keyboard

TGIF, am I right? To help kick off your weekend, I've rounded up five eclectic deals--a little something for everyone, I hope. First up: a ridiculously inexpensive HDTV.

1. An story in today's USA Today suggests that pre-Super Bowl TV deals are "less super" this year, but apparently Walmart didn't get the memo. They've got the Sceptre X460BV-FHD 46-inch LCD HDTV for $409.98, plus sales tax where applicable. You can bag free shipping with the site-to-store option. The user reviews are overwhelmingly positive.

2. Today only, 1SaleADay has the factory-refurbished Jawbone One Bluetooth headset, in black or silver, for $9.99. … Read more

The system menu in OS X holds the various commands that are available for performing tasks in your current application.

For many of the commands that are commonly used, Apple and application developers have bound them to keyboard shortcuts (listed next to the menu item) so you can perform the same command with a keystroke instead of needing to access the menus.

When browsing through the various system or application menus, you will see that in addition to the commands with built-in keyboard shortcuts there are a number without shortcuts. These are generally less-common commands; however, there are some that … Read more

I'll let you in on a little secret: I haven't been thrilled with any iPad keyboard case solution, despite testing and reviewing about half a dozen of them.

Sure, some of them are excellent products. Still, I don't find them essential. This is why I don't use my iPad during mission-critical trips to trade shows and live-blogged events. This is why I don't use my iPad as a laptop replacement. Not entirely. Not yet.

I agree with a lot of what Harry McCracken refers to in his experience with his iPad and the ZaggFolio keyboard case. Ideally, having such an ultraportable, flexible device with a long battery life would be a perfect travel tool. For me, however, that perfect tool hasn't materialized yet.

I'd love to have some sort of evolved hybrid of an iPad and a MacBook Air. I've been dreaming of it for a while, actually. Apple's clearly leaning toward a fusion of sorts between iOS and Mac OS X. Lion was the first step. iOS gets a bit more advanced every year, taking baby steps toward being a true operating system for hard-core computing tasks.

There are several reasons it won't work right now, and the biggest by far is the good old-fashioned trackpad--or lack of it.… Read more

Japanese peripherals maker Elecom has released two handy iPhone keyboards, including a clamshell gizmo that has a stand for your phone.

The TK-FBP029E Series recalls the awesomely named (if you know "Star Wars" well enough) TK-421 case with flip-out keyboard from 2010.

Elecom's latest Bluetooth keyboard is slightly larger than an iPhone and has a full English keyboard. It supports the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch.

The cover also serves as a handy stand for your phone, and it's not always clipped to your handset. … Read more

A number of Apple's portable systems come with a backlight that illuminates the keyboard for easy viewing in dark environments. To adjust the illumination you can either press the function keys on the keyboard (usually the F5 and F6 keys) or enable automatic adjustments; however, there may be times when these adjustments do not work properly.

When you press the F5 or F6 buttons on the keyboard, the system should show a semitransparent backlight level indicator at the bottom of the screen, but if you have auto backlight adjustments enabled, then the system will not show any level indicator … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Israel's Snapkeys doesn't want to just be an alternative to the traditional QWERTY keyboard. It wants to kill it off for good.

The company's Ryan Ghassabian taps out sentences on his tablet with all the speed and precision of a phonetic hitman as he demos Snapkeys for me at a small booth in the far back side of the Las Vegas Convention Center here at CES.

Snapkeys is an invisible keyboard that uses 2i technology and predictive typing to eliminate the need to actually look where you're typing on touch-screen devices. For most of you, that sentence will be total nonsense, like it was to me when I first heard about Snapkeys, so here's how it actually works. … Read more

LAS VEGAS--iPad docks continue to evolve, and iHome's iDM5 is a case point.

Not only does this "executive space-saver station" feature an integrated Bluetooth keyboard, but it also has Bluetooth speakers for playing music and USB ports for charging both your iPad and an additional device. Oh, and it's not just for iPads but works with Android tablets as well (and smartphones, too).

iHome says the iDM5 is due out this spring for $199. Check out our First Look video above, which also shows iHome's iP4, the company's modernist take on the "classic&… Read more

The key word around Lenovo these days is "convergence."

In the case of the Lenovo IdeaTab S2, we're seeing an Android 4.0 tablet converging with the keyboard and touch pad of a conventional notebook computer. Like Asus' Eee Pad Transformer Prime, the IdeaTab S2 comes as two separate, interlocking pieces: a tablet and a keyboard dock. It's a great combo for anyone who feels that their tablet needs to do more than just Angry Birds and Web browsing and actually serve as a tool for working and communicating.

The keyboard accessory also provides a number … Read more

Facebook has a small, but useful set of keyboard shortcuts you can use to navigate the social networking site.

They're not universal like Twitter shortcuts, so the modifiers are different depending on the browser and operating system you use. The shortcuts work best with Chrome in Windows and Firefox on Mac OS X, because they only need one modifier key, plus the shortcut key. Also keep in mind that the number shortcuts must be pressed from the number row; they don't work with the number pad.

Here are the keyboard shortcuts for Facebook:

Windows Firefox modifier: Shift + Alt + # … Read more