Don’t call it a keyboard: DataHand Professional II

If you’re on this website, you probably own a computer. You also probably use it pretty often, as doing product research online is a good deal beyond the email-and-weather PC basics for which modern day rigs are so overqualified. Even if these things were true, there’s still probably no way you use it enough to justify the kind of learning curve required for the DataHand. Not that I know first hand, but I have an idea.

I use the Kinesis Advantage Pro USB now and type DVORAK style, and when I switched over (both of these things at the same time) it took me about a month to get back up to how fast I was typing before. But my keyboard is still at least a keyboard - you can look at it and be taken aback by it’s unconventional design, yet still know what purpose it serves in life.

But let’s talk about Return On Investment. You spend a month relearning how to type. After that, you will type an average of 16% faster (from DataHand’s research, conducted at the University of Arizona, which does not seem to be published online). You would only need to type for another 187.5 days before you’re recouped your losses. Hopefully you’ll live longer than that, and computers don’t appear to be going anywhere. Of course, there are other disadvantages, like forgetting how to use a normal keyboard, so you are crippled in the using-computers department outside of your own home, or spending $675 on a keyboard.It’s actually less about speed, to be honest, and more about safety. I used to think ergonomic keyboards were for the weak, until my college roommate got Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and had a metal rod through his wrist for a while. But I think much less radical designs are sufficient for relieving typing pain, namely the one I use now, less than half the price. In closing, you probably don’t want to buy this, but it’s really cool.

- Kip

4 comments January 31st, 2007