Microsoft unveils fondle-ready keyboards, mice Offering the latest evidence that Microsoft is moving toward an Apple-like integrated product strategy, on Monday Redmond announced a new collection of keyboards and mice that cater not just to Windows 8's spare aesthetic, but also to the design of Microsoft's upcoming Surface tablets. The new devices, which Microsoft says …
depends on the power usage of the keyboard.
I've been using a Logitech keyboard for over a year, and still on the original batteries which are still sitting at over 50%. (Logitech also a solar powered keyboard which doesn't need to have the users replacing batteries ...never used it so can't comment).
I must admit though that my wife's Microsoft mouse goes through batteries a heck of a lot faster than my Logitech mouse does.
re: Solar-powered Logitech keyboard:
Got one. Love it. Pleasant on the fingers; I know that it's not a huge mechanical beast of yore (lordie we all loved those late 80's early 90's IBM keyboards) but does me nice. It's currently "attached" to the lappy we have plugged into the telly, so its not getting much of a hammering (I wouldn't really call it a gaming keyboard) but I've done a full shed's worth of typing on it when it was doing service on my main PC.
However, think about it - I paid £70 for a keyboard so that I could save £5 of batteries a year... If the keyboard lasts ten years then I'd have made a profit.
"It's currently "attached" to the lappy"
Do you also say "Desky" and "Phoney" and "Tabby"? Please, if we have to import Americanisms, at least let's limit it to cases where it's actually shorter to say rather than the same number of syllables. "Lappy" sounds like a breed of French poodle. Can we get a Union Jack icon, please?
"Lappy" is an Americanism? I've only heard it from Europeans.
But a quick look through the double-tounge dictionary (<a href='http://www.waywordradio.org/lappy_2/>http://www.waywordradio.org/lappy_2/</a>) does seem to indicate that the earliest use was from someone in the US.
I still feel that it's wrong to tar an entire nation or geographic region with the crimes of a few individuals, however. I suggest we use the more appropriate term "pretentious-wanker-ism".
I do, however, use the term "tabby" quite often, but in my defense, I am a cat person.
Complete tangent, my apologies.
While wandering around the The National Museum of Computing this weekend I spent a minute or typing on the DRS20 keyboard just for the pleasure of feeling one under my fingers again.
Modern keyboards are rubbish.
According to the blurb on their site, it uses Bluetooth and has no USB connection which seems to continue MS's current design philosophy of building for the people of 2016 rather than the customers of 2012. So I'm pretty unlikely to be buying one of these. I'm still on PS/2 socket here on the grounds that my keyboard should not be using up CPU cycles just to communicate (USB always demands CPU cycles).
The mouse is probably an improvement for mouse users, but a mouse has always been inferior to a trackball (imo - less space required, no flat surface required, much greater precision using the fine control of muscles in the thumb rather than the whole arm).
Keyboards with a clitoris are the best devices for touch typists, imo, as you don't have to reach away from the keyboard ever.
"According to the blurb on their site, it uses Bluetooth and has no USB connection which seems to continue MS's current design philosophy of building for the people of 2016 rather than the customers of 2012. So I'm pretty unlikely to be buying one of these. I'm still on PS/2 socket here on the grounds that my keyboard should not be using up CPU cycles just to communicate (USB always demands CPU cycles)."
Yeah man keep rocking that dot matrix printer... Don't want that Android phone eating up battery and CPU cycles either. This tin can and string don't need no damn CPU cycles
"which are products of the more radical kind of industrial design one usually associates with Apple"
Yes, the rectangles-with-rounded-corners kind of radical...
What you really mean with 'radical' is just "devoid of poor taste, pointless ornamentation"
I think people invented that in some of the earliest woodworking on earth, since even our dumbfounded forefathers from thousands of years ago somehow recognized that sharp corners hurt.
Okay fine. You like what Apple's been doing and you want in on that action. But did you really need to copy Apple's track record for ergonomic abortions that are their mice?
And your peripherals used to be so stellar too... Especially your natural keyboard, which saved me from developing bad carpel tunnel way back when.
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To be fair, a computer mouse is pretty hard to "feel" just from a picture - I've got a Gigabyte branded mouse (yup, from the motherboard manufacturer - hey, it was cheap) which looks about as ergonomic as you can get, all curvy and swoopy. Unfortunately this means there's only one way to hold it, which causes wrist pain, means my thumb is in front of the thumb buttons on the side thus requiring me to shift my hand in order to use them, and generally feels like shit.
I'll hold out judgement until I actually hold this thing in my hand, but I have to admit sharp edges on anything I have to grasp for long periods of time doesn't strike me as comfortable.
... about as ergonomic as you can get, all curvy and swoopy. Unfortunately this means there's only one way to hold it, which causes wrist pain, means my thumb is in front of the thumb buttons on the side thus requiring me to shift my hand in order to use them, and generally feels like shit.
Agreed. Back when I used mice (as opposed to pointer controls integrated into the keyboard, which keep my hands on the home row where they belong), my favorite were the brick-style mice that were common on late-'80s Unix workstations like the IBM RT PC. They were generally rectangular prisms with rounded corners[1], so they didn't try to enforce any particular grip; you could rest your palm on them or push them with fingertips or lean your elbow on 'em if you liked. And they had a reasonable number of buttons (three).
These days, though, on the rare occasion I'm forced to use a mouse (on someone else's machine), I am instantly filled with loathing for the thing. A terrible idea for an input device, for anyone who does most of their work with a keyboard.
[1] Take that, Apple.
Using Metro touch to leverage the desktop users, and using desktop market to leverage the Metro touch.
Consequently, a lil' compromise is necessary to appease the desktop users.
More importantly, Microsoft is attempting to lock everyone's hardware in to the Metro-centric world. You want those Win8 touch gestures on your mouse? You'll have to buy our wedge mouse for the optimum experience.
I believe it was Logitech who had something aesthetically similar a couple of years ago - It was a silver, wedge shaped 'micro mouse' for laptop usage - and I we really happy with it until it went missing from my desk...
I think the pictures in the following link put the size into a better perspective- I'll reserve judgement for I can test one myself...
http://gigaom.com/mobile/banking-on-windows-tablets-microsoft-creates-mobile-add-ons/
Good Link :)
"...Microsoft’s new touch mouse supports several gestures and swipes. For example, a single finger swipe moves or shifts content, while two fingers are used to manage apps,..."
For me the choice of one finger or two finger gesture just depends on how annoyed I am.
I'm typing this on a Mac with a Microsoft mouse plugged in because every Apple mouse I've used is atrocious and entirely inappropriate for work. The new 'magic' mouse with gestures built in is utterly hopeless.
In my experience people often replace a Microsoft mouse with another Microsoft mouse which is the surest sign of a product done right. A mouse is a fork or a screwdriver; it doesn't have to look nice or be packed with features, it just needs to sit in my hand and obey.
I sincerely hope this remains a sideline and that they will stick to their existing range because if this is what Microsoft aspire to then it's bad news for those of us who just want to get a job done.
Are you sure some is not pulling the wool over your eyes? The surface tablet has a keyboard and track mouse built into the cover and attached magnetically so it can be removed. They were demo'd at the Surface announcement event. It will even come in two versions: one a thin lightweight option for occasional use; the other a more robust keyboard with keys that have travel. Why would Microsoft want this stuff in stores before or after the launch of Windows 8 when there are many wireless (in bluetooth) and USB keyboard from which to choose.
Why?
Bluetooth mice and keyboards are a pain. They use far too much power and, in my experience, loose their pairing far too often. I have a really nice logitech bluetooth keyboard and I never use it because it always has to be left on charge and half the time when you load it up you need to pair it with the computer again which requires you to find another mouse or keyboard.
By contrast the wireless logitech keyboard and mouse I have are fantastic, they use 2.4GHz so the range is very similar to bluetooth. Pairing is hardware based so the keyboard and mouse are paired with the dongle, you can move the dongle to another computer and there's nothing to install or configure. The batteries last years (I've had the mouse over a year and battery life says good, the keyboard should be OK for 3 years).
The problem with the logitech system is that it takes up a USB port. What we need is better bluetooth profiles that allow keyboards and mice to operate in the same way with lower power usage and hardware based pairing.
you're not. But do you swap buttons too ?
I went for a job interview recently, where they wanted you to sit a technical test. The PC was locked down, and the poor interviewer had to dig someone out of IT support to log in to change mouse settings.
One massive FAIL with Windows, is when you RDP into a box, it uses the boxes settiings, not the terminals - so you have to change settings on the box. Which is a real nuisance, if you are sharing a server, as I used to in a team. Every time I logged in, I had to swap buttons.
Also the Windows login screen defaults to right-handed.
Now Linux - or at least the NX protocol is much more sensible, and inherits mouse settings from the client.
Nothing is going to drag me away from my Logitech MX700. Wireless, rechargeable and it takes AA sized batteries. When the batteries finally give up taking a charge you can just replace them. If you forget to leave it on charge for the week (a weekend off-charge is not a problem) you can just stick a couple of normal AAs in there to tide you through the day.
My only gripe with it is that sometimes I have to wiggle it or wipe the contacts to get it to start charging.
So Microsoft have finally decided that we don't need to input sheets of figures quickly into our computers in roder to do complex calculations (which is after all what computers were invented for).... and more importantly it's going to be really difficult to play Nethack without one.
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