Gadgety News

A mini puter shoved inside a keyboard?

That’s what Asus seems to have acheived with their latest typepad.

The standard keyboard that comes with the Eee Top is real nice to use but this wireless offering with a 5-inch touch panel, solid state drive, Wi-Fi, ethernet and connectivity for just about every screen around the house is something else.

That 5-inch touchscreen can be used for shortcuts, media browsing and use as a virtual mouse.

As this is just a prototype at the moment, ASUS were cagey about its potential for market availability but here’s hoping that this kind of ‘all in one’ appears soon

Do you long for the iPhone to be given a real keyboard?

Some would  as others remain happy with the touch-screen style board.

With the aid of some Photoshop craftiness here are some design ideas - but we all have to take into consideration the additional width that a real keyboard would add to the Apple 3Gesus phone.

Please feast your eyeballs with these two wish-list iPhone prototypes.

The first is by Mat Brady named the iPhone Elite and the second — an altered version of Brady’s — by Gizmodo dubbed the iPhone Pro.

Some features include an impossibly thin slide-out keyboard, high-quality camera with an optical zoom, 60GB of storage, a front-facing chat camera, and even Nintendo-esque game controls which, of course, add almost nothing to the thickness of the device…but in the really real world?……………. it aint gonna happen now is it?

Marvel at Brady’s design, the iPhone Elite:

And here’s Gizmodo’s tweaked iPhone Pro (note the additional controls):

Keyboard players.

Ever since joining my first band in 1989 playing such joys as Van Halen’s Jump, Don’t You Forget About Me by Simple Minds and Incommunicado by Marillion, keyboard players have tended to be the most geeky of the band bunch.

They generally had the money, the latest toys and took up the most power points.

It always seemed ironic to me that their gear was second only to the drummers for being unwieldy.  A full size synth in a flightcase is not what I’d call luggable.

Why has it taken so long for something like the VAX77 which logically folds in half (to just 23 inches)?

Connecting to PC and Macs via 16-channel Midi or 64-channel USB, the $2450 VAX77 is not a casual piece of gear.

It touts anodized alluminium controls, uniform pressure springs in each key, modulation/pitch wheel and a 3.5″ LED-backlit touchscreen.

The VAX77 will actually be officially unveiled at NAMM this January.

Infinite Response via OhGizmo!

Check it out gamers!

Logitech has announced that  its G13 Gameboard should be out in a month or so.

Rockin a trio of game modes, a built-in 160 x 43 pixel LCD for stats and messaging, 25 programmable keys, and a programmable joystick, Logitech confidently states that the G13

“offers up to 87 ways for you to control your game.”

It also arrives with pre-configured settings for World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare as well as other top titles.

You can obviously setup custom button-profiles as you please and even create macros on the fly without having to pause your game.

It’s gonna be costing around the £60 mark.

It also appears that we could get its big brother as Engadget Chinese has spotted the G18 keyboard!

They haven’t got much in the way of specs and tings but they did spot the fast function keys on the left side of the board (some which seem to be numbered G11-G15), and the fact that the full board is also packing a tiny display at the center.

GAME ON!! 

Engadget Chinese

I dread to think of the queues that this is going to cause if high-street stores bring this in but if it actually makes my transactions more secure and the threat of fraud lower then chalk me down for one.

This new card from MBNA has a built-in numeric keypad, and when you put in your PIN, it’ll display a security code like the one sites always ask you for now - perhaps you already have one of those small calculator code jobbies for online banking as well?

Hopefully this extra stage will make spending a lot of money with a stolen card significantly harder if not impossible online.

Now, if my next laptop comes with a biometrically secured keypad to go along with my keypad locked hard-drive………………..

LG have now come out and said that there will be a follow up to their fashion fone link with Prada.

There has been the usual leaked pictures around the interweblogsphere and now the manufacturers have finally  admitted defeat and confirmed that the Prada II is in the pipeline.

I’m hoping that other rumours are also true; such as the slidey-out QWERTY board - the text entry on the last one wasn’t fabulous to use.

Euro Prada fans get first dibs and then it will go across the pond to the States.

Not much else is known about this latest installment of Prada - but now it’s been confirmed I’ll be keeping an eye out for you folk

boygeniusreport.com

More retro fun!

This Bendiboard Retroboard Invaders is a flexible roll-up rubber keyboard with a cool difference - it’s covered in Space Invaders!!

How cool is that?!!?

I’d be willing to stump up $40 for one and I think you would as well.

Let’s face it:

• It’s bendy
• it’s got rows of aliens
• it’s got a space key showing the laser gun-base
• you can spill coffee/beer/wine on it safely

What more could you possibly ask for?  How about a digital Space Invaders door mat?

Technabob

Logitech have just announced a trio of new keyboards starting with its thinnest keyboard ever.

The 9.3-mm thin Illuminated Keyboard (pictured) is said to retail at $80 from October.

It features an adjustable backlight, soft-touch palm rest and dedicated multi-media keys for hot, one-handed night typing alone in the dark. No, that’s not a euphomism!!

They also mentioned the portable, 2.4GHz wireless DiNovo Keyboard for Notebooks ($100 also out in October) that boasts an incredible 3-year battery life and then they outed the Cordless Desktop S520 ($60 buy it this month) keyboard and optical mouse combo.

The latter features more of that same impressive power management capable of squeezing out 8 months of usage for the mouse and 15-months for the keyboard.

More Sony-based news from the Leipzig Games Convention!

Sony is said to be launching a wireless keypad attachment for the PS3 that will snap onto the top of your SIXAXIS or DUALSHOCK3 controller into the mini-USB port.

This pad features a “touchpad mode” for mouse input and can be paired with phones and other gadgets via Bluetooth.

Look for a Novemeber launch and it should be available in eight different languages.

Granted, it’s not the prettiest notebook you”ll ever see.

There are also nicer split keyboards out there in the battle against RSI.

But, when you spit that keyboard; there’s only another screen inside!

Yup - two screens folded up into one keyboard.  What would be really neat is if that secondary screen was also a nice glass touch interface in an iPhone stylee.  Just an idea

EKI, the designers, are looking to ship this to OEM’s (Original Equipment Manufacturer) this year. It’s also looking to sell the patents - you fancy that?

If the aesthetics of this notebook are tweeked and made a little slicker I can see it doing well

EKI suggests that OEM manufacturers could sell it for between $1,000 and $2,000 - perhaps after a trip to the stylist?

via Tech Digest

Now, I know what you’re thinking and so does Art Lebedev.

Art Lebedev’s Maximus wasn’t enough for all you lovers of OLED keyboards so they is busting out the new Optimus Pultius innit; adding another 15 keys to the joy - alternatively you can use it all by itself. 

The keys are just like the ones on the Maximus, and there’s even an extra USB port in the back.

Hmmm……….that usb port…….you know what you could do with that?  Oh yeah - link more Pultii (perhaps that’s the plural; I don’t know) together!

No word on price or release date just the vagueness of a 2008/2009 point.

Arts Optimus Livejournal

Fancy tinkling in your jeans pocket?

Well to avoid embarrasment you could do with iAno or Pianist as it is more recently known.

Don’t expect a full keyboard - the iPhone aint THAT big!

What you do get is five key polyphony so you can rattle off Cmaj9s and such thanks to its multi-touch screen.

There’s even soft and sustain pedals or una corda and sostenuto pedals for those more in the know.

via Electric Pig

Sony Korea has unveiled its latest LJ Series laptop, the VGC-LJ25L.

It has a 15.4-inch LCD screen, a built-in camera, microphone and speakers.  

It’s powered by a Core 2 Duo T8100 processor and offers 2GB of RAM and a 200GB HDD and a tiny half-size keyboard.

The board is what they describe as a “holding” keyboard.  It is apparently designed for more efficient use in “narrow spaces” - something that I’ve always looked for. Honest!

The thing is that the odd half board thingy only goes to protect half the screen! 

The price, if you’re in South Korea, is 1,399,000 won.  Roughly £700.

Pocket Lint

If you’re fed up with buying specific keyboards with shortkeys for editing, gaming, recording and the like - here’s a possible solution.

The DX1 is about as customisable a keyboard as you can get.

Alright, you only get 25 keys but this isn’t about replacing a keyboard for another full keyboard. The point is that EVERY key can be placed ANYWHERE on the board, and moved as you feel appropriate.

You’re able to assign shortcuts and macros to each key without having to be worried about how it interacts with multiple programs as it will remember your preferences for each.

You’ll be looking to fork out in the region of £70 but then you’ll have a totallybespoke keyboard for Counter Strike Source, ProTools, etc.   :0)

Coolest Gadgets & UberReview

Ah.  I remember the glory days……….ZX80s and 81s, Spectrums, Vic 20, Atari ST…..none of these needed a tower (ok, some needed a cassette player) but now home puters do.

Not if this design gets the nod.

The PC is all squished into the keyboard!

This is the Cybernet ZPC-GX31.  Under the QWERTY hood lies an Intel Core 2 Quad CPU, 4MB RAM, packs dual display capabilities and even a DVD drive.

Not sure if this would hook up to your tele but whack a slim monitor and you’ll have the compact computer that Mac users tend to taunt us PC’ers with.

Now, most Mac owners I know are of the designery persuasion and, as such, aesthetics are all important.

Minimalist desks, clean lines, design icon chairs - you know the type.

Well this is right up their avenue!  It’s the LowKey Stand from Macessity.

Buit from 0.1085-inch thick steel and coated to coordinate with your machine.  As well as having a hiding place for your slim board it also offers up a powered 4-port USB port.

This pleasing thing will cost you $60.

From the people that brought you their gaming revolutionary Zboard; Ideazon’s back with the altogether sleeker Merc Stealth keyboard.

Instead of a swappable keyset, the Stealth has an extra-wide body with special gaming keys built into the left side.

Basically they give you a second set of the keys that you’re most likely to use when playing FPS-type PC games - such as W, A, S, D, Shift, Space, etc but in a much more user-friendly design.

It means you still use the key presses that are hard-wired into your BFG toting brain, but with less RSI and fewer mistaken keypresses (damn - there goes 2 of my excuses then!).  The W key, for instance, is exactly above the S, unlike on a normal keyboard, and both are much wider than your run of the mill key.

Other features include a backlit keyboard, very cool if you’re playing something scary like F.E.A.R. with the requesite ambience.  The back-lighting can change colour at the press of a button.  Red, blue and purple hues are there so you can match the mood.

Ideazon also bundles in an easy-to-use software tool to assign functions to each key, which brilliantly includes mods for dozens of the most popular games.

The only quibble that I have is that it looks like they have squashed the right-hand side of the keyboard together, so the cursor keys and those you’d normally find above them (Insert, Home, Page Up and so on) are all part of the number pad.  This could be irritating if you plan to use the keyboard for the ‘normal’ functions until you get used to it.

The Ideazon Merc Stealth is available now for around £50 RAH!

There are a variety of portable keyboards out there now from roll up types to the laser projected ones.  But if they appear a tad on the expensive side still and you have an old/spare regaular keyboard hanging around………………

Remove the inner membrane from an unwanted set of keys, make sure the control board is accurately reassembled onto said membrane and cut out letters in the font of your choosing to keep you on track when your touch typing skills begin to fade.

That’s all there is to it.  It’s an amazingly easy and absolutely inelegant method of crafting your own rollable keyboard.  Hit up the read link for all, oh, five steps.

MAKE via Engadget

Flexible Keyboard & Skype Dial Pad with USB Hub.

As it suggests, this is a very bendy, washable (if needs be?!?!) keyboard with a Skype pad, built in microphone and speaker and 2 USB ports.

So you can roll it up and take this multimedia board with you - perhaps a fold up puter and monitor would be also useful. 

This flexiboard retails at $59.99US.

Now, it’s not often I get to post on here about something pink and rubbery………..and here it is!

Now that you’ve breathed a sigh of relief let me get back to the plot.  It is in fact a roll-up, USB keyboard and yes, it is pink!  Kinda reminds of of those ‘Pink Panther’ bars that you used to be able to buy (if anyone is old enough to remember them).

Here’s the selling bit:

If you can’t possibly live without one of these now and have £13 burning a hole in your pocket - hop over to Gadgets.co.uk