards for a couple of years now. It works okay, and turns my Palm Tungsten into a computer I can carry in my pocket. I can take notes in meetings, write articles. It's great. But it has always been temperamental. Within a month of getting it I found I often had to jiggle the two halves of the keyboard a little to get it to start working. Then lately, a row of keys on the right (the zero, p, l, and period) started not working unless I would twist and manipulate the halves just so. Every time! It was maddening. I got fed up with it and upgraded to the Bluetooth keyboard (Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard). For only $15 more, I have a smoothly functioning no-glitch keyboard. It's a little more stable--in locked position I can actually use it on my lap without resting it on a book or clipboard. You can detach the cradle for the Palm and set it off to the side if you need to. The keyboard on this page uses an infrared beam to communicate with the Palm. The Bluetooth uses radio waves.
And a cool thing is that either of these keyboards really impress my friends. I get comments like, "amazing!", "where'd you get that?" I love it.
Spend the extra $15 and get the better keyboard--it will last longer and be more useful.
Customer Review: excellent add on for anyone who needs to do alot of writing on the go
Summary: 4 Stars
The keyboard worked perfectly with my T|X. It folds small for easy portability, and the unfold mechanism is simple and easy to understand.
Some have commented about the lack of stability and I will agree that the Palm just sitting there with nothing to secure it is a draw back that cost it a star. I however did solve this on mine, but adding a velcro strip that holds the palm in place and now use it comfortably on any hard surrface such as placing a book on my lap.
The keys are small and that will take some getting used to but it's still a much more comfortable way to write on the go then palm script.
If you are a heavy user of the IR port for beaming data you may find this annoying, because the driver program hijacks the port for keyboard comunication, and you have to turn it off to use it for normal data transfer.
The batter life is excellent. I bought it over a month ago, useing it a fair bit to write between calls at work and have not had to replace them yet. (your millage of course will varry)
Over all if all you use your laptop for is writing, listentenging to music on the go, and basic hotspot access adding this keyboard to it will let your palm (with pocket tunes and doc's to go and a 2 gig mem card) take care of you just fine.
Give it a try :)
Customer Review: Good HW, Okay SW
Summary: 2 Stars
(UPDATE)
I now give it 4 out of 5 stars.
PalmOne has updated the drivers to version 1.05, dated 12/13/04, which fixes the worst problems. Be sure to download this, and ignore the driver on the CD, or you might be in a LOT of pain.
ALSO - DON'T install the PalmOne Phone Link Update dated 11/29/04, as the keyboard.prc will cause a "fatal exception" if this is also loaded (only tested on Tungsten T3).
(/UPDATE)
I would have given it four or five stars, the keyboard hardware is a good implementation.
But the driver kills one of PalmOne's top of the line devices, the Tungsten T3. I suggest you wait for a driver update before purchasing this item (current BAD driver 9/22/2004 77,790 bytes).
It's so bad that I had to disassemble my T3 (voids warranty), disconnect battery to wipe RAM. Others have same BAD results with this UW keyboard on their T3 PDAs. See post at brighthand for more information.
Warning: If this also happens on the T5 device, then one's only solution would be to send item back to PalmOne for repair. Because the RAM on the T5 is non-volatile. But I've not heard if this problem happens on the T5.
FWIW - It DID work when I had NOTHING but keyboard.prc loaded on T3. But otherwise keyboard is unusable on T3.
Customer Review: Love This Keyboard !
Summary: 5 Stars
I had an older version of the Palm Keyboard that I had used for years but one of the plastic hinges broke so I ordered the 3169. It is much better than the previous Palm keyboard. It is no longer necessary to hold a "blue" key to access numbers or a "green" key to access symbols. Also, this keyboard will work with the Palm in the "portrait" or "landscape" position. It is a much better design and more durable. Also loved the fact that it was on sale and shipped with free shipping. The only thing is that the price went down again two weeks after I bought it.
Updated Feb 27, 2001 - The keyboard worked well for 6 months. I use it often but handle it very carefully. The first sign of a problem was that several keys on the right side of the unit would not respond (-,_,[,{, left arrow, right arrow). I accommodated for this by using my stylus on the Palm keypad. Then the plastic button that secures the IR arm broke off. The unit still worked but the arm dangled from the unit. Because I use the keyboard often, I checked Amazon and found a seller offering a new, in-box unit for $15.00. I am waiting for it to arrive. Hopefully this unit will be more durable. I am glad I did not have to pay the $69 price that the units originally sold for. When the unit works, it works well.
Customer Review: Beware Treo 650 Users!
Summary: 1 Stars
I really dislike this keyboard. Whoever designed this product did not take the functionality of the design into consideration. The keyboard layout is tight, and near the middle of the spacebar is a hinge which juts out that I keep hitting instead of the spacebar. It is extremely frustrating to work with, especially since the spacebar is one of the most often used keys. The question mark key is also located in a really odd place to the right of the shift key instead of left where it is normally located. The IR leaves much to be desired. As others have posted, sometimes it takes a few tries before the Treo responds. I have tried adjusting the sensitivity, but it doesn't seem to help much. I used to have the Palm T2 and before that, a Handspring Visor, both of which I purchased keyboards for. Because they plugged into the unit, they worked very well and performed like a laptop with the full-sized keys working flawlessly AND without needing batteries! I was really hesitant to purchase this wireless keyboard due to its lack of a physical connector but since there is no other keyboard model that can connect directly into the Treo 650, I was cornered into buying this one since I need it for heavy input on the go.