Oh! Gizmo

By Shane McGlaun

I have been traveling with my notebook many times and wished I had an external keyboard with me. This happens even more frequently now that I use a netbook with an even smaller keyboard and a tiny track pad.

Econo-Keys has announced a new portable keyboard called the EK-76-TP that offers 76 keys including 12 function keys in a small keyboard measuring in at 8.91-inches x 3.54-inches x 0.38-inch. The keyboard is also rugged and is sealed to IP67 standards making it resistant to dirt, dust, and water.

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By Chris Scott Barr

Back in March we showed you a different kind of Eee PC from Asus. The Eee Keyboard is basically your entire computer wrapped up into a nice neat keyboard package. It seems to be destined for the living room, what with it’s wireless HDMI and all. The 5-inch touchscreen is really what sells the device for me. Speaking of selling, when exactly can we expect to see these on the market?

If rumors are to be believed, we should be seeing it by the end of next month. We don’t yet know any pricing details, but that should be revealed at the upcoming Computex show. With Computex, Apple’s WWDC and E3 all next month, we can no doubt expect a lot of announcements and releases in the next month and a half.

VIA [ Engadget ]

By Luke Anderson

I’ve always been a big fan of Asus products. I’ve only built a few computers of my own that didn’t use a board made by them. They gained even more of my respect when they released the Eee PC and took the market by storm. Of course they’ve released several updates to the line and are now working on the Eee Keyboard. As you can imagine, it’s a computer built entirely into a keyboard. We saw it briefly at CES, but now we’ve got some specs to chew on.

This isn’t the first computer to be crammed inside of a keyboard, however, it’s most certainly the best-looking one I’ve seen. Packing a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, 1GB of DDR2 RAM and either a 16GB or 32GB SSD drive, this will be comparable to some of the other Eee line. Other awesome features include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, Wireless HDMI and a 5-inch touchscreen. It also has a regular HDMI port, VGA, 3 USB ports and audio in/out jacks. We’re still not sure what the price tag is going to be, but if they can keep the pricing close to what we’ve seen in some of the other Eee products, this could be very promising.

VIA [ SlashGear ]

By Luke Anderson

Nothing gives you geek cred quite like having a keyboard with blank keys. It lets everyone know that not only can you hit every single key without looking, but that you’re willing to spend  over a hundred bucks to prove it. While I will admit that the Das Keyboard does have it’s appeal, as a Mac user I can understand how some people wouldn’t really want to part with their aluminum keyboards. Thankfully there is a quick and simple way to convert your regular Mac keyboard into a Das Mac Keyboard.

You’ll need some sophisticated equipment to pull this project off. You’ll need a pair of goggles, one of those masks that you wear to protect yourself from fumes and a can of white spraypaint. I could go through the entire process step-by-step, but I think you can figure it out from here. Of course if you want to keep the aluminum look and just paint the keys, you’re going to have a bit more work on your hands. The end result should look just like the picture above, taken by Steve Essell who came up with this simple DIY project.

[ Flickr ] VIA [ GearFuse ]

By Luke Anderson

Over the years I’ve used quite a few gaming keyboards in the attempt to either increase my PC gaming performance, or just make it more comfortable. In each case there has always been something that immediately defines the device as being different from your average keyboard. Some of the earlier ones simply had backlit keys (because gaming in the dark is always better), others have a special set of dedicated gaming keys, while another has interchangeable keysets. Well I’ve spent a bit of time with the SteelSeries 7G gaming keyboard, and it has none of these aforementioned features. So what sets it apart from that old clunker that came with your PC? Read on to find out.

By all appearances, this is just your average ordinary $10 keyboard. Of course it actually costs around $140 more than that. So what amazing features commands such a high price? They say it’s what’s on the inside that counts, and that is the case with the SteelSeries 7G. The magic here is in the keys, which use 18K gold plated mechanical switches, rather than your run-of-the-mill rubber pads.

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By Luke Anderson

I’m something of a geek and (as you might have noticed) a writer too. I think there’s something about both of these qualities that attracts one to the game Scrabble. I love learning new words, but even more I enjoy using those words as powerful tools on the Scrabble board. Granted, I don’t actually play all the time, but one aspiring fanatic went well out of their way to show their devotion to this wordsmith’s game.

Apparently one day it dawned on a few people that the little wooden game pieces were small squares, roughly the same size as the keys on an average keyboard. So why not use them to create a custom keyboard? Well there are several obstacles here. Namely, there’s no “Enter” piece in the game of Scrabble. Instead they contacted a friend and persuaded him to hand-craft this masterpiece laid out before you. Each key was hand-beveled, and he went so far as to make the Caps Lock and Num Lock keys have lights that shine through when enabled.

This was originally just a one-off piece, but yesterday the creator put up a little note on his site. Since so many people have taken an interest in his work, he is considering making a small batch of these to sell. The biggest hurdle is whether or not he’s going to have Hasbro banging on his door for doing so.

[ Datamancer ] VIA [ Gizmodo ]

By Luke Anderson

If you work at an office, do you hate it when other people use your computer? I’ve only worked in an office setting a couple of times, and that was always a huge pet peeve of mine. You just don’t touch my computer. Well if you’re a Trekkie, here’s one way to guarantee that no one messes with your PC. Just get yourself a keyboard that features Klingon keys and that’ll scare just about anyone off.

Other than the alien letters scrawled upon the keys, there really isn’t anything special about this keyboard. Though it seems that the Klingons still haven’t discovered USB. I’m curious just how strong these things are. I mean, what if you’re forced to fight to the death with the Trekkie three cubicles down? At any rate, this will set you back a whopping $63, though I’m sure a good portion of that is due to the alien technology contained within.

[ CherryKeyboards ] VIA [ BoingBoing ]

By Luke Anderson

I’ll admit that I’ve been drooling over the Optimus Maximus keyboard for years now. Sure, they’re actually for sale now, but I still haven’t managed to find $1,500 that could be justifiably spent on a keyboard. Thankfully United Keys has decided to make a cheaper alternative. Cheaper means less features, but it’s still worth a look.

The United Keys OLED Keyboard has 9 programmable buttons, each with a monochrome OLED screen which displays at a resolution of 64×64 pix. The keyboard comes with software to design custom icons for each key, and even allows you to have it load different keys for specific software. The full keyboard with 9 OLED keys will run you $259, or you can just get the 9 key pad for $199.

[ UnitedKeys ] VIA [ Technabob ]

By Luke Anderson

If you have a home theater PC set up, there’s a good chance that you’ll have a keyboard and mouse nearby for tasks that can’t be completed with a remote. Something to keep in mind when looking at such peripherals is that movies and such are always good to watch in the dark. Trying to operat a plain wireless keyboard in the dark, that’s not so good.

While this Illuminated Super-Tiny  Wireless Keyboard looks a bit cheesy with its glowing keys, you’ll be glad you had it the next time you reach for it in the dark. Granted, you probably don’t do a lot of typing from the couch in the dark, so it may or may not be worth the $47 price tag.

[ Brando ] VIA [ GeekAlerts ]