keyboards
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Casio booth tour
How did Casio, arguably best known for its calculators and watches (and those cool little programmable synths that to this day no church choir goes without), hold its own against its more massive booth brethren? One word for you: bull. Click on for more action from the Casio rodeo tour.
Razer introduces feature-packed keyboard with iPod dock
Is that plain-jane Apple Keyboard starting to feel a little lax in the feature department? Do you find yourself wanting for, say, 10 programmable hotkeys and dedicated iTunes control keys? How does a built-in iPod dock sound, with an audio line out port for the ultimate in keyboard luxury and integration?If your keyboard juices are 'a flowin, check out the new Pro|Type™ Multimedia Keyboard from Razer Pro|Solutions, a decked-out keyboard with all the fixins, except a cup holder. No pricing or availability has been announced, but we'll let you know as soon as we hear when you'll have yet another option for keeping your iPod front and center in your life.[via iLounge]
THE WAR AGAINST THE CAPS LOCK KEY IS ON
We've seen our fair share of battles in the consumer electronics industry, but this war is distinctly different than those waged in courtrooms or even conference centers, as the focal point here isn't a person, company, or even an entity. Pieter Hintjens is rounding up his troops in order to bring about a change that's most improbable: to have the Caps Lock key retired, permanently. Although some of you may chuckle at the idea and deem it unworthy of such an effort, we can imagine Pieter isn't alone in his disdain for the awkward key. Judging solely by the rate at which fellow petitioners are claiming their allegiance on the CAPSoff website, there are indeed an army of haters gaining strength. The group's mission is to awaken the public and get them to seriously think about the precious keyboard real estate that is so unfairly utilized by the (nearly) worthless uppercasing shortcut. Hintjens is a man on a mission, but he's keeping a cool head, and by offering up alternatives that could hopefully appease both camps, some sort of resolution can presumably be found; he has suggested that Caps Lock be relocated beside Scroll Lock, so that Fortran programmers (about the only folks on the planet aside from Nigerian email scammers who use this key with any frequency) can still have access to quick uppercasing. Now that you've been briefed, and you're fully aware of what's at stake, there's really only one question that remains: will you just sit around and gawk, or will you fight for CAPSoff?[Via Slashdot]
Waterproof, rollable keyboard from Kimura
So we haven't really seen a whole lot of people unfurling those rollable keyboards in public -- not because they look rather silly, but because they're almost as much of a pain in the ass to type on as those almost unusable virtual laser keyboards. Well, a Japanese company known as the Kimura Metal Industrial Corporation thinks that it may have just the 'board to overcome people's aversion to these products in the form of the waterproof eMARK Super Mobile Keyboard, whose vinyl coating should ward off even the nastiest coffee spills. Ranging in height from just one millimeter to five millimeters at its thickest point, the eMARK SMK features a retractable USB cable and comes in your choice of black or white. Again, we'll take a folding Bluetooth 'board over one of these models any day of the week, but if you're looking to get your roll on, you can pick one of these up later this month --in Japan, at least -- for the bargain basement price of only 2,980 yen (about $26).
Microsoft demos SideShow-enabled products at WinHEC
Microsoft seems to have big plans for their SideShow auxiliary display technology -- besides the laptop and remote control implementations we've been expecting, they're also using the software for products that we didn't even know we needed, such as digital photo frames that overlay the picture with IMs and Outlook data. The frame, which is being manufactured by a company called A Living Picture, was one of three devices that Microsoft's senior project manager for Windows Client Greg Graceffo showed off at today's Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC), along with a modified Logitech G15 gaming keyboard and a universal remote from Exceptional Innovations. EI's remote, which will launch at the same time as Vista (whenever that is), looks particularly promising, as it allows the user to view program guides, RSS feeds, and other infoswag on the same gadget that can control both home theater equipment and home automation devices. As for the keyboard, well, keep reading if you're interested in seeing what an Outlook appointment looks like on a three-line LCD...
