The keyboard comes as a professional and ultimate edition with the only difference between the versions that the ultimate Keyboard ships with blank keys which should be fine for everyone who wants to improve his typing skills the hard way. (the first weeks will be rather painful I believe).

Well, I would not want to pay $80 – $129 for a computer keyboard and I usually prefer simple solid keyboards from manufacturers like IBM or Logitech that come without all those extra “multimedia” keys that modern keyboards seem to ship with. My keyboards are cheap usually but provide great feedback when pressing a key on it. I really don’t feel comfortable with those thin Notebook like keyboards and those ergonomic keyboards that I usually throw at the next wall whenever I have to use them.

What type of keyboards do you prefer ? Classic ? Modern ? Ergonomic ? Uber ? Multimedia ? Let me know.

Related posts

• Buying a new PC December (6)
• Why QWERTY was invented ! (0)
• What you should do before bringing the PC in for repair (11)
• Waterproof Keyboards (1)
• Upgrading to a bigger computer monitor (11)

They were able to compare the Asus Eee PC models 701 and 900 in white and the 701 in black. Both white models are using the same keyboard while the black keyboard looks and feels different and the assumption can be made that the black 900 model will have the same keyboard as the black 701 model.

The first obvious difference becomes obvious when you place the black and white keyboards next to each other. The black keys seem to be a bit smaller and use a wider spacing than the white ones. They also go deeper which means that the user will receive more feedback from the keyboard in comparison to the white keyboard.

The texture of the black keyboard uses rougher plastic which makes it easier to grip. I have not tested it myself but it looks like the difference between a notebook keyboard and a usual desktop pc keyboard at first glance. Maybe the difference are not that big but the comparison seems valid.

It’s still strange that Asus would create different keyboards for different colored models and the reviewer at Laptop Mag came to the conclusion that this may be caused by the manufacturing process and not by design itself.

Related posts

• Windows EeePC 900 cheaper than Linux model (6)
• Why QWERTY was invented ! (0)
• Tweak Asus Eee PC Brightness (5)
• Disney Netpal (8)
• Asus EEE PC (9)

To get into more detail: The paper keyboard consists of three layers of paper. Conducting paths are printed on the top and bottom paper while the middle paper separates the other two. The middle paper has holes that connect the two other papers when a key is pressed which basically has the effect that the signal is send to the computer.

The paper keyboards use the Open Source software Autohotkey to define and change the keyboard shortcuts. This means you do not purchase a normal keyboard which you can use to type but a specialized keyboard.

Autohotkey is however not the only possibility to use the paper keyboard. Using an USB Adapter would be another solution, softwares that have the support build in and self created scripts that interpretate the keys presses two other possibilities.

This means that the paper keyboards should be plattform independent.

Read More:

Flippress (German)

Related posts

• Why QWERTY was invented ! (0)
• What’s On Your Wishlist for the Holidays? (5)
• Transparent TV from Sony (10)
• Otaku Gadgets Week 33 Recap (1)
• Otaku Gadgets (7)

The inventor, C. L. Sholes, put together the first typewriter prototyp. It had its letters on the end of rods called “typebars”. The typebars hung in a circle. The roller which held the paper sat over this circle, and when a key was pressed, a typebar would swing up to hit the paper from underneath. If two typebars were near each other in the circle, they would tend to clash into each other when typed in succession. So, Sholes figured he had to take the most common letter pairs such as “TH” and make sure their typebars hung at safe distances.

He did this using a study of letter-pair frequency prepared by educator Amos Densmore, brother of James Densmore, who was Sholes’ chief financial backer. The QWERTY keyboard itself was determined by the existing mechanical linkages of the typebars inside the machine to the keys on the outside. Sholes’ solution did not eliminate the problem completely, but it was greatly reduced.

Related posts

• Different Keyboards on Asus Eee PCs (0)
• Ask the Readers: What Keyboard are you using ? (24)
• Your keyboard is more dirty than your toilet (1)
• Xbox 360 HD can be connected to your pc (3)
• What you should do before bringing the PC in for repair (11)