What Happened to Good, Clean, Simple Hardware?

I honestly do not understand hardware manufacturers’ obsession with huge bulky keyboards with every imaginable media and entertainment key on them. I understand it’s very much a matter of personal taste, but I love clean, simple hardware that does its job.

Having been a laptop owner for a while now, I just can’t go back to keyboards with a loud click. I feel like I’m chopping wood when using one. I also don’t like wireless or optical keyboards.

Recently, when shopping for a clean keyboard with a quiet click, I stumbled upon Microsoft’s Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000 which possesses all those attributes I’m talking about here. It’s thin, almost like a laptop keyboard, and very quiet. Although it looks like other curved, “ergonomic” keyboards, it’s not split in the middle. And it has only a few auxiliary keys at the top.

Microsoft also claims it’s resistant to spillage (“Enjoy a drink while you work—this keyboard is designed to withstand an accidental spill”) but I haven’t tested this yet. Another shocker is its price: Newegg.com sells it for $13.45.

Another piece of Microsoft hardware I’m addicted to is IntelliMouse Optical. Again, a very simple, reliable mouse with a bare minimum of options. I have a hard time finding it in retail stores, so I end up buying it from Microsoft online.

Every time I browse through the shelves of Best Buy, Circuit City or CompUSA I feel like mice have toasters and coffee makers built into them these days. I don’t know if “consumer demand ” drives such senseless design, or whether manufacturers stick to the line, “Build a better mouse and they will come.”

I had the exact same frustrations when I decided to go "semi-stationary" with my laptop. Keyboards today are all mammoth size, with a load of "quick access" keys.

I went with a Logitech solution

The UltraX keyboard is the same size as a "normal" keyboard (10 years ago), with keys very similar to what you are used to from a laptop. It does however have six of those unusable shortcut keys, but they are discrete enough to just go as a part of the design.

Speaking of shortcut keys (getting a bit off topic):

If you have not yet tried the small Windows tool called Lunchy, now is the time! To me it has become a complete replacement for both the start menu and the "Run..." dialog. Guess there is even less need for shortcut keys on the keyboard now... :-)

http://www.launchy.net/

I sighed distainfully when prototypes of Dell Notebook computers (when I worked there circa 2000) arrived with a "one touch internet access key." All it did was launch a desktop exe. But a conversation with my brother a few months earlier helped me understand why Marketing requested the button.

My brother, who is not computer savvy, called from several states away to tell me he just bought a new desktop computer. I asked him (1) what was the speed of the cpu (2) how much RAM was on the machine, and (3) what was the hard drive capacity. He didn't know. "But it has this key that when I press it connects me to the internet."

Okay, score one for the Marketing department. Those little keys actually sell product. I guess the thought after that was "more keys will sell more product."

I must admit I have a wireless keyboard/mouse at home with several of the keys -- and I use them on occassion. Calc, for instance, is easier to find on the keyboard than in the start menu. I'd like to get something as compact as your keyboard that was wireless.

Ironically, the keyboard I mentioned has a calculator button. :)

I get a kick out of keyboards that have Doom/Half-Life/Quake/etc "heads-up displays" on little LCDs.

I could not agree more about basic PC peripherals being overloaded with junk. IMHO, if a company (like Logitech) came out with a smartly designed line of simple, uncomplicated, easy-to-use perpherals (keyboard, mouse, monitor, webcam, speakers...aka, mac-style hardware), they'd make a killing. No company offers such hardware today (except if you include Apple).

MS hardware, generally isn't bad, but even their keyboards are overloaded with stuff I would never use.

You want users to feel at ease on a PC, give them fewer choices, not more. Why do manufacturer's find this so difficult to understand?

anthony