http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/ Engadget Comments for New Standard Keyboard's 53-keyer http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/Dec 19th 2005 2:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/Dec 19th 2005 2:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/Dec 19th 2005 2:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/
Can I plug my chording keyboard and my VR glove into this one's USB ports?]]>Dec 19th 2005 2:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/Dec 19th 2005 2:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/Dec 19th 2005 2:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/Dec 19th 2005 2:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/Dec 19th 2005 2:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/Dec 19th 2005 2:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/
and this reminds me of the Steven Wright quote (though he is often misquoted... so maybe not) :

"Why is the alphabet in that order? Is it because of that song?"]]>Dec 19th 2005 2:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/
Shaun is right, there's no space key... D'oh!]]>Dec 19th 2005 2:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/Dec 19th 2005 2:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/Dec 19th 2005 2:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/Dec 19th 2005 2:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/Dec 19th 2005 2:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/?]]>Dec 19th 2005 2:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/
It wasn't, that's an urban legend. It was basically as you say - the main problem was that if you made a mistake (as people often do) and hit two adjacent keys by mistake, you'd have to take your hands off the keyboard and unhook the keys from each other.

My mother used to have an old striker style typewriter so I have some experience with this.

The end result was that qwerty keyboards actually sped up typing speeds because errors no longer took 10-15 seconds to fix. If you made an adjacent key error on a qwerty typewriter, the arms might both fly up towards the paper, but they'd never really get close to each other before you caught the error and took your hands off the keys.

There's nothing any more intuitive about an abc keyboard than a qwerty keyboard; both have to be learned. Once you learn qwerty, it's no slower than alphabetic. I know when I've tried to type on alphabetic keyboards lately I'm like... well, like somebody who doesn't know how to type.

Thus ends our history lesson for the day.
]]>Dec 19th 2005 2:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/Dec 19th 2005 2:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/
Anyway, the rest of my post still applies.]]>Dec 19th 2005 2:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/
The problem wouldn't have appeared if the mechanism (key "risers") had not been the one used. But the only reason they used that particular mechanism was that the manufacturer had craploads of triggers for riffles and decided to use them for the typewriters.

Thanks Remington.

G.]]>Dec 19th 2005 2:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/
You know if they plan to sell the above alphabetic keyboard, they should have some basic typing trainer software built in as to assist in quicker typing.]]>Dec 19th 2005 2:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/
but this qwerty will never be as good on portables where people most likely will use too fingers b/c using qwerty doesnt make u change hands enough, in fact it would benefit desktop and laptop to have another system that spread the most common and mostly commonly together letters on opposite hands, othewise there still will be "teh" and the like]]>Dec 19th 2005 2:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/Dec 19th 2005 2:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/Dec 19th 2005 2:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/Dec 19th 2005 2:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/
oh well....i had learnt to type as fast on a Dvorak as i was on qwerty, good thing is i can use both now :-P..maybe I should get some practice on the ABC keyboard too]]>Dec 19th 2005 2:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/
Now DVORAK makes more sense as it was actually designed to speed things up. So I would get a Dvorak before this.

The reform I would like to see is more ergonomic layout, removal of the keypad which gets in the way of the mouse.

Maybe ABC is good for someone with alzhiemers that can't learn anything new, but I am betting it is not the fastest layout for a typist capable of learning a layout.

I also predict a fast death to this idea.

]]>Dec 19th 2005 2:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/
Just imagine: instead of the WASD layout, Counter-Strike players will use the BEFG layout, jump using the caps key, while making sure not to accidentaly pressing the weird blue button, select their weapons using.... OH shit! no keys to select your weapons. This keyboard is so wrong it could be released with the Phantom console.

I actually would like to have more keys and functionnality on a new keyboard than to be literally handicaped like that.

What a shame, they completely left gamers apart and that could reveal to be a huge mistake. As part of my job, I have to seek out new interesting products and innovations and I can easily predict that no gamers want this product.

Unless you are masochist and wish to add an extra level of difficulty to Far Cry (wich you dont want).]]>Dec 19th 2005 2:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/Dec 19th 2005 2:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/check out http://www.typematrix.com/dvorak/ if you are looking for a hardwired board that can switch between the two with a size similar to the one above.]]>Dec 19th 2005 2:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/Dec 19th 2005 2:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-keyboards-53-keyer/The transposition of the letters dfjk with etni on a standard keyboard increases the amount of text typed from the four keys under the middle and index fingers by five times, from 7.5% to 37%. While not as efficient as the Dvorak keyboard, it is much easier to learn. The transposed keys remain under the same fingers, the transition can be thought out without benifit of a keyboard map. For those who might worry that they will not be able to go back to qwerty, the experience of many Dvorak users is that a typist can be bikeybordal. The letters etni are fairly easy to get used to but you may find yourself trying to type dfjk from their old locations.

I have found a keyboard remapping program that is free, downloads quickly and is very easy to use. I am typing this post on a keyboard remapped to the etni transposition layout.
The program is called 'Keytweak 2.11' and can be googled up by that name. It is available from several sites, includeing PC magazine. The creator of the program is Travis Krumsick.

After you have loaded the program hit start.
Click the keytweak icon and a graphic of a keyboard will appear.
Click the 'Full teach mode' at the bottom of the screen.
A box will appear. Click 'begin teach mode'.
Press the key you want to reassign, then the key you want it reassigned to. In this case d and e.
Click 'remap key#1 to key#2'
The box will disappear and the scancodes of the keys will appear in the 'pending changes' window at the bottom right.
Follow the same procedure for the remaining seven remaps.
Click 'apply' and you will be asked if you want to turn off the computer to apply the changes.
At the top there is also a clickable 'restore defaults' to give you back your qwerty layout.
The whole process takes less than five minutes.

A few days ago I came upon a post in 'hardware forum' that Typingmaster 6.3 supports etni.

]]>Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM