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Every once in a while, companies like Logitech or Microsoft would come up with a new keyboard that has some features that makes life easier, such as dedicated buttons for web browsing or media keys, or rechargeable cordless keyboard/mouse sets. However, these enhancements are rarely used, and nothing really innovative has come up for the keyboard, until now. Introducing the Optimus Maximus Keyboard (OMK) by Art Lebedev Studios.
The OMK concept has been one of the worlds greatest vaporware until recently when Art Lebedev finally manufactured it and shipped out to early birds. Now whats so special about this keyboard? Well the coolest thing about it is that each key is actually an OLED display! Yes people, a fully customizable keyboard that you can custom yourself for any language or any application. You can design your own icons and macros for every key, and best of all, there are 10 extra keys to put your shortcuts in, be it IE or Photoshop or even media control keys, the OMK can do it all. The OMKs customizable layout allows convenient use of any language; from Ancient Greek, to Hiragana text, as well as of any other character set: notes, numerals, special symbols, HTML codes, math functions and so on to infinity.
The only downfall to the OMK is that the OLEDs are actually in a fixed position, and is covered by a transparent plastic cover (which you press) to prolong the life of the OLED displays which makes it a bit different from your normal keyboard (some will find it hard to use, but others might not). Also pricing for the fully specced keyboard comes with a hefty price of USD$ 1500 so be sure to have a deep pocket if youre willing to get this uber keyboard.
Ever since Nick Negroponte came up with the OLPC, there were a lot of competitors trying to gun for that market. Intel tried to come up with the Classmate PC, but did not turn out well. Even Nicks OLPC itself was not as well received as all the hype before the launch. The only one that stands out of the bunch was the Asus EeePC.
Designed to be a low cost laptop, it comes with a 7LCD and enough computing power to run Windows XP. Originally Asus preloaded the EeePC with Linux, but due to popular demand, they now have Windows XP flavors as well. There are also couple of different configurations for the EeePC, but each come standard with an Intel CPU and chipset, Ethernet, WiFi, SSD (solid state drive) harddisk (ranging from 2GB for the entry level one and up to 8GB for the high end ones), a media card reader and a built in camera with a mic. My only gripe with it is that Asus decided to underclock the CPUs in the EeePCs. As battery life strongly depends on the CPU, the Intel Celeron 900MHz CPUs that power the EeePCs were clocked to around 500Mhz to save on battery. Thankfully, there are now BIOS replacements (unofficial) and Linux/windows applications that allow you to overclock your EeePC to unleash its full potential.
Buying a new PC? Or maybe you have one thats not really old. Consider getting fan filters for your PC. This will help keep dust out from your chassis (PC casing), which will prevent overheating due to poor ventilation and prolong the life of your fans. Even if you have an old PC, make an effort to open up your chassis and cleaning it once in a while. Theres a wide range of fan filters here (AU shoppers). Installing them is not that difficult; all you need is the proper screwdriver and a bit of time. I would personally choose the stainless steel mesh fan filters as they are easy to take out and clean.
This has been one of the coolest gadgets that I use. It's a credit card sized multi-tool. While I use the classic, the lite version seems to be have a lot more tools (I think it was just recently released a year back or so, and I have been using mine for over 3 years now). It has a small blade/scissors for light cutting jobs, screwdrivers to open that PC/gadget that you own, and even a ballpoint pen and a mini flashlight. It can be bought from Amazon.com, or in Australia, from various camping gear equipment shops or even the King of Knives.
Have a mobile phone and want to watch DivX movies on it? Well theres a free way to do this provided you have a compatible phone. Most Windows Mobile 2003/5.0/6.0 and Symbian OS S60 phones would be able to handle it. Just download the mobile player here (I did it on my N95 and the installation went smoothly) and start getting your DivX movies onto your phone. Note that you have to register on the site to get their software, but registration is free so install away 
A lot of people have been asking me about maps for the Nokia N95, as most were under the impression that you need to pay for them. Well, the good news is that you can actually download and install maps on your N95 for free, this eliminating the need to connect to a wireless broadband network (3G GPRS etc) to download maps on the go. Just head over to this link (asia only) to download the software that allows you to install the maps. Enjoy!
Firstly, let me apologize to my readers for not posting updates for quite some time now. The reason was mostly because I am in Malaysia for my holidays. Initially I was going to post up some articles about some gadgets that I have played around with here and write a review on some Slappa products that I recently acquired. Well don't fret, because once I get back to Australia, it will be done.
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Stumbled upon this website while I was reading some tech articles. After some digging, I found out that it is a project that both Razer and Microsoft are working on. Any guesses to what it is anyone?
Thermaltake is about to unveil its new case, named the LAN Box. Details of this chassis is not yet up on its main website but can be seen here and it looks awesome. Basically it looks like any Shuttle barebone case, but has a neat handle on the top for convenient carrying and is probably slightly larger. This eliminates the need for a bag to carry your PC around. It also has decent ventilation, as you can see it incorporates 2 60mm exhaust fans and allows for an additional 92mm fan to be placed on the side. For further cooling, an additional 60mm fan can be added onto the chassis if needed. The ducts on top and the front help in airflow too.
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One of Australias most popular bandwidth test sites, bmods.briscomp.org.au, has been down for a very long time now. Not that there arent any sites out there to test bandwidth, but none as cool as the one on Speedtest.net. Call me a sucker for eye candy, but the UI on this site knocks the socks of the rest of the bandwidth test sites that I have seen, such as Bandwidthplace and Xpeedometer. But the coolest thing about this site is that it lets you select which server you want to run the test from, and thus gives you a comparison if you try them all. A bookmark must for all anyone who uses ADSL or cable.
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