iGo Stowaway keyboard: $44.95CAN
 

Yeah... well... believe me, that's the *best* price I've found for the iGo in Canada (vs $140 at TigerDirect, last time I checked and $84 at some other online Canadian store).

It's on the front page at: http://www.blankmedia.ca. Shipping costs depends on speed (naturally). About $14 for eXPress Parcel Post. Cheaper than buying off of eBay once the shipping costs are included.

And I grabbed me one before they go forever :::sigh:::.

Re: iGo Stowaway keyboard: $44.95CAN
 

Sweet deal indeed! I might have to jump on this one as well.

Re: iGo Stowaway keyboard: $44.95CAN
 

Yep, that's the ultraslim.. the ultraslim seems to be available (for very good prices) several places. I haven't yet succeeded to find a Sierra (the 5-row).

Re: iGo Stowaway keyboard: $44.95CAN
 

They seem to be available for very good prices in the States. I don't know why they're still so damned expensive up here in Canada. This is at least 40-50% cheaper than I've found on other Canadian sites.

And I haven't been able to find any in brick stores in Vancouver (not that I tried looking outside the downtown core - if I'm going to have to travel out of my usual haunts, I might as well just order it online, I reckon).

I guess the Canadian stock was bought when the $CAN was worth $0.78US?

I thought of places like eBay, too, but once you take into account the shipping costs (usually in the $24+ range), it just becomes nutty.

Once mine arrives, I'll see if I like it. If I do, I may end up buying a backup from the same place.

As for the Sierra keyboards... haven't found *any* Canadian sites or stores stocking it from my 10 minute search. And TheNerds.com has 'em for $80US but doesn't ship to Canada (that's an old refrain I read often :( ).

I don't know what people are going to do in the next few months when they go looking for portable bluetooth keyboards... not much of a reasonably-priced selection out there, it seems... .

Re: iGo Stowaway keyboard: $44.95CAN
 

Did you receive your's yet Betty? How do you like it?

I just checked Canada Post and it looks like mine is out on delivery. Not too shabby considering I think I ordered it on Thursday, and picked the cheapest shipping option I could find. :)

Re: iGo Stowaway keyboard: $44.95CAN
 

I'm still wondering why every electronics is so damn expensive in the EU.
Damn...
this is really the only thing I hate about living in the EU...

Re: iGo Stowaway keyboard: $44.95CAN
 

Haven't received it yet. I ordered it early last week but reading the return policy was really confusing (mostly 'cause it was based on the premise that you'd be ordering blank media). There was something in there that basically said if you want to return something, it has to be in it's original, prestine box. Um... these things come in that Gawd-awful plastic bubble stuff so I wanted to know if I returned it if it would be accepted.

I got back a very nice email saying, yeah, returns wouldn't be a problem. I sent back an equally nice email saying continue with the order and... that was it.

I just phoned them to find out why I haven't received a tracking number from Canada Post. Turns out they were doing me a lovely favor by upgrading for free and shipping it out by Purolator. But they didn't tell me, Purolator didn't tell me and, of course, I'm not home and now have to redirect it to an agent around the corner from my office once I get the tracking information :)

The salesmans said that the keyboards have been flying off the shelf ever since someone said they'd been read on some forum that the keyboard had been discontinued.

I bet! :rolleyes:

UPDATE: apparently, they *did* send it Xpresspost but Canada Post seems to be lagging on updating their website so, according to the site, the keyboard hasn't moved since Feb. 5th. But when Blankmedia.ca called them, they're saying it's actually somewhere close to me in Vancouver. My luck: a little notice will be sitting on my door when I get home today telling me to pick it up tomorrow from my postal outlet half a block away. Seems lots of packages are delayed because of the weather conditions.

Re: iGo Stowaway keyboard: $44.95CAN
 

Taxes on them. If it's classified as a computer it's not taxed though. Which is partially the reason why Sony advertised the PS3 as a PC as well (you can install Linux on it, even though it has almost zero access to the locked down PS3 hardware!), so they could avoid the taxes on them.

Re: iGo Stowaway keyboard: $44.95CAN
 

No duty, but the VAT makes up for it.. several times.

Re: iGo Stowaway keyboard: $44.95CAN
 

I got mine last night. Canada Post had locked it up in the special Parcel Pickup box in my corner mail box and left me the keys. Pretty sweet. I've never had them do that to one of my packages before. So much nicer than trudging all the way down to the Post Office.

The keyboard itself it quite nice. Feels very solid when closed, and pretty solid when open. The first time you open it up you will be a little put off by some rather loud snapping like sounds. I'm pretty sure that's just all of the locking mechanisms and I couldn't find anything broken. I find it a little odd that the right side feels a tad higher than the left, or that it's sloped downward from right to left. Typing on it is very easy, except when you need to throw in numbers or special punctuation. Then it becomes an exercise in figuring out which Fn key to press (green or blue) and where they moved the key you want. I could see the desire for a 5-row keyboard now so that numbers would be easier to enter, but overall I think it's an acceptable compromise for most users.

The only software problem I found was after I disconnected from the keyboard, I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to get everything back to automatically popping open the on-screen keyboard. I was tired and gave up, fixing the problem with a quick reboot. I'll play with it more later. Overall though, great deal!

Re: iGo Stowaway keyboard: $44.95CAN
 

If your computer book comes with a CD/DVD of examples, it's taxed.

If the same book comes without a CD/DVD, it isn't taxed. It's all down to the extra CD/DVD, even though it's only mimicking what's in the book (in theory). I'd be curious to know the theory behind the tax.

That just doesn't make sense to me, but, then again, neither does the outrageous $CAN for the iGo at other Canadian sites... .

Still haven't received it yet :-P

UPDATE: Picked up today from the post office (guess, technically, it arrived at my place yesterday but I wasn't home).

A bit of a gulp when, as usual, the CD stuff was exclusively either for PCs or Palms or... . As usual, came to the forum, searched for 'igo pair n800' and, voila! Easy-ish directions.

Took me about 8 tries but it finally paired properly. I tried it out with Abiword and it was doing weird things (like typing a letter, bluing it out and basically erasing itself). I'm too tired right now to figure out why it's doing that. I sent myself a short email typed on the iGo in google and that worked well.

I also got my two 4GB SDs for $$66.12 (shipping included) so now I'm waiting for my Proporta from the UK and... damned... I'm looking at that preeeeeety Wheatley flybox with foam for $20US that fits the N800 like a glove once you futz a bit with the foam.

I figure just reading these forums have cost me about $200, not counting the Wheatley flybox :rolleyes: