If Gates is right, how much longer for keyboards and mice?
It wasn't exactly Minority Report but Bill Gates' technology demonstration at the company's CEO Summit earlier Wednesday may be remembered years from now as a harbinger of the end for the keyboard and mouse era. Not today.
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15.5.2008 Researchers hack wired keyboards, hijack keystrokes
A team of Swiss researchers say there are several ways to recover keystrokes from wired keyboards by simply measuring the electromagnetic radiations emitted when keys are pressed.
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20.10.2008SealShield unveils 'dishwasher safe' wireless keyboard
The keyboard in your office or home is one of the most germ-infested places, but Seal Shield a company that produces medical grade washable computer
keyboards and mice is wanting to change that. Launched this year at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) is the new Silver Surf family of waterproof
wireless, yes I said wireless, keyboards and mice. The products in their new line is the world's first wireless keyboards and mice that are fully
submersible, dishwasher safe, and antimicrobial. They even claim that the keyboard will even work under water. News source: Tech Fragments
Read full story.....
neowin.net -
13.01.2009Dude, someone hacked my keyboard
Swiss researchers have demonstrated keystrokes can be recorded wirelessly from wired keyboards by analysing the electromagnetic signals produced by
every key press.
Martin Vuagnoux and Sylvain Pasini, researchers from the Lausanne Security and Cryptography Laboratory,
published a report detailing their findings. The pair tested 11 common keyboards
manufactured from 2001-2008 which were all vulnerable to at least one of their 4 attacks.
The researchers used a radio antenna to "fully
or partially recover keystrokes" by spotting the electromagnetic radiation emitted when keys were pressed.
2 videos have been posted by the researchers that demonstrate the technique
involved.
The pair concluded that wired computer keyboards sold in stores "are not safe to transmit sensitive information".
Read full story.....
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21.10.2008Microsoft Revamps Keyboards and Mice
Ergonomic design emphasized; gamers also get new peripherals...
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06.09.2005Dell to replace wonky keyboards
Dell has offered to replace the keyboards on a recent batch of Vostro laptops, which had the keys in the wrong places.
The problem was
flagged by blogger Jake Gordon who pointed out that his Z key had been shifted too far to the right by an enlarged shift key, meaning that instead of
appearing beneath A and S it sat beneath S and D instead, causing a fair old headache for the touch typists among us.
"There is no way to
say it... we made a mistake and want to apologise to affected customers," Bill Bivin, Dell's laptop liaison
admits on the
Direct2Dell blog.
"Here's what we're going to do: we plan to contact all affected customers, beginning today. All affected
customers will receive an updated keyboard. They will have two options: we can send the keyboard and required BIOS update directly to them, or they
can choose to have a field technician replace the keyboard onsite."
The company is also planning to post a video walkthrough for those
customers looking to adjust the keyboard themselves.
neowin.net -
09.05.2008Gates sees diminished role for keyboards
People will increasingly interact with computers using speech or touch screens rather than keyboards, Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said.
"It's one of the big bets we're making," he said during the final stop of a farewell tour before he withdraws from the
company's daily operations in July.
In five years, Microsoft expects more Internet searches to be done through speech than
through typing on a keyboard, Gates told about 1,200 students and faculty members Thursday at Carnegie Mellon University.
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22.02.2008Verbatim's new keyboards add not only sound, but light
Having trouble finding space for speakers amidst the clutter on your desk? How about building them into the keyboard?..
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10.01.2009Survey: Keyboards, DRM to become scarce in 2012
Step aside, keyboards, laptops, and 9-to-5 jobs. A survey of more than 1,000 Internet activists, journalists, and technologists released Sunday
speculates that by 2012, those quaint relics of 20th century life will fade away.
It's not a formal survey of the sort that,
say, political pollsters use. Nor are computer journalists especially known for their prognosticative abilities. Still, the Pew Internet and American
Life Project hopes the effort will provide a glimpse of the best current thinking about how online life will evolve in the next decade or so.
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15.12.2008Asustek to launch new Eee PCs with bigger keyboards
Asustek Computer is planning to launch new Eee PC models, the 904 and 905, which have an 8.9-inch panel but use a similar chassis and keyboard as the
company's 10.2-inch models, according to sources at channel vendors.
The Eee PC 904 and 905 will adopt Atom processors and the major
difference between the two and the previous 901 model is that they feature a bigger keyboard. Asustek is still evaluating whether to make changes to
the two models' battery and storage capacity.
neowin.net -
30.06.2008Apple's Phones Prompt iTypos
iPhone users make mistakes more often when texting compared to users of phones with hard keys, a new study found. User Centric tested how many
mistakes mobile phone texters make, comparing the results of iPhone users with customers who have phones with full keyboards and those with numeric
keyboards. User Centric, a Chicago usability consulting company, studied 20 users in each group. The study, while based on an extremely small sample
size, makes for interesting reading.
neowin.net -
14.11.2007First Look: OLPC XO-2
I am here this morning in Cambridge, Mass., at OLPC’s Global Country Workshop. Opening the conference this morning was OLPC founder Nicholas
Negroponte, who announced the second generation of the OLPC XO laptop, which will be called the XO-2.
Negroponte didn’t share many
details about the XO-2’s hardware, but the new system has two touch-sensitive displays. It will employ the dual indoor-and-sunlight displays,
which was pioneered by former OLPC CTO Mary Lou Jepsen. The design will provide a right and left page in vertical format, a hinged laptop in
horizontal format, and a flat, two-screen continuous surface for use in tablet mode. “ Younger children will be able to use simple keyboards
to get going, and older children will be able to switch between keyboards customized for applications as well as for multiple languages, ”
the press release reads. The XO-2 will also reduce power consumption to 1 watt.
neowin.net -
23.05.2008Microsoft Rolls Out New
Hardware Line
Microsoft on Tuesday
introduced six new mice and
two keyboards as part of a
revamped hardware lineup that
features high-definition
optics and advanced
ergonomics. The new arrivals
include Microsoft's first
wired laser mouse designed
specifically for
gaming.
Photos:
View
images of Microsoft's new
hardware..
betanews.com -
06.09.2005If Gates is right, how much longer for keyboards & mice?
It wasn't exactly 'Minority Report' but Bill Gates's technology demonstration at the company's CEO Summit earlier today may be remembered years
from now as a harbinger of the end for the keyboard and mouse era. Not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But soon enough. (Cue Winston Churchill here about
how this is not the end, the beginning of the end, but perhaps, it's the end of the beginning.)
winbeta.org -
15.05.2008Das Keyboard Professional and Ultimate review
Depending for how long you've been using computers or how much of a geek you are, you may have heard about how old fashioned keyboards that used
mechanical key switches were immensely better and built to last. We are talking about the really old keyboards here, like the ones that shipped with
the original IBM PC in the early 80s.
Fast forward to the present day and you can easily tell priorities have changed considerably.
Internal components are usually the ones driving sales, and the mouse is often considered the more important input device. Now,
enter the Das Keyboard: the original Das Keyboard (Ultimate) that uses
totally blank keys and the Das Keyboard Professional, which adds inscriptions on the keys. We tested both versions of the product which are
essentially the same except the above, but we did this with the purpose of experiencing how the blank board could aid you becoming a touch typist per
the maker's claims.
neowin.net -
28.10.2008Eee Keyboard: An Entire Touchscreen Home Theater PC
Gizmodo: We spotted some Asus keyboards last week, but none were nearly as potentially awesome as the official Eee Keyboard. Featuring wireless HDMI,
it's a "fully functional PC" with full QWERTY and a mini secondary touchscreen...
winbeta.org -
07.01.2009Microsoft Hardware teaser: 'Say Goodbye to Laser'
Microsoft Hardware, the unit that makes the company's mice and keyboards, has scheduled a Sept. 9 event in Seattle to unveil its latest product
lineup. Today it launched
an animation teasing a new product, with the tag line, "Say Goodbye to
Laser."
winbeta.org -
26.08.2008Windows Vista update 'kills' USB devices
Microsoft has admitted it is investigating reports that a recent Windows Vista security update causes havoc with some USB devices, but the software
giant is yet to provide a fix for the cock-up.
The Windows Defender update was released last week, but some unfortunate Vista
customers have claimed that their USB mice and keyboards among other devices refuse to work after the update is installed on their computers.
winbeta.org -
16.04.2008Logitech ships their billionth mouse
Logitech has recently announced shipping their billionth mouse, just in time to mark forty years since the first mouse was demonstrated in public. Now
selling a large range of keyboards, mice, webcams, and numerous other forms of input (and more recently output too), Logitech sells, on average, 7.8
million mice every month, or 376,000 per day, to over 100 countries. Some readers may remember the times before the mouse, and how the mouse formed
the path of both commercial and personal computer use. Many things that are now assumed to be standard are dependent on the invention of the mouse.
Read full story.....
neowin.net -
04.12.2008Mass Production of Optimus Maximus Has Not Started
If you’ve been following news of the full-sized 113-keys Optimus Maximus keyboard with colour OLED screens (10.1mm² large with a 48x48
pixel resolution) located inside each key, you are probably aware of the bad news that is circulating one of the most revolutionary ideas in keyboard
history. Since the initial pictures were posted, the product was priced quite ridiculously and the keys were made black and white to cut costs.
Specially designed software is reportedly meant to be able to change images on the colour screens depending on the program running.
Now,
Artemy Lebedev, chief executive of Art Lebedev Design studio, has admitted that mass production of the highly-anticipated device has not yet started,
the design studio has yet to finalize the device, and that there is no driver. Earlier this year Art Lebedev promised to deliver the first 200 Optimus
Maximus keyboards to customers on December 1st. It is unclear whether Art Lebedev will be able to deliver working Optimus Maximus keyboards to those
who pre-ordered them for $1564 a piece back in May, 2006. In early October it transpired that the company may face shortages of certain
components, which, in addition to some other factors, might cause delay of the product release.
neowin.net -
04.11.2007Apple announces MacBook Air
Steve Jobs took the stage this morning at the Macworld Conference & Expo to exhort the Mac faithful and announce a handful of new products.
MacBook Air
The rumors were true. Steve Jobs unveiled Apple's latest portable, the $1,799 MacBook Air, which he called the
"world's thinnest notebook." Dissing Sony's TX series, Jobs said that other subnotebook manufacturers inevitably compromise on the display,
have mini-keyboards, and run too slowly due to heat issues.
Read full story.....
neowin.net -
16.01.2008We know what you typed last summer
An interesting advisory comes from guys at remote-exploit and dreamlab technologies dealing with (in)security of common non-bluetooth wireless
keyboards sold by Microsoft (Wireless Optical Desktop 1000 and 2000). According to the white paper released on the subject (available
here) only the actual key pressed is
transmitted in encrypted form, all other communication such as keyboard identification, metakeys (Shift, Alt, etc.), and other data are all
transmitted in clear text.
winbeta.org -
03.12.2007
