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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: xHighAlert on Sun, 11 March 2012, 20:04:09

Title: Something bluetooth?
Post by: xHighAlert on Sun, 11 March 2012, 20:04:09
I know Ripster and many others hate mobile users for the same reason I do: illiteracy and laziness towards correcting typos, grammatical errors, etc.

This is why I just picked up this (http://www.logitech.com/en-us/keyboards/keyboard/devices/8232) little guy to use with my phone. Only minor complaint: Home key doesn't work. But that's a software related issue. The keycode goes through.

Bigger complaint as a Geekhack member? It's obvious. It's a flat, dead-feeling overpriced piece of plastic. And it's got this horrible bend in it. The plastics are way too flexible. So I know Filco made a bluetooth brown board for some time but that didn't exactly look portable enough for me to want to try and hunt down. I'm looking for something to use with my phone so I don't have to lug my laptop around with me everywhere I go.

TLDR are there any space saving bluetooth mecha-boards out there other than the discontinued Filco? Hell, even full-size/tkl?
Title: Something bluetooth?
Post by: Jamesbeat on Sun, 11 March 2012, 22:38:40
Most of the posts I've made on this forum have been from my iphone.
I'm sure I've made errors, but I try my best to catch them.
Having said that, I use full words and punctuation when sending texts too.
As far as I'm concerned, typing things like 'gr8' and 'b4' is lazy and rude.
When I had my own business, I actually changed my mind about hiring someone because they sent me such a text message.  
Maybe I'm weird.
Title: Something bluetooth?
Post by: Henry Allen Venture on Sun, 11 March 2012, 23:36:01
Quote from: Jamesbeat;542915
... I use full words and punctuation when sending texts too.
As far as I'm concerned, typing things like 'gr8' and 'b4' is lazy and rude...
Maybe I'm weird.

Nope, I'm the same.
I absolutely hate receiving text messages/emails in slack text-speak bull****.
As far as I'm concerned, it takes more effort to figure out how to shorten words and then type them than it does to just f**king type them, not to mention the effort it takes me to decipher most of them.
With phones now having qwerty keyboards (either on-screen or actual keyboards like my E63) I don't see any excuse for not typing properly.
Title: Something bluetooth?
Post by: Jamesbeat on Mon, 12 March 2012, 00:08:33
A plausible excuse is the cost of sending the text. Fewer characters means that you're less likely to run over into a second message. This isn't so much of a consideration nowadays though, so people should go back to typing full words.

What really irks me is that this stupid text-speak has also made its way into other areas, I have lost count of the number of businesses that have names containing '4u'.
Perhaps I'm just a pedantic a******, but I try to avoid spending money in such establishments.
I think that if you're enough of a p**** to choose such a name for your business, you don't deserve my money.

My favorite is when government-sponsored advertising uses text-speak on commercials aimed at kids or young adults, to show that they are in touch with young people.
 

The only word I can think of to describe my feelings towards text-speak is 'chavvy', but only my felllow Brits will really understand what that means.
Title: Something bluetooth?
Post by: Henry Allen Venture on Mon, 12 March 2012, 00:19:24
I don't really buy the message length excuse.
As far as I'm aware, the entire purpose of SMS was for short messages.
If I've got anything substantial to say, I either call, or send an email depending on the context.
Title: Something bluetooth?
Post by: captain on Mon, 12 March 2012, 02:17:03
iMessage has brought full Instant Messaging to the mobile platform.  There is no excuse for typing like a twat any longer.  I either completely ignore SMS-lingo, or feign confusion, and make the twat type 10x more to clarify his meaning, than if he had just typed correctly in the first place.  Basic dog training.  ;-)

To answer the OP question: the Apple Wireless Keyboard, while no Filco Blue, is a pretty good compromise.  Even ripster agrees that it's one of the best keyboards delivered with a computer.  It links fine with iPads, and is very light.  AWK and an iPad can go all day long on a single charge (and can be recharged by high-power USB) too, which cannot be said of a laptop, which poops out after just a couple of hours or requires a power brick.

TapatalkHD utterly sucks though.  It crashes all the time, particularly when I'm trying to look at Lego photos.  But basic Tapatalk seems to work fairly well, plus it loads faster and is easier to read than using Safari.  They won't give me my money back for the crappy version, so I'm looking for a less assaholic company to get my BBS reader from.  Any suggestions?

-- typed on an iPad using an AWK, because I care about spelling and grammar.


PS: I recall seeing an iDevice adaptor that would allow you to plug in a USB keyboard.  That, plus an iPad, plus a HHKB2 would be a nice portable computing platform!
Title: Something bluetooth?
Post by: xHighAlert on Mon, 12 March 2012, 17:42:34
I'm using an Android device with USB host capabilities, but I vastly prefer wireless.

I'll have another look at returning this Logtiech one because trust me, it's pretty ****ty as far as build quality goes.

But keyboard shortcuts (IE the "four android keys") are quite a big plus to me. How does the AWK fair with that? Anyone know?
Title: Something bluetooth?
Post by: evera on Tue, 27 March 2012, 01:09:50
I saw this: http://matias.ca/onekeyboard/tactile/ not too long ago. Seems to need a usb connection, though.

I've heard that the $30 iPad/iPhone/etc USB camera connector allows for most USB keyboards to be connected to your iDevice, but this is problematic if you want to charge it at the same time...