Tuesday 3 July 2001

Pic of the day: Cassiopeia pocket PC with fitting keyboard. I think I'll call them Cassie & Cissie. (Yes, I read Young Justice! Yay!)

GoType Pro

My GoType keyboard has arrived! I am so excited! *shiver* *tremble* OK, perhaps not quite that excited. Still, so far I have to agree with the text on the cardboard of my latest PC keyboard: "Keyboard - the ultimate input device". (Actually, a brain implant would probably be the ultimate input device, but it seems a bit over the top right now...)

So what if I am an hour late for work because IdeData did not want me to use a P.O.box address? Certainly if they have an irrational fear of P.o.boxes, it behooves me to accomodate them. Personally I have a problem with big spiders. None of us is perfect. I still had to fetch it at the post office, of course. Living on the fringe of the suburbs, my local post office is well outside the city, and opens not long before my workplace. Oh well. The things we do for love ... of ourselves.

Incidentally, the installation was a snap. The user guide is in clear English, not in Asian translated by a machine. There is no confusion as to which parts go where. The software basically ran its course and that was it.

An unwelcome change is that the Cassiopeia does not turn on automatically, as it does in its original cradle. Luckily it can be awakened by any of the quick start keys as well as the main on/off key. Also the keyboard dims automatically when the screen is not touched, even if you hammer on the keyboard.

Speaking of the keyboard: It is springy with good tactile feedback, but a bit crampy. I shall have to cut my nails for regular use.

I had not seen the GoType keyboard before I ordered it, so I was a bit curious about the size. A full size keyboard would make the Cassiopeia less portable, while a tiny keyboard would not be much of an improvement over the stylus input. As it turns out, the keyboard is slightly smaller than I hoped for, but still way more spacious than the keyboard of my old HP71, which I used for years.

As a warning for other Scandinavian customers, I should point out that it does not in any way accomodate the special Scandinavian characters. This is no big loss for me, but for most non-English users it would probably be. Ironically, the on screen keypad does have a way to pick unusual characters (from a separate page you bring up with a click).

***

Shortly after I started typing, the Cassiopeia ran out of batteries. It is too early to say whether there is a connection. You see, for days now I have not recharged the batteries fully. Instead I have only let them recharge while I synchronized my AvantGo, which does not take all that long. Plus I have operated with max brightness in the summer daylight, and played quite a bit of (legal) MP3 files. So no big surprise. And you can recharge the batteries while using the GoType ... but doesn't that kind of defeat the whole idea?

I have heard that batteries should be allowed to run completely dry now and then, then fully recharged, in order to retain their capacity. I know from experience with several different types of rechargable batteries that keeping them fully charged will destroy them. As far as I know, this has happened to every single battery pack I have ever tried it with. It could just be that batteries always self destruct after a few months, regardless of use. But it is worth a try. Certainly my mobile phone has lasted a few years by now, and it has been recharged mainly before long travels.

Last, but sadly not least, the GoType Pro can be used as a synch cradle. There is a serial cable which I connected to the computer at work, changed the port setting on the Cassiopeia, and updated my AvantGo without a bad word. You can however not do this while typing - there is a switch between keyboard and synch functions, and according to the instruction booklet you should even turn the Cassiopeia off before switching.

***

So ... is it worth $110, including transport across the seas and including the enormous Scandinavian sales tax? No. It is sooo not worth it, in terms of usefulness. (Unless you are moderately movement challenged, perhaps.)

The GoType Pro is nifty, yea, decidedly replete with nift. It projects an Urban West-coast aura around itself and its user, and it does look slightly more useful than it is. But unless you were planning to buy a second cradle anyway (for instance to have at the workplace) it is ridiculously, embarassingly overpriced. If you need that second cradle, it is just moderately overpriced, and the nift factor kicks in. This is not something you are going to hide when you're out travelling. Well, not unless you suddenly grow up. :)