Fake iPhone comes with magical external QWERTY keyboard you've always fantasized about
By Paul Miller 
posted Nov 1st 2009 10:13PM
posted Nov 1st 2009 10:13PM
[Thanks, facelessloser]
Please note: If you're a current Engadget commenter, you do not need to re-register. Simply login and you will be prompted to select a username.
Wow, people care enough about the LG Versa to rip it off...
The Versa might have been forgettable as a phone, but it was a interesting concept, no? Maybe it would have a bigger impact when paired with a more popular phone?
If those Chinese KIRF makers would make a flip open keyboard/pouch for my iPhone - I'D BUY IT !
Ive got a Versa, and its actually a pretty good phone. The interface is better than the Dare and as a concept, the keyboard/other stuff is kinda cool.
Of course, I bought it refurbished and it didnt come with a keyboard, so I have never used one of the addons...
I've got a Versa. It's pretty cool, even if the keyboard makes the phone look totally fugly. I just wish it was a little more powerful and had a decent app store. Fuck Verizon's apps.
Your link to Itwinge is broken
I thought my mouse's scroll button was acting up again...
iPhone killer!!
Employee killer!
"We know you require your employees to pay in blood for every single button or moving part that makes it onto a shipping product"
So the Foxconn guy had do die for a lousy home button?
Ugliest iPhone KIRF I've seen to date.
Speaking of KIRK, where's the KIRF tag?
The kirf tag has been cloned and is being sold by a chinese mobile electronics manafacutrer. The tag broke down after being used just twice and now sits as a useless hunk of garbage on the engadget servers.
The kirf tag has been cloned and is being sold by a chinese mobile electronics manafacutrer. The tag broke down after being used just twice and now sits as a useless hunk of garbage on the engadget servers.
Keyboards are so 2003.
Almost embarassing to be seen with a phone with buttons here in America.
You must feel embrassed as lot with all the non-Storm Blackberries around.
All your friends must be douches then, if you even have any.
Embarrassing? It's a phone, who cares? I buy a phone so I can communicate with people, not to look "cool"
We can tell who buys a phone for a fashion accessory!
Steve Jobs? Is that you?!
all your base are belong to us!
This is such a stupid statement.
I think it's embaressing when I see my friends sending me or others texts full of "TO! I went two dry food lat,er do you? LOL"
That auto correction and random capitalization on iPhone really makes typing on glass cool!
I can type with my wein!
looks great, wouldn't be surprised if an overpriced version of it comes out for the iphone.
Why do we have to compare everything to the iPhone engadget?
/typical comment on apple post
replying to Cheesus Crust [Undo]
yeah engadget, it's not like this phone looks anything like the iPhone!
o wait...
*Our* suffering? No.
Alternatively you could get a phone with a real keyboard already built in for half the price of an iPhone.
I like the Finder icon.
guys, dont you think that this should happen in China?
lol
i love seeing icons i personally made being sold on these fake iphones.
So, Apple DID rip off the iphone. I knew it.
If the bluetooth actually worked on the iphone, this might be an idea. Has anyone actually tried to use the native google map program while listening to music over A2DP? It works fine using analog headphones, but with A2DP, its like i broke the ipod's brain.....
yeah engadget, it's not like this phone looks anything like the iPhone!
o wait...
Does it run Android? Ill buy it if I can call it an iDroid.
Why the hell Engadget some times behaves live baby? Why would a reputed site like Engadget put such crap news on there site? Total time waste.
so if an iKirf had sex with that weird LG modular phone, this would be the progeny?
is this issued at Urban Outfitters with the purchase of a pink sash and cream colored pea coat?
I could be very wrong on this, but I thought Apple was going to allow people to run external gizmos with their iphone? I recall an apple presentation where they had med equipment and the like hooked to it, I believe using the port. Did i dream this? And if not would it be possible to create an external keyboard thing that way?
Apple developed a series of APIs for a whole bunch of external devices, but strangely enough they have not released an external keyboard API yet. A while back some dude jailbroke his iPhone, performed some black magic and demoed typing external Mac keyboard and the text appearing on the iPhone. He said it was pretty hard to do the hack.
Meh, I've gotten used to the onscreen keyboard on the my Touch
wow, even the strap is a fake Louis Vuitton Damier material.
I don't miss having a keyboard, I like my iPhone the way it is but I like the idea of having an external one as an option.
Specially if I could hook up the new Apple wireless keyboards!
Well , i think Apple Don't think of physical Keyboard ,cause it's something essential to some users and they didn't try to make it in 3GS ,you can get Palm pre
what I need is a way of hooking up my mouse to my iPhone.
Engadget people, if you so desperately want a physical keyboard, an iPhone definitely wasn't the right choice. So don't blame Apple for your own mistakes.
That is kinda interesting looking. Looking at my iPhone now, if there was somehow a way to make a (bluetooth) connection between it and an iTouch or something similar, put both in a case similar to what's pictured here, and use the touch for the keyboard and the phone's full display for the application, I think there would be a lot of possibilities.
For GPS type stuff while driving, one screen could show the map, the other typed out turn by turn directions.
For games, it would be very similar to the nintendo handheld.
For anything with typing or texting, having the keyboard on the second display would obviously open up space.
They could share files and such between themselves.
With photos, one display could show one picture at a time, the second could be thumbnails.
Just a few ideas, might work.
A physical keyboard, on my phone?
Droid does.
Let's face it. Pocket PC's have had external bluetooth and connected keyboards since 2000. The value proposition is there. The reality that using a PocketPC with a foldout (thinkoutside) keyboard on a plane with instant on, instant off, is a no brainer.
Why Apple (Steve Jobs) thinks an external keyboard is a bad thing...when the market has proved it is invaluable for travelers (in addition to their laptops in their bag, not in lieu of)... is just nuts. He's definitely turning a blind eye to a proven need.
I bet out of 30,000,000 iPhones out there, perhaps 1,000,000 would want external keyboards ASAP. At $99 a keyboard, do the math Apple! Duhhhh.
This is just ridiculous that Apple is ignoring this need.
When's the last time any of us had enough room on a plane to actually open a good sized laptop (assuming we've even paid off the huge guy in front of us to keep him from reclining his seat)?
This is such a no brainer.
Apple needs to realize the need is there and its been a proven need for 10 years for handheld devices.
Indeed... the comment I chuckled about was the iTwinge being like mudflaps for one's Ferrari. Yet I don't know whether Solomobi is for real. One of my clients is finalizing an add-on physical keyboard that gets the equation right: only 3 mm thick; has all the keys like the virtual keyboard; and it looks like it was DESIGNED BY APPLE. Can't say anything more yet but look for it at Macworld ;)