Are keyboards with battery packs an idea for brand names?
During a round of browsing eBay for random cheap OEM accessories from China I stumbled across something that is actually a pretty neat idea: a Bluetooth keyboard with a massive battery pack capable of not only running the keyboard forever but also charging whatever you use with it. Aside from the Transformer Prime keyboard dock, keyboards and external battery packs tend to be separate items in the accessory world, and I didn’t really realize how much sense it makes to combine the two until I saw this eBay listing.
Bluetooth keyboards are often quite a bit larger than they need to be, simply in order to either accommodate a disposable battery (the Apple Bluetooth keyboard being one example) or in order to provide something that props the keyboard up. Even if a keyboard is a thin as possible, the length and width of it basically means you need some sort of proper bag to carry it. While that gives you more room for accessories like standalone external batteries, having both one of those and a keyboard in one package saves everything from ending up in a mess at the bottom of the bag as well as results in less of a mess when everything is set up.
Unfortunately I’m not aware of any proper brand name versions of something like this. The last thing I want to do is carry around a 10000mAh battery from the good old explosive battery capital of the world. Assuming you could stuff at least 25-30Wh into the underside of a keyboard like the Apple one though it’s certainly something I’d be interested in, as long as it’s made by a reputable company. It would be heavier and more expensive, yes, but having an extra full charge of a tablet like the iPad hidden in a keyboard is very tempting.
