I bought an iGo (ThinkOutside) Stowaway Bluetooth keyboard some years ago to go with my Nokia N95. However, since getting rid of the Nokia I’ve not had a device that would support it. However, after some tinkering I’ve managed to get my Galaxy S2 to connect to it.

Here’s how it’s done…

• Open up the Stowaway and hold down Ctrl, Fn and Fn at the same time. The LED above the letter T should start flashing
• On your Samsung ensure Bluetooth is active and within the Bluetooth settings select “Search for devices”.
• After a short while the keyboard should appear on the list – select it.
• A Bluetooth pairing request screen should appear (see image to the right). This asks you to enter a PIN – this pin is the number at the end in quotes.
• On the Stowaway keyboard hold down Fn and type the numbers in. Finish with Enter.

The keyboard is now connected and every time you open up the keyboard in future and press a key, assuming Bluetooth is enabled on the phone, they should now connect.

The only issue you’ll experience is with key mappings. Letters and numbers work, as does the Enter key. You can move around the screen using the arrow keys without a problem. Numlock doesn’t work, nor does any of the shortcut options. Here are additional keys that do work…

• Back – Fn and Tab
• Home – Fn and Arrow left
• Switch off / on – Fn and Arrow right

My final point is that although I’ve only tried this on my S2, there are probably other Android devices this works with – although Google say this will be different from phone to phone (more to do with the hardware support rather than just the OS).

I’ve just launched version 2 of my Artiss Draft List plugin for WordPress and if you’ve not tried it, it’s really worth a punt. In a nutshell, it lists on your blog any posts (and/or pages) that you have in draft. This can provide an ideal, and unique, way to promote posts before they are published. Output is in text so will be picked up by Google, adding SEO advantages (see below).

But let’s get back to the plugin. Once installed you have option to use a sidebar widget, use an in-post (or page) shortcode or even just manually call it via PHP. A new templating system allows you to define exactly how the results are output – yes, you can output a list of draft posts, but what about adding an author name, word count or date of last update? All of this is possible.

It’s all cached so takes as little resource as possible and you can even exclude certain posts from being included in the list (this is done in the editor itself). Finally, you can make sure that the list only includes drafts for a particular time period – for instance, any created in the last month.

Scheduled posts are not excluded either – these can be included and can be indicated via an appropriate icon.

So, how does this help SEO? Well, let’s take a live example from my site. I recently had a product review post in draft. Searching for that product in Google, gave the following result (click to see a larger view)…

As you can see all the top results in Google are for my site – even though the review hasn’t been published. Instead the fact that the text is in the list of drafts within the sidebar has already attracted attention to my site and getting me listed. Of course, this is quite an obscure product so don’t expect top billing in Google for anything as a result. But it does help with your SEO and it give your readers a helpful insight as to what to expect soon.

Download Artiss Draft List from WordPress.org.

This review is part of the 1 Pound Challenge – can you find a decent gadget in a pound shop?

The Signalex Game Card Card Plus+, although not stating so, if for the storage of Nintendo DS games (it does show an image of a DS on the packaging, though). The “Plus+” bit, however, is because it can also be used to store SD cards as well (if you have a DSi then these are used for storage).

The case itself is made of cheap looking black plastic – most of it is matte, with the exception of panels on the outside which are glossy – I would have preferred the whole item to have been matte. There is a lid of each side, with storing 3 game cartridges behind it (so 6 in total).

With the case you get a soft rubber insert that converts one of the compartments from DS cartridge storage to SD card – this works really well.

In one corner of the case is a loop of plastic, allowing the case to be secured – say, to a wrist cord. Size wise it’s  108 x 46 x 14 mm, so quite compact.

It’s available to buy from Poundland.

Summary of Signalex Game Card Case Plus+

Compact, holds DS cartridges and/or SD cards neatly and just one pound. A bargain.

Reviewed by David Artiss on 14th December 2011.