Hasta La Gadget!

Would you believe that Acer is working on a frameless laptop with touchscreen keyboard? As far-fetched as the idea might be, it’s certainly plausible, expected even. The idea, as rumored by DigiTimes, involves doing away with the display’s frame by printing colors directly onto the back of the display’s reinforced glass substrate from Corning (a la Gorilla Glass presumably). Coupled with a touchscreen keyboard, the rumored device should be impossibly thin by traditional laptop comparisons. Keep in mind that we’ve already seen this Frame Zero concept pictured above from Fujitsu and Acer’s arch-rival ASUS has been showing off its dual-display laptop prototype with touchscreen keyboard for months. Even the OLPC XO-3 plans to eschew the clickity keyboard in favor of a touchscreen version. And anyone who has ever seen a scifi movie knows that tactile keyboards and display bezels have no role to play in our computing future anyway, so we might as well get things started now — or in the second half of 2010 according to DigiTimes‘ sources.

Acer working on frameless laptop with touchscreen keyboard? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 05:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  DigiTimes  | Email this | Comments

It’s becoming startlingly apparent that in the future buttons will be obsolete. Their kind are being systematically eradicated by high-brow designers worldwide, most recent being Kazuo Kawasaki at Minebea, who has created Cool Leaf. It’s basically a mirrored surface with backlit keys and a capacitive coating, creating a beautiful appearance that looks decidedly not-fun to use, particularly that keyboard (stylishly dubbed “Φ-QWERTY”). But, it is practical in some respects, thanks to the whole thing being waterproof and easily cleaned. So these might indeed be the keyboards of the future — for doctors and nurses, anyway.

Cool Leaf input devices create the keyboard of the future circa 1982 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Gizmodo  |  Minebea  | Email this | Comments

Continue reading Rapoo 2900 wireless keyboard sports touchpad, Bluetooth, and that ineffable Rapoo charm

Rapoo 2900 wireless keyboard sports touchpad, Bluetooth, and that ineffable Rapoo charm originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Ubergizmo  |  Brando  | Email this | Comments

British firm Pelikon was showing off its MorphPad technology at MWC this month, undoubtedly hoping to score some interest from representatives of handset manufacturers who just happened to be wandering the show floor — but this isn’t just any old morphing keyboard, you see. Not only can the board be dynamically reconfigured by backlighting different portions of the keys — the entire surface of the thing doubles as a touchpad, which you can probably imagine has virtually limitless utility in a mobile device where the space for a true touchpad simply doesn’t exist. Pelikon already works with Toshiba on its domestic-market Biblio, but we’d love to see it hit devices around the world — in fact, we wouldn’t really mind if they just released this prototype they’re showing as a Bluetooth accessory. diNovo Mini competitor, anyone? Follow the break for video of the touch-enabled MorphPad in action.

Continue reading Pelikon’s MorphPad demoed, combines touchpad, morphing keyboard into one awesome rectangle

Pelikon’s MorphPad demoed, combines touchpad, morphing keyboard into one awesome rectangle originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Mar 2010 08:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  mobile-review  | Email this | Comments

We can’t count the number of times that we’ve longed for our Insert, Home, Page Up, Delete, End and Page Down buttons to be replaced with an angled slab of plastic, but obviously we’re in a pretty small minority. Matias has just issued its USB 2.0 keyboard + smartphone stand, which essentially carves out a slice of keyboard real estate for your phone to sit, though no passthrough USB cable / iPhone dock connector is provided for charging. The purpose? To put all of your mobile apps right at your fingertips, because keeping said phone on your desk is just completely and utterly unacceptable. Oh, and did we mention that the layout itself is nothing special? If you see something we don’t, feel free to part with your $49.95 and smile while thinking “I told you so.”

Update: Documentation about the keyboard indicated that “custom keypad and trackpad apps” could be loaded on to “control your Mac,” which certainly makes this more appealing, but unfortunately details on that are scant.

Matias makes room for your smartphone on an otherwise vanilla keyboard originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Matias  | Email this | Comments