[thechat] Virtual Keyboard

[martin.p.burns at uk.pwcglobal.com]

Memo from Martin P Burns of PricewaterhouseCoopers

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Subject:    Re: [thechat] Virtual Keyboard

>At 01:59 AM 3/21/2002, Martin responded to Shirley:
>> >Looks like their hope is to have this technology available for cell
>>>phones,
>> >computer monitors, and more, not just a PDA.
>
>>Of course, PDAs and mobile phones are very much destined to be
increasingly
>>intertwined...

>Yes, I've been following that one, too (such as the Handspring Treo and
>others). They're making progress, but so far not enough for me to jump in.
>My own preference is for the Handspring, Palm size screen with the small
>overall size of the tiny cell phones..... of course, that's not easy to
>accomplish without folding the screen somehow and doing so seamlessly when
>it's open. I may not see that dream realized.

I (and a few others (Hi Mike!)) have the precursor to the Treo - the
VisorPhone.
It integrates into the OS beautifully so you can just tap on a person in
the Address
Book and choose whether you want to phone them, email them or send them an
SMS. Writing SMSs on a Palm beats the ass off entry via a numeric keypad
too
(especially if you don't have predictive text).

The main downside is that you get earprints on your screen - the headset
socket isn't brilliantly engineered so it's possible to permanently lose
contact in there (the contacts are I think sprung and it's easy to
permanently
bend them out of shape by waggling the headset plug). Oh, and it's *far*
too
easy to accidentally phone people (there isn't a hard case which fits when
you've got the phone module attached).

I've had a look at the Treo (in all the UK airport shops), and it *looks*
like
you're going to be missing the Springboard port and will have a
non-standard
connector so it won't fit into cradles (which would also render Targus
keyboards
a bit useless). Also, the IR port is either missing or non-obvious.

So, interesting, but annoyingly limited.

Cheers
Martin


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