Hasta La Gadget!

You know what’s great? Mechanical keyboards — what with their satisfying clicks. You know what’s less awesome? Having to listen to that obnoxious racket all day. Razer claims you can have your cake (in this case, tactile feedback) and eat it too (blessed silence!) with its BlackWidow Stealth Editions. These are, more or less, the same boards that debuted last August, but with quieter switches and a matte finish. Both models are available now, with the same programmable keys and on-the-fly macro recording, while the Ultimate version adds “extreme anti-ghosting” to its already impressive noise pwnage. The standard model will run you a cool $80, while the Ultimate weighs in at a hefty $140. Check out the gallery below, as well as the PR and video after the break.

Continue reading Razer BlackWidow Stealth keyboards keep the mechanical keys, ditch the noise

Razer BlackWidow Stealth keyboards keep the mechanical keys, ditch the noise originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Welcome to Engadget’s Back to School guide! We know that this time of year can be pretty annoying and stressful for everyone, so we’re here to help out with the heartbreaking process of gadget buying for the school-aged crowd. Today, we’ve got a slew of accessories — and you can head to the Back to School hub to see the rest of the product guides as they’re added throughout the month. Be sure to keep checking back — at the end of the month we’ll be giving away a ton of the gear featured in our guides — and hit up the hub page right here!

Fall’s slowly, but surely creeping back in, and we bet you’ve already started to gather up the necessary gear for your return to the residence hall. Sure, you’ve got the basics covered, with a computer, smartphone, MP3 player and even a tablet at the ready. But wouldn’t it be nice to start the school year off in style with some handy accoutrements to trick out those digital crutches? Let’s face it, you’re going to need a lapdesk buffer zone between you and your laptop’s scorching heat for those countless hours spent churning out term papers. Or, an external hard drive, so you can store those full seasons of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and bring the late night funny to your stressed-out friends. However you manage to make it through the year and snag that 4.0 GPA, we’ve got a selection of accessorized aids to match your collegiate budget. Oh, and don’t forget, we’re giving away $3,000 worth of essential back to school gear to 15 readers, and you can be among the chosen few simply by dropping a comment below! Click on past the break to start browsing.

Continue reading Engadget’s back to school guide 2011: accessories

Engadget’s back to school guide 2011: accessories originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Aug 2011 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Since that whole Revue thing didn’t go over so swimmingly, it looks like Logitech’s going back to its accessory roots, with a manic hope that tablet add-ons are the future. The company just announced a fold-out keyboard for the iPad 2 that’s pretty much what it sounds like: a keyboard split in two whose halves flip out and connect to form a full QWERTY. As you can see in those shots below, you can still use your magical, candy-colored Smart Cover when your iPad is docked. At $129.99, it’s hardly a cheap doo-dad and frankly, we would have hoped for higher quality. In our brief hands-on, the keys felt unstable and stiff — an ideal combination for anyone who thought their iPad needed more chintz. Pre-order it at the source link if you must, though you might do just as well gawking at our pics below.

Logitech announces $130 fold-out keyboard for the iPad, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Aug 2011 10:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Logitech  | Email this | Comments

The K750 soaks up ambient light and can run for months without new AAs or a plug-in charge. Photo courtesy of Logitech

Wireless keyboards are great for keeping your desk clutter-free. But no one wants to make a trip to the store for a fresh pack of Energizers when their keyboard dies.

Enter: Logitech’s Wireless Solar Keyboard K750, now available in a Mac-compatible model.

Essentially, it’s your high school calculator revisited. Solar cells lining the top of the unit use ambient light — desk lamps, fluorescent ceiling bulbs, and even sunlight for the old-school types — to charge the keyboard. Once set up, it runs without interruption so long as there’s at least some illumination. On a full charge, the K750 can run for three months in complete darkness.

The keyboard has the standard OS X layout with shortcut keys, and each key cap is slightly concave for pleasant typing patter. Choose either all black, or Apple white, with the option of three candy colors to accent the solar panels.

Along with eliminating all of that earth-killing battery waste, the K750 is made without PVC and arrives in a fully recyclable box. Mother Gaia would be proud of you.

It’s been something of a long time coming, this emboldened Bold. We got our first glimpse of the thing in February, spent some quality time with it back in June, and since then have sat around eagerly awaiting its release. Now, here it is. From a distance, or at a quick glance, it looks little changed from 2008’s Bold 9000. But get closer, pick it up, and the difference is astonishing.

RIM has gone to great pains to talk up this device’s high-end design, its luxurious stylings, its sophisticated aesthetic. We’re far from Vertu territory here, but the first time this phone hits your palm you know a lot of people spent a lot of time making it feel just right — even if it still looks just the same. Of course, it’s what’s inside that counts, so join us as we find out whether the soft and hard bits beneath the surface can do the business too.

Continue reading BlackBerry Bold 9930 review

BlackBerry Bold 9930 review originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Aug 2011 09:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments