Keyboard

While splitting a keyboard into two distinct zones may well make for more comfortable typing, especially for touch typists like myself, you still need to reach out to the side to grab your mouse and confirm onscreen actions. The Combimouse addresses this by having the right arm of the divided keyboard also serve as an optical mouse.  Read More

If you own an Android phone and you haven’t tried Swype, you’re missing out. The original trace keyboard has been around for years, but it was only available two ways: pre-installed on select devices, or as a “beta” web download. But today Swype has finally shed that beta tag, and landed in the Google Play Store.  Read More

It there’s one thing that has stood the test of time while being continually confronted by challenger after challenger, it’s the QWERTY keyboard. A quick look at some of the many keyboards we've covered in the past reveals just how competitive this area is, and the number of options has exploded with the advent of the onscreen virtual keyboard. The latest challenger comes from Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Informatics and is aimed at speeding up thumb-centric typing on mobile touchscreen devices.  Read More

Apple’s MacBook Pro is a modern computing design classic, but if you find yourself tiring of its industrial looks, then the MacBook Wood Keyboard by Rawbkny may be of interest. It’s essentially a retrofit kit which modifies the look and feel of Apple’s pro-notebook using either bamboo or rosewood keys.  Read More

If you spend long hours in front of a computer on a regular basis, chances are your head has found a not-so-comfortable resting place on the keyboard at some point. Now Italian design group, ZO_loft, has devised a keyboard especially for relaxing that won't leave an imprint on your face or your screen filled with gibberish. The QWERTY sofa concept is modeled after a computer keyboard and can be customized by adjusting each "key's" height.  Read More

I must confess that the more time I spend tapping away on a computer keyboard, the more my guitars sit ignored and unplayed in the corner. This is also something that troubled Wieden+Kennedy's David Neevel. Unlike me though, he decided to do something about it. With a little help from a Roland GR-33 guitar synth, an Arduino Uno, some electronics and custom code, he managed to trick his laptop into treating his Flying V as if it was a standard keyboard input.  Read More

Indiegogo project Minuum wants to revolutionize the QWERTY keyboard on your mobile devices. The project's condensed version of a classic layout aims to provide users with a simple and quick typing solution that gives our apps a little more room to breath.  Read More

It's said that an instrument is only as good as the musician playing it, but it never hurts to give musicians a little help creating unique sounds. That's why technology start-up ROLI recently unveiled a new type of instrument that blends the form of a standard piano with the electronic customization of a digital controller. The company's Seaboard GRAND is a keyboard that features flexible keys that allow the player to adjust each note in real-time.  Read More

Readers of a certain age will remember, probably with fondness, the computer-in-a-keyboard form factor exemplified by the likes of the Atari 800XL or the mighty Commodore 64. We've seen several impressive attempts at revival in the recent past, including efforts from Barry S Altman's Commodore USA and ASUS. Now China's FocusWill Information Technology is getting in on the act with an Android-flavored, keyboard-based desktop computer called the CoolShip.  Read More