Racing wheels fill that unenviable spot in gaming controllers where you’re sure to do better with one but your non-racing loving friends will question your sanity…can you blame them? Thankfully they do improve on your performance enough where you can easily justify its purchase, and perhaps a carefully crafted gaming rig/racing chair/desk/multi-monitor setup to go along with it.

RBMODS has a look at the Logitech G27 Racing Wheel which brings a long a bit of added realism with its force-feedback generating action. You’ll have noone to blame but yourself now:

Additionally, the pedals can be moved about ¼” left or right from their original locations.  All that is required to move them is an Allen key to loosen two bolts, move the pedal left or right, and then re-tighten the two bolts. This is a great feature for those of us with wide feet, or those who like to use shoes for racing.

Ah adjustable pedals, just another feature that will have you tinkering for hours in search of that perfect setup .

While it would be nice to have a dedicated displays and input devices for every PC you have at your disposal you clearly don’t have enough desk space or a surge protector long enough.

In comes the Belkin SOHO F1DD104L four-port KVM which makes sharing your USB keyboard, mouse, DVI monitor, and speakers a breeze. Benchmark Reviews has a look:

The Belkin SOHO “learns” the DDC specs of your monitor the first time the monitor is connected to the switch and turned on, and thereafter presents these specs to all computers that are plugged in, all the time. It also emulates a generic keyboard and mouse on the USB ports, and what all this means is that each computer connected to the SOHO thinks it’s connected to a monitor, keyboard, and mouse all the time. This is turn means minimal delay when switching between computers: your keyboard and mouse are instantly available, and your monitor re-syncs in just a second or two; it also means that you can boot or restart a connected computer without having to switch to it first.

A nifty set of features so you don’t have to wait for your PC to accept your hardware.

A run of the mill keyboard will set you back a few dollars and will provide a good deal of usage before you shell out another couple of bucks to replace it but considering many of the prodigious typists out there your usual spongy keyed keyboard doesn’t quite cut it.

Benchmark Reviews has a look at eight different mechanical keyed keyboards which provide all of the heavy duty hardware your keys deserve:

But individual mechanical key switches make a keyboard expensive, and a $200 keyboard makes no economic sense for a $399 desktop computer you pick up at Best Buy. Even a $50 keyboard is too much. Most OEM keyboards these days cost less than $5 to manufacture and are available at $20 or less at the retail level. Virtually all modern keyboards use some variant of the "rubber-dome" key spring, in which the spring action to push the key back up after it’s been depressed is provided by a dome molded in a sheet of rubber under each key. Depending on the keyboard, the dome may be part of the actual switch mechanism, with conductive material on the underside of the dome bridging contacts on a circuit board beneath it when the key is pressed, or the dome may merely provide the spring effect for a membrane-switch keyboard.

An impressive array of choices out there for those that want to get something a bit more durable and infinitely more satisfying to type on.

Microsoft’s hardware division continues to crank out quality products, in relative anonymity, and their newest product continues that trend. Their new Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 6000 sports a slim design that would fit anywhere and even offers up an optional number pad for those rapid fire data entry tasks you’re so into.

You’re looking at an $89.99 MSRP for the keyboard while the number pad will set you back $44.95 sometime in October.

If you’re the sort of discerning computer user that prefers the finer things in life you’ll note the appalling lack of gadgetry with a touch of class and elegance that you find in most luxury level products and services. Then again not many people go for that sort of thing.

TestSeek has a look at the Gigabyte GM-M7800S Swarovski Crystal Mouse which is padded in leather and is studded with some fine Swarovski crystals. Shiny:

On top of the mouse, there is another outstanding feature, apart from the 4 Swarovski crystals and the leather surface. I am talking about the golden button which allows us to change the resolution of the laser sensor “on the go”. The are two modes available; 800 and 1600 DPI. In addition to this, there are two buttons placed on the left side of the mouse, these are regular “back and forward” buttons which allows you to switch windows or move back and forward in your web page browsing history.

A nifty product if a limited market…make it a black leather mouse then we’d be talking.

You’ve got yourself your a great new gaming machine with all of the best new hardware available matched up to an equally impressive monitor and audio system but you’re still using that keyboard you bought 7 years ago. Something isn’t right.

Razer’s Arctosa Gaming Keyboard promises to elevate your game with programmable macros and "anti-ghosting" technology, whatever that is. Benchmark Reviews has the full story:

The Arctosa Gaming Keyboard is one of Razer’s entry-level enthusiast peripherals to help gamers get into the world of high-end keyboards.  It is a keyboard with many of the advanced features that you expect on a gaming keyboard, but with a price that wont break the bank.  With such features as fully programmable macro keys and anti-ghosting technology, just to name a few. Benchmark Reviews is here to test this keyboard and its many features to discover whether it lives up to the Razer name, or if it is just another regular old keyboard with some fancy logos and shiny buttons on it.

A slick looking keyboard for sure, just hope it matches your system’s motif, ah forget the motif as long as you game better right?

That feeling you get when you’re having a bad day and your computer seems to want to fight you at every turn, yeah you know the one. It just drives you mad enough that your keystrokes are little more forceful (or a lot more) than you’re used to.

Soon your computer will sense your wrath.

TechFlash writes of Microsoft’s work on a keyboard with pressure sensitive keys that could allow an OS or other applications to do nifty things based on the level of force a user puts into his strokes. Here’s a tidbit:

The company describes the potential uses as "limitless," saying it has tested concepts including pressing a letter harder to get a capital letter or a larger font size, or hitting the delete key harder or softer depending on whether the user wants to delete one character or an entire word.

Given the likelihood of angry users mashing their backspace keys and deleting their entire works the keyboards of tomorrow better be shatter proof.

Most of us are lucky in that we can guide our mice and trackpads instinctively and with precision. That’s not always the case with the differently abled among us.

Microsoft brings us this heartwarming tale of how technology, collaboration, DIY spirit and a glue gun are already enriching the lives of children in Bellevue, WA and North Tonawanda, N.Y. in a seemingly small yet hugely impactful way.

The story starts when Janice LaManna, who works with special needs children, asked her son Mike LaManna, a designer at Microsoft, if he knew of a good mouse for her kids. It would spark at effort that should make all geeks and hardware hackers proud.

McLoone, Perkins, and LaManna worked with 10 special needs children from schools in Bellevue to test the mice. Each child spent about 30 minutes working with the prototypes. The Microsoft employees used a mouse-tracking software tool to test how the prototypes worked for the children. They tried a variety of methods to gauge the reaction of the children, many of whom were nonverbal, and had to watch closely to see whether there were negative responses. LaManna and his colleagues also found that the designs they thought would be best for the children weren’t as intuitive for them to use and didn’t keep their index fingers in place.

After the prototype testing, and after receiving feedback from teachers in Bellevue and North Tonawanda, N.Y., LaManna and his colleagues found that the most effective design involved a plastic ring fastened near the back of the button on a small, laptop-sized mouse. Though the children needed some initial guidance from a teacher, and an adjustment period, the design worked to both keep their fingers on the mouse button and to more easily fit a child-sized hand. “It’s a little more arts and craft than it is high-tech design,” LaManna says. “Sometimes I get a little red in the face, working somewhere where designs go out buttoned up and pixel perfect, and I am walking around with a glue gun and a bag of party rings.”

In a word: awesome! Kudos!

Source: Microsoft

Update: Channel 9 has a video. Embedded below (Requires Silverlight).

Gaming keyboards are a strange segment. They’re “extreme” enough that you’d think only the enthusiast set would pick up one of these pricey monsters, on the other hand they offer tons of flexibility that no-doubt calls to the WoW players of the world.

Logitech’s G19 gaming keyboard kicks the insanity up another notch with backlit keys for easy viewing in dimly lit gaming dens and a color LCD screen for vital information. DriverHeaven has a look:

The 320×240 LCD display is quite a sight to behold, it is hard to fully
capture its quality with a digital camera but the screen is bright,
full of vibrancy and is crystal clear. As you can see in the above
picture Logitech have taken advantage of this display and provided it
with some nifty looking utilities.

All the graphics are
well designed and the software is supplied with a number of useful
utilities preconfigured. In addition to features such as CPU and memory
monitoring, POP email updates and a full blown RSS reader, the display
allows you to browse through your Pictures folder and even Videos.

The king of gaming keyboards? Most likely!

It isn’t often that you wonder the rational behind the creation of some products…this may be one of those times. Logitech, makers of things that usually make sense, have come up with their diNovo keyboard for notebooks. Yes a keyboard for your notebook which probably has its own keyboard.

Thankfully the keyboard can work with all manner of devices that accept notebook input and comes with a wireless bluetooth dongle for typing at a distance. It’s also a very slim product for those out there that love their sleek gadgets. ITREVIEWED has a look at the keyboard:

Highlights include the fact that the USB receiver doesn’t need to be
line of sight as I thought it would, and it can also be plugged into a
PlayStation PS3. The keyboard is beautifully crafted and performs
fluidly, and there is plenty of space between the keys. The keys are
like laptop keys too, with a slightly raised bottom row of keys where
CTRL, ALT and Space reside. The media keys are also very customisable
with the supplied PinPoint application. There is a good array of
shortcut buttons (eject drive, volume, skip/play) and 10 of the keys
are customisable.

It seems like a great choice for that home theater system or game console typing, or even for use on a desktop PC.