iOS (Jailbroken): As Addictive Tips points out, the visible-only-when-necessary keyboard on iOS devices comes with a dismiss button on the iPad, but not on the iPhone. This behaviour is fine most of the time, but I’m sure you’ve run into certain lousily-coded apps that cover up important information with the keyboard even when you’re done typing. Pull to Dismiss solves this problem. More »
Even if you aren’t very tech savvy, there’s nothing hard about plugging in a keyboard or mouse. But if you have a wireless keyboard or mouse, it takes a few steps to get set up. Here’s how to do it. More »
Lenovo’s newly-released 400s notebook includes double-height Esc and Delete keys to make them easier to access. How could that idea be extended? More »
After we showed you how to disable the Caps Lock key, reader Philipp wrote in with his unbelievably geeky use for the otherwise pointless key—by using it to help navigate while editing text. More »
Windows only: Tiny application NumLocker disables the Caps, Num and Scroll Lock keys from an easy-access menu in the system tray. 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: Your system’s got a fancy keyboard with a host of handy media shortcut buttons, but they only work with a select few apps. Media Keyboard 2 Media Player fills in the support gap. Once installed, MK2MP acts as a middle man between your keyboard and popular media-applications like VLC, Xion, XMPlay, 1BY1, and Winamp. The application runs almost invisible to the end user, passing the keyboard command onto the application with the right trigger. You can enable and disable common media-keyboard keys for each program, and specify whether it sits in your system tray or stays incognito. If the program you need to control isn’t yet available, the application is in active development and open to suggestions for new players to be added. Looking for a new media player in general? Check out the Hive Five results for best desktop media players. Media Keyboard 2 Media Player [via gHacks]
Sticking with trusted computers is your best bet for security, but sometimes security-unknown setups are unavoidable. Enter text with a Greasemonkey-powered virtual keyboard, though, and key-loggers are out of luck. Using a virtual keyboard isn’t an absolute guarantee against having your login and password lifted—thieves can be rather resourceful, of course—but it is a good defence against hardware and basic software key-loggers. More than 22 keyboard layouts are available, making it easy to take advantage of that great Slovenian password you’ve been dying to use. Virtual Keyboard Interface is a Greasemonkey script, works wherever Greasemonkey does. Virtual Keyboard Interface [via DownloadSquad]
