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Use an external keyboard with an iPhone sans jailbreak

Enterprising hackers have developed a hardware and software solution that allows infrared keyboards for typing on the iPhone for less than $20.

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Mobile | by C.K. Sample III | Tue Mar 24, 2009 8:45AM | 3 comments

Were you one of those people who used to carry a Palm Pilot around with a large fold-out keyboard, just so you could type away as human's are clearly supposed to rather than trying to scratch archaic characters with a stylus or tap away with your fingers on an electronic screen? If so, you'll probably love this hack that uses about $20 worth of electronics to use an infrared keyboard with an iPhone for typing away. PerceptDev engineers Zack Gainsforth and George Dean who together figured out a way to modify the microcontroller firmware used for the audio port modem on the iPhone to detect an infrared signal and a modified version of the iPhone application FSKTerminal, that converts that signal, coming from an infrared keyboard, into actual text on the iPhone's screen.

Although this is running on the current OS with no jailbreaking, it was built using the 2.0 SDK and won't be widely available anytime soon... or anytime for that matter. Even if it were, until it starts working with Mail and other applications on the iPhone, it probably won't be really useful until OS 3.0 with copy and paste rolls out later this year. Plus the full schematics and instructions for this hack aren't being released until O'Reilly's iPhone Hacks book is released sometime in April. So, basically, this is just one large tease of retro-cool technology that you cannot have. Sorry.

A video of the working setup is embedded below. 

This story around the web:

Trusted sources:
external link iPhone Keyboard - no Jailbreaking required,… [perceptdev.com]

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Related devices and services:
Apple iPhone, Apple iPhone 3G

Comments (3)

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Damien Stolarz external link (1:01 PM on Tue Mar 24, 2009)

Actually you can have it. We'll put the schematics up soon.

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Damien Stolarz external link (1:23 PM on Tue Mar 24, 2009)

We finished the breadboard last night and we've chosen our project box.

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