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Tools of the trade: Keyboard

logitech-lx501-keyboard

The keyboard is probably the most used part of the computer. I recently wrote a piece for the magazine where I suggested that most of us probably don't think enough about these essential tools and make do with the basic models supplied with a new computer. This can be false economy if the design of the keyboard makes it uncomfortable.

Computeractive reader Roger Lawrence asked that I share the model of the keyboard I claimed had lasted five computers. Read on for the exciting reveal...

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Microsoft gets ahead with Christmas showcase in July

ms-gingerbread-man

It's summer and so the ideal time for companies to talk about Christmas. No, I don't fully understand it either but it's better than hearing about products too late. Spurred on by the prospect of getting a Santa hat and slice of Christmas cake, I sauntered over to the Saatchi gallery to see what Microsoft has to offer for the festive period. Read on to find out more about mice, Xbox Kinect and whether I did, in fact, get our Christmas cake.

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More from the Computex Floor: Tuesday

asus-memo-5

With several giant halls spread all over Taipei, Taiwan's Computex technology show encompasses just about every techology company you've heard of and dozens you haven't. This means it's hard to actually keep count of even a fraction of the new stuff that's on display, but every so often you come across items that, although perhaps not groundbreaking, catch your eye. Here's a couple I spotted today.

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Plastic 'clamshells': the worst piece of industrial design ever?

Wrap rage

You learn something new every day: according to Wikipedia, 'wrap rage' is the anger experienced by people when they can't open the rather stupid packaging in which some manufacturers insist on sheathing their products.

I was pointed to the Wikipedia page by a thread on the question-and-answer site Quora in which someone asked: "What's the worst piece of design ever done?" One of the most popular answers, with 892 votes, was 'plastic clamshell packaging', which a poster describes as 'principally aggravating your own customers'. As a reviewer of said products, I have to agree with the sentiment.

Photograph by Tktktk

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Casio's dangerous F-91W wristwatch

Casio F-91W

The BBC has a good article in the news magazine section about Casio's F-91W digital watch. Partly it's about quite how successful this humble, cheap watch has been, but it also touches on why it might be dangerous to be seen with one in certain places.

EDITED 27 APRIL: we originally mis-identified the source of this information as a US embassy leak, not a Guantanamo Bay leak. This has now been corrected.

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Video: more time travel with the Centre for Computing History [part 2]

chistory2-56

The Centre for Computing History, based in Haverhill in Suffolk, does a fine job of collecting and curating the annals of the history of computing from Britain and abroad.

At the Gadget Show Live 2011 in Birmingham the centre has a large display of the last few decades of computers.

In our first-part video yesterday we looked through the 1980s and 1990s, and today we'll go even further back, into the 1960s and 1970s:

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