|
|
| Product: Happy Hacker
Cradle |
Company: PFU
America, Inc. |
| Web: www.pfuca.com |
Phone: 888-681-8878 |
| Platform: Palm m100, Palm III, Palm V, Palm VII, IBM WorkPad 30, TRGpro, Symbol SPT-1500 |
SRP: US$50
Street Price: same |
Cred Rating: | Special Award: |
Some time ago, I heard about the Happy Hacker keyboard cradle from pfuca.com. The cradle allows you to connect your PDA to any PS/2 keyboard. At US$50, it looked like a possible alternative to the Gotype, whose key action bugs me and feels too cramped, and the Stowaway, which costs twice as much and looked a bit flimsy when I checked out the demo at Office Depot. Plus, it hurt to spend $100 on a PDA keyboard when my Palm m100 only cost $150. But Pfuca, makers of the Happy Hacker Keyboard for Linux users, didn't have a version that worked with the Palm m100 when I first checked. But only days before I was to attend a conference in Denver, I discovered that an m100 version was available, so I uploaded my credit card info and had it shipped overnight. I was a motivated buyer because my crappy Travelocity flights were going to leave me with a five hour layover in Chicago's Midway airport, affectionately referred to by some as the "sphincter of all airports."
I got my first real test run of the keyboard and cradle in Chicago. With time to kill, I thought I'd start this review. I pulled out my keyboard of choice, the wireless compact keyboard that came with the new Book PC. It's approximately six inches narrower than a conventional 'board, has a nice black finish that sort of matches the Palm, and...well...it's wireless. The advantages of wireless aren't really realized with the Palm/cradle combination, simply because the transciever still hangs off of a two-foot cord, dangling from the base of the cradle, and then has to be positioned at the rear of the keyboard so it can "talk" to the keyboard. I just chose it because it fit better in my backpack than a full-sized 'board. Incidentally, Pfuca seems to make most of their money selling very compact wired keyboards configured for Linux.
I put the Palm in the cradle, which holds the PDA at a nice viewing angle, and set the cradle on the convenient shelf created by my ever-expanding graduate school gut. I then put the keyboard on my lap and set to work. I was expecting at least some sort of crowd reaction, at least a stare or two from envious geeks or business travelers, but I attracted little attention. Truth be told, laptops and PDAs are as common as overpriced airport sandwiches. Two guys several rows behind me were watching a DVD on a laptop, and I saw several games of solitaire in progress. I couldn't even score bonus envy points for traveling light, 'cause I was still lugging around my college backpack filled with water, food, and books that I would never crack open. Still, there's something nice about being able to read and respond to email without the constant distractions of work preventing you from those long, heartfelt letters to family and friends that you are always promising but never seem to find time to compose.
The Palm had no problem keeping up with my typing speed (about 45 words per minute, when I actually start writing, or about 250 WPM if I'm working on my dissertation). And most of the major Palm tasks are mapped to the keyboard, which is convenient. I was using Eudora's Internet Suite to check my mail and I noticed that not all functions were availabe without having to use the stylus (or a finger) on occasion to click the Send button or other functions. I managed to bang out most of my review in about an hour (the rough draft) and had planned to try the keyboard in the plane during my last leg to Denver, but a vengeful chicken sandwich from the snackbar kept me barking into an air sickness bag for the entire flight. Later, some sort of nasty conflict between an alarm plugin and my Palm expressed itself as a hard reset, and I lost the review and a few databases that weren't backed up by Desktop 4.0.
At the convention, I talked with a friend who had the Stowaway. He took it out, let me try it, and I was utterly wowed. He said it was the nerdiest thing he'd ever bought, but was worth it. Another conference goer was so impressed she was considering buying a Palm just to use it (once he assured her she could sync it with her Mac). There's something to be said for the seamless interface of the Stowaway. The setup I was using with the HH Cradle consisted of four parts: wireless keyboard, receptor cable, cradle and Palm. On the way home, I didn't bother digging everything out of my overstuffed backpack.
It's not that the cradle is bad technology. It works, is reasonably well-designed, and costs only $50. If you use a particular keyboard, like the Northgate Omni, a chording keyboard, or one of those cool ergonomic Kinesis 'boards, the Happy Hacker cradle would be a good alternative to lugging a laptop while traveling.
Despite my newfound Stowaway lust, I still use my Happy Hacker cradle all the time. I'm much more inclined to sit in bed with the Palm/cradle, composing email, than I am to drag out a heavy, heat-generating laptop with a torturously long boot-time, that has to be later connected to a modem to upload the mail. I can hook up my Palm, not worry about battery life, write a note in Palm Eudora, and sync it when I get to my broadband connection at work.
If the cradle existed in a vacuum, it would be the answer. But the Stowaway, by all accounts, is probably worth the extra bucks, because it removes a layer of complexity, is much more portable, and has a significantly higher "wow" factor. But if you're on a budget and already have a favorite keyboard, the Happy Hacker cradle is definitely an option worth considering.
- Mark Crane [4/4/01]
Check out our other offerings:
Today's Term
Today's Software
Today's TV
Today's Digital Living
|
