PockeTop: useless pile of crap 

Today, I went shopping for a Palm keyboard for my Palm TX. I use my Palm device a lot now, what with my laptop broken. A keyboard seemed like an excellent accessory.

Having done a brief Google search, I decided to plop for the PockeTop Palm keyboard. There didn't seem to be any reason it wouldn't work with my Palm, so I shelled out my money.

I've spent about three hours today trying to get drivers. No drivers on the website. Google doesn't bring up any results. Eventually, I find out that the company who makes them has been sold and the website got bought by some huckster who wants to sell driver updates.

Then I start aggressively trying to find a driver. I go on to the Internet Archive and find a page of old drivers. Unthinkingly, I download one and install it. One hard reset later, I regret that. For those of you who don't know about the Palm Platform - a hard reset is equivalent to a reformat. If you are using Palm OS 5, do not attempt installing PockeTop drivers on there, they will fuck things up. So long as you know that, here's the link.

So, I'm taking it back as soon as possible. I have to accept some blame - shopping on Tottenham Court Road is almost inviting trouble, and trouble is what I have got.

If you are selling a hardware product for the Palm or PDA platform, follow my words: setup your website so that it explains everything I need to know - including the fact that it doesn't work with my device - so that when I'm browsing it on my Palm in the store, I don't buy a product that doesn't work and then have to blog about what a crap experience I've had.

It's a shame. The actual device looks great - I'd really like to be able to type on it. Not providing clear details on a public website about compatibility is evil. Selling drivers to your customers is doubly evil.

I've just posted a review of this useless product to Amazon.

Tags: Pocketop