BargainPDA reports on a forthcoming Bluetooth Stowaway keyboard in the works from Think Outside.

While I think that's very cool, and I love the idea of not only typing wirelessly to my PDA, but even typing to my PDA while the PDA is secured away in my bag or pocket, I'm keen to know if the're using standard Bluetooth peripheral protocols. Specifically, I'm hooking up my old Lombard Powerbook to my TV as a sort of dedicated music/web/??? terminal, with the laptop tucked away with the other components. I'd been thinking about getting an Apple bluetooth keyboard and mouse to control it, but it would be so much nicer to have this convenient folding keyboard that would be even less obtrusive when not in use.

Just thinking about being anywhere within 30 feet of the computer, opening the keyboard, typing a song name and hearing it over the stereo. Also thinking about how it could be a nice peripheral for ambient computing (as oposed to just ambient displays).

Comments?

(I was going to write this as a note to myself, but figured I'd put it here while I digest it)

The troubling thing about pinning down the nature of ambient displays is that too many end up being displays that forcibly get your attention when they have pertinent information (like the light on the answering machine or the shaking string denoting high network activity) or they need to be polled specifically, like the 'weather mobile' or, well, a clock in general.

Really good ambient displays provide their information nondisruptively during the course of the observer's everyday tasks.

Cases in point:

A kleenex cube is a poor example of an ambient display because it gives only the binary reading of 'empty' (no tissue sticking up) or 'not empty' (tissue sticking up).

Rolls of toilet paper are good examples of ambient displays because you know how much toilet paper is left, without ever directly polling the object to find out.

The key is that most ambient displays are tightly coupled with the objects they display information about. Successful man-made displays will probably rely on representative state-changes to metaphoric representations of the relevant objects, like fluid in a cylinder indicating how full a hard drive is. The display is even more successful when the user comes across the information over the course of their user's normal activities.

That's all for now...

Comments?