Ryan Seacrest Makes Blackberry-like Keyboard Device for iPhones
What if smartphone users could have both iPhone and Blackberry in one device?
That might be on Ryan Seacrest's mind when he created the Typo Keyboard, an iPhone attachment that aims to make typing easier by providing a physical keyboard over the iPhone's full touch screen surface.
The keyboard is in a slide-on case form which then transforms the entire phone into something that resembles the Blackberry Q10. It measures 6.2 mm (W) x 14.1 mm (T) x 1 mm (D) and weighs 1.4 ounces, and comes with a built-in 180 mAH battery.
The Typo Keyboard connects to the iPhone via Bluetooth and comes with its own backlighting so it does not have to depend on the iPhone's lighting for it to function.
This attachment, according to Mashable, targets "those who carry two phones: one for typing and correspondence and an iPhone for most everything else," most especially "for BlackBerry lovers who have resisted switching to the iPhone because of loyalty to the qwerty keyboard."
The concept of the Typo Keyboard came to life when Seacrest met up with Show Media CEO Laurence Hallier.
"One night, Ryan and his friend Laurence Hallier, CEO of Show Media, were out to dinner and both had phones on the table. Two people, four phones! They looked at each other and thought there was an easy solution to the problem, a keyboard for the iPhone," the press release says.
The Typo is not yet available at the moment, but iDownloadBlog reports that Seacrest and his buddies have their country club friends try out the prototype and has found that the accessory improved typing speed by 50 per cent. One of them calls it a "game-changer," saying the keyboard has saved his life.
But The Gadget Show noticed one drawback with this attachment --- it covers the home button, which means covering up the Touch ID sensor for iPhone 5s users. In other words, it makes "quick log-ins a thing of the past."
The Typo Keyboard will sell at around US$99 and is currently on pre-order in its official site.