Hasta La Gadget!

After nearly a month of beta testing, SwiftKey Cloud is now ready for the masses. Now in final form, the popular Android keyboard can backup and sync customizations across devices, and it can even learn phrases that are trending across the globe. Thanks to one-click authorization, it’s now easier for SwiftKey to learn phrases from your Facebook and Gmail accounts, and it can also now tap into Yahoo Mail. You’ll also find more responsive Flow predictions in the final version, along with some Emoji fixes. SwiftKey Cloud arrives as part of SwiftKey 4.2, which is available as a free update to current users. The app is also available for a free 30-day trial, but for a limited time, you can also snag the paid version for $2.99 / £1.49, which rings in at half off the regular price. Certainly worth checking out if the stock Android keyboard is no longer cutting it.

Filed under: Software, Mobile

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Tablets! They’re everywhere you look, and fast replacing PCs, which are suffering dwindling sales. But just because tablets are rising in popularity doesn’t mean enterprise IT departments should go all-in on touch based interfaces. A new Forrester report suggests that people want keyboards with their tablets, however, which makes sense because no matter what anyone says typing on a software keyboard can’t possibly beat using a full-sized notebook QWERTY, in any of all possible universes.

Forrester’s survey of over 1,000 information workers across the U.S. and Europe found that 62 percent of them who either currently or would like to use a tablet at work also want a wireless keyboard, or keyboard dock attachment to use with them. 35 percent want a convertible laptop device, and another 34 percent say they’d like to use tablets where needed and then just switch back to a standard computer when doing plenty of typing.

That’s potentially good news for the non-Apple tablet market, since OEMs like Asus and Xplore (which just ranked third in a tablet vendor survey aimed at business by ABI research) that make tablet devices with alternate form factors and keyboard attachments. But before Microsoft reads too much into this in terms of seeing it as a bright spot for Surface tablets, it needs to go look at the sales and performance of those devices, and Windows RT in particular, and realize that no. Just no.

This is probably better news for makers of tablet-specific keyboard accessories – there’s likely a huge market to be had just selling into enterprise and business settings to help outfit current iPad deployments with the keyboards workers crave. Also, there’s room for a true category-bridging device to make waves yet.

Those who spend any significant amount of time every day at their desk know the discomfort that can result from an improper work setup, whether it be a stiff back or a pinched nerve. Such was reflected in a Healthy Computing Survey conducted by Microsoft, which it made available today to coincide with the launch […]

Microsoft has pursued ever more exotic shapes in the name of comfort. Its new Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop might just take the cake, however. The all-wireless bundle’s centerpiece, the Sculpt Ergonomic Keyboard, centers around a U-shaped layout that keeps wrists in more natural positions; there’s also a cushioned palm rest and a separate number pad. Its companion Sculpt Ergonomic Mouse, meanwhile, relies on a gently sloped design that allows for a Start screen shortcut and a tilting scroll wheel. Both the Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop and a stand-alone version of the mouse should ship this month at respective prices of $130 and $60, while the keyboard will fly solo this September for $81.

If your forearms don’t need quite so much coddling, Microsoft is also putting its Sculpt Comfort Keyboard and Sculpt Comfort Mouse together in one kit. The not-so-creatively titled Sculpt Comfort Desktop (shown after the break) drops the number pad and uses more conventional shapes across the board, with the exception of the mouse’s swipe-driven touch tab. We suspect many who buy the Comfort Desktop this month will most like its $80 price — it’s a better deal than the Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop for those who only need the fundamentals.

Filed under: Desktops, Peripherals, Microsoft

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Via: Windows Experience Blog

Source: Microsoft (1), (2)

Logitech has released the TK820 keyboard which comes with a large integrated keypad. Designed with Windows 8 in mind (it works on Win7 too), the TK820 lets you perform the new 13 gestures that make Windows 8 tick. It is built to feel like a comfortable laptop trackpad and provides the room you need to pinch&zoom, slide or swipe. Heavy laptop users may have to get used to the fact that the trackpad is no longer in the middle, but on the right side of the keyboard. (more…)

Logitech TK820 Keyboard With Touchpad original content from Ubergizmo.