Tablets and smartphones do many things well but they don’t make good word processors. They certainly have the computing power — witness Motorola’s Atrix Android phone, which can be slotted into and run its own laptop — but a virtual keyboard is next to impossible to type on at speed. The lack of physical feedback from real keys makes typing more of a hopeful “hunt-and-peck” exercise than a fast, flowing action.
Step in, Scosche’s ingenious Freekey keyboard, which connects to phones and tablets (including the iPad) via Bluetooth and so has no need for fiddly cabling. Freekey is so flexible that it can be rolled into a pocketable (and waterproof) bundle scarcely bigger than the smartphone itself. Its battery (which is recharged via the supplied, retractable USB cable) and Bluetooth hardware form a hard lump at one end, around which the rest of the keyboard wraps to make a tube a mere five inches in length.
As the Freekey has no stiffening structure, it has to be used on a perfectly flat surface, and once unrolled it reveals a PC rather than Mac keyboard layout. This is odd in view of Apple’s dominance in the tablet market, although it works just fine with the iPhone and iPad — also with Android phones.
Establishing a wireless link with a range of tablets and phones is effortless, and once connected the Freekey turns your mobile device into the portable office it has always wanted to be — ideal on long journeys, and a treat for your friends and colleagues, who will finally receive properly written emails from you.