Clearly it’s mouse and keyboard season ’round these parts.
Last week I requested a new keyboard and mouse (or, mouse and keyboard) at work. The main reason was simply because my current set was a little rank. It wasn’t brand new but, more importantly, it wasn’t given a good scrubbing. So I started researching what was out there.
I must admit I was a little overwhelmed by the number of options. The first thing that struck me was that it’s pretty tough a wired mouse and keyboard combo from Logitech or Microsoft that doesn’t have a chintzy mouse. To me, the ergonomics of both are pretty important – this is a machine I’m going to use for 8 hours every day – so chintzy was bad.
The other issue is how pervasive wireless stuff is. Now, at first I was thinking it would be no big deal to get wireless. But come on, this is work: where am I going to put my keyboard other than right in front of me? Wireless combos were out. And really, that left no combos at all.
I ended up going for the Logitech Elite Keyboard and the Logitech MX 500 mouse. The keyboard had a huge thing going for it: they didn’t muck with the insert/delete area of keys. Most new Microsoft and Logitech boards have changed this configuration. Call me old-fashioned, but I’m quite used to the placement and don’t want something new. No giant delete key, thank you. No attempts to make me more productive by changing a keyboard layout I’ve been using for over ten years.
I strongly considered getting an ergonomic keyboard but, given that I don’t use one at home, I thought switching back and forth would be a little difficult.
The mouse wasn’t as big a deal to me. I wanted something with some extra buttons that didn’t look like it was designed for EXTREME!!! computing. The MX 500 is attractive enough and looks like it’ll be pretty comfortable for my hand.
So why did I say it was keyboard and mouse season? Because I bought a new set for my Mac at home, too. I went for the Apple Wireless duo, which means I now have Bluetooth, which is kind of a, “Whoopee! Now what?” deal to me. But maybe someday I’ll have a Bluetooth item I can sync up with the Mac.
I could’ve bought a Logitech set for home, too, but frankly… it would clash. Yes, I’m now at the point where I care about the color coordination of my peripherals with my computer. I blame Apple.
Posted in Technology