Think Outside Bluetooth Keyboard

[jhennig]

I am seriously considering buying this keyboard for my A730w. Please post any problems or remarks you have about it. Amazon.com price: $90

[G M Fude]

When I first installed the TO BT keyboard on my X50v, I basically unpacked it out of the box and connected it. Had a few problems; got a bit cranky with it.

Deleted the driver. Opened the user manual, read it thoroughly; reinstalled and followed the procedure faithfully, exactly as written in the manual.

Now, no hassles. Awesome keyboard. Turn on PPC... turn on BT radio... open keyboard... start typing. That's all there is to it. I'm now thinking of getting a tattoo on my forearm that says "RTFM", just as a reminder to myself.

[martin_ayton]

Before cheap pda wanabee leaps in and jumps all over me :lol: lots of people really like this device and have had no problems with it at all...

I just bought myself one, and I like it too, but getting to this point was not straightforward: The keyboard design is very nice and robust, although if you are a little heavy handed, you will find that pressing keys on the extreme left and right of the keyboard will cause it to tip.

My experience with the drivers is not so great (and I am not alone in this). I just could not get the latest drivers (v4.2) to hold a secure connection with my Xda2s (aka HTC Blue Angel). And I did follow the instructions exactly. On the advice of another user on the Think Outside forums, I downgraded to the previous version (v.4.0) and everything now works fine. The integration with the PPC isn't as smooth as I would like - I have to take a few more steps than G M Fude - but it's pretty good.

My experience of the tech. support from Think Outside is bad: I did eventually get a response to my support query, but it came 5 days after I submitted it and said, effectively "well, it should work" which is about as useless an answer as it is possible to get :evil: .

FWIW, if you need a keyboard, this one is a good choice. If it doesn't work out of the box, and TO don't want to help, then there are enough people around here and in the TO forums who will be delighted to lend a hand.

[yankeejeep]

My experience was the opposite of Martin's; I had problems with the version 4.0 drivers that came on the CD and they cleared up when I downloaded the newer version 4.2 drivers. I am pretty sure in my case it was that the newer drivers were more stable with my bluetooth stack. Make sure you check the TO website for any issues that may exist with the BT stack on your device. The TO keyboard and mouse are not compatible with all BT stacks.

One thing I have found is that having my cell phone's BT powered and in range seems to result in frequent additional spaces when I type. Again, I chalk that up to my BT stack and simply switch my phone's BT off if I am typing using the TO keyboard. One thing I like about the 4.2 drivers is that they also give me access to the TO BT mouse. The keyboard/mouse combo makes it much easier to do input for an extended period and are one of the biggest reasons I can now travel pretty much notebook-free.

[jhennig]

Well, I ordered it. It is schedualed to be here on friday... can't wait! THanks for your input guys, if I have any problems, I'll look into the drivers immediately. :wink:

[Kowalski]

am i the only one who is using an unsecured connection?
i leave BT on all the times on my ipaq, and when i open the keyboard, boom! i start typing right away

[jhennig]

One problem, leaving it on sucks more time out of an already short battery runtime on the A730w.