keyboard

Could Apple have a slider-style iPhone up its sleeve?

That's what The Register thinks, reporting Monday that Apple has shown off prototypes of an iPhone with a hardware keyboard to certain executives at wireless operators. The current iPhone famously comes with only one hardware button that returns the user to the home screen, with the rest of the buttons enabled in software.

The lack of a hardware keyboard is said to be a detriment for business users who are hooked on their BlackBerrys, and the iPhone's touch-screen keyboard certainly does take some getting used to in the first … Read more

It seems that our friends in the Middle Kingdom are getting some serious Razer love as the peripheral maker has just announced an entry-level gaming keyboard that will be sold only in China.

And don't let the term "entry-level" fool you. The Razer Aurantia is about as functional as one can get, with 104 macro programmable keys, special function buttons for gaming mode, profile switching, and 10 software profiles. The main differences from its more expensive Lycosa brethren are anti-ghosting capabilities and backlight illumination, features that are nice to have but not essential.

Priced at 399 yuan (… Read more

You start typing only to realize 10 seconds later that the focus is on the wrong window. You see a Windows notification pop out of the taskbar only to have it fade away before you can figure out what it means. You get distracted by all of Windows' pointless animations. You miss seeing keyboard-shortcut hints on menu entries and elsewhere in Windows dialog boxes.

You could spend hours hunting for the settings that will do away with these four Windows annoyances. At least Vista collects them all in the Ease of Access Center. These usability settings are spread far and … Read more

There were some important shortcuts left off the list I described a couple of months ago. I wanted to be able to use my PC without requiring a mouse or any input device other than the keyboard. Since I can't remember all the shortcuts I might need, I listed them in a text file I can open in Notepad using just two easy-to-remember keyboard combinations.

Unfortunately, some very useful keyboard shortcuts were omitted from the initial list, including those that let you move and resize windows by pressing Alt-Spacebar-M and Alt-Spacebar-S, respectively. (Note that the Move and Size options … Read more

Of all the computer gear that seems destined to be made of natural materials, the keyboard is first on the list. Versions in ivory, gold, and several models in wood are only a few examples.

But here's one that tops all of those, at least in its weirdness quotient: It's made of leather. Japanese artist Kazuharu Sakura has tried his hand at other unconventional designs, but those were made of more or less standard materials. This bovine version appears to be one of those art pieces created primarily for shock value--it's about as unattractive as it is … Read more

What I really want to do is add a link to Google Docs on the right-click (context) menu in Windows Explorer. That way, I could open a file in Google Docs by right-clicking it in Explorer and choosing Send To > Google Docs.

Well, I wasn't able to figure out how to do this. So instead, I created a shortcut to open Google Docs, and then I browsed to the file and opened it the old-fashioned way.

This won't save you a lot of time, but at least Google Docs makes it easy for you to transmit the … Read more

Press Windows + R, then type "calc" and enter. That's how you can quickly bring up the calculator application on your Windows computer. This is also the reason many of us do not need a physical calculator around as there's always a PC nearby. But if you are going to have a calculator, here's one worth getting--the 10 Key Calculator created by U.K. designer Sam Hecht, as seen on Boing Boing.

It doesn't really have only 10 keys, but this calculator looks very much like your computer's numeric keypad. You no longer have … Read more

Next to the ability to light up and roll away, there are two features seen increasingly in computer keyboards: waterproofing and silence. The "ReallyCool Keyboard" manages to accomplish both at the same time.

And really, why shouldn't it? In this day and age, these should be standard specs for all models. Many are aimed specifically at such professional settings as courtrooms and medical facilities, as Dvice notes, but there's really no reason that they shouldn't be used everywhere. The ReallyCool Keyboard even has backlighting so you can type in the dark while spilling coffee on … Read more

KeyboardLink is a great little tool for turning your standard Windows keyboard into both a program launcher and a program controller. The app is open source and uses a scant 3MB of RAM. Getting started requires configuring the activation keys, called the master keys, in the program's General features tab. People can set one or two master keys, an important feature that prevents you from accidentally launching a program. Basic capabilities, such as running the app when Windows starts, also live in the General tab.

Other tabs allow customization of your media player and major software programs such as … Read more