Logitech Announces Roll-Up and Folding Keyboards

Id prefer thumbtype keyboard or something similiar.

Can anybody create a adapter so we can use those old keybords in the backroom with a PDA?

I also have a now useless Logitech QuickCam, and I'm very, very, very wary of Logitech "support" (how would you feel if you had to replace your perfectly good printer because the company decided not to support it under Win2k/XP? After all, that QuickCam cost me more - CDN$175 - than an inkjet printer!).

The TypeAway keyboard looks interesting to me, but while I plan to buy a keyboard when I replace my Palm within the next 6 months, I doubt very much it will be a Logitech product. How can I trust them?

> *** Taxus ***
> There *is* a driver issue here. Logitech does
> provide a driver for the keyboard, and it is my
> understanding that the driver is required in order
> for the keyboard to work.

And that driver is written by Logitech for Palm OS 4.X for Palms with the Universal Connector. If Palm follows Microsoft (Win98 Drivers under Win2000), and requires that drivers be re-written for PalmOS 5.X, then it is PALM'S lack of support you should be bitching about, not Logitech. Logitech is making a product for RIGHT NOW.

> *** fperkins ***
> *roll* You're so naive Raji.

Perhaps.

> W2k detects the camera fine, it's Logitech that
> won't write the drive for w2k. How would you feel if
> you MS Word program you used in Win98 stopped
> working in W2k?

W2k can probably detect my blender if I solder the wires just right. That's not the point. Logitech wrote drivers for Windows 95/98/NT (for example). Microsoft changed the driver architecture for Win2K/XP, and said all old drivers are now useless, everyone write new ones. Hmmmm, who's to blame there? If my Wordperfect program worked in Win98, and Microsoft guaranteed backwards compatibility for software in W2k, and Wordperfect didn't work, I'd be mad at Microsoft, not Corel.

In the same way, if Logitech writes the keyboard driver for PalmOS 4.X with Univ. Connector, and Palm releases OS 5.X, and says all previous drivers are now useless, write new ones, who's to blame there?

> It's close minded comments like the one you made
> above that give legitimacy to companies like
> Logitech.

Who's closed minded? I happen to agree that it sucks if a company doesn't support a product more than they advertise, but I also agree that they technically don't have to support a product more than advertised. I'm not giving any more legitimacy to anyone, YOU are - by assuming that they SHOULD do whatever you want.

> You fail to comment on the fact that they won't open
> their drivers up to the Linux community.

I didn't think I had to. Logitech never advertised Linux support. Logitech doesn't have to provide open drivers. Hell, they don't even have to provide binaries either. I'm sure that my Digital Camera with USB port could support a secondary webcam if Logitech would write the proper script and drivers for it. Should I be mad that they're not?

> Of course, you're talking out of your ass so you
> have no valid argument. Keep your "in theory" stuff
> to yourself when someone posts real experience.

I have no valid argument? You guys are arguing something that "Should be done if the world was happy and perfect"... How valid is that?

In theory? Real experience? Sure, 90% of companies will continue to provide additional drivers for their product for future platforms, even though it wasn't advertised. That's almost a fact. Because of that, they've set a standard, and therefore, your argument is that "In theory, since most companies already do it, then it should be a rule to do it."

I'm beginning to wonder who's talking out of their ass here.

If the Logitech keyboard is not supported by PalmOS 5.X, the first people I'm going to look at are Palm.

Of course I'd be upset if Logitech doesn't release a driver for PalmOS 5, but absolutely nowhere does it say they have to.

---
If you sing in french while hopping on one foot, the evil birds won't come out of your bathroom mirror.

Gah! I'm trying to keep this discussion as Palm related as possible, and your last post didn't even mention Palm. :P

Anyways, in that case, if Logitech said they are developing W2K drivers and didn't, then you're right, they're at fault. Just the same, if Logitech says that they're keyboard will work with PalmOS 5.X, and it doesn't, they'll be at fault again.

I think people have to do their research about hardware support on a platform. You should always also assume that a change in your platform will probably screw up every peripheral that connects to that platform.

I've gone through way too many OS's and been screwed by hardware support each time: MS-DOS, Novell, DesqviewX, Win3.1, OS/2 Warp 3.0, Windows95, WindowsNT, Linux, Novell Netware 3, OS/2 Warp 4.0, Windows NT 4.0, Novell Netware 4.11, more Linux, Windows98, Novell Netware 5, more Linux, Windows 2000 in that order... there's always been at least 1 hardware device that I had at every step that was no longer supported, with the exception of Win95 to Win98.

Look what you made me do. Now I'm blabbing mindlessly.

Anyways, I see your point about the quickcam, if they purposely changed the hardware just enough so the 2K/XP driver wouldn't work with the old one, but you never know. Maybe there's a huge difference in the guts of the two. But if Logitech mentions PalmOS5.X support for the keyboard, and don't follow through, they should probably burn for it.

Now, isn't that what we were talkin about in the first place?

---
If you sing in french while hopping on one foot, the evil birds won't come out of your bathroom mirror.

* A new web cam with better color and speed than your old Connectix cam goes for around US$100 to $200.
* Experienced Win2K / Lunix device driver development goes for about US$100 an hour.
* The average billable project time for a device driver like this is one week at the least and at this rate is US$4000 in total project cost.

So you are telling me that you are not willing to pay US$200 but willing to burn US$8000 of your time and energy into software development for a discontinued product??

No wonder the Linux community is accused of being to socialist in community feel! Reminds me of all the EU / Warsaw Pact "two cows" jokes. If you don't know them, I'll post them elsewhere.

Some software developers have no idea how valuable their time is and spend way too much time coding.