Hasta La Gadget!

I use Photoshop nearly every single day. Most days, I’m just using it for basic tasks like cropping and resizing images to put in articles. Some days I’ll use it for editing photos that I’ve taken for one reason or another. While all of the basic tools are nice, there’s one tool that has become my absolute favorite since it … Continue reading

One of the reasons why I love my HTC Vive is because it allows me to move around the room. Otherwise, just standing around in the same spot tends to break my immersion. Of course, you’re still limited to around 15 square feet of movement. But what if you want to roam around a much, much larger room? One company … Continue reading

Rather than letting shadowy commissioners decide on what TV shows to make in secret, Amazon lets everyone get involved. As it’s done so several times before, the company will debut a number of pilots and ask members of the public to vote on what gets…

Back in February, we heard about the Wooting One, a mechanical keyboard that can take analog input like the buttons on modern gamepads. Wooting recently launched the keyboard on Kickstarter, and it’s revealed that all of the peripheral’s keys will be analog, as well as a general idea of how they’re able to pull that off.

The secret behind the Wooting One actually lies in a new type of keyboard switch developed by Adomax, which are called Flaretech optical mechanical switches. While most mechanical switches use pressure to detect when a key is pressed, keyboards using Flaretech switches have an infrared emitter and a light sensor sensor on their circuit boards that detect both how far and how fast a key is being pressed. Voila – analog input.

Another advantage of Flaretech switches is that they can easily be replaced with other MX-type switches, which means you can have different switches on every key if you want. That should do wonders both for customization and repairability.

I don’t know if Flaretech or Wooting implemented this, but in any case Windows computers will detect the Wooting One as either a keyboard with simple on or off input or as an Xinput device with analog input. When it launches, you’ll have to switch between the two modes, but Wooting says they hope to add a hybrid option in the future; i.e. you’ll have some keys are detected as Xinput device while some remain as a keyboard.

Assuming Flaretech switches are the real deal I have no doubt that more companies will adopt this revolutionary technology. But for now, Wooting got dibs. You can pledge ~$155 (USD) on Kickstarter to receive a Wooting One keyboards as a reward.

[via Slash Gear]

 We’re currently witnessing rapidly expanding product launches and sky-high elevated expectations from the emerging deployment of the Internet of Things in both personal and commercial domains. Stakeholders — ranging from hardware manufacturers and service providers to cloud platforms — are vigorously weighing in to position their offerings in anticipation of windfall rewards… Read More