Think Outside Inc. Announces New Bluetooth Keyboard Software Standard: a Royalty-Free Driver for Smartphones and PDAs

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20031209005338&newsLang=en' target='_blank'>http://home.businesswire.com/portal...338&newsLang=en</a><br /><br /></div>"Think Outside Inc., maker of the revolutionary Stowaway(R) Portable Keyboards for handheld devices, today announced that it has created a royalty-free keyboard driver that utilizes the Bluetooth Human Interface Device (HID) profile and that the company will make available to any OEM interested in including it in a smartphone or PDA design. As a result, device manufacturers will be able to include Think Outside's keyboard HID driver in their Bluetooth-enabled products to ensure that they will support an external keyboard in the future.<br /><br />One of the design limitations of Bluetooth has been that OEMs had to license a Bluetooth software stack from a software supplier to make their devices operational, and a HID profile had to be either licensed or created. The HID profile lists a series of devices, and it is this list that tells the Bluetooth radio how to communicate with a specific device. If a Bluetooth product doesn't have a particular device listed in its profile, it can't communicate with it."<br /><br />If this is all that's been stopping companies from releasing Bluetooth-based keyboards, and we'll soon see some, then we all owe Think Outside a huge round of applause. However, that's a big "if" - and considering that Think Outside just released an infrared-based keyboard (which seems very retro to me), I'm not going to hold my breath. Let's hope I'm wrong though and we see some great Bluetooth-based keyboards in 2004...<br /><br />&lt;reads press release again, slower this time><br /><br />"In related news, Think Outside today also announced its Stowaway Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard, a new Bluetooth-enabled Stowaway keyboard for use with compatible smartphones and PDAs. This full-sized, collapsible mobile keyboard is based on a reference design that is capable of being modified to meet an OEM's specifications, to speed their time to market with Bluetooth keyboard products for smartphones and PDAs."<br /><br />Oh. Nevermind. :D Let's hope that several big companies adopt their reference design!

[sprawlgeek]

this is fantastic....

now..when!!!????

i ripped through their website, no sign of the press release or related keyboard....

HERES MY CHECK!!!

[Paragon]

So, here's the question I think is on most people's minds.....Will they sell the keyboard with a fix/patch/undate/driver for the Bluetooth stack on existing devices? The press release seems purposefully vague.

Dave

[CTSLICK]

If it integrates and plays nice with my Dell then my IR keyboard is history!

[Oleander]

:werenotworthy: :multi: :werenotworthy: :multi: :werenotworthy: :multi: :werenotworthy:


Yup! Got my credit card ready! Won't leave screen until order completed!

[Christian]

Perhaps now 2004 will be the year of Bluetooth :lol:

[Ed Hansberry]

Perhaps now 2004 will be the year of Bluetooth :lol:
Yup. Just you wait. Next year will be the year. :mrgreen:

[D.psi]

:grumble: !@#$!#@$#

Just got my Stowaway XT for my Ipaq, before they announced the IR keyboard... And now they anounce the Bluetooth keyboard.

:grumble: !@#!@#$

Ah well, we'll see if they publish the bluetooth support for existing platforms (i.e. Ipaq 221x)

D.psi

[burtman007]

Yup. Just you wait. Next year will be the year. :mrgreen:

Are you a Cubs fan too??? :)

[lemieux66]

Finally some news on a portable bluetooth keyboard! :D Just hope it works with my 2215.

That makes me wonder. Which would provide better battery life? The serial port connector, IR or bluetooth?

[Kathy_Harris]

As long as Stowaway releases a bluetooth version of their original full sized keyboard I'll be happy, very happy.

[Sven Johannsen]

I'm kind of reserving my joy at this point. It sounds like a driver needs to be incorporated in the target device to make use of the TO BT keyboard. While that may seem like it could be loaded or provided in a patch, I am a bit less than optimistic on this. If a new profile could easily be added to a devices existing BT stack, wouldn't we have seen someone come up with a patch for MS's BT Keyboard and Mouse combo, to allow Active Syncing PPCs. I fear that this would have to be a significant overhaul of the BT stack in a device, possibly requiring a ROM reflash. With the only incentive to the PPC OEMs being that they would help TO sell keyboards, I wonder whether they will be inclined to give it much priority for existing devices. Possibly the adoption of the concept by other keyboard manufacturers might induce more PPC OEMs to also add the capability. Could be a chicken and egg thing going here.

[Rudolf]

If a new profile could easily be added to a devices existing BT stack, wouldn't we have seen someone come up with a patch for MS's BT Keyboard and Mouse combo, to allow Active Syncing PPCs.
Did anybody tried to use the latest WIDCOMM drivers with the MS BT desktop? I mean the latest WIDCOMM BT STACK for windows definietly supports HID profile along with Serial profile (and all the others) So the MS (and other) Bluetooth desktops should work witn any USB dongle using the widcom drivers... I would say, once devices using HID will be common on desktop at least WIDCOM will put it into the CE stack too, so HP users may have a chance. On the other hand if a device uses the microsoft stack... No chance for a while...

[brianchris]

This may be a bit OT, but I own the Microsoft Bluetooth Keyboard / mouse, and spoke to a MS tech support representative a number of months ago, basically inquiring about when Activesync functionality would be availible. While he didn't promise anything specifically, he said I (and others) will be quite happy when Windows XP Service Pack 2 is released. Apparently, the the MS Bluetooth stack is recieving major enhancements and will be included in WinXP SP2.

We'll see if he's correct 8)

-Brian

[Eitel]

wouldn't we have seen someone come up with a patch for MS's BT Keyboard and Mouse combo, to allow Active Syncing PPCs.

I'm currently using my Microsoft BT desktop and I can sync with no problems with my iPAQ 4155. Do a search on Google to find a way to install the latest Widcomm drivers in order to accomplish this.

[takotchi]

I have the MS Bluetooth IntelliMouse Explorer... and I was disappointed when I bought it and it basically said "well, you can't actually do much besides use this mouse and that one keyboard with this... OOPS"

So I never bothered getting a bluetooth card for my Axim...

If they make a Stowaway XT... with BT... and SP2 has some "enhancements"... that would be great. 8O