DIY external iPhone keyboards get a tad more practical
By Donald Melanson 
posted Dec 31st 2008 11:31AM
posted Dec 31st 2008 11:31AM
That 360 Chatpad hack we saw back in November was certainly an impressive enough proof of concept, but if you want to get a bit more typing done with a bit less clutter, you'll no doubt be quite a bit more impressed with this latest mod by the very same Ralf Ackermann. This setup uses a Robotech Bluetooth module that's placed in a modified battery sleeve and connected to an unlocked iPhone (or iPod Touch) which, in turn, communicates with the keyboard using the Bluetooth SPP profile (a VNC server and a few other tricks also come into the picture). Of course, that's still a long ways from an officially supported solution, but if you're looking to give it a go, Ralf is promising to dish out the necessary schematics and source code soon.
Is he trying to say that the iPhone is not perfect?
HUSH YOU. HOW DARE YOU ALMOST SPEAK BAD OF AN APPLE PRODUCT ON ENGADGET!!
/endsarcasm
@216, shut the hell up, seriously. All you people DO is bitch about Apple products, just as a rule.
216 = douchebag
@216- there is as much hate if not more hate for the iphone by commenters on engadget then there is in engadget "allegedly" loving it. those posts get a hundred plus comments.
What will this do if I highlight something and push CTRL + C and then CTRL + V?
you have to love how PC people just hate the passion and love Mac folks have for Apple. LOL.
@ Flashpoint.
Nothing lol:P
216, it seems that no one here gets sarcasm.
Perhaps a "/beginsarcasm" tag may have helped.
looks as if none of you know HTML.
= begin tag
= end tag
so
would be begin begin tag
would be end end tag
and of course engadget throws my HTML away.
I fail...
I think, in fact, you just discovered why no one uses actual HTML.
Why don't we all just get along. . . .
I may be wrong, but I think you mean a jailbroken iPhone, not unlocked.
Unless this keyboard has something to do with the baseband......
Sad, I have had a BT keyboard for a long time on my iPaq and even had external keyboards on all my PDAs since 2003.
Me too. It amazes me that Apple can't be bothered to include basic bluetooth profiles in the iPhone so people could do things like this out of the box.
@mike
Aint you special.
@apple
Neither are you.
I hear ya. Apple must have their heads up their a**es. Their ignorance is insulting to me and the other 10,000,000 people that bought the phone.
10m people buying the phone doesn't prove the wisdom of leaving the feature out. There's obviously a demand for this type of thing and it wouldn't hurt Apple to include bluetooth profiles. You might even find that a lot of those 10m people appreciate it.
The point is it's not some futuristic feature that is difficult to include. Like copy and paste, working bluetooth is one of the basic things that many people require in a phone.
@jakem - I think your missing the point. What -you- think is important isn't (obviously) what everyone else does. If copy & paste or bluetooth keyboards were dealbreakers to you, there's sure a heckuva a lot of people that don't seem to think it is. 10M people, to be exact.
Would I like copy & paste? I suppose, though I've managed to live without it for 18 months.
But to say it's a basic thing that people require is wrong. 10M people feel differently.
I had a keyboard for a school-provided palm device in high school. I used it to take notes, then synced them back to my old powerbook, where I wrote my essays, etc. I was thinking about getting an eee for the same purpose.
Nokia has been offering their bluetooth keyboard(s?) for years now, it's amazing that Apple doesn't do the same for the iPhone.
I like my iPhone, but if I wanted a keyboard, etc I'd bring my Eee along. I have no desire to do anything that requires a full keyboard on a phone or PDA.
Why not at least have the option? The iPhone is a little device with a nice high res display. If I needed to do the occasional ssh into my network, and I had one of these keyboards, I'd choose that over a netbook any day. You carry your cellphone/iPhone everywhere you go anyways, so what's a little fold up keyboard for size/weight?
It really surprises me that Apple doesn't have Bluetooth profiles for the iPhone for keyboards. The more I learn about this device, the less and less I want one. Don't get me wrong, the interface is amazing and solid, however lack of Bluetooth profiles, no copy/paste, the locked down nature, no multitasking, etc, really makes me want to vomit.. I am an OSX user, but the more I hear about Apple pulling stunts like this, the more and more I start to dislike them. Let's see what Android can do!
By 'high res' you mean half vga resolution. Its mediocre resolution in todays market.
I like hearing about people using robotech. It makes me think we'll have a shot against our future alien oppressors.
is this a english keyboard? the y and a is out of place and there are two a's
way to make everyone scroll up and look.
I noticed that too. One of them has an umlaut.
The QWERTZ layout is used primarily for German keyboards, if I recall correctly.
It's a german keyboard, where Z's are more popular by far than Y's, and the second A on the far right has an umlaut (umlauts?) over it.
Just the new QWERTZU style keyboard. Wave of the future, they say.
The keyboard they show is sold by Freedom Input in the UK and works with Windows Mobile and Blackberries. This keyboard -I paid $75 on fleeBay for mine- fits in a coat pocket with room to spare. It enables me to leave my full-size Mac at home when I travel. I'll consider an iPhone when it can be used as a modem and with this kind of keyboard. Until then the iPhone is an overpriced toy.
It is a German keyboard with the umlauts over the extra U, O and A.
the keys are in the wrong places
its a European layout keyboard. Z and Y have switched places, and symbols like @?! are in different places.
What's the point? Those notes can't go anywhere useful.
Since its a jailbroken phone the notes can be transferred easily from the jailbroken apps.
Good for him, personally I don't have wi-fi.
This is considerably fun, but for me, I'll never use a device which I type on a keyboard that is even bigger than the screen, I love my eyes, they work well with only big displays
Haha, thats awesome. I will definatly be getting one of those! Unlock iPhone HQ
I hope he's able to make a usable product out of this. Being able to take a regular (not unlocked nor jail-broken) iPhone or iPod-Touch, and attach a BT device like this one ... or a tiny BT keyboard, or even a direct attached thumb keyboard, would just about make the iPhone a reasonable product for me. Esp. if they're going to start making tethering available for the iPhone.
Ideal for me would be a sleeve that has a physical thumb keyboard on it ... especially if it has the HTC Universal type "convertible laptop/tablet" hinge on it... and a keyboard layout and feel that is like the G1.
Combine that attachment for the iPhone, a tetherable iPhone, the rumored super-sized iPod-Touch (also with external keyboard capability, esp. with a comparable attachable keyboard for a convertible-tablet form factor), and I'd be firmly back in Apple's fold.
I was thinking the Apple Bluetooth Keyboard was perfect to use with the iPhone. Too bad they don't have anything that resembles a usable Bluetooth implementation on the iPhone.
Jeez...
I have been doing the same thing for over five years with my HP iPaq and a Targus Bluetooth foldable portable keyboard that I think I paid $50 for. It has worked great since the HP has Mobile Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Outlook. Just because you can do this today with an iPhone or iPod does not make it the newest, greatest thing in the world...show me something new and special, not five years old!
I take it this Robotech solution works perfectly fine, until it sees two people pressing their lips together - and then it goes batshit insane and wipes out most life on Earth.
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We did a jailbreak-free external keyboard using SDK 2.0:
http://www.perceptdev.com/labs/content/iphone-keyboard-no-jailbreaking-required-using-20-sdk