Introducing ThumbType
ThumbType is a tiny little piece of plastic film that attaches to your Palm unit's silkscreen Graffiti area, as shown in Figure A. Luckily for me, it doesn't permanently attach to my Palm device. I still have commitment issues. The back of the ThumbType has what OKAYA SYSTEMWARE Co. calls a "Post-it Note" sort of adhesive. As long as you don't get crunchy things all over the back of it, you can move it off the Graffiti area and back to the plastic storage device.

FIGURE A


The ThumbType Keyboard attaches to your Palm unit's silkscreen Graffiti area. Roll over picture for a larger image.

I'd say the ThumbType actually has something more akin to the plastic magnetic quality of those little stickers you get from your oil change company. You know, the ones they place on your windshield to remind you to come give them lots of money after 3,000 miles. Oh, yeah, that reminds me.…

Anyway, I was a little worried the first time I used it that there would be residue left on the silkscreen area. However, my fears were unfounded and my Graffiti area is unblemished.

What is it?
The ThumbType itself is basically a plastic sheet with a set of plastic points on the bottom that press a certain area on your Palm unit's silkscreen area. The software driver reads the pressure that the plastic points exert and translates it into characters on the screen. I think it's rather clever, actually.

To type on the keyboard, you position your thumbs parallel to each other and use the ball of your thumb to choose the letter, as shown in Figure B. I was all prepared to have it be an absolute mess when I typed, since it's obvious that the ball of my thumb covers more than one letter, but they thought of that, too. The first area you actually hit is registered as the letter you want, and the driver ignores the surrounding keys.

FIGURE B


This is how OKAYA SYSTEMWARE Co. suggests positioning your hands to type with the ThumbType. Roll over picture for a larger image.

You can also disable the ThumbType driver temporarily when you remove the keyboard strip, shown in Figure C, by tapping the "St" button on the ThumbType keyboard. You'll be returned to the normal function of your Palm unit after doing this. ThumbType does cover up the navigation buttons, but don't panic. You can access these with a software version that the software driver allows you to see when you have the ThumbType in place. There's really no need to bring up the software version of the silk-screened area, though. The "Fn" (function) button, when combined with a letter, will access the Home screen, the Menus, the Find function, and the calculator. You can keep your thumbs in position the entire time.