The advent of iOS 4 has brought many improvements to my old-fashioned iPhone 3GS. One of the most welcome is keyboard support (although I understand Bluetooth connection is only available on the iPhone 4).
In the meantime, though, the iPad dock keyboard works faultlessly with any iPhone running iOS4. It transforms the iPhone into a real text-input device and this means I'm now less likely to carry my iPad around with me.
The iPad is similar to a MacBook Pro in that you have to decide every morning whether or not you will need to use it much during the day. In most cases, for me the answer is no. I can manage with the iPhone for day-to-day tasks, including reading and, now, blogging and emailing.
There's just one slight problem: The iPhone reports that charging is not available with this accessory (the keyboard). Sure enough, no charge is received when I plug in the power to the keyboard. I don't quite believe this so I will have to experiment further.
UPDATE AND CORRECTION, JUNE 29: Further experimentation with another charger and cable proves that the iPhone does charge when connected to the iPad dock keyboard. Good news.