This is almost perfect. They didn't reinvent the keyboard of course, and I expect the typing experience to be somewhat crap but <i>still</i>... compared to a 5inch touchscreen <i>and</i> for $99?<p>Wait - how in the world is a <i>bluetooth</i> keyboard not be compatible with Android 4.2, iOS 6, etc? [1] Isn't a bluetooth keyboard, a bluetooth keyboard? Is "support" defined as "exactly what is says on the label" (months of battery life), or "pairs; keystrokes appear on the screen"?<p>(10 minutes later of googling later)<p>Maybe I have partially answered this for myself: This claims bluetooth LE (4.0), and these are the OSes that "do not support it". Question: Is the 4.0 Low Energy mode "exclusive"? Can 4.0 hardware talk to 3.0 devices, even if they draw more power?<p>(to the wikipedia stations)<p><pre><code> Bluetooth Smart is not backward-compatible with the previous, often called Classic, Bluetooth protocol. The Bluetooth 4.0 specification permits devices to implement either or both of the LE and Classic systems[2]
</code></pre>
So here comes an actual question: Is this exclusively LE?<p>If I know Microsoft at all, this will be exclusively LE and it will suck. If you claim "months of battery life"[3] you can just as well throw in an "unofficial" fallback mode to the classic stack to make it work with, oh-only <i>every device built since the late 90s</i>, even if it is "weeks" of battery life.<p>It is <i>just</i> like MS to introduce an <i>artificial</i> limitation of only talking to 2012+ stuff for no reason... ("almost there"). Although I genuinely hope I'm wrong.<p>On the plus side, if this is the case, I would stake a considerable amount of my fortune (let's call it $10) that within months of release, some chinese manufacturer will come out with a close-enough version of it which <i>will</i> play with all the bluetooths, even if "accidentally" (older chips being cheaper). That will be a laugh and a definite purchase, and <i>that</i> will make <i>this</i> rant relevant, because I'll be all clairvoyant-in-the-downvotes.[4]<p>[1] <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/en-us/support/compatibility" rel="nofollow">http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/en-us/support/compatibilit...</a> then select the UFK from the dropdown. MS, where's my permalink?<p>[2] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth_low_energy" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth_low_energy</a><p>[3] Not holding my breath about this. We'll see.<p>[4] Parting thought: Bluetooth is as old as USB. That blows my mind a little.