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Micro Innovations Wireless Link
JUNE 21, 2002 - Rick Broida We've yet to find a keyboard that can make us toss our trusty Stowaway (a regular Top Pick and Product of the Year winner), but the Micro Innovations Wireless Link Keyboard ($119.99) has us thinking about it. Not because it's more comfortable (it's not) or because it costs less (it doesn't), but because it's so clever. The Wireless Link connects to your handheld via the infrared transceiver. That means it's compatible with virtually every model-a huge advantage over all other keyboards we've seen. What's more, it's remarkably compact, and it reflects some ingenious design decisions. When folded, the attractively styled Wireless Link looks a lot like a PDA. It has roughly the same measurements as Sony's Clié T615C, and therefore slips unobtrusively into any pocket. It weighs just four ounces, and that's with its single AAA battery installed. Unfolded, the Wireless Link reveals a QWERTY keyboard, a small IR window, and a stylus stand. Appreciably absent is any kind of dock. Instead, your PDA rests on a stand, which itself is another ingenious bit of engineering. It's reminiscent of the screen cover used on the Palm V and m500 series, and in fact can double as just that when not propping up your handheld. (If you don't have one of those models, the stand can ride shotgun with the Wireless Link thanks to a similar silo-type connector.) By now you're probably wondering, "How can the keyboard see the IR port on top of my handheld?" It's all done with mirrors: the stand has an arm that extends over the PDA, reflecting the IR signals to and from the keyboard. Like we said before, extremely clever. The only Palm OS device that gave us trouble was the Kyocera QCP 6035, as the arm doesn't extend high enough to accommodate its IR port. We tried the stand with a Palm m500, Visor Prism (mirror arm not needed), and Sony Clié N760C, and it worked beautifully with all three. (It also works with Pocket PCs; we successfully tested the Jornada 568 and Audiovox Maestro.) If you have a Palm V or m500 series model, you can skip the stand altogether and use a special stylus to prop the unit at a comfortable angle. Honestly, the Wireless Link is like Inspector Gadget's keyboard kit. For another stand-free solution, you can lay your handheld flat on a table with its IR port pointing at the keyboard (the Wireless Link driver lets you rotate the screen in any direction). However, rotating crashed our Kyocera, so we couldn't use the Wireless Link with that model, period. The keyboard itself is small and cramped, with the top and bottom rows smaller than the middle row. Many keys are doubled up, including numbers and most punctuation. However, arrow, shift, application, and backspace keys stand alone, as they should. What's more, the keys offer surprisingly good feedback, and virtually all Palm OS functions are available as keystrokes. It takes time to get comfortable with the Wireless Link, and touch typists will never truly love it, but it's definitely acceptable for the hunt-and-peck crowd. At $119.99, the Wireless Link ranks as the priciest keyboard we've seen yet. It's also one of the coolest and definitely the most versatile. You pay a bit more now, but in theory you'll never need another keyboard, even when you upgrade your handheld. For that reason alone, the Pocketop Keyboard earns major kudos. Editor's note: We tested the Micro Innovations keyboard with a number of handhelds around our office and found compatibility was excellent. It worked well not only with the devices that it advertised compatibility with, but others as well. We tested a variety of Palm, Sony, Handspring, Kyocera, and Pocket PC models. The only compatibility problems we encountered were the aforementioned incompatibility with the Kyocera 6035, and the inability to use the Treo 90 upright. The placement of the IR port on the Treo prevented the reflector on the stand from working properly. However, we were able to use the Treo lying flat on the table, using the rotation features of the keyboard driver. 
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