You are on the cutting edge. That's right. Like it or not, the mere fact that you own a Treo means you skate on the razor thin line where the technological present meets the future.

So naturally you are wondering just how far you can press the envelope with your Treo. What you hold in your hand is nearly a full-fledged computer. But with its surprising versatility, you wonder, could it replace a laptop?

For me, the issue is the keyboard. The Treo thumbpad is great for occassional data entry and texting. But it does not cut it for real work. What is needed is a standard-layout keyboard as small and compact as the Treo smartphone itself.

Alternatives

There have been several clever solutions. The Targus Wireless Folding Keyboard and Palm Universal Infrared Keyboard are plastic-keyed, foldable, and smaller than standard desktop solutions. However, they are too large to slip easily in and out of your pocket. Similarly shaped Infrared keyboards suffer from "lag," a small amount of time that passes between a keystroke and when the result appears on the screen. We need something that transfers keystrokes fast and can be at hand instantly.

Then the Virtual Laser Keyboard showed up. It projects a full keyboard layout onto any flat surface, and tracks where you place your fingers. It connects using Bluetooth, which is very fast. It's a great product because of the "wow" factor. But it can get confused if your fingers are moving too fast, in places with bright lights, and it fails completely on shiny surfaces. It also provides no tactile feedback. Because you literally tap on the surface where it is projected, there is no feeling of keys while you type, so you must keep your eyes on where your fingers are, instead of on the screen.

G-Tech Fabric Keyboard

The newest entry in the portable keyboard category is the G-Tech Fabric Keyboard, which is based on the Eleksen ElekTex smart fabric touchpad technology. It's a very sweet offering that combines the tiny carrying size and "wow" factor of the Virtual Laser Keyboard with the physical presence of plastic qwerty keypads.

The pressure-sensitive keys are slightly–and I mean just slightly–raised with a thin recessed outline. This is a big improvement over the Virtual Laser Keyboard. The G-Tech Fabric Keyboard is also flexible and pliable; you can wad it up, and it still remains workable. It comes with a small nylon stuff-sack to keep it stowed and tidy. With the keyboard rolled up and tucked inside, the stuff sack is only 5-inches long, or roughly the size of a very small umbrella handle.

The keyboard has a small rigid piece containing the plastic battery and Bluetooth compartments. This is a small drawback, because it limits how easily the product can be carried. The keyboard is more bulky than the Virtual Lazer Keyboard. But it's much smaller than plastic stowaway keyboards. It can hang comfortably off a belt or rest reasily in a loose pocket with hardly more weight than its two AAA batteries.

The keyboard paired easily with my Treo 650 Bluetooth connection. It was probably easier to set up than any Bluetooth device I have ever used. That's a big plus in this reviewer's opinion. You install the .PRC driver via Hotsync, which then shows up as an application icon in your Treo's "Unfiled" category. The very first time you run the Fabric Keyboard program on your Treo and select the "Tap here to connect" button, it opens your Treo Bluetooth discovery utility. Listed among your "Trusted Devices" is now the Fabric Keyboard. You select it and tap on "Done." Subsequently, you only have to open the Fabric Keyboard application and select the "Tap here to connect" button and you are up and running.

Like any other wireless accessory, you have to turn the keyboard on to begin. You press and hold the power button for a few seconds and the keyboard activates. The press and hold activation means it cannot accidentally be powered on in a tight pocket. The manual explores a few other battery-saving tricks as well.

Now activated, this is a good point to clip on the included grip-stand, which holds your Treo upright. It's a clever design that can be affixed using one hand, and allows for some angle adjustment. Because the keyboard and Treo pairing is a Bluetooth connection and not Infrared, it does not matter where you place your Treo in relationship to the keyboard, as long as you can monitor the screen.

Smoothed flat, the keyboard seems a bit smaller than the typical corporate laptop layout. The key area is a mere 3X10" with the entire device measuring about 4.5 X 13.25". The plastic housing piece, which holds the batteries and runs Bluetooth, is slightly longer at 1.25 X 5". The fabric feels like felt but is actually a cleanable flocked plastic, which is resistant to liquids and can withstand a fair amount of abuse.

You can use the keyboard to write, and also to control native Palm OS launcher functions as well. By using the keyboard's arrow keys and the "enter" key, you can navigate your Treo desktop. So you can use the arrow keys to navigate across applications, and the "enter" key to launch one. It employs the built-in Palm "pip" sound every time a key is pressed, which I find helpful. This sound option can be turned off for silent operation.

Much like the Treo thumbpad, you press modifier keys in sequence rather than at the same time. You tap "shift" then a letter, for example, to produce a capital. It has the regular modifier keys, like "shift," "alt," "caps" and "ctrl." The fabric keyboard also has one modifier key called the "altgr" key, which allows the typing of special characters, like the cent sign by tapping the "altgr" then the "c" key. Capitalized versions of specialized letters are produced by tapping "altgr" then "shift" followed by the letter. The user guide provides a table of the various symbols that can be produced.

You have "option settings" in the application's pulldown menu on the Treo. This allows you to set the pressure sensitivity in four steps from low to high, and set basic things like key repeat rate and delay. You can disable key clicks here, Bluetooth connection timeout, or how long it takes for the keyboard to shut off after inactivity.

The user manual also discusses "Hot Tips," which are key combinations that mostly open application commands. These include things like pressing "shift" then "m" to access the menu of the application you are in. One drawback for many Treo owners is that the table of commands does not include ones for Palm OS, but rather the Symbian and two Windows mobile platforms. I played around with key combinations and they did do some things here and there, but you will have to learn commands as you go. The manual will not help you in this regard if your Treo is Palm OS.

The G-tech.com website states that it works with Palm OS devices. It has been tested with Garnet 5.4. But I didn't hesitate loading the keyboard software into a Treo running 5.2. I doubt there is any operational difference between the two.

The G-Tech Fabric Keyboard is workable for me. However, I am not a great typer. So I asked a friend with superb typing skills to test it as well. He has a tighter and more nimbler touch. It was quickly obvious that he adapted to it even faster than I did, and he proclaimed it "do-able!"

The only significant drawback to the G-Tech Fabric Keyboard is that, like most other external keyboards, it works better with native Palm applications than third-party programs. It works brilliantly with Memos, for example, but not as well with WordSmith. I also found that it woks swimmingly with the Palm operating system, and less well with SilverScreen.

Conclusion

I recommend the G-Tech Fabric Keyboard. It's easy to carry, simple to set up, and has fast response. It's workable for text entry and editing, even for someone as clumsy as me. Whether you are a nimble typist who can land fingers just where they need to be, or someone who watches the keyboard instead of the screen, you will enjoy your results.

MSRP is $159.99, which compares favorably to the Virtual Laser Keyboard's MSRP of $204.99. Presently, the G-Tek Fabric Keyboard is on sale in mytreo.net/store for $129.99, and the Virtual Laser Keyboard is on sale for $169.99. (You can save an additional $20 to $25 if you are a mytreo.net discount club member.)

Related Links

Put it in writing: Treo data entry options

G-Tek Fabric Keyboard

Virtual Laser Keyboard

Alternative Keyboards

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