Yes, Adele, I think this is what it looked like, not the other minikeyboard with what looked like a sliding lid. I have seen these Palms before but never attached to a keyboard. Tottenham Court Road is a good idea, but the salesmen there are not very susceptible to haggling. In fact, they are uphill work because I am a) female and b) elderly, so I can almost hear them mentally rubbing their hands and totting up their commission when I cross the threshold. Still, it's a while since I crossed swords with one who sneered at my Tesco laptop, so I will try it on after I've done some research.

Sheila

Sheila, I was convinced by a techie male friend to buy my current laptop on Tottenham Court Road. After doing my, "But what's your best price?" routine, I got 15% off and some free CDs. Proud of not capitulating and paying the asking price, I reported this back to Mr Techie, who sniffed that "everybody knows that you always get at least 30% off on Tottenham Court Road" - hmm, everybody but me it seems...

I should either have sent him to buy it, or have done what I planned in the first place, which was go to the much more salubrious surrounding of John Lewis on Oxford Street. Also, I should have checked the price first on Kelkoo. You live and learn.

Anyway, if you go to one of those shops armed with price research and ready to walk if they don't give you the price you want, I'm sure you'll convince them to play ball, age and gender aside.

As for larger keyboards, they come as optional extras with Palms and probably also with other PDAs.

Good luck,

Adele.

This is a link to the type of keyboard you probably saw. Much like the one I have. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=38336&item=5776662638&rd=1

Here is another one with the Ipaq I have on it. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=38336&item=5775408351&rd=1

This is the same Ipaq I have. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=38331&item=5775422783&rd=1

Mine is a couple of years old so there are better ones out there now. Nonetheless I have over 49 partly completed stories on it plus a dictionary, thesaurus, and a complete Vet book (Technical one which covers 'all cat and dog diseases) plus much more. So it suits me fine. I bought it on Ebay a number of years agao. It was a factory refurbished one that went for a song. If you don't need cutting edge stuff you can save quite a bit.

Now everybody has probably figured out I'm of Scottish descent.

Brian.

p.s. this one ships to the UK.

Thanks for the tips about the Tottenham Court Road traders, Adele. Yes, Brian, this looks like the keyboard I saw. Respect for your prolific output. It seems cheap, too, so if I can scrape together the money for the Palm and decide which model, I should be up and running before long. Maybe I can anticipate the government's promised £200.

Coincidentally, I was just reading the 'Life in the Day' column in the Sunday times Magazine. Deepak Chopra, the Indian guru is this week's subject, and I came across this;

' I have spare time on planes- I wrote the Seven Spiritual Laws of Successs on a flight from Singapore to the US. I work on a tiny keyboard, a Trio - I'm in love with it. I e-mail each chapter to my office, where it's edited and e-mailed back to me by the time I'm home.'

This is the URL, but the Trio looks much bigger than the keyboard I saw. He must attach it to some kind of add-on gadget:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=935347&CatId=1482

I like the 'email to office for edit' facility, 'though. Worth every penny of the extra, I should think. Oh, I should have one of those laughing icons here but I don't seem to have the option.

Sheila



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Does anybody use a Cassiopeia? I saw an advert with big picture, and it seemed to incorporate Word and Excel, so I guess may be suitable.

I often use my text function to save certain brief ideas, but more for character names that occur to me when i'm out and about. It's handy!

Oh, I hadn't thought about saving a text message, so I didn't realise what was meant. Great idea! I'm looking for titles at the moment and saw a great one in a street poster but I'd forgotten it when I got home. Now I know what to do.

I psyched myself up for the Tottenham Court Road shysters, and went into a shop. (Yes, I know I lived in China, but it wasn't every day that I could face haggling.) It started badly when I couldn't remember the generic name and said I wanted an MPA or an LSD or something.Fortunately I recognised PDA when he said it, and I was shown something called an Acer n30 for £200 and a folding keyboard at £129.00. 'Too expensive!' I told the guy. He whipped out his calculator and asked me what my budget was. I told him £200, although even that's beyond my means at present. He clicked away and told he could do the package for £260. So that was £60.99 saved, for a start! I said I'd have to go think about it.

In fact, the Acer n30 is at the bottom end of the range for what it is but I am not sure I need the Bluetooth connection, which seems to mean I don't even have to plug the PDA into a keyboard but it works on a kind of wireless system. Thanks for the tip: I will do some more live research before going to John Lewis.

Sheila

Hey well done on your deal! I'm sure the most important words I've learnt so far in Mandarin are: Tai gui le! In fact, I used them to bargain for a Christmas present in one of my local jewellers with a guy from Hong Kong. I think, though, that my discount may have been due to his amusement at my attempts to beat him down, rather than my trying Mandarin with a Cantonese speaker...

Adele.


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Even though you didn't buy the Acer, at least you know now that you can get a discount if you ask for one. Good luck with the next round!

I agree about 'Tai gui le!', which is 'de rigeur' when dealing with Chinese traders. Ten years ago I lived for three years in Singapore and it became second nature to look disgusted when a price was mentioned. I hadn't thought the rules would apply in London!

Sheila