Dear Apple, if you’re releasing a new wireless keyboard, why not take this opportunity to make it work with iPhone? If the rumor-mill is to be believed, you’re set to release new iMacs and Mac Minis (and hopefully a 27″ or 30″ LED display!) perhaps as soon as next week (hey, there was a Spotlight Turns to Notebooks event last October!). And if the FCC filings are accurate, you’ll have a new multitouch mouse and wireless keyboard to go with them. Apple, in the name of everyone whining on the internet for it — let that wireless keyboard work with the iPhone.
You introduced enhanced peripheral functionality last March during the iPhone 3.0 SDK event, including dock and Bluetooth access, but you didn’t add the Bluetooth profile or any drivers for keyboards. That led to many sad, irritated messages sent our way via comments, email, and tweets. Now, with MMS in the US finally off your miss-list, wouldn’t it be nice to scratch external keyboard off that list as well? Since we haven’t even seen a beta for iPhone 3.2 yet, mightn’t you not introduce said drivers there?
No need to answer now. We’ll just wait for your next event (which we’ll be liveblogging right here at TiPb, ‘natch) and hope for the best.
ubiqkom.org (via Engadget Mobile) has posted a video of an Apple Bluetooth Keyboard hooked up and running alongside an iPhone. We’ve seen homebrew keyboard connectivity before, of course, but this is such a nicely packaged, Apple-centric solution is makes us dream again about what could have been — and still could be if Apple gets its Bluetooth profiles sorted out.
Of course, we’d also expect a built in dock, and maybe a more portable keyboard in general, wouldn’t we?
Not only has the iPhone 3G finally been unlocked, it’s now also been hacked to work with a Blue Tooth keyboard. Sure, it’s not the elegant, Apple, “it just works” solution the world at large has been waiting for, but a “it’s hard work” solution for those desperate and ingenious enough to tackle it. Ars Technica’s Erica Sadun breaks down the solution:
For the external approach, Ackermann modified a Robotech Bluetooth module, which he placed in an iPhone battery sleeve and connected to the iPhone (serial) connector port at the bottom of the unit. This allowed the the phone to communicate directly with the the module using the Bluetooth serial port profile.
And you can find out more at Ackermann’s blog, if you want to try it yourself. Do you? Or are you waiting (and waiting…) on Apple?
Dying for an external keyboard on your iPhone? Well, you’re in luck! This proof of concept shows that if you’re an electrical engineering genius — or more likely a teenager — you can hack together one of your very own! Engadget says this solution involves Ruby code on a jailbroken iPhone, so it’s definitely not plug n’play (or better yet, Blue Tooth!) so for now only the hardcore need apply.
