Joi Ito's Stuff: Kinesis keyboard

January 03, 2004

Kinesis keyboard

On every desktop computer, I have a Kinesis keyboard. They take a while to get used to, but once you've got the hang of them, there's no going back. They're great for your back/posture, have remapped keys for minimum stress on your fingers, force you to touch type, increase your typing speed and and look cool. All of the bad-for-your-pinkie keys like control, alt, backspace, delete, home, end and option are hit with your thumbs, other frequently used keys like the arrow keys are typed with your middle finger. They used to have them only in off-white, but they recently released them in black. Now all they need to do is put a trackball in the middle...

January 03, 2004 in PC | Permalink

Comments

Check the product name spelling (-;

Posted by: Spelling Monster | January 03, 2004 at 01:04 PM

Perhaps someone will make a hack so that
the soon-to-be-released virtual keyboards:

http://www.brighthand.com/article/iBiz_Releasing_Virtual_Keyboard_Soon

can have a Kinesis layout (-;

Posted by: Former Kinesis User | January 03, 2004 at 01:13 PM

Oops, sorry about the dupe.

As a side note, doesn't MT/Typepad have a dupe detection feature? It seems like the person
posting a dupe could be given a message
warning that they were about to post a
duplicate comment...

Posted by: Former Kinesis User | January 03, 2004 at 02:42 PM

Sorry. Fixed the spelling, removing the dupe now.

Posted by: Joi Ito | January 03, 2004 at 02:53 PM

Thanks for removing the dupe.

BTW, I've seen what I thought was this keyboard in black in numerous movies (one example being 'MIB'). In one of the films, I thought I saw it w/ a trackball mounted in the middle...I think this was before they started selling the black model so may be it was something rigged for the flic.

On a related note, I have this vague memory that the Kinesis folks were selling or mentioning a trackpad device for mounting in the middle of the keyboard -- sadly, I'm not getting through to their site at the moment and I didn't succeed in using Google's cache or the Wayback machine in an appropriate way.

Posted by: Former Kinesis User | January 03, 2004 at 07:51 PM

how about gaming? i have ms natural and i prefer the regular just a bit more.

Posted by: you | January 04, 2004 at 12:33 PM

I definitely found the keypad challenging on a
Kinesis for gaming (-;

Posted by: Former Kinesis User | January 04, 2004 at 01:04 PM

I should be getting mine soon. Have you noticed a difference from it?

Posted by: Max | February 13, 2004 at 11:23 AM

I totaly agree, kinesis are the best.
I bought one from www.ergkey.com Great Prices and the service is very good.

kinesis keyboard is an outstanding keyboard once you get use to it. Give it a try and you will never go back to regular keyboard.

Posted by: Mike | October 15, 2005 at 11:04 PM

I totaly agree, kinesis are the best.
kinesis keyboard is an outstanding keyboard once you get use to it. Give it a try and you will never go back to regular keyboard.
Check out this compnay:
ErgoKey:

Posted by: Mike | October 15, 2005 at 11:10 PM

Kinesis keyboards are extremely reliable

check out: www.ergokey.com

Posted by: Sam Johnson | April 04, 2006 at 07:45 PM

Your Article is very well Written. and It's really Informative stuff. and I am Absolutely Agree With You That Kinesis keyboard. and Absolutely Interesting to use.

Posted by: Term paper | February 15, 2010 at 10:57 AM

totaly agree, kinesis are the best.

Posted by: Coach Outlet Online | August 08, 2011 at 07:17 AM