5. Using The OQO Model 01+: Build, Keyboard And Mouse

The OQO Model 01+ is packed with components. I doubt that there is enough space inside the device for an ant to crawl around. There are no rattling sounds when the unit is fairly violently shaken. The display section rolls up quietly and feels nearly as strong open as when it is closed and covering the keyboard. The outer magnesium alloy case seems solid enough that the PDA should survive falls of a foot or two onto carpeted floors, though the OQO's concentrated mass could cause some damage in such falls.

If anything about the Model 01+ says "PDA," it's the computer's keyboard. Unless your fingers are the circumference of a toothpick, there's just not enough room for them to rest on the touch typing home keys and easily hit the other keys. Like any PDA of its size, the OQO's keyboard is designed to be manipulated with your thumbs or if you don't like that with the computer's stylus. Once you accept this requirement and with practice, you should be able to achieve moderate levels of productivity with the Model 01+.

The OQO Model 01+'s keyboard is designed to be manipulated with your thumbs.

I really like the layout and design of the keyboard. The Shift, FN (function), CTL and ALT keys are sticky. Press one of them once and a little green light starts blinking, reminding you that you're in one-key sticky key mode. Type a character or press the sticky key again and stickiness and the blinking light are turned off. Press one of the sticky keys twice in succession, it locks and a steady green light goes on. Now you can type as many characters as you want with the sticky key in effect until you press it again.

The mouse joystick (the black circle to the right between the letter keys and the number keys) works pretty well, though like most such devices it isn't always easy to hit your target the first time without the mouse pointer drifting past it. The mouse buttons are another strong design point of the OQO. The icons on the left and right mouse button keys make it so easy to find the right one. This is especially important because, unlike on laptops and notebooks where mouse buttons are laid out horizontally as on a mouse, the OQO's buttons are arranged vertically.

Does all this non-standard keyboard and mouse stuff bother you? In the next section I'll show you how to use a standard keyboard and mouse with the Model 01+. However, before I close out this section, I need to remind you that the OQO can be purchased with Microsoft's Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. Tablet PC can help you overcome some of the serious limitations of keyboards and mice on very small mobile computers. It supports using a stylus as both a text input and pointing/selecting device. Rather than ramble on about Tablet PC functionality, let me simply refer you to my last review of a Tablet PC capable computer, Fujitsu's Lifebook P1510D. In that review I not only discussed the ways Tablet PC makes a very small computer more functional, but provided a number of URLs to a set of written and video based Tablet PC user stories.