Over the last few months I've come to depend on my iPod touch. Frankly, in my opinion, it's my own personal Star Trek Tricorder. Frackin' amazing tech (sorry, wrong show, but Star Trek doesn't have an expressive term that suits). But, as the title says, I think Apple missed the boat in one area -- there's no external hardware keyboard for the iPod Touch or iPhone. "Whaaa?" you say? "It's got an amazingly smart internal keyboard that autocorrects! Why would you need one?" Sure, but I'd like to be able to do more than take Twitter-sized notes with the thing. I spent many years in high-school learning how to type, back when Typing was a class that you took for credit. It's a skill I exercise well and enjoy using. So for me, a keyboard is important

You see, before I had the iPod Touch, a Palm T|X was my Tricorder. And it came with a very nice collapsible keyboard -- that was nearly full size!

This let me take more detailed notes in meetings, without having to lug my laptop around. A real keyboard is a treat, when you make your living by using one.

Now, I know Apple has the technology know-how to pull this off. The iPhone has Bluetooth built in, and Apple makes their own, beautiful Bluetooth keyboard, so it can't be that hard to build in the functionality to marry the two. I can't believe that I'm the only person who would consider using my iPod Touch to take notes, or fire off Tweets at a conference. To me it seems that there are quite a few occasions to take advantage of the small sized display when partnered with a folding keyboard. But then, maybe that's where the mythical Apple Tablet computer will come in, filling that void. Perhaps, but I'm still thinking that unless the user interface is designed well, typing on a flat tablet couldn't replace a nice functioning keyboard. In the meantime, I'm considering dusting off my Palm T|X...anyone know if there's a nice Wi-Fi Twitter client for it?