Rants And Ramblings About Mobile Technology
Anders Borg writing about the fun and crazy world of mobile and Internet service technologies.
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Saturday, August 08, 2009
Anecdote: Ergonomics, paah…
Finally I replaced this expensive and supposedly ergonomical but in practice impractical and flawed keyboard/mouse combo…
…with this much cheaper and smaller, and more “normal” combo…
I didn’t want a wireless combo, but the shops didn’t have any wired ones. Whether that was because people don’t want them anymore or that manufacturers and shops get more margin on the wireless ones (which is a fact) is anyone’s guess, but probably both are true more or less. Try also to buy scanners. Also that seems to be on the way out, as people buy MFPs instead, and there’s obviously not much need for scanning photographs anymore.
The new keyboard is more like the ones found on laptops, and even though there are fewer keys than on the previous keyboard, it actually covers everything I need via a Function key. There’s even a power off switch, which the MS keyboard doesn’t have. Due to the different designs each key has on the MS keyboard, they are also different in their tactile response, which is not good when writing fast. It ‘s more like wrestling than touch-typing.
The mouse is much lighter and easier to hold, but primarily, on the old one I often pressed on the secondary button when moving the mouse, and vice versa, moving the mouse when pressing a button, due to the slanted design and its weight. That’s fatal when doing quick operations in development tools or in games. All the “bells-n-whistles” buttons I never used, so they were just in the way. The new mouse also has much better tracking on any surface.
Overall, the MS combo is most likely less straining on the hands, but it’s without question harder to use, especially when moving between a laptop and this, and due to the overall flaws.
Microsoft now has a low cost keyboard that is flat like normal ones, but still curved. That’s probably a better solution, as all keys are then equally balanced and sized, making quick typing easier.
So what did I want to symbolize with all this meandering? I’m not sure yet. Maybe that you should buy stuff based on your actual needs and not on hype, price (as in “more expensive must be better, right?”) or marketing speak.
