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iPhone external keyboard without jailbreaking



Check this out, folks. Some enterprising young hackers have got an IR keyboard working with a non-jailbroken iPhone. With nothing more than $20US worth of parts and the iPhone 2.0 SDK, they built an adapter for the headphone port that talks with a modified version of the audio port modem microcontroller firmware.

Of course, this isn't a rig that my Aunt Ethel is going to run out and buy for her own iPhone, but it's the first time we've seen an external keyboard working with an intact iPhone. Back in the day, my Stowaway keyboard brought my Palm ///e to unknown heights of usefulness. I'd like to experience the same glee with my iPhone.

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Accessories Hacks iPhone

Check this out, folks. Some enterprising young hackers have got an IR keyboard working with a non-jailbroken iPhone. With nothing more...
 

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Kevin Barbee

Has anyone attempted using iPhone OS 3.0 with an external bluetooth keyboard and were you successful?

June 21 2009 at 8:01 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Colin Johnstone

For those, people, who have spent, their valuable $ & £'s, on HP Pavilion 9000, Notebook's, watch out for, your graphric card, as it can, become, corupted, during softwear, updates and as its conected, to the mother borad, thats goes, as well. So your LCD, becomes blank.

Leaving, you with a useless, shell of a notebook. As no one will take responseability, for repairing the unit, it will cost you £350, to repair.

March 26 2009 at 10:52 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Stephen

Updated video, now with more typing and less lag.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixw3A3QgJPI

March 25 2009 at 9:56 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Doctor

I had a bluetooth keyboard for the various Dell Axims that I owned (the X30 and X50v), and it did make the device that much more useful in a coffee house or other situations where I wanted to sit down and respond to e-mail. I don't long for a QWERTY tactile keyboard on the iPhone, but I would love the option of a bluetooth keyboard for those situations. I don't see why Apple doesn't want to give users the option of a bluetooth keyboard, and in fact, if they branded their own, they'd sell a ton with iPhones...maybe 1 or 2 for every 10 iPhones sold? That's a lot of keyboards. I also had a little bluetooth mouse that was very practical when using the keyboard, as it was odd to interact with the screen with the stylus (on the iPhone, it would be your finger). It made the Dell Axim into a true "netbook," something the iPhone would only do better.

And as we see the next generation of iPhone apps coming, such as full-blown word processing, presentation, and spreadsheets, people are going to want to type more on a larger, tactile keyboard at times...this seems like a no-brainer to me.

March 24 2009 at 9:07 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Christopher Webb

Ondra said it best!

I thought people bought the iPhone because it wasn't like the other hum drum phones on the market.

If you wanted to lug around a keyboard - albeit a small one - maybe the iPhone isn't right for you.

March 24 2009 at 1:05 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
3 replies to Christopher Webb's comment
Bill Mac

A physical keyboard attached to an iPhone???? Really??!!!

C'mon people. We're past that already. Touchscreen all the way! Get with it!

March 24 2009 at 1:03 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
DAD

Woops my autofill filled in a post from some time previous, sorry.

I meant to say, an external keyboard is the one missing thing (besides cut and paste) that I really have been missing since I moved over from the Palm Treo. I hope this happens asap with iPhone 3.0

March 24 2009 at 12:46 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
DAD

Klezmer Music!

March 24 2009 at 12:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
DAD

Klezmer Music!

March 24 2009 at 12:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Steve

Sorry, I couldn't finish the video. It is impossible to watch someone type < 5 wpm.

March 24 2009 at 11:48 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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