Tag: keyboard

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Computing

Touchscreen vs. Touchpad?

Day two of using the Apple Magic Trackpad.

For content producers, those who generate content, code, create – this seems more effective an answer to touch screens.

A touch screen is useful when you consume. When you play, when you read, when you interact passively, more or less. Yes, drawing on a touchscreen looks cool, but resolution is probably an issue.

ANYWAY, the main problem with touch screens when you actually work, is simply lifting your arms. Reaching out. It takes time, removes you from the keyboard (yup, no voice controls yet). That slows you down. 

What Apple did with the trackpad is to put that touch capability right next to where your hands are. So yes, it is not that cool or innovative. And unlike touch screens you will have the learning curve of getting all the gestures right. It's worth it. For now, it appears pretty darn practical. 

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General

iPad with Keyboard

Got this Bluetooh keyboard this evening for $20. So far, it’s working pretty well. My first impressions:

  1. Connecting to the iPad was quick and easy.
  3. Select, copy and paste work pretty much like they would on the Mac. Arrows are used in text field as you would on the desktop/laptop
  4. You still use your finger to tap around.

Hope it keeps working…

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Categories
Computing Consumer

You get what you paid for: Inland Pro Wireless 2.4 Ghz Optical Mouse and Keyboard Combo

One of my Christmas vacation goals was to set up an old
desktop computer as a media center device (running Boxee). More on
that when I’m done with the effort. To control the machine I was
looking for an affordable wireless keyboard and mouse solution. I
found a cheap Inland combo at MicroCenter. It uses RF so it should
be able to work with the barely hidden computer. So I thought. And
for $20 it’s a deal. Well, you get what you pay for. On looks alone
the keyboard and mouse are handsome and the USB transmitter is of
the cool tiny kind, and barely visible. Touching the devices gives
the right impression. Cheap and flimsy. To get to the tiny
transmitter you need to remove the battery cover from the mouse and
pull it out of a dedicated compartment. Quite nifty except for the
fact that the mouse cover is flimsy and does not pull off gently.
Eventually everything was in place. What makes this a bad accessory
is that it fails to do either of its jobs. The keyboard barely
manages to send key strokes to the computer. Even a 4 year old
typing with a single finger was too fast. And that’s when the key
strokes even registered. Normally something was off with the
connectivity. Changing batteries did nothing to improve matters.
The mouse did not fare any better. It did not ‘wake’ from wait
state until it was moved roughly and even then lost reception. Not
very helpful. Clearly this goes back to the store. Since it did not
harm the machine it is not the worst. But useless overall.

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