Hasta La Gadget!

If you really, really have to have a physical, clickety-clackety keyboard to get your words onto a screen, the Jorno might be just the thing. The Bluetooth keyboard gives you the full QWERTY experience but folds up into a pocketable package. The keys themselves are just 15% smaller than full-size, big enough for touch-typists with accurate and not-too-fat fingers.

After key-feel, which you’ll have to try for yourself, the next most important specification is size. Folded out the Jorno is 8.5 x 3.5 x 0.3-inches. Concertinaed closed it measures just 3.5 x 3.5 x 0.9-inches, and all the time it weighs the same 8.8-ounces, including the li-ion battery which lasts a month.

A keyboard like this is clearly best suited to the iPhone, as fast typing is pretty easy on the iPad’s larger screen. With this in mind, the Jorno ships with a separate stand for phones. It will of course work with anything that uses the Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR standard, and Jorno has a photo of an iPad balancing precariously on the small bracket.

Small, add-on Bluetooth keyboards seem to be getting more popular, or at least more numerous, since Apple opened up its iDevices to allow them. I have a feeling that the multi-year delay in allowing these accessories wasn’t for technical reasons but for training purposes, to get us used to the soft touchscreen keyboards. It worked, too. You almost never hear griping about the iPhone keyboard anymore.

The Jorno can be pre-ordered now, for $100 (with $20 off until the end of October 2010).

Jorno keyboard product page [Jorno via Cult of Brownlee]

See Also:

• Hack Lets You Use a Bluetooth Keyboard With Your iPhone
• IPad Keyboard Dock Works with iOS4
• ClamCase Turns iPad into Laptop
• IPhone Case Adds Vestigial QWERTY-Slider Keyboard

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

IOS 4.2 will bring AirPrint, the “revolutionary” technology which will let you print words and pictures from your paper-sized iPad onto paper-sized paper. Let’s leave aside that you could already do this using may third-party apps, and that printing is a somewhat backwards thing to be doing with an iPad anyway (like using a remote control to actually push physical buttons), and take a quick look at the tech itself.

AirPrint promises “driverless” printing, which isn’t strictly true. Instead, it works in one of two ways. First, you can print to any printer attached to a computer on the same network as your iDevice. This will work with the next update to OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, and uses drivers already present on the host computer.

The other option is to print to an AirPrint-compatible printer, which will actually contain its own drivers. Instead of each printer requiring a different driver to make it work, Apple requires the printers to be capable of receiving an AirPrint print-job. This will work because printers these days are really low-powered computers.

This turnaround is quite amazing, and undoes decades of stupid incompatibilities. It also shows us just how wrongheaded were the complaints about the lack of printer support or USB-ports in the iPad. Instead of making a machine that acted like the current hard-to-configure computers, Apple decided to make a machine that just works. If third-parties want to sell peripherals for it, they’ll have to play the game. In this case, that game is buying licenses from Apple to use the dock-connector, the AirPrint spec or AirPlay, which allows wireless streaming of music and video from iOS devices.

It’s clear that these schemes will be a money-maker for Apple, but my guess would be that the original idea was to get rid of annoying drivers.

There’s actually a third way to print wirelessly from an iDevice, and that’s to one of HP’s new printers, the Photosmart eStation, the HP Officejet Pro 8500A Plus and the HP Envy 100 e-All-in-One. These AirPrint-ready, but they are also email-ready. Each printer is internet-connected, and has its own email address. You just send it a document and it will soon be tattooed across a sheet of dead-tree. How’s that for progress?

HP adds three Web-connected printers to ePrint lineup [CNET]

See Also:

• iOS 4.2 First Look: iPad Gets Multitasking, Printing
• AirPlay

Psych’s bike-bag works a lot like a cowboy’s saddle-bags. It is split into two parts, and when you sling it over your top-tube each part hangs down one side, putting the load in right in the center of the bike for good stability. The bag actually attaches to the bike with ratcheted straps that go around the seat-post and the headset housing. These are pulled tight and act as a kind of spring suspension.

It’s a very smart idea, and if the bags can keep themselves and their contents out of the way of your knees as you pedal, they’re almost perfect as a rack-less pannier replacement. There’s even an insulated compartment inside for a water-bladder, or – if you don’t carry water – your hot or cold lunch. My big worry is just that it will get in the way. When I ride to bike-polo I have a pair of mallets ball-bungeed to the top tube. They’re skinny ski-poles and even they get in the way, so a bulky bag may not work.

If you’re willing to give it a go, there are two models: a small “Trail Bag” for $100 and a bigger “Commuter” model for $150. Available now.

Psych product page [Psych via Urban Velo]

See Also:

• Hand-Made Leather Frame Bag Costs as Much as a Bike
• Hambone Frame-Bags for Stylish Cyclists
• Archie's Grobag, Like a Bag-of-Holding For Bikes

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

For just $13, you can have your own Leica camera. Petapixel will sell you a pair of stickers for your iPhone 4 which will turn it, magically, into a rangefinder camera worth many thousands of dollars. Or at least, it wil make it look like one.

For trademark-infringement reasons, the sticker set has no Leica logos, but it’s pretty clear from the big red dot that the Leica Look-Alike Skin for the iPhone 4 is inspired by the legendary German camera. There’s even a sticker for the front of the iPhone, although that might be taking things a little to far. The peel-off vinyl panels will also protect the phone from scratches, and may even fool the less perceptive that you’re a lot richer than you are. Available now.

Leica Look-Alike Skin for the iPhone 4 [Petapixel]

See Also:

• Likea: The Cardboard Fake Leica

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

Bike-maker Surly has revealed its upcoming wares ahead of the big Interbike show in Las Vegas this year. Surly makes bikes which are tough, from the fixed-gear Steamroller through the touring Long Haul Trucker to the huge cargo-carrying Big Dummy. But the thing that caught my eye was the new Surly Trailer, a monster that will haul up to 300-pounds of gear, or as many of your friends as you can fit on it.

First off, the trailer ain’t cheap. At $750 for the short (32-inch, shown above) and $775 for the long (64-inch) models, you might not want this just to move house one time, but if you view it as a way to make your bike a true car-replacement then it’s a deal. A deal that will probably last forever.

The trailer hooks onto the back-wheel on both sides of the axle and fits wheel-sizes from 20-29-inches. The rig is adjustable up and down so the load stays level whatever size wheels you have, and you hook it onto the bike using simple thumb-screws.

The advantage of a trailer over a cargo bike are many. It means you can free your bike for everyday use, and the separate parts are easier to carry up to your apartment than a long-wheelbase bike. It’s also easier to carry large loads. Try balancing out 300-pounds on even a heavy-duty cargo bike and you’ll see what I mean. The Surly Trailer also comes with “DIY mounts all over it” so you can “Make your own bed, add some uprights, strap down your friends.”

The Surly Trailer will be ready for Spring 2011.

Oh, what the hell… [Surly via Urban Velo]

See Also:

• Monowalker: Convertible Hand and Bike Trailer
• Bike Hack: Recumbent Trailer Made From Walking Frames
• Folding Trailer for Folding Bikes: Compact Cargo Carrier
• Hippies
• Hands-On: Surly Jethro Tule Bike Wrench and Beer Opener

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.