My friends are well aware that I like to purchase computer and A/V cables from Monoprice, along with the occasional device or odd item. Well, this purchase was certainly an impulse buy. Part of the reason I tossed it into the cart was so I wouldn’t end up with the shipping cost being more than the cost of the items I was ordering. In addition, it may actually be useful at some point.

This week I bought a Monoprice Deluxe Ultra-Slim Flexible Keyboard (a hell of a title considering it’s just a flexible USB keyboard). I thought it might be practical at some point, if a friend asks me to work on a computer. I wouldn’t need their keyboard as well (and I already have a couple of monitors and mice). Perhaps it would be handy in some kind of emergency (“Quick! Does anyone have a keyboard in their car!?!”).

It actually works OK, though it would be better if the left Shift key was extended and the redundant key next to it had been removed (I often found myself hitting the wrong key). It does roll up. In fact, it came rolled in a plastic tube. The keyboard has a mini-USB connector and the proper cable was included.

I used it for a moment with a MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard. Setup was simple and it worked, though it is a bit awkward and would take some getting used to.

On a lark, some of my friends thought it would be funny to see if it would work with an iPad 2 and the Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit. I honestly didn’t think it would. One of the guys hooked it up to the iPad, which immediately showed a message stating that it wouldn’t work.

But it did. The darn thing worked. The on-screen keyboard disappeared and he was able to type in the notepad app from the external keyboard. I guess, if you’re really hard up for an external iPad keyboard and already have the camera kit, that you could use it with the iPad. It’s not practical by any means. Almost any keyboard actually made to work with the iPad would be much better.

In the end, this might be useful someday. Regardless, at $6.85 it’s hard for anyone to claim that it’s a waste of money.