Teleport Remote Keypad: use your smartphone keyboard on a PC
This is a nice follow up to my earlier post suggesting we have a Windows Mobile-like ‘auto-complete’ feature in the Tablet PC Input Panel. Several folks commented that the upcoming Toshiba Satellite G900 Windows Mobile phone will allow you to use its keyboard for text entry on a PC. Hey, isn’t that just what I was suggesting not too long ago: UMPC owners that have a smartphone could potentially use their handheld keyboard in lieu of an integrated UMPC thumb-board. I’m still not sold on the need for any kind of integrated keyboard on a slate Tablet PC, but to each his own and my thought was: more input choices are good for everyone.
I did some digging in the G900 User’s Manual PDF that we discovered last month on the FCC site and sure enough, there it was on page 107: the phone comes with software called Teleport. Teleport has two functions as shown in the below screencap from the manual: Remote Keypad and Remote Screen.
The keypad function is exactly what I was looking for: using WiFi, USB or Bluetooth, you can navigate and type input into a PC application using the G900’s keyboard. Remote Screen is basically the opposite and lets you control and display the phone on the PC. Unless I get a review unit, I won’t have a way to test this, but it sounds promising and I wouldn’t mind seeing this software be distributed for other Windows Mobile 6 devices that have full keypads.
Remote screen sounds even more exciting to me. And if WinMobile apps support larger screen sizes, then UMPCs can become like the Palm Foleo concept as a remote terminal with the ubiquitous core computing being done on the smart phone. But the UMPC can provide bigger screen, and even potentially the keyboard. Plus, of course, more heavy duty computing apart from the smart phone if necessary.
There is a software app that will let you your Treo keyboard as a bluetooth keyboard for a UMPC. It also utilizes the Treo’s screen as a touchpad-like pointer.
http://tinyurl.com/2xroxt
Bob, I agree. Remote screen does sound more interesting to me. I would like a “Foleo like’ companion device with a full keyboard that converts with a touch screen to take advantage of the Windows Mobile professional features. If this companion device only needed to run a GUI, perhaps it could run a slim, almost instant on OS. It might also help keep the cost down. (cost is a big issue in a companion device for me) Good find Kevin. I think the Toshiba G900 might be on the list of upgrade devices. Thanks!