People have been trying to think of great ways to connect a keyboard to the iPhone for years. It is quite possible, however, you must jailbreak your iPhone first. Not this time.

A few creative engineers with Perceptive Development have successfully connected an infrared keyboard with an iPhone without jailbreaking the device.

Most people have been trying to connect a keyboard to the iPhone through the usual like the dock connector, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Unfortunately, all of these methods are off limits in Apple’s strict SDK. The audio port, however, is not.

From what I understand, the circuit ($20) accepts the infrared signal from the keyboard or other USB devices and sends the signal in through the audio port using frequency shift keying, or turning keystrokes into sounds.

It is all very interesting, however, if you are like me, then this convoluted setup is not appealing. Fortunately, Apple is opening up the iPhone OS a little more, so perhaps we won’t even need to do this in the near future.

Via: Ars Technica