Janet first reported on this one almost two years ago, and it must be one of the longest pre-order periods ever, because it’s still not in production. Now being funded on Kickstarter, the Jorno is a foldable Bluetooth keyboard that can be used with most Bluetooth devices. While the folding keyboard isn’t anything new and was big in days of Palms and Windows mobile devices, this is a modern take for more modern devices. Its five-way folding mechanism makes it a compact and mobile solution. It also comes with a detachable cradle to hold your phone or tablet. Looks like a really handy device to throw into your gadget bag.
Early bird pricing starts at $79 with a retail price of $119. It’s expected to ship in Spring 2013. Let’s hope the release date doesn’t push out again.
Gadgeteer Comment Policy - Please read before commenting
tempting, but i don’t think it folds much smaller than the palm/stowaways of years gone by?
Like this one reviewed by Julie in 2000 ? 🙂
(How I miss my Palmpilot 1000 with 512KB upgrade 🙂 )
I loved that keyboard… I still have it in a drawer somewhere! Also have their Bluetooth version, but it’s not nearly as nice as the original.
I miss PDAs in general. I do not need a smartphone, as i have a perfectly functional featurephone that can tether.
These keyboards are great because they take up hardly any room in the drawers that they are destined to remain…until they become obsolete, forgotten, or discarded.
Yeah, me too, miss my Palm Pilot with 1 MB RAM.
…
and me too, I’ve got a keyboard in the drawer, hardly used it with my Palm Pilot in the end.
That’s why I’m so reluctant in buying a keyboard for my iPAD3, I’m afraid I’ll hardly use it … waste of money thus …
digi_owl, have you tried an iPod Touch? Does everything my Palms and PocketPCs did.
I have an iPodTouch and also the iGo/Stowaway/ThinkOutside UltraSlim Bluetooth keyboard. It works with my iPodTouch (and I expect it will work with my iPhone5 when it arrives). Never worked with my Android.
About Jorno. IIRC, they did not tell anyone until after the shipment date that they were not going to make the device, despite tons of people I saw on the forums asking for an update. I personally will not invest in someone like that. If the keyboard comes out and it works then (if I need it) I would consider buying it. It was really sucky the way they handled their business. They should have told everyone what was really up when they were asking.
I have iGo/Stowaway/ThinkOutside UltraSlim Bluetooth keyboard that I bought for my Windows Mobile devices and also their Bluetooth travel mouse that’s 7 years old now.
I have used the keyboard with my iPAD 1st gen. few times and it works nice.
I have also used both keyboard and mouse with my Nexus S running official Jelly Beans 4.1 and they both work fine. It’s really geeky to use mouse and foldable keyboard on smartphone, but when you need to input a bit more text and you don’t have your computer with you it can be usefull.
Agree with Jason about Jorno. The company has been spouting ‘shipping soon’ and just ‘getting the final kinks out’ for so long they can no longer be believed. Based on past behaviour I don’t think they can be trusted. But if they ever do get they keyboard to the shelves I would be interested.
@thenikjones
I on principle will never buy anything Apple.
Samsung and Sony have some products in the same category now, tho there it seems i have to pick between expandable storage (Samsung) and video out (Sony).
At 8.5″x3.5″, there is absolutely no way that keyboard is full-size after unfolding, unlike the Stowaway (a full size laptop keyboard form factor is generally in the 10-11″x4-5″ range). And that’s where my interest pretty much ended.
…and I just opted to take a tape measure to my Stowaway Sierra just to make the point. When folded, it’s approximately 5″ by 3.5″ by 1″. Unfolded, it’s actually 14″ wide (the actual keyboard area, though, is closer to 12″).
So the Jorno folds into a package that’s about 1.5″ less ‘tall’ but the other dimensions are identical… and the keyboard is netbook-sized.
Yeah. Not so great. 🙂
I ordered the original Jorno back when the pre order was $5, but it ended up being refunded. I did not get in on kick start as I had my doubts’ I just ordered a different folding Bluetooth keyboard on Amazon.
OMG!!!!!!!!!
So Jorno went back on KickStarter and met its goal.
The website stated ‘will ship September 30, 2013’.
I checked today (October 1, 2013) and guess what?
OMG!!!!!!!!! They did it again!!!! Now it says “We will ship the product when it is available March 2014.”
This is the second time they backtracked on the date!
How can they do this? And why did people trust them AGAIN???
I had just checked less than 1 month ago…it said September 30, 2013. In fact, here is their facebook page NOW:
Jorno April 24 near Reseda, CA
Dear Jorno supporters,
We are pleased to announce that we signed a partnership agreement with Whizmo Industries to become our new supplier for Jorno. Whizmo has expertise and years of experience bringing bespoke consumer electronics products to market.
Work began on April 16 at one of the subcontracted factories in Shenzhen, where the initial focus will be on sourcing critical components and on creating the final “golden master” prototype based on our design specifications. We will post updates, photos, and videos from the factory when we receive them.
The complete projected timeline remains the same as the last update:
Master Prototype — April/May
Tooling — June/July
Production — August/September (we will also request shipping addresses for shipping at that time)
Shipping — September
Best,
The Jorno Team
Here we are in March 2015 and they have finally announced shipping!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jorno/jorno-the-pocketable-folding-bluetooth-keyboard/posts/1150953
Though a commenter notes that this now looks suspiciously like a Chinese item on Amazon for much less…
Though I did back it, at this point I’ve ordered a much more minimal keyboard from these folks:
https://waytools.com/products/textblade/1/trailer
FYI my Jorno arrived yesterday. It does remind me a lot of my old Palm folding keyboard, though it is thinner. I was surprised at the weight (184.5 gm vs my iPhone 5S at 112 gm). Bluetooth pairing to my iPhone was easy (no code needed). FYI the delivered specs are here: http://jornostore.com/pages/specifications