After HP bought Compaq, one of the great things that was lost in the
transition was the add-on keyboard for the Jornada 560 Pocket PC.
This was, of course, due to HP’s choice of the iPAQ over the Jornada
as their flagship Pocket PC. It probably goes without saying (but
I’ll say it anyway) that the add-on keyboard for the iPAQ was a pale
competitor to the one for the Jornada. The Jornada keyboard fit
nicely, creating an overall package that looked like it belonged together.
That included a built-in cover for the touch screen. By comparison,
the add-on for the iPAQ was clunky and actually prevented the use of
the screen cover. HP promised that, after the transition, some
of the better aspects of the Jornada system would be integrated into
the iPAQ line. True to their word, HP has produced an add-on keyboard
for the iPAQ that has all the best aspects of the Jornada add-on and
a few more besides.
On
the left, the new Slim Keyboard for the HP iPAQ. On the right, the old
(and somewhat inappropriately named) Compaq Micro Keyboard.
On many add-on items I’ll wait until I can actually see one before purchasing
it. I was enthused enough by the pre-publicity photos of the Slim
Keyboard that I pre-ordered one before they were available. Other
than one disappointment, based on rumors about the device (see the Bugs
and Wishes section), I’m very pleased with the keyboard and it’s affixed
to my iPAQ unless I need my CF card slots.
HP obviously thought this one through a fair bit.
WHAT’S
HOT
Aside from fitting the over-all design of the iPAQ, the Slim Keyboard
allows pass-through synching and charging, the ability to plug in the
headset with it connected, and the ability to perform a reset without
having to remove it. The keyboard also provides a vast array of
special characters, full cursor movement controls, and the four hardware
buttons. They’ve dealt with the majority of complaints, issues,
and wishes with both the Jornada and previous iPAQ add-on thumb-boards.
Setup was extremely easy once I got past an issue
SETUP
I’ll discuss under HELP SUPPORT. The installation puts an icon
in your program folder and also sets things so the keyboard will be
automatically enabled when you do a soft-reset. You can enable
and disable the keyboard using the installed program. You can
also change the repeat speed, enable or disable keystroke sound, and
test the response of the keyboard. The applet main screen is shown
below.
The Slim Keyboard has all the alphabet keys
FEATURES
(in a QWERTY layout) with numbers embedded on the top row. It
also has all four directional arrows, SHIFT, CTRL, Return, Backspace,
and the four hardware buttons available with a single button press.
You use the (Fn) key to get the numbers, special characters, NumLock,
Tab, Delete, and Escape. You can also get the British pound symbol
by using CTRL-T. It can take some time to learn where all these
special keys are but, unlike some other thumb-boards I’ve used, I didn’t
find any symbols I regularly used missing from the keyboard. You
can see a close-up of the key section of the Slim Keyboard below.
The Slim Keyboard installs on the iPAQ just like a sleeve would, by
sliding the iPAQ down into the bottom connectors. Since the normal
screen cover also covers the area now covered by the keyboard, the Slim
Keyboard includes a special screen cover which leave the keyboard exposed
but protects the screen. Like the covers on the Plus Packs and
cover pack, the protective cover can be changed to open from either
the left or the right side of the iPAQ. There’s a small pin that
holds the stationary side in place. You can remove the pin from
one side of the cover and place in the other to change which side opens.
There is also a very thin hole just below the Z and X keys that’s a
pass-through to the microphone. The keyboard doesn’t replicate
the ambient noise cancellation holes on the bottom of the iPAQ however.
That could make for more ambient noise showing up in your voice recordings.
When I first opened and examined the package
HELP
SUPPORT
I thought HP had inadvertently left out the documentation! As
it turns out, all the documentation is on the CD that comes with the
package. Documentation is in Adobe Acrobat format and the Acrobat
reader comes on the CD as well. This reduces the production costs
of the keyboard but it can scare the user until they realize where the
help is found. Once I located it, I found the manual was very
complete and helpful.
There was one other "gotcha" that only a very small percentage
of users may discover. HP uses InstallShield to install the keyboard
driver. A bug that rarely shows up with InstallShield causes it
to proceed through the installation process before it’s actually completed.
Since the last act of the installation is to erase the temporary files
it creates, the files may actually be erased before the installation
begins! Fortunately, an e-mail to HP Tech Support resulted in
a relatively simple fix which allowed me to install the driver.
If you get a dialog box asking for "Disk 1," simple cancel
the installation. Then choose "Run" from your Start
Menu and type the following command (including the quotes):
"X:HP Slim KeyboardENGLISHDriverHP Slim Keyboard_En.exe"
-a -deleter and tap [OK]. Where "X" is the drive letter of
your CD ROM Drive. I should note that HP Tech Support was very
responsive in providing this fix. Hopefully, the people who write
InstallShield will discover a way to prevent this from happening without
requiring the user have to resort to command lines.
The Slim Keyboard will work with any 3800,
SYSTEM
REQUIREMENTS
3900, 5400, and 5500 series iPAQ. The program takes about 45KB
to install on your system and the same amount of program memory when
it’s active. It’s hardly a resource hog. When enabled the
keyboard draws very little power to operate. My mean battery life
time didn’t change by any discernable amount. Since it uses the
serial port to operate, when it’s enabled, it may interfere with the
operation of another serial device connected to it’s pass-through connector.
So, it’s probably not a good idea to try to use it in concert with a
GPS unit. It will, however, share the iPAQ well with the Foldable
Keyboard as long as you only enable one at a time.
The one thing that I wish HP had been able
BUGS
AND WISHES
to do was to allow the Slim Keyboard to be used in concert with expansion
sleeves. This would have required some changes to the design,
allowing it to be slid on on the bottom of a sleeve that is already
installed on the iPAQ and would have prevented the ability to change
batteries without removing the keyboard, but it would have been nice
to be able to use it at least with the sleeves designed to use the clear
cover. The old thumb-board for the iPAQ, despite all it’s faults,
did allow you to use it with sleeves installed.
If you have any experience with add-on keyboards, you’re probably familiar
with the fact that their response time is sometimes a bit slow.
That’s because the keyboard driver uses a "low-priority" when
it queues the messages. While this isn’t too troublesome in many
applications, if you’re a fast typist, it can get a bit distracting.
It can also be deadly to your player-character if you’re playing a keyboard-based
action game. It would be nice if they driver program allowed you
to set the priority for keyboard messages so you could get better response
time if you wanted it. This isn’t a fault of HP in particular.
None of the keyboard drivers of which I’m aware have this feature.
Another thing that I noticed, but didn’t really miss much, was that
the Jornada keyboard was backlit so you could see the key labels even
in the dark. The HP Slim Keyboard for the iPAQ isn’t backlit.
I have mixed feeling about this. Being able to see the keys in
the dark was nice, but the Jornada keyboard backlight was powered by
two hearing aid type batteries. Making space to put them into
the keyboard would make the Slim Keyboard a bit bigger in some way.
Unlike some other thumb-boards, the Slim Keyboard does not have a "Sticky
Key" option where you can tap the SHIFT, CTRL, or Fn instead of
holding it to get the altered key functions. Also unlike some
other thumb-boards, it lacks the ability to do
"keyboard macros." Especially on a hand-held, macros
are a very useful tool for reducing typing. I do hope that HP
or some third-party developer comes up with a keyboard macro program
for the Slim Keyboard.
There is one other annoyance I noticed in my testing: If you inadvertently
happen to press two keys at the same time, the keyboard almost always
generates the ESC key. That wouldn’t be so much an issue except
the ESC key will close many programs including Word, Excel, and Inbox.
Those of us who are agility-challenged may well find our programs closing
due to mistaken double pressing.
I bought the product from Mobile Planet.
PURCHASING
It was listed in their catalog as available for pre-order for shipping
in mid-June. The product actually shipped a few days ahead of
what I expected. The Slim Keyboard should also be showing up soon
in retail outlets that carry HP iPAQs.
PROS
The
"Slim" in the name is actually true!
It
allows pass-through synching, charging, and connectivity.
You
can plug in the headset and do a reset without removing it.
It
comes with a screen cover.
CONS
It
doesn’t work with sleeves.
Sometimes
slow response, especially with a lot of background programs running.
It
doesn’t have "sticky keys."
It
doesn’t do keyboard macros.
Two
keys at the same time closes the foreground program.
On the whole I’m quite pleased with the HP Slim
OVERALL
IMPRESSION
Keyboard for the HP iPAQ. I’ve raised a number of issues, but
all but one of those could easily be solved through updated driver software.
HP has produced a nice looking, well-integrated keyboard for the iPAQ
with a number of features that make it superior to other options.
If you’re an iPAQ owner who enters a lot of data on the fly, you should
definitely give the HP Slim Keyboard a long look.
After HP bought Compaq, one of the great things that was lost in the
transition was the add-on keyboard for the Jornada 560 Pocket PC.
This was, of course, due to HP’s choice of the iPAQ over the Jornada
as their flagship Pocket PC. It probably goes without saying (but
I’ll say it anyway) that the add-on keyboard for the iPAQ was a pale
competitor to the one for the Jornada. The Jornada keyboard fit
nicely, creating an overall package that looked like it belonged together.
That included a built-in cover for the touch screen. By comparison,
the add-on for the iPAQ was clunky and actually prevented the use of
the screen cover. HP promised that, after the transition, some
of the better aspects of the Jornada system would be integrated into
the iPAQ line. True to their word, HP has produced an add-on keyboard
for the iPAQ that has all the best aspects of the Jornada add-on and
a few more besides.
On
the left, the new Slim Keyboard for the HP iPAQ. On the right, the old
(and somewhat inappropriately named) Compaq Micro Keyboard.
On many add-on items I’ll wait until I can actually see one before purchasing
it. I was enthused enough by the pre-publicity photos of the Slim
Keyboard that I pre-ordered one before they were available. Other
than one disappointment, based on rumors about the device (see the Bugs
and Wishes section), I’m very pleased with the keyboard and it’s affixed
to my iPAQ unless I need my CF card slots.
HP obviously thought this one through a fair bit.
WHAT’S
HOT
Aside from fitting the over-all design of the iPAQ, the Slim Keyboard
allows pass-through synching and charging, the ability to plug in the
headset with it connected, and the ability to perform a reset without
having to remove it. The keyboard also provides a vast array of
special characters, full cursor movement controls, and the four hardware
buttons. They’ve dealt with the majority of complaints, issues,
and wishes with both the Jornada and previous iPAQ add-on thumb-boards.
Setup was extremely easy once I got past an issue
SETUP
I’ll discuss under HELP SUPPORT. The installation puts an icon
in your program folder and also sets things so the keyboard will be
automatically enabled when you do a soft-reset. You can enable
and disable the keyboard using the installed program. You can
also change the repeat speed, enable or disable keystroke sound, and
test the response of the keyboard. The applet main screen is shown
below.
The Slim Keyboard has all the alphabet keys
FEATURES
(in a QWERTY layout) with numbers embedded on the top row. It
also has all four directional arrows, SHIFT, CTRL, Return, Backspace,
and the four hardware buttons available with a single button press.
You use the (Fn) key to get the numbers, special characters, NumLock,
Tab, Delete, and Escape. You can also get the British pound symbol
by using CTRL-T. It can take some time to learn where all these
special keys are but, unlike some other thumb-boards I’ve used, I didn’t
find any symbols I regularly used missing from the keyboard. You
can see a close-up of the key section of the Slim Keyboard below.
The Slim Keyboard installs on the iPAQ just like a sleeve would, by
sliding the iPAQ down into the bottom connectors. Since the normal
screen cover also covers the area now covered by the keyboard, the Slim
Keyboard includes a special screen cover which leave the keyboard exposed
but protects the screen. Like the covers on the Plus Packs and
cover pack, the protective cover can be changed to open from either
the left or the right side of the iPAQ. There’s a small pin that
holds the stationary side in place. You can remove the pin from
one side of the cover and place in the other to change which side opens.
There is also a very thin hole just below the Z and X keys that’s a
pass-through to the microphone. The keyboard doesn’t replicate
the ambient noise cancellation holes on the bottom of the iPAQ however.
That could make for more ambient noise showing up in your voice recordings.
When I first opened and examined the package
HELP
SUPPORT
I thought HP had inadvertently left out the documentation! As
it turns out, all the documentation is on the CD that comes with the
package. Documentation is in Adobe Acrobat format and the Acrobat
reader comes on the CD as well. This reduces the production costs
of the keyboard but it can scare the user until they realize where the
help is found. Once I located it, I found the manual was very
complete and helpful.
There was one other "gotcha" that only a very small percentage
of users may discover. HP uses InstallShield to install the keyboard
driver. A bug that rarely shows up with InstallShield causes it
to proceed through the installation process before it’s actually completed.
Since the last act of the installation is to erase the temporary files
it creates, the files may actually be erased before the installation
begins! Fortunately, an e-mail to HP Tech Support resulted in
a relatively simple fix which allowed me to install the driver.
If you get a dialog box asking for "Disk 1," simple cancel
the installation. Then choose "Run" from your Start
Menu and type the following command (including the quotes):
"X:HP Slim KeyboardENGLISHDriverHP Slim Keyboard_En.exe"
-a -deleter and tap [OK]. Where "X" is the drive letter of
your CD ROM Drive. I should note that HP Tech Support was very
responsive in providing this fix. Hopefully, the people who write
InstallShield will discover a way to prevent this from happening without
requiring the user have to resort to command lines.
The Slim Keyboard will work with any 3800,
SYSTEM
REQUIREMENTS
3900, 5400, and 5500 series iPAQ. The program takes about 45KB
to install on your system and the same amount of program memory when
it’s active. It’s hardly a resource hog. When enabled the
keyboard draws very little power to operate. My mean battery life
time didn’t change by any discernable amount. Since it uses the
serial port to operate, when it’s enabled, it may interfere with the
operation of another serial device connected to it’s pass-through connector.
So, it’s probably not a good idea to try to use it in concert with a
GPS unit. It will, however, share the iPAQ well with the Foldable
Keyboard as long as you only enable one at a time.
The one thing that I wish HP had been able
BUGS
AND WISHES
to do was to allow the Slim Keyboard to be used in concert with expansion
sleeves. This would have required some changes to the design,
allowing it to be slid on on the bottom of a sleeve that is already
installed on the iPAQ and would have prevented the ability to change
batteries without removing the keyboard, but it would have been nice
to be able to use it at least with the sleeves designed to use the clear
cover. The old thumb-board for the iPAQ, despite all it’s faults,
did allow you to use it with sleeves installed.
If you have any experience with add-on keyboards, you’re probably familiar
with the fact that their response time is sometimes a bit slow.
That’s because the keyboard driver uses a "low-priority" when
it queues the messages. While this isn’t too troublesome in many
applications, if you’re a fast typist, it can get a bit distracting.
It can also be deadly to your player-character if you’re playing a keyboard-based
action game. It would be nice if they driver program allowed you
to set the priority for keyboard messages so you could get better response
time if you wanted it. This isn’t a fault of HP in particular.
None of the keyboard drivers of which I’m aware have this feature.
Another thing that I noticed, but didn’t really miss much, was that
the Jornada keyboard was backlit so you could see the key labels even
in the dark. The HP Slim Keyboard for the iPAQ isn’t backlit.
I have mixed feeling about this. Being able to see the keys in
the dark was nice, but the Jornada keyboard backlight was powered by
two hearing aid type batteries. Making space to put them into
the keyboard would make the Slim Keyboard a bit bigger in some way.
Unlike some other thumb-boards, the Slim Keyboard does not have a "Sticky
Key" option where you can tap the SHIFT, CTRL, or Fn instead of
holding it to get the altered key functions. Also unlike some
other thumb-boards, it lacks the ability to do
"keyboard macros." Especially on a hand-held, macros
are a very useful tool for reducing typing. I do hope that HP
or some third-party developer comes up with a keyboard macro program
for the Slim Keyboard.
There is one other annoyance I noticed in my testing: If you inadvertently
happen to press two keys at the same time, the keyboard almost always
generates the ESC key. That wouldn’t be so much an issue except
the ESC key will close many programs including Word, Excel, and Inbox.
Those of us who are agility-challenged may well find our programs closing
due to mistaken double pressing.
I bought the product from Mobile Planet.
PURCHASING
It was listed in their catalog as available for pre-order for shipping
in mid-June. The product actually shipped a few days ahead of
what I expected. The Slim Keyboard should also be showing up soon
in retail outlets that carry HP iPAQs.
PROS
The
"Slim" in the name is actually true!
It
allows pass-through synching, charging, and connectivity.
You
can plug in the headset and do a reset without removing it.
It
comes with a screen cover.
CONS
It
doesn’t work with sleeves.
Sometimes
slow response, especially with a lot of background programs running.
It
doesn’t have "sticky keys."
It
doesn’t do keyboard macros.
Two
keys at the same time closes the foreground program.
On the whole I’m quite pleased with the HP Slim
OVERALL
IMPRESSION
Keyboard for the HP iPAQ. I’ve raised a number of issues, but
all but one of those could easily be solved through updated driver software.
HP has produced a nice looking, well-integrated keyboard for the iPAQ
with a number of features that make it superior to other options.
If you’re an iPAQ owner who enters a lot of data on the fly, you should
definitely give the HP Slim Keyboard a long look.
No related post found.
