How would you like to use a full sized keyboard and mouse to interact with your smartphone and tablet without having to carry a set of peripherals with you? You can with the KeyShair from IOGear. Just plug the KeyShair USB adapter into a desktop or laptop computer (PC or Mac), run the built in app and then pair with your iOS or Android device. You’ll then be able to use a keyboard hotkey to switch focus from typing on your PC/Mac to typing on your smartphone or tablet. The KeyShair has the ability to pair with up to 4 Bluetooth mobile devices and will save settings even when you unplug it. That means you can take one from home to work without having to reconfigure each time you plug it in. Use KeyShair to make typing emails and text messages much faster. You can even cut and paste info from your desktop/laptop to your mobile device. The KeyShair is priced at $49.95. Visit IOGear for more info.
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I use Type2Phone on the Mac to achieve the same thing without extra hardware ($8); works very well – I can use my Mac’s keyboard to enter or paste text into any app on both my iPhone and my iPad.
http://houdah.com/type2Phone/
@Gareth Thanks for the link. That’s looks like a good solution although it’s only for Macs and doesn’t let you use your mouse as well as the keyboard. I’m anxious to try the KeyShair because I’m wondering if you’ll have to touch the mobile device at all to interact with it and the keyboard / mouse. I’m envisioning receiving a text message and then pressing the hotkey on my PC’s keyboard to change focus. Then using the mouse to navigate to the Hangouts app and then typing a reply all without touching the mobile device. I don’t know if it will actually work like that, but I’ll find out as they are supposed to send me one to review.
@Julie yep it’s specific to Mac & iOS, but it works great if that suits your need – I have it setup to activate when I hit F1 and use it all the time.
KeyShair looks like an interesting general-purpose tool – Will be interested to read the review!