The Shifted Librarian - Shifting Libraries at the speed of byte
 Thursday, May 02, 2002

Pocketop Wireless Keyboard

"picture of the keyboardOur first product is the world's first fully functional wireless PDA keyboard. Its design is so compact that even when carried together with your PDA, it fits in your breast pocket. When unfolded, it offers traditional keyboard functionality....

With the relative size of a Palm m500, the Pocketop Keyboard is the smallest keyboard that offers the user the traditional touch, feel and functionality of a laptop keyboard. The wireless feature gives the Pocketop Keyboard the added advantage of universal compatibility with most Palm OS and PocketPC PDAs....

Wireless means universally compatible - its compatible with most Palm and PocketPC PDAs. Simply download the software from our web site if you buy a different PDA, and keep the same keyboard....

Rotational software allows Palm OS users to rotate the screen orientation on their PDA, which gives you added flexibility and multiple set-up alternatives." [via meryl's notes]


I've already had to get a second keyboard because my original GoType wouldn't work with my Sony Clie. This would be an excellent solution to the problem of obsolesence. It doesn't say when it will be available or how much it will cost.

I have to say, though, that if your Palm is laying flat on the surface, the glare would make it difficult to read, and if you prop it up, then it might as well be attached.

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LCD Paint Licked

"Homes of the future could change their wallpaper from cream to cornflower blue at the touch of a button, says Dirk Broer. His team has developed paint-on liquid crystal displays (LCDs) that offer the technology....

Current LCDs on digital watches, mobile phones and laptops sandwich the crystal between heavy glass plates. The complicated production process is time-consuming, expensive and restricts the size of screens to just 1 metre square.

Broer and his colleagues have devised a new open-sandwich technique that instead deposits a layer of liquid crystal onto a single underlying sheet. Working at Eindhoven University of Technology and Philips Research Laboratories in the Netherlands, Broer's team has already produced prototypes on glass and plastic; fabric could be next.

The technique could create giant TV screens, digital billboards and walls that change colour. Slim, plastic LCDs sewn into fabric could display e-mail or text messages on your sleeve. 'It depends what future societies want,' says Broer.

The technique should feed people's thirst for smaller, cheaper gadgets. Conventional glass LCDs now make up an increasing part of a laptop's weight - plastic versions could change that, says Peter Raynes, who studies LCD technology at the University of Oxford, UK....

'Don't expect to buy a watch featuring one of the new displays in the next six months,' warns Raynes, however. He cautions that the technique needs work: compared with glass, the thin outer layer may be more easily penetrated by oxygen or water that degrade the crystal.' [Nature, via Slashdot]

This has definite implications for ebooks, PDAs, and wearable computers, among other things. Can the OQO be made even lighter? Or maybe you'll just plug it into your jacket and look at your sleeve. Does this make computer displays embedded in glasses even more feasible? Could I project a map onto the corner of my car's windshield using my PDA? So many ideas....

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