Comments on: Bluetooth BlackBerry Keyboard Is Finally Here!

By: Robert Bartis

Robert Bartis — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 16:41:22 +0000

I purchased a Universal Keyboard2 late 2008/early 2009. Although I managed to get it working it has been a huge disappointment. The drivers are buggy and getting the keyboard to activate is a little like playing the lottery. There is an option to auto-reconnect which I had hopes would avoid some of the issues. Sadly it only results in an error message popping up eveytime it attempts to connect and fails. Would have been nice if the software designers thought to check if the keyboard was available before connecting. The resulting parade of error messages make the feature useless when turning the keyboard off.

I did contact their customer support and they were less then helpful. The only comment I receved was they knew they had issues with the drivers and would becoming out with an update. They refused to provide a target date for release at the time. When pressed I was told “we’ll release it when its ready”. Fast forward to 2010 and the new driver is ready!!! I downloaded and on activation it pops a new error message indicting the driver does not support this keyboard. In spite of the fact of came from the Universal Keyboard2 page.

Finally, the hardware design is poor. Poorly designed, poorly constructed and inferior materials for what is positioned as a product for professionals.

In short, save your money. DO NOT but any product from Freedom and see who else out there may satisfy your BB needs. These guys need a wake up call.

By: Robert Bartis

Robert Bartis — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 16:41:00 +0000

Finally, the hardware design is poor. Poorly designed, poorly constructed and inferior materials for what is positioned as a product for professionals.

In short, save your money. DO NOT but any product from Freedom and see who else out there may satisfy your BB needs. These guys need a wake up call.

By: C

Wed, 14 May 2008 21:34:55 +0000

The following is the only other i could find. wired and highly over priced
http://www.man-machine.com/coolmir.htm

By: C

Wed, 14 May 2008 21:34:00 +0000

The following is the only other i could find. wired and highly over priced
http://www.man-machine.com/coolmir.htm

By: John

John — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 22:25:55 +0000

All fuss, no muss… We bought two of them and have yet to get either working in a BES environment. We’ve spoken to the vendor and had little if any support.

They have a bizarre “driver” activation protocol that you have to go through to get the driver to recognize the keyboard. Why require two factor activation of a driver when it can only be used for the keyboard? No keyboard, no use of driver?

Is there any other (Non-Freedom) keyboard out there for the BB?

By: John

John — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 22:25:00 +0000

All fuss, no muss… We bought two of them and have yet to get either working in a BES environment. We’ve spoken to the vendor and had little if any support.

Is there any other (Non-Freedom) keyboard out there for the BB?

By: Steve Myers

Steve Myers — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 17:14:17 +0000

Update: Price is now $94.95 at http://www.blackberrystuff.com

By: Steve Myers

Steve Myers — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 17:14:00 +0000

Update: Price is now $94.95 at http://www.blackberrystuff.com

By: Chriss

Chriss — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 11:43:33 +0000

this keyboard i bought for 89.95 from http://www.blackberrystuff.com

By: Chriss

Chriss — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 11:43:00 +0000

this keyboard i bought for 89.95 from http://www.blackberrystuff.com