As an attorney who has been using PalmPilots rather than legal pads since the original Pilot 1000, and who wrote and edited a book on his Palm III using a combination of Graffiti and various keyboards (including an Apple Newton keyboard with a shareware driver and custom adapter), I know the benefit of keyboard entry for a PalmPilot. No matter how fast a Graffiti user you are, you cannot keep up with rapid speakers when taking notes, and heavy-duty text editing is a chore without one. Even some of the Graffiti alternatives still require careful attention to the screen and are far slower than true touchtyping. Accordingly, I am eager to try any new keyboard when it's introduced. Well, I'm ready to retire my well-used Landware GoType keyboard for good--the Stowaway Keyboard from Think Outside is here.

What's so special about what Think Outside has engineered with the Stowaway? Simply put, it has taken a full sized keyboard and folded it to literally the size and shape of a PalmPilot. Earlier keyboards for the Palm units, including the clamshell GoType, wasted the portability of the PalmPilot by forcing users to carry around something which fit in a briefcase or knapsack, not a shirt pocket. The Stowaway (sold as the Palm Portable Keyboard for Palm units, and as the Targus Stowaway Portable Keyboard for the Handspring Visor, each listing for about $100--upcoming versions for the MS Pocket PC have been announced) fills a second pocket, and off you go. (I tested it with a Palm IIIxe running PalmOS 3.5.)

To use the keyboard, you push a latch on the Stowaway's hard protective outer shell, and the keyboard unfolds like an four-part accordion. Placing it on a flat surface, you slide the outer sets of keys toward the middle of the unit, where they lock in place. (A Flash animation of the unfolding may be found online at http://www.thinkoutside.com/demo.html.) A minimalist wire cradle for the PalmPilot slides out from the top of the keyboard and rotates into an inverted V shape. As soon as you slide the PalmPilot onto the cradle, the included driver software (which takes up approximately 26k of RAM) automatically detects the keyboard and you can begin typing to any Palm program. When done, remove your PalmPilot, fold the cradle back into the keyboard, slide the outer keys apart, and refold the keyboard. The case closes with a satisfying "snap."

In addition to the full-sized keys (larger than the GoType's) with the regular complement of letters, numbers and punctuation characters, the Stowaway also includes dedicated function keys which launch the Palm's built-in applications (or any application you have installed, via optional choices within the software driver setup), as well as a key to invoke your built-in shortcuts and two others to handle the Control (dot) and \ keystrokes available within Graffiti. You can also use keyboard shortcuts to trigger your Palm's backlight (useful if you go into a tunnel while typing on the train), or even power your unit off.

One other major advantage over the GoType is that the right shift key isn't a long stretch with your pinky--it's been moved next to the ? key where it belongs. Finally, the key action of the Stowaway is *significantly* quieter than that of the GoType, making it a much better choice for note-heavy board meetings.

The Stowaway isn't without its quirks and glitches. One significant annoyance is that, unlike the GoType, you really do need a hard flat surface on which to type--this is not a unit meant for a lap. (At this moment, I have propped the keyboard on the back of my knapsack, sitting on my lap, to type this review--it's not ideal, but it does work.) Fast typists will further notice a definite lag between the time keys are pressed and when the letters appears on the screen. This problem will likely be addressed by improved driver software. In the meantime, those PalmPilot users who have purchased TRG's FlashPro software may reduce the lag by moving the keyboard driver to Flash memory (if your Palm has some) rather than regular RAM--it works fine in Flash, and will even survive a hard reset. There have also been reports of malfunctioning and failing keyboards on the Palm-related Internet discussions lists, but those may have been early production units--the evaluation copy I received has worked without fail for the better part of a month.

Even given these issues, the combination of portability and usability makes the Stowaway a mandatory part of almost any Palm user's arsenal. Especially when paired with a text editor like Visionary2000's QED (used to write this review) a Stowaway make a credible writing machine that can be tucked away in a pair of pockets.

Jonathan I. Ezor is an attorney who serves as the Director of Legal Affairs for Mimeo.com http://www.mimeo.com, the leader in quality, secure business document printing, binding and delivery through the Internet. He is the author of CLICKING THROUGH: A Survival Guide for Bringing Your Company Online (Bloomberg Press 1999) http://www.clickingthrough.com.