Hands-on with ASUS’ Eee Keyboard

Remember that Eee Keyboard that was announced during CES? ASUS did itself proud by bringing a few to CeBIT this year, and we were able to swing by and take a look. The 5-inch, 800 x 480 touchpad was looking mighty fine, and the Atom N270 within seemed plenty powerful. It’s a touch hard to believe that ASUS was able to shove a 16GB SSD, 1GB of RAM, WiFi and Bluetooth modules, VGA / HDMI ouputs and a few USB 2.0 ports within a slim, elegant keyboard, but somehow or another it did. Oh, and the actual typing experience wasn’t bad from the few moments we spent practicing this here post.

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Hands-on with ASUS’ Eee Keyboard originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Mar 2009 04:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gigabyte lays out new mice and keyboards for CeBIT debut

We already knew that Gigabyte was planning a few netbook launches here in Hannover, but now we’re receiving word that a number of new mice and keyboards should also be on display. First up is the GM-M8000 laser gaming mouse, which boasts a 4,000dpi sensor, a scaling-designated switching button, five other programmable buttons, an ergonomic design and a trio of profiles for storing different macro settings for different titles or users. Next up is the GM-M7800S wireless critter (pictured above), which tops out at 1,600dpi resolution but sports a leather coating along with Swarovski crystals. Closing things off are the multimedia-centric GK-K6800 and ultrathin GK-K7100 keyboards, both of which are blessed with copious amounts of hotkeys and an appropriately placed Shift button. Mum’s the word on price, but hopefully we’ll learn more once CeBIT opens its doors. Full release is after the break.

Continue reading Gigabyte lays out new mice and keyboards for CeBIT debut

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Gigabyte lays out new mice and keyboards for CeBIT debut originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Mar 2009 05:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Geek-Friendly Fashion: The Keybag

Keybag.jpg

Looking for the perfect geek-friendly fashion accessory to wear to your next LAN party? Something to complement your Heart Meter Shirt, on-trend laptop sleeve, and USB Engagement Ring? Consider the Keybag.

Created by Portuguese designers Joao Sabino and Mario Belem, each Keybag is clad in 393 randomly arranged old keyboard keys. The high-tech handbags come in four different colors and seem particularly apt for for toting your portable gadgets around.

Keybags are available in black or white for approximately $165 each and red or pink for approximately $185 each.

Video: Apple’s iPhone and Bluetooth keyboard get together, have a good ole time

Not that we’ve never seen a jailbroken iPhone get cozy with a keyboard before, but this is just a match made in heaven. Not according to those who matter in Cupertino, mind you, but since when have you renegade hackers cared about those folks? The video waiting down in the read link shows off an Apple Bluetooth keyboard interacting with an iPhone 3G, but it seems that you’ll have to wait a bit longer before the general public gets instructions / files / etc. in order to replicate.

[Thanks, Ralf]

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Video: Apple’s iPhone and Bluetooth keyboard get together, have a good ole time originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 Feb 2009 19:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Movie Gadget Friday: Brazil

Ariel Waldman contributes Movie Gadget Friday, where she highlights the lovable and lame gadgets from the world of cinema.

We last left off Movie Gadget Friday on board the Icarus II in the near-futuristic film of Sunshine. This week we transition from space travel to a totalitarian, 20th century, terrorist-ridden society in Terry Gilliam’s Brazil. A hybrid between the sexy saxophone solos and gender role reversals of the 1980’s with the “Keep Calm and Carry On” culture of the 1940’s and 50’s, this film dabbles between reality and a dream-like state.


Cyborg Typewriter

This “handhold” device clamps around your hand and five fingers for allowing typing speeds upwards of 150 wpm. Wired between stereo headphones and a flat touch-sensor keyboard, the brace around the hand augments the user’s typing accuracy and pace. The exposed wires act as inputs from any user-received audio and mechanically command via electric impulses exact transcripts to be typed out. The system is spoken-language friendly and can determine onomatopoeias, thus eliminating Google-like “did you mean…?” behavior. While it may make a secretary job more efficient, we have to wonder if the inevitable constant hand cramps are worth it. More after the break.

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Movie Gadget Friday: Brazil originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Feb 2009 23:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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OCZ expands Alchemy line with Illuminati backlit keyboard

OCZ Technology’s Elixir keyboard was fine and dandy, but let’s face it — it’s pretty hard to beat the awesomeness of a keyboard with lights. Today, the company is expanding its Alchemy peripheral line with the Illuminati multimedia keyboard, a board with rubber coated keys, fourteen quick launch buttons and the choice of two backlit colors (red or blue, naturally). OCZ promises that the keys can withstand over five million cycles, and given its USB 2.0 port, it should play nice with just about any machine you jam it into. Regrettably, the company has failed to divulge a price here, but it’s supposedly “attainable on all budgets” — whatever that means.

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OCZ expands Alchemy line with Illuminati backlit keyboard originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Micro Innovations’s bamboo lineup might just save the world… from generic computer peripherals

Our Panda-like obsession with bamboo is really paying off of late, what with the hundreds of bamboo ASUS laptops scattered around the Engadget HQ, the few dozen cubicles we’ve built out of Dell Studio Hybrid sleeves, and now this complete line of bamboo peripherals from Micro Innovations. Sure, they’re ugly and a little low on tech — the speakers, card reader, webcam, USB hub, keyboard and mouse couldn’t be any more generic in specifications — and as far as we can tell there’s nothing particularly “green” about the typical-seeming internals, but apparently the (undisclosed) pricing is right. Most of this stuff should be available through your electronics retailer of choice in April or May.

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Micro Innovations’s bamboo lineup might just save the world… from generic computer peripherals originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Study finds horrible working conditions at Microsoft, Dell ODM factory

Despite the fact that the world economy is suffering from cutbacks in nearly every job sector, factory workers in places such as the Meitai factory in Dongguan City, Guangdong, China — which assembles and produces keyboards for companies including Lenovo, Microsoft, Dell, HP and IBM — have been relatively insulated from the downturn, and their jobs secure. The National Labor Committee has conducted a covert operation to investigate the working conditions at the factory, however, and found them to be less than acceptable. The workers — who arguably are not compensated very well to begin with — are cheated out of wages for negligible wrongdoing, forced into overtime, fed food that even a Dickens character would refuse, work twelve hours a day seven days a week, and sleep in dorms which are “primitive” (yes, workers live at the factory). The report that the NLC has compiled is quite long, detailed, depressing, and begins, ironically, with a Bill Gates quote. Hit the read link for the full story.

Update: It looks like the source material at the read links is only working intermittently.

[Via Boing Boing]

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Study finds horrible working conditions at Microsoft, Dell ODM factory originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Feb 2009 09:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LG’s LBA-C300 Bluetooth ‘QWERTY Card’ is the best calculator look-alike you’ve seen all week

We could just hug LG for this one. The LBA-C300, which just ran by the FCC, is the texting equivalent of a Bluetooth headset — a Bluetooth device that allows you to operate your phone without actually pulling out your phone, except this time it’s for hitting your peeps with rapidly a rapidly composed “LOL” or “LOL, U R.” The generous keyboard looks incredibly typable, and while the entire unit borders on the size of some phones on the market, it means you can leave that bulky numeric keypad dumbphone or hard-to-use touchscreen smartphone in your pocket or bag and get some real communication done with the QWERTY Card. You can also view and store contact info, peep a clock, set an alarm and work you calendar from the device — the Bluetooth pairing means you can even remotely control your phone’s camera, though obviously much of this functionality depends on what phone you pair it with, LG phones are likely to get much better treatment. No word on release date or price, but we’ll probably know more once LG actually announces the device officially.

[Via Unwired View]

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LG’s LBA-C300 Bluetooth ‘QWERTY Card’ is the best calculator look-alike you’ve seen all week originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Feb 2009 11:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Geek Your Lawn: Keyboard Stepping Stones

keyboard stepping stones.jpg

Spring will be here soon enough. Got any plans to geek out your yard this year?

Here’s an idea: Embed a keyboard in the front lawn, as seen by Flickr user jasoneppink in Ekaterinburg, Russia. At the very least, it’ll make for an interesting game of hopscotch: Q-W-E-R-T-Y…

[via Unplggd]