Bluetooth Keyboard Recommendationns
 

Hi again... second question I have is on recommendations on a bluetooth keyboards. I am ttypiing this on the virtual keyboard, and it not optimal. ;)

I am especially looking for ease of use and set up. I wqnt to get this for several friiends who I recommended the N800, but they are not at all technically proficient. So, looking for some bt keyboard that works well with the N800, hopefully officially supported by vendor for use with N800, and has a simple set up. Don't want to be hacking kernels to get it working.

Thankks sso muuch. The ITT Forum rocks!

Re: Bluetooth Keyboard Recommendationns
 

Hi, and welcome. :)

The first tool you'll want to acquaint yourself with is here.

You can find some of the discussion of various Bluetooth keyboards here, here, here, and here, and a nice wiki page here.

Re: Bluetooth Keyboard Recommendationns
 

The igo stowaway keeyboard keeeps coming up in your foruum links, but that product line has been discontinued from the manufacturer, according to their website.

Re: Bluetooth Keyboard Recommendationns
 

yep, so grab em while you can ;)

Re: Bluetooth Keyboard Recommendationns
 

Fails to meet the 'suppported by vendor' criteria, if manufacturer has killed the product. ;)

@general ... that wiki is a great resource thanks!!!!
but, what it does not tell me is if the keyboard is supported for use with the nokia N800. I do not want to be giving a jury-rig solution to friends.

Re: Bluetooth Keyboard Recommendationns
 

the igo stowaway is a great choice. it's what i use. there is no hacking or anything necessary. it pairs like any other bluetooth device and works flawlessly out of the package. i believe igo discontinued it to put their focus on their other product line. but it is still an amazing device and is compact when folded. plus, you can get them really cheap on amazon ($30 - $40 last time i checked).

Re: Bluetooth Keyboard Recommendationns
 

No keyboards (except perhaps the Nokia one) are supported by the vendor for the N800. The notion of supporting a particular keyboard / device combination is ridiculuous; we've got standards for a reason. Any HID keyboard works with any device supporting HID. (The N800 indeed supports HID.)
Standards != jury-rig.

Re: Bluetooth Keyboard Recommendationns
 

Ebay item number 290221619415 (the .co.uk ebay not .com)
The seller has 17 of them left @ £25 icluding UK delivery
I just got one under my *old_guy* ID.
I have used the seller before and he's always honest with his stuff.

Re: Bluetooth Keyboard Recommendationns
 

It is up to the vendor to support the hardware after the sale. Not sure many standards are followed exactly, but even if they were, the vendor is still going to charge a restocking fee, even if it was "supposed to work". Also, researching this topic on the ITT Forums, I see some people having problems with less popular BT keyboard solutions. Especially after seeing their disappointments, I do not think is at all ridiculous to ask for recommendations of working solutions.

Don't get me wrong -- I am all for open standards!! But that's for developers of the hardware and software. For the end-users, people still need assurances from the vendor. People expect support after the sale, in case anything goes wrong.

Re: Bluetooth Keyboard Recommendationns
 

For working solutions, sure. For explicit vendor support for pairing with an obscure device, I maintain that it is ridiculous. Why would they offer such support, when they can't reasonably guarantee or know anything about its hardware or software? It's not on the order of asking if a vendor supports their CAT 5 patch cord with my specific NIC. But it is equivalent to asking if they support their USB flash-drive or mouse with my particular motherboard.
If something is wrong with the keyboard, you might or might not get meaningful support. A query about the support for the device would be meaningful. But if there's a problem with the keyboard and device in combination, the only way you'll get anything beyond two vendors blaming each other is with a Nokia keyboard. With expensive stuff, assurances that it will integrate with your existing system may be available. For consumer gadgets, it's just not that way. The cost increase would way outweigh the few people who would buy it for that support.

Re: Bluetooth Keyboard Recommendationns
 

I've been using the Nokia SU-8W keyboard for quite a long time now and it's been absolutely fine, never had a problem with it. It's quite expensive in some retailers though, so shop around or get one from ebay.

Re: Bluetooth Keyboard Recommendationns
 

Taake a look at what these websites say.... 'works with windows xp', 'works withh osx'... I think you are being a bit idealistic just to say if there is a sstandard, then it should work. not the case with the more generic bt standard. It is like saying linux should work on any personal ccomputer, but it is actually very, very difficult to find a venor computter thar is 100% feaature compatible! Thankfully, home users have startted demanding venndor assurances and support for linux configrations, and people can buy linux solutions, like the NIT! ;)

Re: Bluetooth Keyboard Recommendationns
 

So you'd be happy with one supported for Linux, not for N800? That's not what you'd initially said; you might catch one of those.

So far, I have not heard of one BT keyboard claiming HID compliance that doesn't work, so my idealism seems to match reality. There are problems, but all the problems I've seen involve either non-HID keyboards, or problems with the N800's software (which affect any keyboard).

I'm not sure what you mean by You've got two issues in this that make it very hard to see a similarity:

1. There's a huge difference between saying an OS will work on any computer and saying that it's 100% feature compatible (by which I understand you to mean that all integrated and bundled peripherals may be exercised from that OS).
2. You don't reference any standard that the computer is stated by the manufacturer to comply to, and that Linux is also stated to comply to. If there is such a standard, then you'd expect all functionality required by the standard to work; if not, then it should not be surprising that some stuff doesn't. In reality, there are a good number of standards regarding BIOS, PCI, USB, etc., that the PC complies with, and Linux supports them. The troubles that are run into with some computers are generally from proprietary devices with functionality not defined by any standard.

Re: Bluetooth Keyboard Recommendationns
 

The only keyboard problems I've heard of have been to do with the procedure each model uses for pairing, because this seems to vary from one manufacturer to another. However, once the pairing has been done HID keyboards usually work fine, so the HID standard itself does seem to work with the tablets.

Re: Bluetooth Keyboard Recommendationns
 

only issue i have had with my freedom universal was that they had moved a key without actually rewiring its signal. had to alter the keymap used by the tablet...

beyond that i would say its a ok alternative to the igo. also, the issue i had may not exist on the english one as im using a variant for nordic contries...