Bluetooth FrogPad Left Handed PC or Mac ( BLMAC1500L )

by Frogpad, Inc.

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000222734
• Item model number: BLMAC1500L
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #136,700 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: April 12, 2004

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but..., August 21, 2007

By 

Greylupes - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bluetooth FrogPad Left Handed PC or Mac ( BLMAC1500L ) (Personal Computers)

The idea was to use this to be more effecient in my daily work. I do a great amount of work with forms that are not Tab friendly. This isn't the secret to working more effeciently.

Contrary to the documentation, you will not get anything close to a normal typing speed out of this. The buttons have a very heavy touch, meaning your hand will tire far to quickly. The key combo's are easy to learn it's true, but just knowing what to press isn't a great help. And complex passwords are basicaly impossible to type on this unit.

The driver support is laughably bad, I attempted to pair this with my treo 650 and my laptop both, and both times it was a nightmare. Driver support is strictly third party, so problems installing and setting up are pretty much your own to deal with.

That having been said, there is a definite market for this unit, though a specialized one. Disabled people will find this a huge step up from anything else on the market.

41 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Causes frequent data loss, November 12, 2004

By 

Michael (Indiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bluetooth FrogPad Left Handed PC or Mac ( BLMAC1500L ) (Personal Computers)

If you frequently enter information into web forms--on message boards, in chat rooms, on intranet sites at work, or elsewhere for other reasons--avoid this product. I'll briefly explain the problem.

There are fifteen letter keys that type fifteen letters when pressed alone. By pressing another key, the Green key, in combination with the letter keys, one types the other eleven letters and some other characters. The letter keys double as number keys and arithmetic symbols, and twelve of them triple as function keys. To type numbers, one activates the Orange key. To press function keys, one uses the Green key while the Orange key is activated--but recall that one types eleven of the letters using the Green key, without the Orange key activated.

The user accidentally activates the Orange key very frequently (most often when he's using the Orange key to press Backspace or Delete, but also in many other situations). Since the user won't know Orange is activated right away, he'll continue typing. If he types 'L', his browser will refresh, because 'L' is typed by Green + H, and with Orange activated, that's F5.

For about two months, I exclusively used a left-handed FrogPad. I was extremely excited about being able to point with a pen tablet with my right hand while typing with my left, so that I wouldn't have to keep picking up and putting down the stylus. I was losing information multiple times per day from hitting F5, however, so I packed it up and moved back to QWERTY.

Of course, the same design flaw causes one to press the other function keys. When one accidentally presses F1, for instance, the Help window pops up.

I've spent hours in FrogPad's Technical Support forum urging them to address this problem (and explaining the simple solution), but I think they fear that if they admit there's a problem, it will hurt their sales. I hope they plan to fix the problem in the next product revision because a safe FrogPad would finally deliver all that I hoped to receive when I spent [money] and tens of hours of practice[...]

I would only recommend this product, in its current flawed, dangerous, and expensive state, to people with one functional hand. Some people tout its portability and small footprint, but if one's using a laptop, he has a portable QWERTY keyboard included and exposed. One might be tempted to use a FrogPad with a tablet PC, but I'd recommend a folding QWERTY instead. They are just as portable as FrogPads, and they won't cause data loss.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Powerful Tool for Tech-Minded Individuals, May 12, 2009

By 

H. Cody Hallett "EyeTracker" (Mesa, AZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bluetooth FrogPad Left Handed PC or Mac ( BLMAC1500L ) (Personal Computers)

The BlueTooth FrogPad is a fantastic product- I have had mine for a while now and use it to type and/or input macro keyboard functions with my left hand while I use the computer mouse with my right hand. My productivity has increased substantially. It does take commitment to learn how to type one-handed, however it is well worth the time and effort. The product itself is well-crafted and should withstand years of heavy use. Connectivity is straightforward and it plays nicely with a number of different kinds of products, including my iPhone. Give it a try, put in the effort, and benefit from the rewards!