May 24th, 2007
As you may be aware Our Picks love keyboards that are a bit on the strange side. Here’s another one that’s a possible addition to the top ten, the heated keyboard from V8 Tools. The keyboard pumps out up to 20W of heat and has two settings - hand temp (85 to 90 F) and body temp (95 to 100 F). It draws its power from the mains and connects via USB to your PC.
Combine this with the heated foot rest from CozyWinters (what a great name) and you will be the envy of all your office colleagues.
Source: Pocket-lint
Featured tags: hardware keyboard
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Posted in Hardware by JB | No Comments »
January 21st, 2007
Now you can light up your Quake sessions between friends. I’m going to review the Zippy EL-610 USB keyboard. In its essence, it’s a notebook style keyboard, with a low keystroke and with a special feature. The buttons will glow in the dark, lightening up your keyboard when it’s dark in the room. As you can see in the picture, the light has a blue nuance.
Behind the 88-translucent keys is a flat sheet of electro-luminescent material - the same stuff that puts the glow in “Indiglo” which lights up watch faces around the world.
Like I mentioned, the keyboard should be connected to your USB plug, to receive power, and its main purpose is usage in environments where there is insufficient light. Being only 18mm thick and weighting less than 500g, it would be a great asset to any travel bag. No software is required for this keyboard to work on Windows 2000 or WindowsXP platforms which have at least one USB port free.
The electro-luminescent light generates no heat, but it creates a little imperceptible buzz sound that you hear when you’re a first time users. By using it everyday on a regular basis you finally get to automatically ignore the sound.
Despite my thinking, they’re not expensive. The cheapest I’ve found goes up to ~$45 and the most expensive retails around $60.
Featured tags: computers gadgets keyboard
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Posted in Hardware, Gadgets, Reviews by Bogdan Boghiu | 1 Comment »
January 21st, 2007
I’ve wrote about many types of keyboards so far, but this is an interesting concept. The Half Keyboard is a one-handed version of the standard desktop keyboard. It uses full-size, high-quality laptop-style keys for excellent typing comfort and speed.
The product in the picture is designed for people that want to type with their left hand. If you want to use your right hand or use them both alternatively, there’s also the 508 keyboard. The 508 Keyboard gives you the best of both worlds � one-hand and two-hand typing. It’s a full-size, standard keyboard and it lets you decide whatever is more convenient.
So, how does it actually work? All you have to do is place your hand on the keyboard, in the standard position. If you take a closer look, the letters under your hand are exactly the same letters on your regular keyboard. Cool, the job is half done so far. How about the other half? Well, to reach the second half, you’ll have to press SPACE, and there we go. Should you need to type a space, tap the key.
You shouldn’t be expecting a high typing rate, especially if you’re a beginner, but the analysts say that after 30 hours of using the Half Keyboard, you can type up to ~88% of your regular typing speed. You decide if it’s worth it or not.
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Featured tags: computers gadgets keyboard
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Posted in Hardware, Gadgets, Reviews by Bogdan Boghiu | 2 Comments »
January 16th, 2007
I don’t know about you, but I have friends that call themselves “gamers”. Yes, passionate gamers that take the gameplay seriously, and literally hit their keyboards and mice with anger when they’re losing, a match, a race or a fight. Personally, I have a friend that switches at least one keyboard a month because of his FIFA addiction.
After a quick look, I present you the toughest keyboards around. They’re protected against atmosphere dust, and have a quite compact (360.0 x 117.6 x 38.5mm) design. Not only that it filters dust, but it’s also waterproof with the help of a special seal that keeps unwanted liquids out of them.
There are several models, including trackballs if you like. If you’re going to browse a bit, I’m sure you’ll find something at your liking. The company that distributes them is called Storm Interface.
I really liked the idea. You can calm down while taking out on your keyboard, and you get to use it afterwards too.
However, the important aspect (actually the first question that hit me at the end) is the price of this gadget. Should you want to find that out, you will have to e-mail the producers and ask.
Featured tags: keyboard tough
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Posted in Hardware, Gadgets by Bogdan Boghiu | No Comments »