Filed under: Accessories, Hardware, Peripherals, Cool tools
ABkey replaces QWERTY keyboard
ABkey, based in Singapore, has a fantastic looking keyboard for those of you who find QWERTY keyboard layouts tedious and unnaturalThe ABkey offers an alphabetical layout, with all the common keys in and around the home row. It looks so cool. In fact, the ABkey spec sheet actually lists as the #1 feature: "World's Coolest Keyboard." Who am I to argue with that?
The patented uniquely grouped alphabetical layout is said to enable touch typing in one hour. Instructions are even provided, with access to online tutor. Did the last keyboard you bought include that? I think not. The flexible V-shape in the premium model reduces fatigue in fingers and wrists and having the most common keys in the home row is expected to double your typing speed. Check out the keyboard layout here.
The 119-key keyboard is USB plug & play, and has a 2-port hub on board. It's compatible with both Mac and PC. At $109 USD it's pricey. But did I mention how good it looks?
[via Akihabara News]
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jason said 12:49PM on 7-06-2005
Weren't Dvorak keyboards invented for just the same purpose? To have most often typed keys in the home row? Why make things alphabetical?
Reply
Derek said 12:59PM on 7-06-2005
Great. Now there's a top-endian and bottom-endian format for keyboards. http://www.abckeyboard.com/ has the top-endian version.
I hope that keyboard doesn't expect you to use your wrists in the action as well, since that would promote unhealthy movement. They didn't bother looking at an Apple keyboard and check to see what people enjoy typing on in the first place. Those keys look like something died in the 70's and came back from the dead.
Reply
Eric said 1:04PM on 7-06-2005
I use a Dvorak layout. I find it much more comfortable and natural than qwerty. The alphabetic layout makes sense on a Speak-n-Spell, but if you are going to move the keys around, might as well stick with Dvorak, which has some actual reason and testing to back it up. You can also just switch keymaps rather than carting your board around.
If you want the cadillac of ergo keyboards, I suggest the Kinesis-- http://kinesis-ergo.com/contoured.htm
Reply
AxsDeny said 1:15PM on 7-06-2005
I find that these keyboards all make a nice target for the casual writer, blogger, email user... but are not created with a coder in mind. It seems to most of these keyboard makers that the curly brace is extremely unimportant (based on their location) and that they should be harder to reach. Well, I use curly braces and semi-colons a lot. I've got a split keyboard from Kinesis that allows each side of the keyboard to be mounted to each arm of the chair. I'll stick with this ASCII model for now until something VERY ergonomic AND coder friendly comes along.
http://kinesis-ergo.com/evol_chair.htm
Reply