A Nice Keyboard For An Iphone

Left - my MacBook Air - right - my iPhone and the Griffin keyboard

We travel a lot - we like to take as little as possible with us - we seldom check a bag. My goal is to get everything into one carryon bag. 

Two things compound my packing problem. First - I have sleep apnea and must carry a bulky CPAP machine. Second - I carry a laptop computer because I like to type stories for my web page - the Florida Coal Cracker Chronicles. 

I have a system to post to my web page simple by emailing the story - with pictures - to a certain email address. This automatically publishes it on my page. This means I can post to my web page directly from my iPhone. Normally I take pictures with my Sony RX100 camera - but iPhone pictures are getting better and better. In the future I can see traveling without my camera. I realize all the weight reductions seem anal - but the older you get - the less you like to carry. 

Typing long text is cumbersome for me on the iPhone. I see kids typing with thumbs at 100 miles an hour - but I am not as good. So I type on my laptop and post that way. 

I bought the Griffin keyboard above to allow me to type using my iPhone. It is a full size keyboard with normal feeling keys. It costs about $45. They do have keyboards with wireless connections but I had one of those and found it fidgety. This one is strictly plug and play - no batteries - no pairing - just good typing. There is nothing like hard wiring.

In the future I intend to buy the iPhone Plus with the bigger screen and better camera. It will work perfectly with this keyboard. I also got this cute little stand for the phone for $6. It holds the phone vertically or horizontally. It is great for trying and also for watching TV. 

Above you can see a blog story that I wrote on the phone on the right and you can see it on the computer on the left. I think about the old days in 1975 when we owned The Tamaqua Paper. What a hassle it was to write a story - then paste it up - then print the paper - then have news carrier deliver it. Now instantly - I can publish my boring stories all over the world in seconds. We are living in the good old days right now.