Key Switches Guide

Have just discovered a very nice guide to different types of key switches in keyboards, which explains the difference between brown and blue stemmed switches from Cherry and also exposes advantages of mechanical keyboards (such as Das Keyboard and Filco Majestouch) over the membrane-based. Be sure to check it out!

Joby Gorillapod

I have a digital camera for about 3 years now, and I still haven't got a tripod. I just never saw one that would be worth buying. Until now! Here's a Gorillapod, a flexible tripod from a company called Joby.

This funny looking octopus with three legs (triapus?) might seem like a toy, but in fact it can grip on almost anything, thanks to multiple "joints" on its legs, which have rubbery rings and tips. There are several models for different weights of cameras. Some come with a bubble level, which can be really handy for professional use. The "Original" model designed for small and light cameras comes in seven different colors, and they do look cheerful. I've settled for a green one myself.

Gorillapods have been around for quite a while, but I have never seen one of those before. I think it's really clever and useful, and not expensive either, you can get the Original model for about $21. Plus to camera tripods, Joby makes similar tripods for handhelds (iPhone, cellphone, PDA, etc) called Gorillamobile, and a Gorillatorch - a flashlight on a same tripod, but with magnetic tips, so it can hang on to metal objects.

ECO*CRISIS

Just a thought: since we are now in the middle of both ECOnomical and ECOlogical crisis, why not name it ECO*CRISIS. Or maybe ECO²CRISIS - looks like a brand name, doesn't it. So, if anyone uses it from now on, this blog would show that I came up with it first! But soft, let's not divert from technology too much, shall we...

WD TV Live

It's not that fascinating by its nature; the standalone multimedia players or media tanks have been around for quite a while. Actually, long enough for some journalists to proclaim the end of the era. The end that will be difficult to reach with brand new models coming out all the time from all directions. Anyway, what is truly fascinating, is to find a standalone player that would be actually USEFUL. And I think I've actually found myself one. It was released quite recently, in October: Western Digital's WD TV Live.

If you're not familiar with the subject, a standalone media player connects to your TV and plays back digital video and audio content from different sources; some have embedded hard drive, some are network-enabled and can play files from your computer or Internet (YouTube, Web radio, etc), some support external USB media such as flash drives. They usually have no DVD slot, so it's not a complete replacement for a DVD player. But most are to playback the DVD contents.

My demands, as usually, are quite... hmm... demanding! I need something small, cheap and solid, yet versatile, reliable, fast and modern. I don't need Wi-Fi, but a network connection is mandatory. I love to watch movies in silence, and an internal hard drive or a fan would be an annoyance. I don't have a plasma panel, but HD content support is important - there's a lot of it out there already, and when I finally get myself a nice big flat screen, I want to be prepared to use it. One thing I got really fed up with is DTS - I don't have a set of 20 speakers surrounding me from all dimensions, and I will never have that in my home. God in his wisdom has given me only two ears and thus I prefer to watch films and programmes in stereo. DTS is always a pain in something that rhymes with it. Only a few standalone media players can (or licensed to) downmix it to stereo and send to my TV like normal audio. So... WD TV Live can do it all. And that is fascinating, isn't it. That tiny box supports any format and codec I can think of, from DivX to AVC, it can play DVDs and Blu-ray contents from a hard drive or network (so nice to have all films in one place), it can show YouTube videos (that should be fun), and it's $199 at Bestbuy.com. I'm game!

The previous model, WD TV, was well known for its openness to community and high frequency of firmware updates. There are some impressive customizations and modifications for it, which shows how inspiring this technology is for its users. And updates to the software were quite frequent. WD TV Live seems to continue the tradition, as on its community site there is already an announcement of a new firmware that adds some usability features and fixes a few bugs. So I can be sure it won't take years for problems to be solved, like it was with my current KiSS DP-500 player (which feels now like something that has died long ago and resurrects selectively only as a personal favor).

I always download user manuals before buying things - that helps to see if all really is as that good as it looks in the ads. And it seems there are just a few things I'm going to miss. One grain of salt I want to mention is the inability to jump into a specific place in the video file by specifying the exact time. WD TV Live has a skip feature that skips 10 minutes on each button press... that's not exactly the same thing, but should do the trick. I hope rewind and fast forward work well on MPEG-4 files, but I saw no complaints about it on the web.

So, I guess I found myself a perfect match! I'll publish more once I get my hands on it.

FILCO Majestouch

Here's another high end mechanical keyboard I came by, made by Japanese company DIATEC:  Filco Majestouch.

It's got the N-key Rollover feature I've told about in my previous keyboard post, that allows multiple keys to be pressed simultaneously and properly interpreted by the computer. It uses brown Cherry key switches (Light Tactile), and it costs just a dollar less than the silent model of Das Keyboard. It looks pretty nice, very compact and with the US layout I like so much. One of the funny features is a bundled red [Escape] key you can put on yourself.

Now, I think I would prefer [Enter] key to be in red colour. After all, [Enter] can do so much more damage than [Escape]! Still, another keyboard to consider and it seems like $135 is a normal price for that sort of thing.

Das Keyboard

I decided it's time to change a keyboard. I've done two years with a cheap flat membrane-based Chicony, and since I'm going to write a lot, I think I need something better. A research I came across said that the original, mechanical, clicking keyboards I used to work with in the early 90's, are the best for typing; even professional typists notice improvements in productivity when using them. So there'll be a series of posts about keyboards, and the first one I came by is the Das Keyboard.

Their slogan is "The best keyboard on the planet. Period." Which is quite politically correct, as they don't specify which planet is that. The looks are there, no doubt, although I'm a bit sceptical about the blue LEDs. I hate this new fashion, frankly, blue is a complicated color, it shouldn't be a LED. Red would be so much fancier, and the most calm color, I think, would be yellow. But anyway, the keyboard is supposed to click like they used to, and the funny thing is that their online store also sells earplugs. I guess it does click!

The gold-plated mechanical key switches Das Keyboard uses are made by Cherry, the brand I know since I was a kid, and whose keyboard served me well for over 10 years. Unfortunately, Cherry has all sorts of keyboards, except the one I'd like to have (compact, USB, US layout). That's why my first post is not about a Cherry keyboard. The switches used in Das Keyboard are blue, which have a normal level of tactility and provide a normal amount of click feedback.

One thing important about a "high end" keyboard is the so-called "N-Key rollover" - it means you can press any number of keys simultaneously. Well, actually, you can press all keys on any keyboard, but with "N-key rollover" keyboard all the keys you press will be recognized and the input will be processed properly by the computer. It works only with PS/2 connection, and USB limits the number of simultaneous key presses to 6. Talk about USB superiority! I never liked that USB thingy, and now I have a new reason for that.

Das Keyboard is made by a Texas-based open source software company called Medadot, which is founded by Daniel Guermeur, who, as they say, "created" the keyboard. I wish I knew how to create keyboards, I'd create one for myself, for sure.

The guys behind Das Keyboard surely have a sense of humour, and it shows. In the description of the keyboard it says: "Glossy black upper enclosure with matching black USB cable, Darth Vader approved."

So, the keyboard is almost perfect, it's got Cherry inside, plus a US layout, plus a USB hub, and the "silent" version (that is also mechanical, but won't give my neighbours some unnecessary desires of lynching me) would be just what I need, but it costs $135 at their online shop. I'll have to go through some therapy to become ready to spare that much for a keyboard. But maybe other keyboards of this type cost no less, or even more! I'm going to find out, so stay tuned...

iRex DR800SG

I've been staring at the computer screen since I was a child, and frankly my eyes are pretty tired by now. I remember hunting higher refresh rates with CRTs, because less flicker meant less eye stress. Then I spent quite some money on an LCD and ensured it's got DVI. The next thing would be, of course, the electronic paper, like the e-Ink technology. It is truly the digital display device of the future, having no flicker and no light that is blinding you when you read.

So for the last few years I've been longing for one of them electronic reading devices, and the pioneer of those would be iRex Technologies, the Netherlands-based company famous for their Iliad readers equipped with digitizing tablets from another favourite company of mine, Wacom. Unfortunately, Ileads were pretty expensive, and had too much extra features I might have not needed, while the battery life was reported to be depressingly short.

This Summer I finally decided to invest into an electronic reader, and tried to find something cheap and simple for about $200-$300. After settling for Sony PRS-505 available in that price region, I discovered that it was just replaced by a newer model PRS-600 with a touch screen, that goes for $300. Now that put me in front of a dilemma, either hunt down some stock leftovers of an obsolete device, or get a new model with a touch screen... and do I need one? I got a PDA, so I know what a touch screen is like. Not only it reflects light and makes the image blurry, but it's also so easy to activate accidentally. Especially when you use a stylus - you have to hold your hand over the screen when you click, write or draw, otherwise you'd press it in a totally wrong place. It's not like the professional-grade Wacom tablet, that is placed behind the screen, not affecting its quality, and is only reacting to a special stylus. The only reason for a touch screen in a book reader would be an integrated dictionary for reading books in foreign languages. But the Sony reader has only an English dictionary, and it seems like it can't be replaced.

So I got back to hunting, and soon came across an announcement of a new iRex reader, the DR800SG (DR stands for Digital Reader). The first thing about it is the estimated price of $399, which is only $100 more than the retail price of the aforementioned Sony readers PRS-505 and PRS-600, and exactly the same as Sony's brand new PRS-900. Surely I could spare a hundred more, if it's worth it. Here's a presentation video, and there are some more on YouTube if you look for it.

It seems very classy with almost no buttons, big 8.1" screen (Sony PRS-505 has 6"), and you can see the stylus, which is of the normal pen size, and not the toothpick you get with PDA's. The page refresh rate is quite high, comparing to videos of other devices I've seen. The DR800SG supports micro SD cards (2Gb one is included in the package) and has a micro USB port for charging and downloading books from the computer. For wireless access it's got 3G, which I don't have, and don't know much about. Apparently, in the US it will let you buy books from the reader itself and receive newspapers on it, with no extra fees on the wireless access, but in Europe it won't be of any use - until the first half of 2010, when iRex plans to add 3G support for Europe.

I have contacted iRex Technologies from their web site and they were very kind to reply to my questions. I'd like to share this information with you. Firstly, the battery life is reported to be almost one week with normal use, which is quite good. If you google battery life of Sony PRS-600, you'll see people mentioning two weeks usually, but then, Wacom tablet "eats" a lot, and comparing to previous models of Iliad readers, one week is a good result. I wonder how long will it last if you don't use it, though. The foreign language fonts (Russian is my main concern) is supported only with PDF. I'd prefer to have the native support for Cyrillic fonts, frankly, so I could just OCR something or download FB2 or HTML and just read it without messing with PDF. On second thought, with PDF I can use any fonts I like, not just something the device creators left me with, and that's a good thing, isn't it.

Another thing about iRex readers is that they are open to the development community, the SDKs are available and there are many custom made things for Iliads, like a web browser. The new DR800SG is not an exception, the SDKs will be published, so I might play with it myself, since it's got Linux inside.

I hope that the US version I'm going to buy will work in Europe eventually when 3G support arrives there; iRex said they are working on it, but cannot guarantee anything.

So, I'm anxiously waiting for the DR800SG to be available for purchase. It is said to appear in the middle of December at bestbuy.com in the USA. If I get to buy it, I'll post a hands on review here.