Hasta La Gadget!

A new keyboard concept from the unproved Guru-board, dubbed Miniguru, could certainly shake up a few things if it hits the market. The basic idea is to keep your fingers from leaving the home row, with special modifier keys to move you through three “layers” of functions. Hold down the modifier with a free thumb and you get the JKLI keys turned into arrows, and the capslock into control. Naturally you can configure this in software to your heart’s content (or just do this in software without a fancy new keyboard, if you’re a rebel like that), hopefully without causing too much harm to your poor, inflexible fingers. The mouse nub is also designed to keep you keyboard-centric, but it can be removed in the highly-custom sales configuration panel, which also works in an option to choose between three different switch parts, a multitude of colors and the existence of keycap symbols. That custom bit sounds a little like optimism on the part of a company that hasn’t shipped anything yet, but we’re rooting for this one to make it to market someway or other, if just out curiosity.

Guru’board’s Miniguru keyboard aims to keep you on the home row, might take some getting used to originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Jan 2010 21:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Attention iPhone owners that have been praying for a physical keyboard forever: your prayers have been answers… kind of. Ion Audio has debuted its iType iPhone keyboard at CES, and we can confirm that it does indeed work as advertised. Once you pop your iPhone or iPod touch into the dock at the top of the board, you’re free to type away to your heart’s content — if you’re in the iType app, of course. Unfortunately, because of the closed nature of most of the iPhone platform, you can’t just start typing in any iPhone app; you have to type in the iType app and then copy and paste to the app you want. It’s surely an annoyance, but if you’re sick of the soft keyboard and need some relief, it’s your best option for now.

iType keyboard brings a physical keyboard to the iPhone, but there’s a catch originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re not going so far as to suggest that this here patent application foreshadows the kind of keyboard that’ll be on a certain Apple tablet that may or may not be real, but if the suits in Cupertino do actually have such a device in the works, they’d be silly to not apply this technology to it. Dug up by Apple Insider, the latest app details a multitouch tactile keyboard that would boast a dynamic surface for helping typists keep track of where they’re at on the board. Essentially, the surface would utilize an “articulating frame” in order to raise and retract bumps to make typing without physical keys a wee bit easier, and while we’re certain that it would take some getting used to, it’s bound to be simpler than banging on a static surface that requires your eyes to be on it. Don’t go getting your hopes up, though — wouldn’t want to get them crushed when late January brings you an iPod touch with a camera, now would you?

Latest Apple patent app details multitouch tactile keyboard originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Dec 2009 04:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Modder mods new fangled wireless keyboard to look like old timey one

Modder mods new fangled wireless keyboard to look like old timey one originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One-handed touchscreen typing is the hip new thing, apparently, since mere weeks after getting our first whiff of Swype, Tiki’Labs has debuted its own free TikiNotes app for the iPhone with a proprietary “large target” sort of keyboard. We’ve seen the idea before, specifically with some accessibility devices, which lets the user drill down into one of six alphabet sectors, and then pick one of six characters. TikiNotes improves upon that by not only predicting the word you’re currently typing, but also often correctly guessing the next word you were planning on typing. To be honest, we find that second feature just a little depressing — all that money the government spent on our two years of high school education and we still form sentences like everybody else — but certainly useful (Tiki’Labs claims a 40% success rate). We tried out the free app for a couple of minutes and found it more akin to a Brain Age-type exercise than a typing utility, but we’re sure we could get used to it. What we can’t get used to, however, is how hilariously great it is that Tiki’Labs spliced a Swype demo video (originally pitted against the iPhone keyboard) to serve as a typing race example… and still only barely squeaked through with the victory. It can be found after the break, naturally. The app will be available on Windows Mobile and Android soon.

Continue reading Tiki’Labs virtual keyboard for iPhone takes shot at Swype, one-handed typing wars commence

Tiki’Labs virtual keyboard for iPhone takes shot at Swype, one-handed typing wars commence originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Dec 2009 10:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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