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Rave reviews for new THIN! Palm pocket keyboard

It's thin. It's a keyboard, and it's thin. Think thin. Now think thinner ... and it fits in your pocket.

The new "Stowaway XT" or "Palm Ultra-Thin keyboard is a nearly full-size QWERTY keyboard. It cleverly throws away the top row of numeric keys to make it smaller, but the really important feature of it is that it is thin.

Those wanting to be able to use their Palm standing up, will find it an expensive toy. It's definitely a "sit down at a desk" device. But it has already attracted over-the-top enthusiasm from Michael Ducker at Visor Central, and Larry Garfield at InfoSync.

However, this is one of those keyboards which attempts to turn your PDA into a laptop; it isn't a solution to the problem of one-hand operation when standing up.

Price is the most amazing feature after thinness: $99 from Palm's own online store.

It works with any Palm Universal Connector - modern Palms only, and no Treo design yet - and, in case this wasn't clear, it's thin ... i is is half the volume, half the height, and 30% lighter than the original Stowaway.

For anybody who wants to take notes in a meeting without worrying about the PC battery dying, this is the answer. But do beware! - when Think Outside says that it's "100% full size" they are lying. The space between the qwerty keys is standard pitch, yes. But there is no top row of keys. No 12345 and no !@#$% either - until you hit a special shift. Does it matter? Reviewers say no!

And unlike earlier Stowaway keyboards, this one is rigid enough to use on your lap. We suspect that you can probably break it like this if you aren't careful, but you will be, won't you?