This new keyboard from Canadian accessory-maker Matias might look like a standard (a really old kind of standard) keyboard with a space to plop down your phone, but we have to admit that the potential is intriguing—especially if you’re an iPhone or iPod touch owner.
Simply named the USB 2.0 Keyboard + Smartphone Stand, this keyboard drops the usual Home/ End/ Insert/ Delete cluster usually found above the arrow keys in favor of a non-slip pad that can hold a smartphone in place. It’s not just a placeholder though (since a few square inches of empty desktop space should be enough to do that), the keyboard actually links up with the docked phone, allowing you to use the phone with your desktop using thousands of available apps (according to the Matias product page, including the italicized “thousands”).
The apps—or at least the ones that show useful potential from a smartphone-on-a-keyboard standpoint—ranges from calculators and custom buttons to Facebook and Twitter status checkers. It also allows you to use an iPhone or iPod’s touchscreen as a trackpad for controlling a Mac… which might prove handy if you’re already working on a desktop and you somehow don’t have a mouse. And if you miss the standard button set that’s supposed to be where the smartphone pad is, there’s also an app that replaces the lacking button cluster with a touchscreen-button-version of the (boom!) standard button cluster that was removed to make space for the smartphone.
It's certainly Mac-friendly, with special symbols on keys that can be typed using Option and Shift-Option combos.
Past the rather ordinary looks and the smartphone-sized space, the keyboard also comes with an extra USB 2.0 dock above the function keys for connecting USB devices using a high speed (dedicated) USB 2.0 connection, plus two more USB ports along the top edge of the keyboard for plugging in anything else.
The keyboard also lists high quality key switches that give off a quiet, tactile feel and special symbols printed on the keys that can be quickly used via a Mac’s Option and Shift-Option combo. All this on a keyboard that you thought looked really plain.
Need a Mac-friendly keyboard that’ll work well with your iPhone? This kit is now available for $50. And if you don’t have an iPhone or iPod touch, it’s also listed to fit other smartphones, including Blackberries, Android, Palm, etc.
Tags: Computer Peripherals, iPhone, Ipod Touch, Keyboard, Mac, Matias, Smartphones
