16 out of 16 people found this review helpful.
Get text into your Palm T3 faster with this Palm Keyboard.
Date of Review: Sep 7, 2009
The Bottom Line: You will be surprised with your ability to use this portable keyboard from Palm.
My Palm T3 Tungsten came with a version of the Microsoft Word software word processing program. Before I bought the Palm (3169WW) Keyboard, the fastest WPM I could ever reach was 10. With this portable keyboard, I can now easily type over 85 WPM. In fact, this review was keyed in less than four minutes using a handwritten version of this review.
Dimensions
Completely setup and folded out the keyboard itself measures 10" wide x 3 1/4" deep x 1/2" high. The cradle for your Palm stands 3" high x 5 1/2" wide. All of the plastic is a really cool, deep black, semi gloss plastic. Sitting on a table it looks like an electronic work of art more than a just a simple keyboard.
Installation
Very little prowess with software installation is needed here. The only prerequisite is a Palm T3 Tungsten docking cradle and installed Palm OS interface software on your Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP Professional SP2 computer or higher. You will need at least 100K of free memory on Palm OS devices and at least 300K free on Pocket PC devices.
Take the supplied CD-ROM and install the software program upon pop-up of Autoplay program. If you did not get a software installation disk with your Palm portable keyboard, I suggest visiting the Palm website to download the software. Since this is a Palm product, you can trust that finding the drivers will be an easy task for many years to come.
Operation
Place your Palm in a cradle and turn it on. Next, type a few strokes on the keyboard. The keyboard should be quickly recognized and you are ready to type. The keyboard offers a medium level of resistance which helps me type faster. The folding design of the keyboard means it is too fragile to use on a soft surface. I always have needed a hard surface to use this product on.
The keyboard is a little unusual for the following reasons:
1) The forward slash key, /, is in the bottom right corner so you will get hung up on the previous line often if you are not careful.
2) You will sometimes have to reset your Palm Tungsten T3 to get it to recognize the wireless keyboard fully. In fact, my whole system was down for a nightmarish two weeks until I realized this simple fact.
3) You will also have to close and fold back the keyboard itself sometimes to get it to work after a long break of no use. To avoid this problem, just keep typing new Epinons reviews.
The keyboard works by communicating with an available infrared port on your Palm or other portable computing device. The keyboard does not use radio waves to communicate. For example, I move my Palm around while typing this sentence and was only able to make text appear when the IR port on the top of my Palm T3 was within a line of sight of the IR data receiver on the keyboard. The maximum range in a darkly lit room is 3'. You can expect a much lower range in a room with fluorescent light bulbs or if you are outside.
Battery Life
The two AAA batteries in this wireless keyboard appear to last at least 24 hours worth of use. I use Alkaline batteries and have yet to run out of power.
Summary
I enjoy this wireless keyboard because it prevents me from needing to buy a mini laptop or use a full size computer in my living room. The only thing this technophile has in his living room and general open area of a large house is a small Palm and this keyboard. Since I got this keyboard, I have typed over 100 product reviews in less than a year.
As fast as I think, I can now type into my Palm T3 Tungsten.
Alright, that was just about the dumbest statement. Someone could type about themselves. ROFL LOL Typing with this keyboard is just so fun!
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