Hi,

It's still not necessarily safe to enter your credit card details if you're connecting to the web via a wireless connection (on either a PC or a handheld), *unless* the connection is via a secure website (look for the padlock symbol at the bottom of the browser).. otherwise, it's possible for the guys who own the network cafe to simply install a network sniffer (Wireshark/Ethereal, for instance) to see every packet of data that you send across the network (wirelessly or otherwise).. and this would show them your credit card number, expiry date, and anything else you keyed in, if they were prepared to dig a little!

On the infrared keyboard issue, the overall compatibility should be fairly good.. as long as the software is compatible with the OS.. look for a keyboard which has drivers for the OS that you're using, and ask the vendor if it's ok to return the keyboard if it turns out to *not* work. Infrared keyboards work via serial emulation, so they're fairly standard (and slow) compared to the bluetooth keyboards.

I have an infrared keyboard, and if you want to try it out on your handheld, you're more than welcome. I'm not sure about OS compatibility, but you can look for yourself: it's a "Targus PA870". I see you're located in London, and so am I (E14).

One other thing I found about the keyboard was that if the handheld battery discharges completely, you need to re-install the keyboard drivers on the handheld, which means bringing a driver CD, getting access to a PC with a CD drive, and having the cradle, or a bluetooth connection to reinstall the driver.. hence my comment earlier about getting a new battery for the handheld.

Hope this helps.