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Fact Sheet & User Opinions

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$99.00
Half Keyboard by Matias Corp.

>> Read Review (Rating 4/5) <<

Leave the laptop at home. Now you can use your Visor to do your typing anywhere! The same size as your Visor, the Half Keyboard allows you to type with just one hand, leaving your other hand free for other things.

See VisorCentral's extensive review for more infomation...

User Opinions
Thumbs Up  57% Thumbs Down 43%

Thumbs Up

Solid, portable, great wow-factor
As a student, I am very limited in desk space. Graffiti is to slow to take notes durring a lecture, but a fold up keyboard takes up more desk space than I have. The Half Keyboard is great. It comes with it's own leather case, which is not much bigger than my Visor. The keyboard connects with a cable, which lets me tilt the Visor independently of the keyboard, this is great when I need to adjust the angle of the screen to reduce glare or catch light. I have tried a couple fold up keyboards, but I always felt like I was going to break them while setting up. The Half Keyboard fills solid, and the only setup involved is turning on the driver and plugging in the cable. The connector fits snug, and seems to be the exact same connector my travel charger uses. High recommended if you are a touch typist.
by Tonewiz2k

Thumbs Up

Excellent idea
First of all, the "level of concentration required" is NOT an issue. Remember when you were first learning to type, or first learning Graffiti? Of course you had to concentrate at first, but after some practice, it became second nature. It's the same way with a halfkeyboard. The point cdntopcat makes is by far the most important point: the halfkeyboard keeps the Visor MOBILE in the true sense. The Stowaway really doesn't. Most places you can use the Stowaway are places you can use a notebook computer - like digitalq's "brainstorming meeting." If you need to take significant notes at a meeting, take your notebook. Also, the halfkeyboard doesn't pretend to allow you to type as fast as a regular keyboard. But it's a heck of a lot faster and easier than Graffiti. I give it a double thumbs up.
by ProxyWizard

Thumbs Down

It's a joke
This review is a crock. So she loves the insertion of the plug into the Visor. Says it 3 times. I tried this keyboard at PC Expo and it's a joke. No wonder people stare. Takes over an hour to learn she says. It requires a level of concentration that distracts your mind from concentrating on the email or notes you are taking. The Stowaway is just about perfect, so would I want to spend the same amount on a product that has no cradle, takes an hour to use, requires concentration, is slower to use (reviewer says half speed)?
by David Ames

Thumbs Up

quicker than stylus
I wish there was a left handed version
by hbarnes52

Thumbs Down

Have to type w/2 hands!!
Have to type w/2 hands!!
by mtnlya

Thumbs Up

Cool Product
I tried this product at Comdex and thought it was cool. It is smaller than the pictures make it look and so it really makes you portable. I was typing faster than Graffiti after 10 minutes of practice. It also has a great WOW factor. They had a model walking around with a wearable version of the product and it looked cool.
by Tech User

Thumbs Up

Tried the software off the web-site and I was able to type faster than I can Graffiti in about 15 minutes!!
I love my Visor and I use it every day. I am a managment consultant and deal with several high tech companies so I need to be up to date with technology. I already have a Sony laptop computer that is much more comfortable to use than my Visor and a full size foldable keyboard. The combination of my Visor and a full size keyboard changes the characteristics of the Visor from a PDA to desktop comuting device because I need to put it down somewhere. The best part of the Half Keyboard is that I can walk around with my clients holding the keyboard and the Visor in one hand, type with the other and I am mobile! While it did take me a little while to get good at typing with the one hand now that I am I can type twice as fast I could Graffiti which is my only other alternative to remain mobile.I also have a RIM Blackberry device with is great for very short responses but the thumb technolgy is much too slow be effective on a full time basis. I think this is the only product on the market that I have seen so far that preserves the true nature of the PDA. I am hoping that the combination of a Visor phone and this keyboard will allow me to drop the RIM service and that will be one less appliance to carry around!!
by cdntopcat

Thumbs Down

Cool looking, but not practical
I don't think that the halfkeyboard would work for me since I have a Stowaway and Wordsmith combo. I like typing on a full keyboard, and the halfkeyboard almost makes Graffiti look faster. It looks impressive, but I don't think it'd be useful enough for me.
by websitedoctor

Thumbs Down

Counter-intuitive
Yes, it's a space saver and a novelty, but compared with all the function commands already built into the Wordsmith-Stowaway combo, it requires a learning curve to do something everyone has alerady mastered- typing- which means this product is a step back. I just left a brainstorming meeting where I typed up a summary of ideas as we went, beamed it out to those who had Palms with Wordsmith, and did a sync/email to the rest of the group 5 minutes after returning to my desk. Stowaway/Wordsmith is the killer app.
by forzadeaconi

Thumbs Up

Good Review, Pastagrrl...
Tough choice now, as my primiary concern about getting the stowaway for the edge (if it ever arrives) was how big it would be on a desk. This is much more subtle, something I should use in a class. I guess the real deciding factor is which will work with my blue wonder first (Website says it's for "handspring," which I assume means everything but the edge)
by dietrichbohn




 

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