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I'm wondering about the feasibility of using my iMac's built-in bluetooth as a source for keyboard input to my iphone.

There are times I want to type longer messages in my iphone, i keep a bluetooth keyboard around just to have a full sized keyboard to use on the iphone. I don't use the keyboard on my iMac because I have an ergonomic keyboard there that I much prefer. What I think would be great is to use that corded ergonomic keyboard as an input to the iphone via a bluetooth device that uses the iMac.

Any thoughts on this?

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I wanted a feature like this a LONG time ago. Pair your computer to your iPhone/iPad, use some client app to push keyboard focus (ala. a virtual machine) onto the iPhone/iPad. That would be wonderful. – Jason Salaz♦ Nov 30 '10 at 5:54

3 Answers

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There are two apps in App Store iKeyboard ($9.99) and Type2Phone ($4.99) that allow to use your Mac's keyboard as Bluetooth keyboard. The obvious requirements are Mac with Bluetooth and OS X 10.6.6+ (for App Store).

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Do these keyboards work with iPhone/iPad as well (which is the actual question here)? – patrix♦ Nov 16 '11 at 8:53
@patrix Yes, any iOS device above v3.2 – Sergei Dec 5 '11 at 14:09
This is the answer I'm looking for – yozloy Feb 7 '12 at 10:52
up vote 2 down vote

I'd recommend using the dedicated Bluetooth keyboard if it's not too much hassle, as it's currently the most elegant solution.

If you really want to type from the iMac though, you'll need a Jailbroken iPhone. There is a VNC server called "Veency" available from Cydia. You'll then need a VNC client for the iMac (I use JollysFastVNC myself). The iMac and iPhone also need to be networked via either Wifi or Bluetooth LAN.

You'll want to ignore the video and just look at the iPhone's screen while typing, because it lags heavily.

I would love to have something more elegant to suggest, but other mouse/keyboard-only solutions like Synergy or Teleport are Desktop/Notebook only at the moment.

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This was a terrific idea and works like a charm, better even because now my mouse can be my finger. It's a ridiculous step backwards, but it's the outcome I wanted, simply using different tech. Brilliant mate. – Mutant Dec 2 '10 at 23:10
up vote 0 down vote

If your iPhone is jailbroken, you can install a BlueTooth driver that supports external keyboards.

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Sounds like another good reason to skip jailbreaking your phone—external BT keyboards work just fine with my non-jailbroken iDevices, without having to install anything. – Dori Dec 1 '10 at 4:37
Not until recently... – mankoff Dec 1 '10 at 6:38

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