This KEYBOARD has a BUILT IN MOUSE!
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2019-05-06
·
2,063 words · ~10 min read
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foreign
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and that's pretty much how we imagine
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this product came to be yes it is in
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fact a real thing the the key
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the key mouse and it really works exactly the way that you would think it
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does uh hey james uh remember how i said
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that i was really excited to try this out and learn to use it and tell our
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audience about it yeah yeah i'm not and one and a two and a half have fun
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the moss backpack is back in stock utilizing a removable sunglass pouch
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longer straps for larger shoulders available power management to help
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charge your gear and backed with a five-year warranty it's pretty sick
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check it out at the link below if you've been following our escapades with weird
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or ergonomic keyboards then you'll recognize some familiar features when
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you look at the key mouse alpha for starters it's a split keyboard with each
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side having a contoured integrated wrist rest and this of course lets you spread
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your hands out as wide as your shoulders which is dank if you got wide-ass
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shoulders and optimizes the position of your wrist to prevent the three amigos
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the three main causes of repetitive stress injuries which are ulnar
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deviation which is when your risk go like this is no good extension and
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pronation which is when your hand is laying flat on the keyboard this kind of
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handles all three next it has these thumb clusters which i personally after
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having switched the ergodox over like a year and a half ago cannot live without now it just doesn't
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make any sense to use one of your strongest digits only on the spacebar so
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keymouse has four keys with cherry mx switches blue in this
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case brown on this one accessible by each thumb
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then there's the layout which is similar to the one on the kinesis advantage 2
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another great keyboard first it's ortho ortholinear which means that the keys
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are aligned instead of staggered which is a real pain if you're not used to
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using your middle finger to hit c like a good little typist but i got used to it
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eventually and it feels good now second the keys are in these concave key
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wheels they're not as deep as on the advantage 2 but it still keeps your
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fingers from stretching as far as they normally would on a traditional flat
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qwerty and finally there's only about 60 keys in total which is obviously a lot
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less than your typical 104 key layout so
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you're gonna have to get used to switching between function layers using
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these little blue and yellow keys kind of a drag now some secondary
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functions like the arrow keys and the numpad are actually pretty easy to use
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once you get used to switching layers because you can rely on the muscle memory that you already have to hit them
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but other things you'll have to learn from scratch like since when are
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parentheses over here and why is caps
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lock on a secondary layer and while i'm at it where are all the number keys all
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of those special characters have moved which can be really annoying when you're
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trying to use your password muscle memory surely they could have included
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the number row no well maybe not yes they could
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technically do it but that would come with a trade-off of adding more weight
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which is yucky because remember each one of these is a mouse
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it's actually comical how bad i am with the left mouse uh especially since i'm
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left-handed but this is actually pretty cool because for the first time in my life i can move the
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mouse around without taking my fingers off the home row and if
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you're the type to get a strained neck or shoulder then this is a godsend
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because you no longer have to reach way out for your mouse
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yes it does take some getting used to don't worry you still only have one
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cursor on the screen but each module is a fully functioning mouse with its own
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optical sensor its own left and right clicks and its own mouse
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scroll wheel that you can even click so you're free to use whichever mouse you
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want to and switch between them at will you can even use one on the far right
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side of your multi-monitor setup and then kind of hand off the cursor to the
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left when you get on that far side of your super ultra wide display like i
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have um but you can't like move them together to try to
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double your movement speed or anything crazy like that because Windows only
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accepts really one input at a time there are a couple of extras though you can
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hold this sniper type button to temporarily drop your sensitivity for
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finer control and since you can't easily pick up the mouse when you get to the
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edge of your mouse pad or an uncomfortable position this special
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little snowflake button uh-huh pauses mouse movement so that you
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can get your hands back in place without moving the pointer as for how well it
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works as a mouse though the thing that was weird for me especially at first was
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that with a regular mouse there's a certain intuitiveness to pointing around
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at things on your desktop as if the cursor is an extension of your index
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finger by comparison the key mouse felt more like fisting around and squeezing
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because the mouse click is accessible by your thumb
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one solution i had to make it feel more natural was to put the clicks up here
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instead of on the side at least then first time users wouldn't find
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themselves accidentally smashing the j key all the time like i did but
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apparently earlier versions of the product did have them up there and then
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customers reported pain after extended use plus some people actually like to
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grip the palm rest instead of keeping their hands on the keys when they move
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around so the buttons got in the way over there overall it definitely works
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well enough but i think that it's safe to say that you're not going to achieve
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the same precision as a regular mouse probably ever but what if you didn't
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have to move the whole module introducing
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the key mouse track now with this version you get a
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trackball for each hand and because it's stationary
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you also get a butt load more keys including the number rows which is
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awesome and the front-mounted clicks that were on my wishlist which would be
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sick except that they don't line up with this finger they line up with this
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finger which is gash thankfully there's a third option as long as your hands are
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big enough this little post guy up here is also a left click but wait there's
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more keyhouse also sells mounting brackets
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that
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ah that let you strap these puppies to your
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chair like you're on the bridge of the heckin starship enterprise
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it's crazy your colleagues may raise an
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eyebrow but only because they covet the splendor that you alone revel in
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seriously though it does really feel like the inner base you've always wanted
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and it's ergonomic af if only it weren't equally jank not only
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are the mounting brackets attached with velcro straps that can irritate bare
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arms but the brackets themselves sold for 45 dollars are plastic so the whole
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thing ends up flexing under your keystrokes it's like having a mechanical
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keyboard with no back plate or even negative back plate plus
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one of mine straight up broke these suck they need to be metal and bolt to the
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chair so i guess we're talking about the weak points now key mouse opted to go all in
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on 3d printing which gives them an advantage in terms of rapid prototyping
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and the ability to offer multiple skus like there's multiple sizes of the
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kimonos outfits awesome but while none of the alternative keyboards i've tried
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have matched the finish of mass market products from say Corsair or logitech
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and well as far as 3d printed objects go these are actually pretty nice
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there are still a bunch of irregularities or maybe artifacts in the
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finished product it's not a deal breaker for me but it definitely contributes to a
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cheaper look and feel hey but at least they give you nice braided cables
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instead of cheaping out like ergo docks yes wow
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but that said it's unlikely that you'll even never really need them because
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these are the first ergos i've seen that are bluetooth with a usb rechargeable
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1400 milliamp hour battery in each
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module another strong point for these keyboards is their intuitive and robust
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software that lets you customize just about anything you can imagine you can
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remap all the keys all the buttons and even the mouse wheels on up to six
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layers you can make each mouse module have a different dpi or make the mouse
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motion a different function like using one trackball as a scroll wheel you can
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make a single click register as a key combination like alt f4 and you can
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program full on macros as long as you have the software running in the
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background slight demerit there so then
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is this the ergonomic keyboard to buy well
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it's 500 bucks that's extreme for a
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keyboard but to put it in context ergonomic keyboards are typically around
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350 which merely makes it expensive in the
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ergonomic space and if you take the mouse out of the equation i put the key
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mouse about on par with the advantage too as far as ergonomics and features so
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the question becomes really whether having an integrated wireless mouse is
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worth 150 and i guess that depends on you and your rsi if it's shoulder
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related and can't be solved simply by switching to a vertical mouse then the
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key mouse could be your best and only
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option unless you want to mess around with foot pedals or something
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so my advice then is to poke around key mouse's forum where people many of whom
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have tried a ton of the different ergonomic keyboards that are available on the market today
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post reviews and are happy to answer all your newbie questions
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so thanks for watching guys speaking of newbies
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Android and iOS so for an unrestricted
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30-day free trial go to freshbooks.com tech tips we're gonna have that linked
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below and make sure you enter Linus tech tips in the how did you hear about us
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section so thanks for watching guys if this video sucked you know what to do
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but if you want to be supportive for james or if you genuinely liked it you
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can hit that like button get subscribed or check out the link to where to buy
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the stuff we featured in the video description also link to the description is our merch store which has cool shirts
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