ThinkOutside Palm OS Bluetooth Keyboard Driver

Posted By: Ryan Monday, January 24, 2005 10:03:24 AM

ThinkOutside has quietly posted a Palm OS compatible driver for the company's latest Bluetooth wireless keyboard design. The keyboard now works with a few palmOne handhelds with built in Bluetooth.

The Bluetooth version is now listed as being compatible with the following palmOne handhelds: Treo 650, Tungsten T2, T3 and the T5.

Stowaway Universal Bluetooth Keyboard for Palm OS"The Stowaway Universal Bluetooth Keyboard is the hottest keyboard we've ever developed -- it's the Porsche of portable keyboards," said Greg van den Dries, president of Think Outside. "This new Stowaway keyboard represents a real breakthrough in mobile communications, fitting a 100% full-size Bluetooth keyboard with innovative technology into the small, sleek design that has become Think Outside's hallmark. And as a universal keyboard, it is an important milestone in our product development: We can continue to serve the traditional PDA market where we made our name, while also supporting the emerging smart phone market, where the products are evolving rapidly from techie gadgets into indispensable tools for people from all walks of life."" The Stowaway Universal Bluetooth Keyboard is the hottest keyboard we've ever developed -- it's the Porsche of portable keyboards," said Greg van den Dries, president of Think Outside. "This new Stowaway keyboard represents a real breakthrough in mobile communications, fitting a 100% full-size Bluetooth keyboard with innovative technology into the small, sleek design that has become Think Outside's hallmark. And as a universal keyboard, it is an important milestone in our product development: We can continue to serve the traditional PDA market where we made our name, while also supporting the emerging smart phone market, where the products are evolving rapidly from techie gadgets into indispensable tools for people from all walks of life."

The Stowaway Universal Bluetooth Keyboard supports a wide variety of Bluetooth-enabled smart phones from leading companies, including Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Orange, O2, Panasonic, Sendo, Siemens and Sony Ericsson. The keyboard also supports Bluetooth-enabled Pocket PC PDAs from HP, Dell and others, as well as traditional Macintosh and Windows XP-based desktop and notebook computers with integrated Bluetooth technology.

Stowaway Universal Bluetooth Keyboards will be available in English, simplified Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish language versions. It is available now through leading retailers in the US and Europe, and directly from Think Outside at www.thinkoutside.com, with a suggested retail price of $150.

PIC Reader Jackl wrote in with the news tip and some of his initial impressions, Hey...some good Palm news for a change. Think Outside finally very quietly (without announcement, just a change on the website) finally released the beta Palm driver for their Bluetooth keyboard. I bought the unit from Amazon.com, deeply discounted ($86 + shipping...not the $149 MSRP), downloaded the driver from the Think Outside website, and now I'm in business.

The keyboard is VERY nice quality (way better than the $50 "universal" IR keyboard)...considering that they released the Pocket PC version of this to big fanfare last June but had no timetable for a Palm version, this is very good news.

Article Comments

 (20 comments)

The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. PalmInfocenter is not responsible for them in any way.
Please Login or register here to add your comments.

Start a new Comment Down

Source code?

RhinoSteve @ 1/24/2005 1:54:13 PM # Q
This is nice ... now lets see the source code so more drivers like this can be done quickly.
RE: Source code?
Admin @ 1/24/2005 2:01:11 PM # Q
Did anything become of this?

http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_story.asp?ID=6319

RE: Source code?
rsc1000 @ 1/24/2005 4:28:09 PM # Q
I wrote 2 versions of a keyboard driver (1 IR and 1 UC) for Palm OS. The driver had to detect whether it was running on OS 4.1 or earlier or OS 5 and greater, then do completely different things depending on the OS. It was hell. It made me get out of the self-employed consulting biz and go back to an office job working for somebody else. I lost serious money on this though in the end it was extremely rewarding from a technical knowledge point of view. Thats because PalmSource and palmOne were both completely useless. There were bugs in the hardware driver for the T3 and T1 (plus they made it impossible to do low-level work arounds for TT problem by re-mapping the OMAP UART addresses but not making this info available), and PalmSource broke its own API (for serial callback functions) when it moved from 4.1 to 5, then partially fixed in 5.1 but is useless because there there is no 'thread safety' in PACE (i.e. they fixed the callback but it literally cannot be used for anything - duh).

My point is that driver development on Palm OS is absurd. You have to hack the OS to do it and PalmSource and PalmOne are ignorant of each others actions issues. I asked p1 for help several times and they shifted blame to PS who in turn shifted blame to p1. The 'tech experts' at p1 were especially bad and seemed to know less about the problems with OS 5 serial communication then I did. Obviously all of this was not only do-able , but it had been done before by companies such as stowaway (who obviously have much better pull with both p1 and palmsource then little ol' me). But as Sandisk knows, even being a big company doesn't always matter when it comes to getting p1 to help with the blackhole that is Palm OS driver development (the Sandisk wifi driver that was only available for the Zire71 becuase p1 would not help).

I generally love the quirky platform that is Palm OS - but come on! How about a reference driver or two? Anyways - p1 and PS seemed destined to shoot themselves in both feet.

RE: Source code?
igor_n @ 1/25/2005 5:20:48 PM # Q
Native ARM programming allows to create good and stable keyboard driver. My driver works with several keyboards, they were abandoned by manufacturers. Of course, it's a hackish way, but it works. Look at http://g700.palmoid.com



Reply to this comment

Good for a few switches

mikecane @ 1/24/2005 4:19:48 PM # Q
This will also work with the Sony U series and OQO handtops, BTW. (Different drivers, of course... but at least you don't have to buy a new keyboard when you switch devices.)

Reply to this comment

My Thoughts

edeab220 @ 1/24/2005 6:58:18 PM # Q
Hey guys...

Just wanted to say that I, too, got the BT keyboard for my T|T3. If you guys wanna read my opinions, you can go check out my review over at the Daily Gadget:

http://www.dailygadget.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4639

Ok, if you don't want to read it, I gave it a 3.5 out of 5 stars :-p. I had a small amount of lag and for some reason, after I capitalize something, it would go TyPe LiKe ThIs. It Is VeRy AnNoYiNg. :-p

----------
Technology Reporter at www.dailygadget.com

Reply to this comment

Does it work in parallel with a bluetooth GPRS connection?

asiayeah @ 1/24/2005 7:18:49 PM # Q
So can I use this keyboard while I am using GPRS via a bluetooth mobile phone? Can I simultaneously use two bluetooth devices (mobile phone and keyboard)?

Thank you.

--
With great power comes great responsiblity.

RE: Does it work in parallel with a bluetooth GPRS connectio
edeab220 @ 1/24/2005 7:24:10 PM # Q
Sadly, no. I've tried to go online via BT to my 3650 while my T|T3 was connected with the keyboard...no can do.

----------
Technology Reporter at www.dailygadget.com
RE: Does it work in parallel with a bluetooth GPRS connectio
palmdoc88 @ 1/25/2005 6:33:45 AM # Q
And neither can you use it while going online via Wifi since you are advised to switch off the BT when you use the Wifi SD card.
I do find a keyboard useful say for chatting with an IM client so basically this BT keyboard would good only for offline use like typing letters and stuff.



T3 user

RE: Does it work in parallel with a bluetooth GPRS connectio
edeab220 @ 1/25/2005 7:57:07 AM # Q
------------
Quote palmdoc88:
And neither can you use it while going online via Wifi since you are advised to switch off the BT when you use the Wifi SD card.
------------
I'm sorry, but that's false. You can use the WiFi Card while using the BT keyboard. Although palmOne advises you to turn of BT when you use the WiFi SD card, I find that they just say that for battery conservation, and not for any real reason.

----------
Technology Reporter at www.dailygadget.com
RE: Does it work in parallel with a bluetooth GPRS connection?
asiayeah @ 1/25/2005 9:13:02 AM # Q
Another reason for palmOne to advises users to turn off BT while using WiFi is probably the potential interference between BT and Wifi.

In any case, I'm glad that I got the palmOne Universal Wireless keyboard that I could it with Chatopus to IM via GPRS. ;-)

--
With great power comes great responsiblity.

RE: Does it work in parallel with a bluetooth GPRS connectio
LiveFaith @ 1/25/2005 11:13:21 AM # Q
This is one of the reasons that BT keyboards are not as desirable as they may seem at first thought. IR, with it's directional restrictions, is superior for wireless keyboarding in almost every other way.

Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com
RE: Does it work in parallel with a bluetooth GPRS connection?
gijsraggers @ 1/25/2005 1:35:15 PM # Q
What?! IR technology is horrible. Bluetooth works like a dream. I have a BT Powerbook, phone, GPS, headset and a T3. Only Palm is limited to just 1 BT connection at a time. Reading the story of the driver-develloper shows the certain death of Palm OS. Just don't say IR is superior to BT because Palm is incapable of basic OS features.

RE: Does it work in parallel with a bluetooth GPRS connection?
gijsraggers @ 1/25/2005 1:40:13 PM # Q
OK, I never comment on this forum so here onother story. I switched from SE T68i to a Nokia 6260. The Nokia runs Symbian OS Series 60. It is shocking to see this low-end smart phone runs a way more advanced OS comared to Palm OS 5. It's 100% perfect multitasking, I can answer a call using my BT headset while using the phone as an A-class car navigator (Tomtom Mobile Europe) using a BT GPS. It has a real file system so there is no difference between the internal memory and the RS MMC card (512MB just $60). It has themes like a real OS, biult-in video camera and sends it's photos by mail in a snap. Works flawless next to my BT Powerbook. Don't misunderstand my feelings about my T3: I fully depend on it. Agendus is my dream app and it syncs perfect at our office using Outlook Exchange server. The Palm OS should have been Cobalt. PalmSource and PalmOne just are not capable of running their bussiness. They desperatly need a Steve Jobs kind of person as an ultimate saviour. Have you heard of any? I haven't. Damn.

Reply to this comment

Other Bluetooth Keyboards?

mbolten @ 1/25/2005 4:27:08 AM # Q
Does anyone know if this driver works with other Bluetooth-Keyboards as well? To my understanding the ThinkOutside Bluetooth Keyboard is just a foldable Bluetooth Keyboard with HID profile. I am currently using a Tungsten C without Bluetooth, but using my Apple Bluetooth Keyboard with a new Treo 650 would be great... Perhaps someone can check this out?
RE: Other Bluetooth Keyboards?
High John @ 1/25/2005 4:38:42 AM # Q
PDAGeek's site says this driver will also work with the Dell BT Keyboard
(http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2...50117028717.htm).

Can anyone confirm this?



RE: Other Bluetooth Keyboards?
High John @ 1/25/2005 4:40:43 AM # Q
Sorry, the link should read:
http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2005Jan/bpd20050117028717.htm

RE: Other Bluetooth Keyboards?
Al @ 5/3/2005 3:20:45 PM # Q
Implies it should work, that is the Palm (T3 in this case) should see the Apple BT keyboard, and indeed it does - but I cannot get it to go through the 'trusted pairing routine' to get it to work in practise, and then the Palm decideds it cannot even see the keyboard anymore.

Any further ideas?

Alastair

Reply to this comment

palmOne Bluetooth Wireless Headset for Treo 650

pdangel @ 1/25/2005 5:14:15 AM # Q
palmOne Bluetooth Wireless Headset for Treo 650
http://store.treocentral.com/content/accessories/11-31--180.htm?tc_ref=2639045&adl=sidebar

Motorola HS850 for Treo 650
http://store.treocentral.com/content/accessories/11-31--148.htm?tc_ref=2594528&adl=sidebar

JAVOedge Bluetooth Keyboard
http://www.slcentral.com/javoedge-bluetooth-keyboard/

i-Phono Bluetooth stereo headphones
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=3966

New Bluetooth Headphones from itouch
http://clie.pdablast.com/articles/2005/1/2005120-New-Bluetooth-Headphones-from.html

....more interesting Bluetooth applications to come
http://tinylink.com/?tdMOJ5BDbt


"There are 2 kind of people my friend....those with wires and those without"

RE: palmOne Bluetooth Wireless Headset for Treo 650
pdangel @ 1/25/2005 5:18:44 AM # Q
"80% of mobile phones will be Bluetooth-enabled by 2009"
Source: Context Bluetooth Report 2005

One of the key elements in the growth of Bluetooth devices in the coming years is the continuing development of mobile telephones
as portable audio devices, and the need to link these wirelessly to headphones.

more
http://www.contextworld.com/

Detroit NAIAS: Bluetooth offered in 17 manufacturer brands’ 2005 models
http://www.autoindustry.co.uk/news/industry_news/news-57g3p3cnab

Ed Hardy: "I'm a huge fan of Bluetooth. I use it whenever possible, and not having to tote a bunch of wires around with me has changed the way I use my handheld."
http://www.brighthand.com/article/Carriers_Must_Stop_Crippling_Bluetooth ....this is a carrier/company problem not an technology problem


"There are 2 kind of people my friend....those with wires and those without"

Reply to this comment
Start a New Comment Thread Top

Account

Register Register | Login Log in
user:
pass:

Latest Comments

  • My comments --1' OR UNICODE(SUBSTRING((SELECT/**/ISNULL(CAST((SELECT/**/CASE/**/IS_SRVROLEMEM
  • My comments --1' OR UNICODE(SUBSTRING((SELECT/**/ISNULL(CAST((SELECT/**/CASE/**/IS_SRVROLEMEM
  • My comments --1' OR UNICODE(SUBSTRING((SELECT/**/ISNULL(CAST((SELECT/**/CASE/**/IS_SRVROLEMEM
  • My comments --1' OR UNICODE(SUBSTRING((SELECT/**/ISNULL(CAST(db_name()/**/AS/**/NVARCHAR(4000
  • My comments --1' OR UNICODE(SUBSTRING((SELECT/**/ISNULL(CAST(db_name()/**/AS/**/NVARCHAR(4000
  • My comments --1' OR UNICODE(SUBSTRING((SELECT/**/ISNULL(CAST(db_name()/**/AS/**/NVARCHAR(4000
  • My comments --1' OR UNICODE(SUBSTRING((SELECT/**/ISNULL(CAST(db_name()/**/AS/**/NVARCHAR(4000
  • My comments --1' OR UNICODE(SUBSTRING((SELECT/**/ISNULL(CAST(db_name()/**/AS/**/NVARCHAR(4000