12-09-2003, 09:02 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Think Outside Inc. Announces New Bluetooth Keyboard Software Standard: a Royalty-Free Driver for Smartphones and PDAs
"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.
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."
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...
<reads press release again, slower this time>
"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."
Oh. Nevermind.  Let's hope that several big companies adopt their reference design!
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