True Type for Your Palm – Genovation Travelboard 634 keyboard for Palm – Hardware Review – Evaluation
Erik Sherman
IF YOU GET tired of using the Palm organizer’s Graffiti pen input, a keyboard may be necessary. The Travelboard 634 ($90; Genovation Inc., 800-822-4333, www.genovation.com), works with any Palm III, V, or VII. (Upcoming versions will also support Windows CE.)
The 68-key Travelboard measures 1.3 by 4.8 by 10.2 inches (HWD) and weighs 9.9 ounces, making it compact, but not as ultra-portable as the PDA with which it works.
To use the keyboard, we first loaded the included drivers onto a Palm IIIx. We then plugged the organizer’s docking cradle’s cable into the keyboard’s serial port connector. The keyboard needs no external power, relying instead on three AAA batteries.
The Travelboard’s keys are about 10 to 15 percent smaller than those of a standard desktop keyboard, which makes typing difficult for users with larger hands. If you need to enter a lot of data, however, the Travelboard will prove far faster than the Palm’s onscreen keyboard. The unit also features six programmable function keys.
After a few days of getting used to the Travelboard, we found it a reasonably smart device, but only for those who input unusually large amounts of data into their Palm organizers.
COPYRIGHT 1999 CURTCO Freedom Communications
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