Stowaway ThinkOutside Sierra
========================

It's a wireless keyboard (Bluetooth-compatible). It's externally almost
identical to these ThingOutside keyboards which were designed to use with old
good Palm handhelds (I personally have Palm III-compatible one but I'm not sure
if there was version compatible with older Palm machines).

So it's rather small and compact. The main difference is that there is no
Palm-style connector. Instead there is a space for AAA battery and for
Bluetooth electronics. The stand for the device is located at the bottom of the
keyboard and it is used detached.

As I have the keyboard for just a few days, I cannot test its battery life.
Hopefully it will be long enough. On other side, the AAA batteries are
available anywhere and I usually carry some spare batteries for other device so
replacement of a battery might not be a problem.

So the biggest issue of the keyboard probably is its glossy metal enclosure
(every tap of finger is visible here). It's not a problem during use as these
parts are on the bottom but they are visible during transport (when the
keyboard is folded).

The size was ideal when if was new: it is just about size of a Zaurus PDA and
lightly bigger than a Palm III. However, my current device (bq Aquaris E4.5
Ubuntu Edition) is much more slim and not so wide.

The typing on the keyboard is OK. It is foldable and it has 3 hinges and it has
an influence on keyboard stiffness (my Palm-compatible one is stiffer and it
less deformed in the center - I assume that is is related to what the
particular piece of keyboard was shored and handled in the past). The keys have
normal size and distances. They have a short travel when pressed but it is
comparable with normal notebook keyboard (yes, old ThinkPad keyboard is better
but not much). There is even a numeric row. So typing (even in an arcane
language like Czech) is easy and comfortable. The only important missing key is
Esc (Fn+Tab here) and the right Shift and Enter are slightly smaller than
usual.



Of course, the non-standard Esc is a problem for us, active vi/vim users...

I typed this text on that keyboard which was connected to by E4.5 phone without
issues (no missing/doubled letters and so). The only problem is too aggressive
energy-saving policy (the interval to disconnect the keyboard is too short) but
it should be an issue of the phone OS (there should be a Ubuntu Touch update in
few next days so I will see after that if this behavior will change or not).