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A Glance At 24 Keyboards & Mice

Posted by timothy on from the so-you-don't-have-to dept.

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!

2 of 587 comments (clear)

  1. Did they give them the 'junk food' test? by tinrobot · · Score: 5, Interesting

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

  2. Re:Best Keyboard... by tjansen · · Score: 5, Interesting
    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...