There are really three things that I always tell people to invest money in when buying and setting up a new computer system. The first one is the display, since this part of the system will typically outlast the computer unit several times over. The second device is the mouse. Finally, the keyboard.

While there are is an ocean of choices out there when it comes to keyboards, very few are made well. Most of the keyboards you find on the market today are terrible. Keys fade easily, keys become sticky/stuck, poor materials, and sometimes functions break down after extended use. Because your computing experience is so deeply tied into the keyboard, it’s important to know what you’re getting.

Things to look for in a keyboard:

- A company known to make quality keyboards
- Key finish: you’ll want a keyboard that looks like it’ll last through heavy use
- N-key rollover: does the keyboard flake out after 3 or 4 simultaneous presses?
- Quality key-travel
- Build quality: do the keys look like they’re loose and are going to pop?

In our experience, keyboards with tons of added fancy features tend to lack on the build quality side. Either keys will become stuck after use (not register), or the letters or coating will fade. For example, we have seen so many keyboards from Logitech fade with use. The black coating on the keys will eventually rub off, revealing a unsightly white plastic.

If you’re a serious touch typist and or spend a lot of time playing games, there is no exception to investing into a good keyboard. That’s why, we pick the Das Keyboard as one of the best keyboards you can buy.

We pick the Das Keyboard Ultimate because of its quality but also due to its blank nature.

The Ultimate is completely blank. There are no letters or symbols on the keys at all. All the keys are black, and because the plastic is black, you’ll never experience fade. Of course, you’ll struggle to get around if you’re not a good touch typist. Yes, this keyboard is not for the two-finger key pecker. It’s a serious keyboard. Das makes a version of the ultimate with labels, but we prefer the blank.

What makes Das Keyboards great? First and foremost: quality. From the very first key stroke, you can immediately feel the high quality in the keyboard’s structure, key mechanism, and key travel. The following are specs for the Das Keyboard Ultimate:

German-engineered mechanical key switches:
Das Keyboard compares to the legendary IBM model M. Its best-in-class mechanical gold-plated key switches provide a tactile and audio click that makes typing a pure joy. The keyboard has been designed to produce greater speed and accuracy by providing responsive tactile feedback using gold-plated, slightly clicky, best-in-class, 40-million actuation mechanical key switches.

N-key rollover:
Model S allows full n-key rollover and supports up to 12 simultaneous key presses.

USB 2.0 hub:
The high-speed USB hub allows you to sync and charge your iPhone, iPod or any USB compatible devices.

Extra-long USB cable:
Das Keyboard sports a 2-meter (6.6ft) cable that goes through your desk grommet to keep your workspace neat and tidy.

Indeed the focus on the keyboard is clearly quality. There aren’t any fancy controls, LCD screens, and unnecessary clutter. The focus is entirely on the typing experience. There are no distractions, just pure typing pleasure. We were previously using a chiclette keyboard, like the Apple aluminum keyboard, which is actually very good. We have a very positive impression of the Apple keyboard, but moving to the Das Ultimate instantly improved our typing experience.

Because you can hear and feel your typing, you type more confidently. The clickiness part of the keyboard may annoy some users, or at least annoy nearby people. However, it’s your fingers that are doing the typing, so that’s what you should care about most.

Those who have used some of the original Keytronic keyboards will feel at home on the Das Keyboard. But the Ultimate feels even better.

After several days with the keyboard, we’re convinced that the Das Keyboard Ultimate is really one of the best products that serious computer users should invest in. Best of all, when you have the completely blank Ultimate, people won’t be able to immediately screw with your computer if they happened to sit down in your chair.

Our friends over at Ars Technica have a review of the Das Keyboard Professional, which is the same as the blank Ultimate but with key inscriptions. Gizmodo also did a quick review of the Pro, which has lettering.

Nvidia has denied speculative reports that claim the company is considering entering the x86 CPU business.

CNet reports that, when Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang was asked about the possibility of Nvidia coming up with its own x86 chip technology in a phone interview Thursday, the chief executive officer answered with a resolute “No.”

Rumors that Nvidia had plans to enter the x86 CPU market resurfaced last week. With Nvidia not having the license to produce chipsets for the latest generation of Intel chips and Intel moving towards integrating graphics cores onto its CPUs, analysts speculated that Nvidia was likely to enter the x86 game.

”We believe Nvidia could enter the x86 CPU business,” said analyst Doug Freedman of Broadpoint AmTech, in an EETimes story. ”Nvidia could become a supplier of x86 CPUs by necessity to preserve both GPU and chipset revenue.”

However it seems Nvidia has other plans for the time being. When asked about the company’s plans for an x86 CPU, Huang squashed rumors and detailed Nvidia’s plans for the future.

“Nvidia’s strategy is very, very clear. I’m very straightforward about it. Right now, more than ever, we have to focus on visual and parallel computing.” Huang went on to detail where his company sees its best opportunities for growth. “Our strategy is to proliferate the GPU into all kinds of platforms for growth,” he said. “GPUs in servers for parallel computing, for supercomputing–and cloud computing with our GPU is a fabulous growth opportunity–and streaming video.”

The CEO also referenced Tegra and the Zune HD in stating that the company is aiming at getting its GPUs into the lowest power platforms and driving mobile computing.

Nope, still not working.

So the saga continues. While tinkering around with a developer build of the next version of Snow Leopard Mac OS X 10.6.2, modders found that netbooks running an Intel Atom processor were unable to boot Apple’s latest OS version.

Of course, the only way for anyone to discover this change was if someone was trying to run Mac OS X on a PC-based netbook. Nevertheless, this lead to much speculation that Apple is actively trying to lock out the netbook hackintosh crowd.

Then word came that a newer build of 10.6.2 brought back Atom support, making the modding community feel good and safe again. Sadly, it turns out that newer build was a fake and that the very latest developer seed still doesn’t have Atom support – at least not on known hackintosh configurations.

So for now, it seems that hackintosh netbook owners will be living in uncertainty.

Pineview Atom is coming in time for CES.

We’ve been looking at netbooks and nettops based off of the Intel Atom N270 et al for a very long time, but soon there will be new chips to replace the old.

X-bit labs claims to have information pointing to a December 21 announcement for devices that will launch January 4, just in time for the Consumer Electronics Show.

The report goes on to state that Intel is planning for a quick transition from the old chips over to the new platform, which will feature faster performance and an integrated graphics core.

While much of this is still floating around in speculation space, the new parts are expected to line up as follows:

• - Intel Atom N450: single-core with Hyper-Threading support, 1.66 GHz, 512KB cache, x86-64, BGA437 package, $63 price-point;
• - Intel Atom D510: dual-core with Hyper-Threading support, 1.66 GHz, 1MB cache, x86-64, BGA437 package, $63 price-point;
• - Intel Atom D410: single-core with Hyper-Threading support, 1.66 GHz, 512KB cache, x86-64, BGA437 package, $43 price-point;

Imagine a PCI-e card that can output gaming goodness on 6 displays! Kapow!

After moving into a new office and watching interference slowly wave up and down the two LCD monitors (wasn’t there before), the first thing that came to mind was, “man there needs to be a new graphics card in this rig.” As if reading those very thoughts, Softpedia prints up an article featuring an ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphics card with 2 GB of GDDR5 memory and… get this… 6 DisplayPort ports!

Yep, that’s right. Consumers can hook up six DisplayPort displays, making one heck of a desktop that could fill an entire wall thanks to the company’s ATI Eyefinity technology. Apparently, the card uses the same dual-slot cooling solution as the reference HD 5870 model too, with the six display ports mounted just under the card’s cooler exhaust.

Softpedia also reports that the new model has acquired an 8-pin and 6-pin PCI-e power connector setup. It also sports 1,600 Stream processors as seen with the HD 5870, however the GPU and memory clock speeds have been altered to 850 MHz and 4,8000 MHz, respectively.

Unfortunately, as of this writing, the new model isn’t exactly official, nor is there any mention of availability or pricing. We’re crossing our fingers that it ships soon, just in time for the long hours of PC gaming during the holidays. Like Gollum says in the LOTR trilogy, we’s wants its, my precious.

Nvidia and Intel have been at times partners and at other times opponents. Things have been a little tense when it comes to the chipset arena, and it could get even hotter when Intel graphics are more commonly integrated with its CPUs.

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang already has some choice words against Intel. From the sounds of it, he must have been doing victory fist pumps when Apple decided to go with Nvidia chipsets for the current generation of MacBooks.

In fact, during a visit to the AmericanUniversity of Dubai, Huang told participants of his current computing preference.

Lexmark International introduced recently the industry’s first single-function monochrome A4 laser printer with a touch screen, providing businesses the ability to tap into a powerful solutions platform and work more efficiently.

The innovative Lexmark T656dne monochrome laser printer enables customers to expand the usefulness of their device to meet specific needs within their business by utilizing Lexmark’s award-winning Embedded Solutions Framework (eSF).

Lexmark was recently recognized by Buyers Laboratory Inc. with an Outstanding Achievement Award for providing value-added capabilities as a standard offering by leveraging its eSF platform, which enables customizable or industry-specific solutions to streamline paper-based processes, increasing productivity and reducing page volumes.

“Our robust, industry-leading solutions, integrated with our reliable, workhorse monochrome workgroup laser device, will enable the new T656dne to provide large workgroups with greater efficiency and productivity day in and day out,” said Marty Canning, Lexmark vice president and president of its Printing Solutions and Services Division. “In addition, our new color laser, monochrome laser and laser MFPs continue to broaden our product line and provide our customers more choices than ever before for small and large workgroup needs.”

Lexmark T656dne:
Lexmark’s T656dne monochrome laser printer enables solutions capabilities for large workgroups, providing access to preloaded and customizable applications at the simple touch of an icon. Immediately upon powering on the Lexmark T656dne, users will find several unique applications available from the 7 inch, color touch screen:

• Forms and Favorites, which reduces waste associated with preprinted forms
• Eco-Settings, which helps increase energy savings and reduce wasted pages and toner
• Showroom, which demonstrates the possibilities of using the touch screen as a unique communications medium
• Change Background, allowing businesses to display a company logo or personalize the background image
• Change Language, which can be enabled during setup, allows users in multilingual environments to easily change the display language

The Lexmark T656dne, which prints up to 53 pages per minute (ppm), comes equipped with an internal 80+GB hard disk to support tailored software applications and provide ample storage capacity.

Lexmark X546dtn, C546dtn and E462dtn:
Three additional laser products introduced today, aimed at providing greater value to higher-usage customers, expand Lexmark’s award-winning lineup of laser products:

The Lexmark X546dtn is designed for small to midsize workgroups or busy offices that need access to an affordable device.

• Lexmark X546dtn color laser MFP and Lexmark C546dtn color laser printer: The Lexmark X546dtn and Lexmark C546dtn are designed for small to midsize workgroups or busy offices that need access to an affordable device that delivers productivity-enhancing features and professional-quality color printing. Both models feature Lexmark’s Duo Drawer standard, providing up to 900 sheets of standard input capacity. In addition, for customers who need even extended paper capacity (to run different media types and/or to avoid paper reload), a new optional 550-sheet drawer allows for a maximum capacity of 1,450 sheets. The Lexmark X546dtn and Lexmark C546dtn ship with more toner than their leading competitor, up to 4,000 pages for each color, and the 8,000-page extra high-yield black toner cartridge means fewer interventions for the customer and helps reduce the cost of ownership by delivering a low cost per page.

• Lexmark E462dtn monochrome laser printer: Ideal for small and midsize workgroups, the Lexmark E462dtn aids customers in lowering their output costs while remaining friendly to the environment. The 18,000 page aftermarket toner cartridge, which can be recycled free of charge like all other Lexmark toner cartridges, is budget pleasing for customers who desire a low cost-per-page. An extra 250-sheet drawer comes standard to maximize input.

Lexmark X860 Series:

Lexmark also announced six new models in the A3-capable Lexmark X860 Series of monochrome laser MFPs targeted to large workgroups who have demanding document needs. These reliable, departmental MFPs integrate the capabilities of several standalone units and offer high performance with state-of-the art security features, numerous input and finishing options, and print speeds of up to 55 ppm.

Featuring Lexmark’s colorful, easy-to-use e-Task touch screen, the solutions-ready Lexmark X860 Series helps workgroups gain momentum by allowing customization based on business needs to streamline and simplify complicated, multi-step processes.

Hole punching and offset stacking, as well as other advanced finishing capabilities, are optional to help support busy workgroups in print-intensive environments striving to take their productivity to its fullest potential. In addition, a Booklet Finisher option folds documents and allows adjustments for skew and overlaps.

Customers will find that fewer interventions are needed with the Lexmark X860 Series due to the tremendously versatile paper handling and long-lasting toner cartridges. Input capacity can be expanded up to 5,100 sheets with Dual Input and High-Capacity Feeder drawer options, and the toner cartridges come with an impressive 35,000-page yield2.

HP has unveiled new PC designs that reflect its design philosophy of balancing material selection, product usability and sensory input to deliver a superior PC experience. The new products launched included the HP Mini 110 by Studio Tord Boontje, the first companion PC from the critically acclaimed Dutch designer.

HP Mini 110

“Design is not just about what the computer looks like or even what it does for us. It’s also about the experience of using the PC and ultimately what the computer says about us,” said Anil Kumar, General Manager, PSG Division, HP Middle East. “We look at every opportunity to design the ‘wow’ that people value in a PC – that surprises, delights and fulfills.”

Starting at only 1.21-kgs and measuring just over an inch thin, the HP Mini 110 by Studio Tord Boontje features a 10.1-inch, mercury-free LED display and a 92 percent of full-size keyboard that makes it an ideal travel companion.
The HP Mini 110 features the debut of HP Imprint 3-D, the industry’s first 3-D PC surface technology. Multiple layers on the top cover are used to make the art appear to float on the surface while casting shadows onto lower layers.

This new technology brings a depth to Boontje’s intricate pattern of plants and animals. Built-in tools including Windows Live Writer desktop icon for blogging enable quick access to popular social networking sites for staying in sync with friends and family.

The Mini 110 by Studio Tord Boontje with Windows 7 Starter can be personalized with 15 wallpapers, a screen saver and a Stardock MyColors desktop theme – all unique to this product and designed by Boontje to deliver an integrated visual experience. In keeping with HP’s and Boontje’s shared environmental philosophies, the packaging, Quick Setup Poster and User Guide are all printed with soy- or water-based inks while the outer box and cushions are all made from 100 percent recycled material.

A custom microfiber protective sleeve ships with the Mini. Additional accessories are available for purchase including a matching PVC-free wireless mouse and a handbag made in part with natural materials. The Mini 110 features HP QuickSync software that automatically synchronizes files created or edited on the road with a home PC over a wireless connection when connected to the same network. The HP Mini 110 by Studio Tord Boontje with Windows 7 Starter is priced at AED 1,888.