Hasta La Gadget!

Usually, I have no problem declaring something is dumb beyond words or not. This one has me stumped though: Wavetooth, Brando’s waterproof Bluetooth headset.

With the traditional Bluetooth headset, you had to be careful where you took your phone. Now with Wavetooth, which is certified waterproof up to 3 meters, or a little under 10 feet, you can easily go swimming while still yammering on the phone with your best friend. Or relax in the bath and listen to music without worrying about anything getting wet.

Wavetooth works with the iPhone and any Bluetooth-enabled smartphone (which is practically every phone on the market nowadays).

The Bluetooth headset comes comes with a special bag that holds your smartphone and keeps it dry. The material is thin and specially designed so that the it doesn’t interfere with the headset communicating with the device. You don’t even need to take the phone out of the case – special “Touch Functionality” lets you control the iPhone by pressing on the case surface.

Wavetooth claims 13 hours talk time and 240 hours standby time before needing a charge.

Priced at $57 and available now on Brando, it’s a little pricey. But for people always on the go, Wavetooth extends where you can use your phone.

We’re living in an age of multiple connected screens, where even our media-savvy televisions demand some occasional typing to search for a videogame, TV show or Netflix rental. Problem is, typing (more like hunting and pecking) with a game controller or remote control is a pain in the butt — and that’s the world into which the TiVo Slide is being born.

The TiVo on-screen software keyboard has been semi-affectionately dubbed “the Ouija Board input” from the way users slid and hovered the remote over each letter to search for titles. As TiVo added more and more text-dependent features, Ouija-hovering got more and more obnoxious. With recent software updates, Premiere and Series 3 users can use a USB keyboard or mouse, or a wireless device with a USB Bluetooth dongle. (That’s actually how the Slide connects.) But for one-stop remote/keyboard shopping, the Slide is your guy.

It solves a few technical problems that have haunted keyboard-style remotes for years. The slide interface is one: We’ve gotten so used to handheld devices that almost nobody wants to use a keyboard for everything. The bigger deal may be Bluetooth, which, among other nice things, performs the essential task of letting you use the keyboard sideways. It also lights up in the dark — there are other TiVo remotes that do this, but typing text with your thumbs makes this feature pretty much essential.

Yes — you have to type with your thumbs. If you’ve used a smartphone hardware keyboard like most BlackBerries’ (or a slide-out like the Droid’s), this is familiar stuff. If your typing skills are optimized for a keyboard, or you’re not much of a typist to begin with, it’ll take some getting used to.

It’s surprising, actually, that we’re not seeing more innovation and experimentation in alt-keyboard devices. There’s nothing sacrosanct about the QWERTY keyboard layout other than that it’s what most typists in the English-speaking world have come to expect. Most people know that it appeared on early Remington typewriters because it kept the keys from clashing; if a rifle maker knew anything, it was precision-manufacturing a device not to jam.

But whether it’s hardware or software, we don’t have to worry about keys jamming on keyboards now. And yet, even swiping, chording and hovering software keyboards use the QWERTY layout. Why not try an alphabetic keyboard — something designed for people who don’t do much typing at all? The last time I checked, relatively few people with TVs sit in front of a computer most of the day.

Or, if you’re targeting experts and speed freaks, why not try a version of the Dvorak layout?

Dvorak is an alternative keyboard configuration patented in 1932 and named for its inventor, August Dvorak. If QWERTY is the MS Windows of keyboards, Dvorak is the Mac. What its adherents lack in numbers, they make up in devotion. In “Seven Reasons to Switch to the Dvorak Keyboard layout,” Red Tani of WorkAwesome makes a good case:

In QWERTY, only 32 percent of keystrokes are on the home row. Which means most of the time, typists’ fingers are either reaching up for the top row (52 percent) or down for the bottom row (16 percent). So not only does QWERTY do nothing for typists, it actually hinders them.

Dvorak further increases typing speed by placing all vowels on the left side of the home row, and the most commonly used consonants on the right side. This guarantees that most of your strokes alternate between a finger on your right hand (consonant) and a finger on your left (vowel). Alternating between fingers from either hand is faster — just imagine texting with one hand or drumming with one stick.

On a tiny mobile device, DVORAK could be comparatively even faster. More comfortable, too.

QWERTY beat out DVORAK because typists who’d learned the first were faster and more accurate using that layout than on the second. It’s a classic example of what economists and other social scientists call path-dependence and increasing returns: An inferior technology can beat a superior one if it’s adopted early and widely enough to lock out the competition.

So maybe somewhere out there is a new kind of phone/remote controller-sized keyboard that blows the QWERTY keyboard away. The trouble is, most of us would be better off typing with something else, if they were giving superior machines away. The new TiVo remote acknowledges that this is the world we live in.

See Also:

• The TiVo Box is Dead, Long Live TiVo
• TiVo Premiere: Blockbuster, Netflix, Amazon on Your TV
• TiVo Redesigns Search Function, Wants to be the ‘Google of TV’
• IR Dongle Turns iPhone into Ugly Universal Remote

Photos: TiVo.com, Wikipedia

Follow us for real-time tech news: Tim Carmody and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

A new, soon to be released case for the iPad comes with a built-in Bluetooth keyboard that will effectively turn the tablet into a netbook. The leather folio-style case has an ingenious design that lets flips between three configurations. Closed; open with the iPad in normal, touch-screen use and open, propping up the iPad with the keyboard flat in front of it.

The keyboard itself is made of silicone and will therefore be squishy and very likely unresponsive. It has a home button along with all the media controls you’d expect, and will go into sleep mode to save batteries after ten minutes of non-use. The battery, must be charged separately from the iPad (although you can use your iPad’s charging cable to do it) and will give up to 45 hours of use on a charge.

It looks kind of neat, if you really want such a bulky thing. I prefer Apple’s Bluetooth keyboard as it is small enough to sling in your bag, but separate so I don’t have to carry it with the iPad all the time. In fact, I bought the Apple keyboard but almost never use it. Like Wired.com NY bureau chief John C Abell, I find I actually prefer typing on the iPad’s screen. The auto-correct along with the big keys means I actually type faster and more accurately on that than I do on a “real” keyboard.

Doubtless there are plenty who rightly disagree, and for them, this case exists. It’ll cost you sixty British Pounds Sterling ($93), or likely less when it makes its way to a US outlet.

KeyCase iPad Folio with Integrated Bluetooth Keyboard [Gearzap via Apple Insider]

See Also:

• iPad Keyboard: Pricey and Awkward, But a Must-Have for …
• USB Typewriter Turns iPad Into Paper
• ClamCase Turns iPad into Laptop
• Protective Keyboard Case Joined By Trackpad Cover

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

The TiVo Slide Remote is officially available for sale today, for $89, and will hit Best Buy stores this weekend but TiVo was nice enough to send us one a bit early so we could play. The Slide is considerably shorter than the TiVo Peanut we’ve come to love, but at the same thickness it slides out to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard. It’s actually a full Bluetooth remote, so even if the keyboard doesn’t interest you, the remote’s ability to work without a line of sight to the TiVo might draw you in. And of course we just had to plug the included dongle into a PC to see what happens — no the TiVo Premiere doesn’t have Bluetooth built-in — but for those results and more you’ll have to click through.

Continue reading TiVo Slide Remote review

TiVo Slide Remote review originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Aug 2010 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Need a case for your iPhone 4? ID8-Mobile is finally bringing out an iPhone 4 version of its clever MoGo Talk XD, which offers a case with a built-in Bluetooth headset. You’ll always have a the headset on hand, and that headset will always be powered up.

While you might expect a combined case like this to be too bulky, the MoGo Talk XD is surprisingly thin. The case offers a hard shell for impact and scratch protection, with a lined inside to cradle your iPhone 4. To remove the headset, you only need to push the mechanism holding it in place. The headset uses SmartAudio Sound and Voice Enhancement technology to deliver clear conversations, and reduce background noise. The case will begin shipping on September 1 and is available for pre-order for $99.99.