Here's what the setup looks like:

Figure 1: My Setup of the I300

Specifications
When unfolded, the keyboard is about 9” x 3” and about ¼” in height. The keyboard is half this size when folded-up, except the height doubles to about ½” (slightly smaller than a Palm III). Here's a couple shots of the keyboard in comparison to the I300 and a Palm IIIxe:

Figure 2: Folded up comparison

Figure 3: Folded out

Figure 4: Stacked comparison to the Palm IIIxe

The keyboard runs on one “AAA” battery (included if you believe it!), and the package claims two months use off of one battery if you use the device two hours a day. You can program nine keys to open up your most-used applications, and I found this feature very nice in switching from Quickword to Blazer to post emails, etc. The keyboard is a typical QWERTY layout but as you’ll see in the review they modified it slightly. You have to install a driver on the Palm, but this is a typical .prc install, and I experienced no problems using the Palm Desktop Install Tool. You also have to enable the driver each time you want to use the keyboard, and you’re unable to Hotsync or have any other access to the infrared port while the driver is active.

Form Factor
The look and feel of the keyboard is smaller than a standard size keyboard, but the keys themselves slightly larger than the GoType! keyboard keys. The way the developers did this was to utilize four rows of keys instead of the traditional five rows found in a full size keyboard. Although this makes the keyboard much smaller and portable, it does hinder performance somewhat, which I'll discuss later. The keyboard unfolds in a 2-part manner (instead of the 3-part Stowaway keyboard). Here's a picture showing the keyboard completely unfolded, you can see the four rows instead of the typical five rows of keys:

Figure 5: The stand gets the job done, although mostly plastic

The stand folds up and attached to the keyboard for great portability. Overall I was impressed by the layout and compact feel, fits easily in a decent-sized pocket.

Typing Via Infrared
I’ve read on other forums that folks had to place the keyboard far away from the PDA to make it work properly. I didn’t have this problem at all. Although the reflector has be setup a certain way--slightly tilted so the infrared bounces off the mirror and to the PDA--this is not a problem. It’s best not to center the PDA on the stand, but slightly off center to make the infrared port more accessible for the keyboard. The infrared system works quite well--I was very surprised at the transmit rate, certainly real-time and super fast. After getting used to the smaller keys (in some areas) and the awkward spacebar, I was able to adjust and begin typing rather quickly (sorry I didn’t time myself). The “click” of the keys felt just like a full-size desktop counterpart. One big drawback is that there is no locking mechanism for the foldout, which means you must use a hard, flat surface. This is the only area the GoType! outshines the Wireless keyboard.

A slight area of compromise is the convenience of punctuation. As mentioned before, they removed the top key row to make it more portable, and thus both the punctuation and numbers are slapped on top of the 4th row. This basically means that if you want to type numbers or punctuation you have to take your hands off the keys and hit a shift/alt/ctrl key, which of course slows you down. As long as this doesn’t bug you (it didn’t me) then this again shouldn’t be a showstopper. After a couple of days of using the keyboard I have really grown to like the feel, and I give it high marks for ease of use. The universal/infrared is a ground-breaking feature that will help me not upgrade each time I get a new PDA, which should help pay for the hefty $120 price tag (a manufacturer’s rebate at CompUSA made it $100).

A Couple Unique Problems
One I300-unique problem (I believe) that I’m presently working through is the fact that extended, continued use (around 20 minutes) causes a hard reset. After agnonzing with over five hard resets--playing around with my hacks and deleting certain programs--the only real workaround that I have found to solve this problem is to turn the phone portion off while the keyboard driver is in use This is by far the most the excruciating part of the keyboard, but I think this is another reason why the I300 is not listed as compatible with the device, and I don’t believe other PDA users will experience this unfortunate problem. Makes online typing not possible unless you do it for very short periods of time.

Another unique problem--but not confined to the I300--is the rotation function of the driver. Pocketop touts the amazing ability to rotate the screen in any app to help aid in positioning the PDA to the most effective position to view/type. This doesn’t work on the I300, but in reading other Palm sites I’ve noticed the Sony Hi-Res screens also have this same problem. Unfortunately I couldn’t evaluate this feature, others who have feel free to post your comments.

Conclusion
This is a good first-generation wireless keyboard. I think this is the way that all accessories should go if possible (I know with Bluetooth this may be a reality someday). Non-I300 users will be very pleased with how well this keyboard works. The keyboard is small, but GoType! users will actually feel like this one is larger and has a better feel. If Pocketop would come out with a driver that doesn’t crash the I300, then I would recommend this keyboard to everybody (the rotation feature is not a necessity and should be secondary). I can’t really tout this as a con, though, since Pocketop does not list the I300 as compatible.

Pros

• Universal fit for all PDAs that have infrared
• Good touch-key response
• Cool-factor of having no connecting wires
• Extremely compact and portable
• Theoretically never needs to be updated

Cons

• Expensive at $120
• Rotation function needs work
• Must have flat surface to type
• Tends to slide on smooth surfaces
• Additional strokes for punctuation
• Poor space bar
• Not really universal