iGo Stowaway Ultra-Slim Bluetooth Keyboard for PDAs and Handhelds
by Think Outside
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Our Price: $229.00 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $69.99 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of iGo Stowaway Ultra-Slim Bluetooth Keyboard for PDAs and Handhelds
Customer Review: Stowaway Keyboard Review
Summary: 4 Stars
When I recieved this product, it came in a plastic see-through package in which you can't open without sissors. I didn't have sissors, so I had trouble opening it. I wish it had came in a box worth the $150 I paid for.I don't see the point of having a bluetooth keyboard if I keep it in the detachable stand. I should have bought the serial one. I also had trouble installing the driver on my Dell Axim X50v; when you use the keyboard, you have to push the button of a keyboard with the "x" through it. I tried "clicking" on the program shotcut and doing it manualy but it didn't work when you push connect, it took me a while to figure out what to do.
The keyboard is too mechanical and seems like it would break easily. It's not lap compatible because the little latch doesn't hold the keyboard open very well, you could just force it closed without thinking. Also, since I don't know how to type, I can't see the blue numbers at night, when I mainly use it.
I strongly recommend that you buy the serial keyboard that might be avalible for your handheld, because it takes to long to connect the keyboard and it would be more convinent to just securely snap in you handheld and start typing. I hear that people think it's cool to type while having the handheld in your pocket (that sounds wrong), I don't see the point of doing that because I like to see what i'm typing and not asume it's working and find I haven't typed anything.
The bluetooth manager doesn't recognize the keyboard as being anything, it just shows the name of the keyboard. When you want to start typing, don't turn on bluetooth manualy, you have to push the driver's button first, and it will atomaticly start.
I typed this whole review useing the keyboard and it works flawlessly, I just feel I wasted my money.
Customer Review: GREAT keyboard, but with a fatal design flaw...
Summary: 2 Stars
This is a very great little keyboard that works nicely (usually) with my BlackBerry 8830. It flips open from a tiny little thing into to a comfortable size keyboard that you can really type on. It has shortcut keys that mostly work -- although on my BlackBerry, some of the keys do different things than they're supposed to, there doesn't seem to be a key to launch the Inbox, and the Bluetooth connection falls off and has to be reconnected every once in a while. Setup and installation were simple using the BlackBerry universal drivers downloaded from the iGo website. Normally, I would give this 5 stars, especially at this great price.
BUT... some rocket scientist at iGo decided to place a big, friendly "How To Use Me" sticker across the keys and the case. It's a nice thing to do, but instead of using Post-It glue so you could easily remove the sticker, they used industrial-strength price-sticker glue that DOESN'T COME OFF. In removing the sticker, one of the keys broke off. Amazon made good on it and replaced it, but the manufacturer was entirely useless in this regard and refused to do anything about it.
(I think iGo or Amazon's supplier must have had a large inventory of these with the bad stickers that they are unloading on Amazon at a fraction of the original price, which is why the price here is so very low compared to everywhere else, and which is also why the manufacturer's website is sold out on these right now.)
If you get this, REMOVE THE STICKER VERY CAREFULLY and plan on it taking awhile. I found that RUBBING worked better than scratching, but it was still impossible to get all of the residue off and of course I damaged the key.
This is enough of a design flaw that my rating goes down from 5 stars to 2 stars.
Customer Review: Pretty darn good!
Summary: 4 Stars
I like this keyboard. At first I used it with my Treo 650 smartphone, but now I'm using it with a Samsung Q1P tablet PC. It seems to work well with either, although I'm not sure how smoothly it would make the transition if I kept switching between the two.
I have to agree with other reviewers that the quality of this keyboard and its functionality is far better than other keyboards I've used. I had an infrared keyboard that I used with the Treo which was absolutely awful; it dropped many keystrokes and those that did make it to the Treo took forever. By contrast, this keyboard's keystroke response is very fast and reliable.
I do find it awkward to access some of the special keys, because there are two different Function keys that produce two different behaviors depending on which you hold down. It took me a while to adapt to this.
Also, navigation using the arrow and PgUp/PgDn/Home/End keys on the Treo was so inconsistent as to be nearly useless. In some programs on the Treo they did one thing; in other progams another, and in others nothing at all. Also the behaviors of the program-launch key combinations were pretty weird.
On the PC, I really miss the F1 through F12 keys. I haven't found any way to generate these keystrokes from the Stowaway. Some other standard keys, like Print Screen, Scroll Lock, and others seem to be missing as well, and a few, like the tilde, are located in unusual places so you have to hunt for them.
On the other hand, this keyboard is a marvel of miniaturization and light weight. Having a (nearly) full size and full function keyboard that you can (almost) stick in your pocket is fantastic. Of course, I'd love it even more if it were even lighter and thinner!
Customer Review: Excellent Bluetooth Keyboard from the Think Outside Guys
Summary: 5 Stars
I first bought a Belkin IR keyboard from Office Depot and it worked only part of the time. It felt cheap. The keys were poorly spaced and I couldn't get it to work with my Dell Axim X50. I paid $65 for the keyboard and and immediately felt ripped off. I returned it the same week I bought it.
The second keyboard I bought advertized it was made for the Dell Axim X50. This clearly was not the case. The second problem is that the keyboard was made for cell phones, NOT PDA's! I couldn't put my Axim on the stand without it falling over or leaning at an unusable angle without glare. The third problem was that I couldn't get it to connect to my PDA regularly.
I'm sure i could've figured out the third problem but the keyboard was so awful, I made the decision to return it after an hour of opening the box.
Then I ordered the iGo Stowaway Ultra-Slim Bluetooth Keyboard
This keyboard is what all the others advertised and then some.
The keys feel nice and they are well spaced. Opening the unit was a little stiff at first, but now slides open and closed easily with a satisfying "click" at either end of the process. The Axim fits PERFECTLY into the cradle that is built into the unit (I use the Axim in landscape position). I was also able to get this keyboard to work in about 30 minutes. Not plug and play, but reasonable. The keyboard sacrificed the number keys to make room for the larger key spacing, but I haven't found that it's a problem to type numbers by holding down the function keys. The best thing about this keyboard however is the quality. I paid $90 for it and I'd do it again in a second.
This keyboard is truly a bargain in Bluetooth compatible products!
Customer Review: Excellent addition for my Nokia N800
Summary: 5 Stars
I ordered the Stowaway keyboard from Amazon based upon all previous reviews. I bought it together with a new Nokia N800 (Linux based PDA). I really worried if it would work with my new PDA. Indeed, N800 is not a Windows or Palm machine and there was a probability of some compatability issues.
However, I was able easily to pair both devices and start to type. You need to pair a keyboard and PDA before usage. Do not forget to press Enter key after entering a code on your keyboard. Forgetting this got me some troubles for about 5 minutes until I googled a solution. Now it is time to talk about the product.
It is just optimal. It is sharp, very firm keyboard which is still very portable. It has a better case than my PDA does! The keyboard uses two AAA batteries and they are lasting for long: at least for 1 month of a very agressive usage. The keys are full sized and very comfortable for typing. I do not like a splitted space button however you need to split one for folding the keybord. There are some trade off to make it portable of course (you need to keep a special button to be able to type numbers as an example) but it is still very nice. The mechanical support for PDAs is also very convenient and can be easily removed if unnecessary.
I highly recommend this keyboard for any actively used PDAs. Especially, if you type e-mails, stories, blogs or other documents on go. Comparing to other keyboard as far as I compared, the famous Nokia keyboard is twice more expensive and twice worse. Though, Nokia is a good company and has good engineers.
Warning: I could not get special buttons work properly with my PDA. I have however a root access to the N800 and hopefully will fix it soon.