A Glance At 24 Keyboards & Mice

robyn217 writes "Hey, KBs and mice aren't the most glamorous hardware in your system but there's no reason for them to be dull. I spent the last month testing out a new keyboard and mouse every day; covering everything from strange one-handed KBs to cool gesture-sensing pads to tacky ball-based mice. Check it out if you're thinking about trading up." Strictly one-paragraph blurbs here (I wish she'd talked about each keyboard's tactile feedback, and long-term comfort on the oddball designs), but if you need to do a visual scan of current offerings (many wireless), you can work toward a new mouse by clicking your way through. Update: 01/21 21:58 GMT by T : Errr, Robyn's a He, not a She -- many apologies. That hasn't happened in years!

Comments

Did they give them the 'junk food' test?

[tinrobot]

You know, the real world tests, like how does the keyboard perform after spilling a Red Bull all over it?

wireless?

[spoonyfork]

I hate short-life batteries and I hate losing stuff. I can hear it now... "Mommy, where's the mouse?"
Wireless keyboards and mice aren't going to find their way into my den any time soon.

Re:Best Keyboard...

[tjansen]

A lot is wrong with PS/2:

• PS/2 is not hotpluggable. It is possibly to short-circuit your motherboard and fry your controller (not likely, but I saw at least one broken mobo after a failed hotplug attempt)
  
• It is stupid to have a separate kind of port for each peripheral. There are already more than enough (serial&parallel ports, firewire, gameport, and analog audio in/outs should die as well, and in the long term there should be only one for network and peripherals)
  
• Some people want more than one keyboard or mice/trackballs/graphics tablets. So should a system come with 5 PS/2 ports just for the case? Unlike USB you have no chance to add more PS/2 ports.
  
• Even though they look identical the system has two separate ports for keyboard and mouse. Why? There is no logical reason (except bad engineering) for this, and definitely does not help usability
  
• PS/2 devices are not good at identifying themselves. With USB a OS can identify the device type and load drivers automatically from the net.
  

>>How the fcuk I am supposed to connect 8 usb devices on a 3 port USB card without a USB hub ?

I agree that even today systems have not enough USB ports. 10 should be a minimum.
But what's your problem? Try connecting 8 keyboards to three PS/2 ports...

Re:Kinesis fan

[Dixie_Flatline]

I own 3 Kinesis keyboards myself. I recently got an Advantage USB for my Mac at home, and I use a normal essential at work. I have an essential at home that I used for years, but now needs a good cleaning before it'll work reliably again.

There are lots of people that swear by them, and I'm one of them. However, I'll tell you the real secret of the Kinesis keyboards:

Ctrl, Alt, PgUp, PgDown, Home, End, Backspace, Delete, Space and Return are all thumb keys. That's right, there're 12 keys that are actuated with your thumbs, and they're keys that you use all day long. Once you learn the joy of never having to hit the return key with your pinky, or being able to backspace quickly with your thumb without moving your hand, you'll never go back. Personally, I think it would have been cool if one of the thumb keys had been a shift key, but that probably would have been a bit cumbersome.

I bought a kinesis after someone talked about it on slashdot in the comments. Hopefully, someone out there will also visit www.kinesis-ergo.com and give one of their keyboards a try. You won't regret it, despite the price. If you spend all day typing, you owe it to yourself to have a keyboard that's comfortable and ergonomic. Seriously, I enjoy typing now more than I ever have in the past.