input

After performing an upgrade or other major system modification, sometimes people experience odd mouse input behavior on their OS X systems. In some cases the system may show a sudden change in speed and acceleration properties of the mouse, and at other times the mouse may appear more or less sensitive to clicks, where single clicks may result in double clicks, or where double clicks may not register.

Unfortunately these behaviors are rare and different enough that there is no single cause and direct solution available for affected users. However, in most situations a configuration error with specific software or … Read more

The new features of Android 4.1 are being ported to custom ROMs, but if that's not your scene, there are a few goodies that have landed in the Google Play Store. One of these is the new Jelly Bean keyboard, which boasts better prediction (among other things) -- and that's something all of our fast fingertips are craving.

Ready to check it out on your Android 4.0 devices? Here's how to make it happen:

Step 1: Install a copy of Jelly Bean Keyboard, by Beansoft, on your Android.

Step 2: Open the Settings … Read more

If you're not familiar with SwiftKey, it's a Google Play Editors' Choice app, and it won the coveted Most Innovative App award at the 2011 Global Mobile Awards in Barcelona, Spain. What sets it apart from other keyboard replacement apps is its capability to understand not just patterns in your typing, but also how words work together. This makes it scary good at predicting not only the next letter you need to type, but also the next word, sometimes even before you begin typing it. What's more, Swiftkey can continue to learn from your e-mail, SMS, and … Read more

If you're not familiar with SwiftKey, it's a Google Play Editors' Choice app, and it won the coveted Most Innovative App award at the 2011 Global Mobile Awards in Barcelona, Spain. What sets it apart from other keyboard replacement apps is its capability to understand not just patterns in your typing, but also how words work together. This makes it scary good at predicting not only the next letter you need to type, but also the next word, sometimes even before you begin typing it. What's more, Swiftkey can continue to learn from your e-mail, SMS, and … Read more

If you're not familiar with SwiftKey, it's a Google Play Editors' Choice app, and it won the coveted Most Innovative App award at the 2011 Global Mobile Awards in Barcelona, Spain. What sets it apart from other keyboard replacement apps is its ability to understand not just patterns in your typing, but also how words work together. This makes it scary good at predicting the next word you want to type, sometimes even before you begin typing it. What's more, SwiftKey can continue to learn from your e-mail, SMS, and even social media accounts (if enabled), so … Read more

If you're not familiar with SwiftKey, it's a Google Play Editors' Choice app, and it won the coveted Most Innovative App award at the 2011 Global Mobile Awards in Barcelona, Spain. What sets it apart from other keyboard replacement apps is its capability to understand not just patterns in your typing, but also how words work together. This makes it scary good at predicting the next word you want to type, sometimes even before you begin typing it. What's more, SwiftKey can continue to learn from your e-mail, SMS, and even social media accounts (if enabled), so … Read more

OS X offers multiple input method options to offer support for many world languages and regional input conventions. While this allows the system to be set up to work well for people from different parts of the world, the way OS X manages input methods may confuse a few who make use of multiple input methods.

For example, a standard U.S. keyboard layout will have access to the common characters and symbols used in American English, but this will not work as well for typing in French, where the need for common character accents requires a different input method. … Read more

HDMI inputs are like $100 bills: you can never have enough.

One usually goes to the cable box/DVR/TiVo; another to your Blu-ray player. And it's not unthinkable that you'd also have a game console, Roku box, and Apple TV. (What, just me?)

If your HDTV has only two or three HDMI ports, you're looking at a lot of cable-swapping. What a hassle.

To overcome this input deficit, get yourself a port splitter. Like this one: today only, Daily Steals has the Kinovo 501BN 5-port HDMI switch for $19.99, plus $4.99 for shipping. It … Read more

OS X Lion comes with a number of new and altered features, some of which, like Mission Control and full-screen options, can be avoided if you don't find them useful. However, Apple has also included a couple of alterations that cannot be quickly avoided and that new users might find a bit frustrating.

The first of these is the default scroll direction on Apple's multitouch trackpads. In prior versions of OS X the scroll direction mirrored that of scroll wheels on mice, which when rolled toward the user cause the page to scroll down. The trackpad likewise would … Read more