keyboards

Multiplicity is geared for the power user who wants to control several computers with a single keyboard and mouse.

After installing the program, you'll be greeted with a simple setup process; designate your primary computer with the mouse/keyboard setup. Users should note that all their PCs must be networked via Ethernet or wireless so that Multiplicity can sync them all together.

Stardock's program will guide users through the setup process: simply log the secondary computer ID and passcode under the "Computers" tab in the primary computer. To set the secondary computer, users must also install … Read more

Initially available on Boost Mobile, the Samsung Array has made its way onto Sprint today.

Offered at $19.99 after a two-year contract and mail-in rebate, this feature phone has a sliding four-row QWERTY keyboard, a 2.4-inch screen, and a 2-megapixel camera in the rear.

It's powered by a 480MHz CPU and a 1,000mAh battery, which roughly translates to a reported talk time of 4 hours.

When CNET's own Brian Bennett got his hands on the phone, the device's build aesthetic was reminiscent of a Sidekick, and its screen's low resolution was unimpressive.

For … Read more

MidiPiano is free software for playing and producing MIDI music files, with the addition of a virtual piano that can be played with your keyboard or cursor.

The interface for MidiPiano is okay, but not fantastic. The buttons are simple and easy to understand, but almost too simple and could be improved upon for functionality. You can play previously saved MIDI files or make your own. Creating MIDI music with this software consists of recording while you play the virtual piano and then editing to cut or insert notes. You can also adjust the octave, speed, and volume.

The virtual … Read more

The aesthetics of the modern keyboard reminds me of the U.S. car industry several years ago: uninspired.

Enter the Orée wooden keyboard, nearly made in full out of Mother Nature's greatest asset. French entrepreneur Julien Salanave came up with Orée and works in collaboration with a small design team in southern France to produce the wooden Bluetooth 3.0 wireless keyboard. … Read more

It's been 12 years since Chad Ruble's mother suffered a stroke that led to aphasia, a disorder that affects language processing but not intelligence. Most of the one million Americans who have the disorder experience difficulty both reading and writing, according to the National Aphasia Association, and Chad's mother Lindy was unable to recognize text and thus unable to use a keyboard.

So Chad did what any computer-savvy son should: he hacked a Kinect to help her.

After designing a visual dashboard of emoticons (happy, sad, angry, tired, etc.), each of which can be further qualified by an amount (expressed as signal strength -- one, two, three, or four bars), Chad says he turned to a Kinect, some gesture recognition code, and the simple OpenNI library for Processing to track the position of his mother's hand. A green arrow button sends the email and a red X resets the screen.… Read more

Most of us spend a large part of our day reading and writing e-mails. If you're a Hotmail (now Outlook.com), Yahoo! Mail, or Gmail user, you may already be familiar with using Webmail keyboard shortcuts. They can save you time by not having to constantly take your hands off of the keyboard to reach for a mouse. But how many of those shortcuts have you actually learned?

KeyRocket for Gmail is a Chrome extension that can help you learn Gmail keyboard shortcuts, while you're using Gmail. All you have to do is install the Chrome extension, make … Read more

Initially launched on Sprint, the Kyocera Rise is now available on prepaid network Virgin Mobile starting today.

The Rise is an entry-level keyboard handset running on Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich.

It's equipped with a 3.5-inch HVGA touch screen, a 3.2-megapixel rear-facing camera, and a 1GHz Qualcomm processor.

When I reviewed the handset, I was impressed with its attractively designed keyboard, call quality, and updated Android OS. However, a slow processor and hefty design hold it back from really shining.

The Rise is going for $99.99 online and will be offered in retail stores beginning … Read more

Windows 8 is about to unleash a tsunami of strange devices upon us all. Call them tablets, ultraportables, hybrids, convertibles, tiny touch-based mobile computers...they're everywhere, and they're multiplying.

HP has them. Samsung does, too. So does Dell, and Lenovo, and Toshiba, and Asus, and Sony. Everyone has them. That's because Windows 8 promises a better environment for touch in mobile computing, and the promise is too tempting not to experiment. Or, alternatively, all these companies need a product out there to plant a flag into this strange soil -- a territory that Microsoft's already visiting via the Surface.

The big problem I see with them is that for every device that emerges, the landscape gets ever-more-cloudy. … Read more

CruxSkunk sounds like it would add a bad smell to your iPad, but what it really does is turn your tablet into a little laptop.

Sure, we've seen lots of add-on iPad keyboards, but the CruxSkunk from CruxCase goes all out with imitating Apple's MacBook aesthetic. If there were such a thing as a MacBook Mini, it would look like an iPad in a CruxSkunk.… Read more