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 From
The Exhibit Hall: Man & Machine's Rollable Keyboard
BY RICH TEHRANI
I use my iPAQ for data entry and
everyone in my company knows it. That is why so many people at our
parent company, TMC, told me to check out Man
& Machine, one of the exhibitors here at Planet PDA -- they
have great rubberized keyboard that rolls up for easy storage. Sure
enough, a visit to their booth showed me a respectably-sized keyboard
that unrolled from an initial size comparable to a stack of 75
business cards in height.
I am actually writing this article on a
Man & Machine's Flexis FX100 connected to an iPAQ, so my editors
should chalk up any typos to me getting used to rubber keys.
With minimal practice you can get
pretty proficient at data entry. While the keyboard isn't perfect, it
presents a better choice than standard Graffiti or other character
recognition input methods generally available on the current
generation of handheld computers.
Once unrolled, the keyboard is about
one-third the size of a typical laptop keyboard. It will fit almost
anywhere, especially on trays in airplanes, and you can even type with
it on your lap (with a bit more practice).
There is a definite lack of tactile
feedback using this keyboard, as it is made from rubber; as a result,
some characters that I typed don't show up. I am told that the very
early production model that I am using will improve as the
manufacturing process gets more refined. If so, I think that this
keyboard has tremendous potential. It works with virtually all the
most popular devices and Man & Machine will gladly develop it for
any device as long as there is a sufficient number of keyboards being
ordered.
I am a PDA data entry power user, so
I'm not sure I will give up my folding Targus keyboard. Still, I
believe the trade-off of having a drop- and water-resistant smaller
keyboard with no moving parts is a good alternative for users that
don't type huge amounts of information at a time, but want the option
of having a PDA keyboard that's easy to store and always available.
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