Tt eSports has taken the wraps off its latest gaming keyboard, the mechanical POSEIDON Illuminated. So that gamers “could have the change to experience” a mechanical gaming keyboard, Tt eSports promises that the device is a high-end offering that falls into an affordable price range, with the MSRP being pegged at $80 USD. Tt eSports […]
The keyboard was a technological spin on the piano, and in that way really changed the instrument, but the keyboard itself has not really adapted to take advantage of modern tech. But TouchKeys, a new Kickstarter project that launched recently, introduces a way to add multi-touch input to any keyboard with a DIY kit, exponentially changing the range of expression possible when playing.
Created by London’s Andrew McPherson, the TouchKeys multi-touch musical keyboard is available in both DIY and pre-installed versions, and adds touch-sensitive surfaces to the keyboard’s keys that use capacitive input (just like that used in smartphone screens) to convey touch data that can then translate into vibrato, pitched bends, additional sounds and more via software plugins for popular audio programs like Kontakt, Logic Pro X and Reason.
The end result is that you can add a number of effects to your music that normally have to be added afterward or controlled via clumsy sliders and wheels while playing, in real-time, on the very keyboard where you’re playing the original composition itself. Each key supports up to three separate touches, and the set uses USB 2.0 to connect to your computer.
McPherson developed the TouchKeys over two years at the University of London’s Centre for Digital Music, and at Drexel University. McPherson has ample experience researching and creating innovative music projects, and previously designed the magnetic resonator piano, a modified piano that can generate new sounds acoustically from the piano strings themselves (sort of an analog version of the TouchKeys in many ways). McPherson is an assistant professor in digital media at Queen Mary University of London and has completed graduate schooling in engineering and music at MIT, the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel.
The TouchKeys are going to be made entirely in the U.K., and the pre-built editions will be hand-assembled at Queen Mary and the London Music Hackspace, hence the limit of 50 on pre-orders of the pre-built editions. Pre-installed editions start at £660 (just over $1,000 U.S.), and both they and the kits should ship around January 2014 if everything goes according to plan.
It’s not cheap (the basic 25-key DIY kit costs £330) but it’s a unique experience for musicians and researchers that could be a precursor to a very different kind of musical keyboard to come, should the tech get commercialized and adopted by keyboard manufacturers.
Here’s something we’ve all been wanting for some time. SwiftKey Cloud is launching today with a bunch of new functionality including — you guessed it — cloud backup and synchronization across multiple devices. By keeping your keyboard profile and settings online, you no longer have to re-teach Swiftkey your typing habits if you upgrade to a new tablet or lose your phone. Trending phrases is another new feature which analyzes relevant and localized phrases that are trending on social networks and other media and adds them daily to the keyboard’s vocabulary. It supports US / UK English and eleven other languages at launch, with more coming in the future. Finally, SwiftKey Cloud makes its easier than before to personalize your keyboard by connecting it with your GMail, Facebook, Twitter and now Yahoo! mail accounts. We’ve been using the beta for about a day now and everything’s working as advertised. Check out the gallery below, then it the break for the promo video and PR.
Gallery: SwiftKey Cloud
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Software, Mobile, Google
Source: Play Store
With the Samsung Galaxy Folder, a smartphone from this worldwide manufacturer will single-handedly bring back the fashionability of physical QWERTY keyboards. At least that’s what the tip is from Korea along manufacturing lines where the smartphone is said to be being built. There it’s rumored that large amounts of reports of “discomfort” have been rolling in on the backs of their massively successful touchscreen-only device lines – and it may be time to create yet another Galaxy handset.
The Samsung Galaxy Folder is said to be coming with a 4.2-inch display with mid-tier display resolution. This machine will have a flip-screen allowing it to work with a full QWERTY keyboard in place of a traditional flip-phone’s 9-digit keypad, and the whole handset line will be prepped for full data support and 4G LTE right out of the gate. This is different from most traditional flip-phones as the form factor all but died out at the dawn of the smartphone.
ABOVE: Samsung’s dual-screen W2013 flip-phone designed for Jackie Chan, straight from Android Community and released back near the end of 2012.
This tip comes from DDaily where the publication reports the device to be appearing as soon as the 16th of August internationally. While it’s unclear when – or if – the smartphone will be hitting the USA on stateside carrier bands. This publication also suggests Samsung has reached out to them with a statement which suggests the August release and LTE support incoming.
“Galaxy Folder will be released in August with LTE support.” – (translated) Samsung via DDaily
With the Samsung Galaxy Folder there’s a question of how the vast majority of touchscreen-only Android apps will function. While most smartphones today employ Android with on-screen keyboards, Samsung will have to retro-fit apps – or ask developers to do so – so that this machine’s unique makeup can be handled with style.
This device will likely be launched in a variety of colors to appeal to those consumers hoping to keep up with Samsung’s higher-cost range of smartphones and tablets. If the Samsung Galaxy S 4 can come in Aurora Red, so can the Galaxy Folder.
VIA: Blog of Mobile
Samsung Galaxy Folder may return flip phone to fashionability with Android is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Google dropped its touchscreen keyboard software onto the Play store for all Android comers just a little over a month ago and now it appears the Mountain View giant wants to own the tech behind it. A recently surfaced patent application, submitted in January of this year, outlines a method for determining finger placement in conjunction with touchscreen soft key input. And that’s about as deep as the USPTO doc gets. It’s not unfamiliar territory for Google which also filed for a separate patent back earlier this winter that detailed a full-finger, gesture-based touch keyboard — likely for future implementation in tablets or Chromebooks.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Software, Mobile, Google
Source: USPTO
I don’t like using keyboard covers. The ones I’ve tried feel too squishy and don’t fit perfectly. But I get why people would want Befine’s upcoming line of keyboard covers. Made for the Macbook Air, Macbook Pro and the Apple wireless keyboard, the covers will localize keyboards for people who use other characters aside from the ones in the Latin alphabet.
Some of the keyboard layouts include Japanese, Korean, German, Russian and French. The keyboard comes in two designs, one where the Latin alphabet is larger than the non-Latin characters and one where the character types have the same size.
You can browse the full list of supported languages on Befine’s website. The company also said, “It is possible to print your own language with any color you want on the keyboard skin.” I hope that means that people can create their own custom keyboard layout.
[via AVING]
Listen, you probably shouldn’t be here. The iPad is a pure and carefully honed machine. If its designers wanted you to use some kind of ludicrous hybrid contraption that fused a tablet with a physical keyboard and doubled the weight, they’d have built one for you. But they didn’t. So go away and don’t come back until you’ve saved enough money to buy a MacBook Air. (Still here? Good, because we’re about to compare three of the latest iPad keyboard cases: the ClamCase Pro, Logitech’s Folio and Belkin’s Ultimate Keyboard, designed to fit 2nd, 3rd and 4th-gen tablets. Read on for more.)
Gallery: Belkin Ultimate Keyboard Case
Gallery: ClamCase Pro
Gallery: Logitech Keyboard Folio
Filed under: Peripherals, Tablets
Forget SwiftKey and Swype, Google’s bringing its own keyboard to the Android masses. As of today, users looking for an alternative to their OEM or third-party typing solution can head to Play and download the keyboard (supports Android 4.0 and up) for a “Nexus typing experience.” And don’t worry if you’ve gotten used to that swipe-to-text flow on that smartphone or tablet, that’s all still here, though Google calls its implementation Gesture Typing. There’s also access to Voice Typing, word prediction and correction, in addition to dictionary support for 26 languages. So if you’ve been harboring Nexus envy and want to bring that skinned device closer to Google’s pure vision, now you have a partial fix.
Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Google
Source: Android (Google+), Google Play
Logicool is releasing a 9.3mm ultra-thin USB wired keyboard “Logicool Illuminate Keyboard” on June 7.
The illumination intensity of the built-in backlight is adjustable. Since the keyboard is featured with the PerfectStroke key system, typing feels smoother and quieter than regular keyboards. “Logicool Illuminate Keyboard” is less straining on your fingers for a long period of use.
Price is 8,980 yen.
Size: 457 × 190 × 9.3mm
Weight: 1050g
Compliant OS: Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP
Connection: USB
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