Designer and blogger Phil Gyford spends a lot of time with six different text input gadgets, ranging from low-tech (pen and paper) to more high tech (full keyboard, iPhone keyboard, etc.) His question: Which gadget provided the quickest means of input. More »
Windows only: If you need to lock input to your computer temporarily, skip applications that require to you key in fancy combinations to unlock things. BlockInput unlocks itself. The options for BlockInput are simple. You select which hotkey you want to use to activate the program and how many seconds you want to the application to lock the input from your mouse and keyboard. The default is CTRL+Q and 5 seconds, presumably so the first time you test the program you don’t find yourself staring at the computer for the next half hour waiting for it to unlock. Whether you need a window of time to wipe down your mouse and keyboard with some sanitising wipes or you have a particularly sensitive application you want to make sure isn’t disturbed, BlockInput is a dead simple solution. BlockInput is freeware, Windows only. BlockInput [via gHacks]
Windows only: AltMove is a lightweight portable application that adds functionality to your mouse. Extremely customisable, you can set mouse buttons and mouse button/keyboard combinations to do a variety of tasks such as resize windows, change the transparency of windows, run programs, activate a magnifier loupe, emulate keystrokes, and make screenshots. One of the more interesting tricks included in the program is the ability to dock commonly used menu commands around the mouse cursor. By clicking the right mouse button and holding it, an icon based menu appears around the cursor. Like everything else in AltMove, the menu can be customised. AltMove is freeware, Windows only. AltMove Windows & Mouse Manager [via Download.com]
