I don't do product plugs often, but this is one I wasn't aware of until recently, and I think it should have a niche appeal to vandwellers.
For years I've used wireless keyboards with my laptop. The kind that come with the little USB dongle. Yesterday mine broke and I went into Best Buy to consider replacing it. And then I saw this.
Multi-device keyboard? Hmm? It has bluetooth connectivity for your phone or tablet. I dunno about you, but I friggin' hate typing anything substantial on a touch screen. And because I live in a van, and sometimes the sun may not be shining or power reserves are low, I often end up browsing online with my phone instead of my laptop.
This lets me type out long posts on my phone using a full keyboard (which I'm doing right now). The same keyboard will also connect to a laptop with a traditional USB dongle. Switch between up to three devices with the white buttons labeled "1, 2, 3."
Maybe I'm just old and this is a generational thing, but I type up to 120wpm on a traditional layout keyboard, and I'm wholly excited to be typing on a keyboard again. There are other benefits too, apart from just my idiosyncratic hatred of touch screens:
And, of course, use the same keyboard to connect to your PC/laptop using the dongle. It is a little pricy at $80, but it feels solid for a wireless keyboard, and I've already gotten that much quality of life out of this thing.
So far I have only two irks with it. First, it isn't strictly a standard layout keyboard - I can type just fine on it though. The greater grievance I have is that, there are a few hardcoded system shortcuts in the keyboard commands, to do things such as return home or whatever. One of these hardcoded shortcuts is shift+space, which is bound to the default keyboard language (should you want to use this for something other than English). Because I type quickly, the keyboard sometimes sees this combination of keys as I capitalize a letter and continue with a space. It doesn't affect anything, really, but I wish they had chosen an obscure combination of keys for that function.
There is another version of this keyboard at Best Buy for $30 instead of $80. It doesn't have the numberpad on the right, and it doesn't have a USB dongle, only bluetooth connectivity. I didn't get that one because I wanted to be able to use it with my laptop. But for someone who just wants a keyboard for their phone/tablet the smaller one would be fine.
Dang, this might be the longest post I've written on here.
For years I've used wireless keyboards with my laptop. The kind that come with the little USB dongle. Yesterday mine broke and I went into Best Buy to consider replacing it. And then I saw this.
Multi-device keyboard? Hmm? It has bluetooth connectivity for your phone or tablet. I dunno about you, but I friggin' hate typing anything substantial on a touch screen. And because I live in a van, and sometimes the sun may not be shining or power reserves are low, I often end up browsing online with my phone instead of my laptop.
This lets me type out long posts on my phone using a full keyboard (which I'm doing right now). The same keyboard will also connect to a laptop with a traditional USB dongle. Switch between up to three devices with the white buttons labeled "1, 2, 3."
Maybe I'm just old and this is a generational thing, but I type up to 120wpm on a traditional layout keyboard, and I'm wholly excited to be typing on a keyboard again. There are other benefits too, apart from just my idiosyncratic hatred of touch screens:
- Input from the physical keyboard is treated differently on my phone than input from the touch screen - it doesn't do things like autocorrect, which irritate a cermudgeon like me. It inputs LITERALLY WHAT IS TYPED. Mindblowing.
- Common keyboard commands are respected, much the way they would be on a desktop PC! For example, alt+tab cycles recent windows. In browser, ctrl+t opens a new tab, ctrl+w closes it, alt+d focuses the url bar, browser forward instead of only back, etc etc. All of these make for much more fluid navigation to anyone who is familiar with keyboard shortcuts.
- Dedicated media controls make it very easy to open a music app, play music (connect your phone to a bluetooth speaker and this keyboard at the same time), skip tracks, change volume etc, even with a service such as Pandora.
And, of course, use the same keyboard to connect to your PC/laptop using the dongle. It is a little pricy at $80, but it feels solid for a wireless keyboard, and I've already gotten that much quality of life out of this thing.
So far I have only two irks with it. First, it isn't strictly a standard layout keyboard - I can type just fine on it though. The greater grievance I have is that, there are a few hardcoded system shortcuts in the keyboard commands, to do things such as return home or whatever. One of these hardcoded shortcuts is shift+space, which is bound to the default keyboard language (should you want to use this for something other than English). Because I type quickly, the keyboard sometimes sees this combination of keys as I capitalize a letter and continue with a space. It doesn't affect anything, really, but I wish they had chosen an obscure combination of keys for that function.
There is another version of this keyboard at Best Buy for $30 instead of $80. It doesn't have the numberpad on the right, and it doesn't have a USB dongle, only bluetooth connectivity. I didn't get that one because I wanted to be able to use it with my laptop. But for someone who just wants a keyboard for their phone/tablet the smaller one would be fine.
Dang, this might be the longest post I've written on here.
