Roll up, roll up, as LG launches stealthy Bluetooth keyboard A keyboard which rolls up four rows of almost full-sized keys into a stick has been launched by LG at the IFA trade show. The tablet market might be in the doldrums, but LG sees tablet accessories as a way to make money out of it. It almost had a good name – “LG’s Rolly Keyboard” – but then LG went and ruined it with the …
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Looking at the photo showing the side, I'd say it folds the four rows to make a square "tube" next to the bar at the back, so making the "stick" more of a "plank" as it looks like it would have a rectangular cross-section. The "stow it" photo carefully shows just one aspect and doesn't let you see the full length.
Still, it looks kinda sturdy and fairly portable. Could be quite decent.
Bad form - replying to myself, but hey...
I've now seen the video, and think that it would be unusable on anything other than a table, or similar firm surface. There doesn't appear to be any locking mechanism to stop it rolling up if you put it on your lap for instance, or hold it in one hand...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BOmdKWrBrs
Looks quite nice, and the keyboard isn't bad either ;-)
Given the example use in the video, which does nicely show how it is a "stick" when rolled up, who would use this instead of a flat bluetooth keyboard the same size as the tablet in use? The one feature that might be missing on these standard bluetooth keyboards is the dual connection thing...
I mean, it looks quite nice, but it still won't fit in a jacket pocket, which means it's going to have to go in a bag. If I've gone to the trouble of a bag, I've probably got a laptop with me and won't need it.
Maybe I'm asking the impossible given the size the actual keys are required to be in order for it to be any use, but what I really want is a keyboard that packs up to be about the same size as my phone so I can keep phone in left inside pocket and keyboard in right inside pocket, and leave the damn laptop bag at home.
yeah, they were awesome keyboards. But you can't get em anymore.
last one I had, I paid $80 USD for a *used* one that gave me about 2 years before it started having keys that wouldn't respond.
the only thing bad about the unit is the fact they're not being made :(
Consider yourself lucky not to be French. On AZERTY keyboards the top row is accented characters. You have to press Shift (or Caps Lock) to get numbers.
They're hopeless for coding, too. Common symbols like \ need use of the right-hand Alt key.
Now you know why Philippe Kahn had to move to California.
Ultimately, these keyboards seem to be a solution to the fact that tablet computers aren't laptops.
If you need a laptop, then maybe buy a laptop. They come in very slim form factors these days.
OTOH, once you've made the mistake of buying a tablet, this keyboard is a good compact solution for some people, and other people will get foldable keyboards, and other people will get flat keyboards.
A tablet is more than enough for 99% of people - these keyboards are a good input device.
Heck 99% of the time my laptop keyboard isn't used, because it's sat at work with a dekstop keyboard (and two monitors) plugged in. Ironically that means that the screen isn't used either.
My tablet on the other hand is pretty much alweays with me, and the keyboard is with me most of the time - when I want to write longer messages I open up the keyboard, easy.
Most of my tablet usage doesn't need the extra bulk. Emails/messages are relatviely short and the on screen keyboard is perfectly good enough for that.
Browsing requires minimal typing, again the on screen keyboard is fine.
I've not come across a laptop that boasts all day battery life, a mobile data connection, and fits in my pocket. The iPad mini2/3 does that easily - the keyboard can sit in another pocket, and I'm sorted.
Heck most of the time I don't even bring my "work" laptop to work (I'm permanently onsite and have a customer company laptop which tends to stay on site as well) because my iPad does everything I need (and more)
For me they'd be a solution to the fact that you can't buy a phone with a bloody sliding keyboard anymore, and trying to do SSH on a touch screen whilst { on a train / at a family wedding you can't leave but work are cross / in the pub and hell if I'm going back to my office at 6.30 on Friday just to flush the webserver cache again } is a massive pain in the ass.
In a pinch you can use them to type emails that require more than the 2 or 3 sentences on can manage on a touch screen before wanting to smash it into pieces and feed it to whatever bastard decided that phones don't need LITTLE SLIDING KEYBOARDS.
TL;DR: I want my little sliding keyboard back :(
For me they'd be a solution to the fact that you can't buy a phone with a bloody sliding keyboard anymore
Hmm, if you look up "sliding keyboard" on Amazon there quite a few phone cases that offer that, maybe that will help? Certainly better than trying to run an SSH session with an onscreen keyboard, that is IMHO the height of pointlessness..
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