Technology

The Stream Deck mastered the LCD key by making it peripheral

Published

1 year ago

April 30, 2023

The Stream Deck mastered the LCD key by making it peripheral

Like many nice merchandise, the Elgato Stream Deck wasn’t precisely a brand new thought.

When the very first one debuted six years in the past this month, we immediately in contrast it to Artwork Lebedev’s legendary Optimus Maximus keyboard, which promised an array of swirling OLED screens underneath your fingertips a complete decade earlier. Razer, too, pioneered LCD keys earlier than their time, tacking them onto a keyboard and the corporate’s very first Blade laptop computer.

In right now’s digital age, it generally seems like {hardware} has taken a again seat to the software program that drives our units. Button of the Month is a month-to-month column that explores the bodily items of our telephones, tablets, and controllers we work together with each day.

However right now, we’re celebrating the easy genius of Elgato — the corporate that lastly turned them right into a viable product by making them comparatively low cost, comfortable, and most significantly: peripheral.

Artwork Lebedev and Razer each believed we wished a brand new keyboard that morphs, the place our main computing enter mechanism must be changed with one which intelligently adapts to our wants.

Even right now, the thought feels grand: “Why would Photoshop and Quake current you with the identical boring keyboard?” you’ll be able to virtually hear Artwork Lebedev’s idea photos ask.

Left: a Photoshop format. Proper: a Quake format with fewer keys used.

Picture: Artwork Lebedev

Razer, maybe impressed by that Quake keyboard format, requested a follow-on query in 2011: “In case your keys can morph, possibly you don’t want so lots of them to play PC video games on the go?” The outcome was the Razer Switchblade, a 7-inch idea handheld gaming PC prototype created by a partnership with Intel.

Razer did not promote that one, although. The ultimate “Razer Switchblade” turned out to be far much less thrilling on the time: ten LCD keys and a touchscreen trackpad embedded into an everyday keyboard. You may nearly see a Stream Deck should you look intently — however nonetheless built-in, not but peripheral.

That’s why the thought didn’t stick. Razer thought customers would purchase into an expensive keyboard ($250) or laptop computer ($2000+), hand over the familiarity of the enter units they already owned, and belief that sport builders would assist its new Switchblade UI. It additionally didn’t assist that the keys felt brutal — stiff, flat and brittle.

The Elgato Stream Deck requested for none of these tradeoffs.

Photograph by Dan Seifert / The Verge

The Stream Deck instantly pitched itself as a purpose-built device proper all the way down to its title, supplying you with helpful buttons to regulate Twitch, OBS, and Twitter proper out of the gate. (It does much more right now.) You place it alongside your favourite keyboard, as an alternative of changing it, and between that and the $80 beginning value of the six-key Stream Deck Mini, I used to be simply offered.

The buttons on an Elgato Stream Deck, in profile.

Photograph by Dan Seifert / The Verge

And the keys, these keys… smooth, comfortable, inviting, every jeweled press like popping a chunk of bubble wrap. I’m not saying it’s something just like the satisfying crunch of a mechanical swap — it’s a special pleasure solely.

Talking of which… I’ve an little announcement to make, a deal with for any Stream Deck house owners who is likely to be studying this story:

The Verge has its personal official bubble-popping Stream Deck plugin!

Earlier than he left on a 2600-mile hike — severely, he’s strolling the Pacific Crest Path — my pricey colleague Mitchell Clark coded the bubble popping app of my daydreams, full with sound results. (He really submitted it to Elgato his first day on the path.) It really works with as many buttons as you want; Tom even examined a full web page of bubbles on his 32-button Stream Deck XL.

It’s reside within the Elgato app retailer, it’s our free present to you, and you may obtain it proper now.

I’m set to interview the pinnacle of Elgato within the close to future, and I plan to ask how they managed to make these keys really really feel good. We already know there isn’t a tiny display beneath every key:

The buttons are all lenses that sit on prime of a single LCD display. The extra you recognize!

Technology

Replacing the OLED iPad Pro’s battery is easier than ever

Published

7 hours ago

May 19, 2024

Press Room

Replacing the OLED iPad Pro’s battery is easier than ever

Apple’s newest iPad Pro is remarkably rigid for how thin it is, and apparently also a step forward when it comes to repairability. iFixit shows during its teardown of the tablet that the iPad Pro’s 38.99Wh battery, which will inevitably wear down and need replacement, is actually easy to get to. It’s a change iFixit’s Shahram Mokhtari says during the video “could save hours in repair time” compared to past iPad Pro models.

Getting to it still requires removing the glued-in tandem OLED screen, which iFixit notes in the video and its accompanying blog isn’t two panels smashed together, but a single OLED board with more electroluminescence layers per OLED diode. With the screen out of the way, iFixit was essentially able to pull the battery almost immediately (after removing the camera assembly and dealing with an aluminum lip beneath that, which made some of the tabs hard to get to). For previous models, he notes, you have to pull out “every major component.”

The battery is surprisingly accessible in the 13-inch OLED iPad Pro.

Screenshot: iFixit

After that, though, the thinness proves to be an issue for iFixit, as many of the parts are glued in, including the tablet’s logic board. In the blog, the site goes into more detail here, mentioning that the glue means removing the speakers destroys them, and the tablet’s daughter board is very easy to accidentally bend.

The site also found that the 256GB model uses only one NAND storage chip, meaning it’s technically slower than dual-chip storage. As some Verge readers may recall, that’s also the case for M2 MacBook Air’s entry-level storage tier. But as we noted then (and as iFixit says in its blog), that’s not something people who aren’t pushing the device will notice, and those who are may want more storage, regardless.

This used to be an Apple Pencil Pro.

Screenshot: iFixit

But you can’t say the same for Apple’s new $129 Apple Pencil Pro, which shouldn’t shock anyone. Mokhtari was forced to cut into the pencil using an ultrasonic cutter, a moment he presented as “the world’s worst ASMR video.” (That happens just after the five-minute mark, in case you want to mute the video right there to avoid the ear-piercing squeal of the tool.) Unlike the iPad Pro itself, the Pencil Pro’s battery was the last thing he could get to.

By the time Mokhtari is done, the pencil is utterly destroyed, of course. He says the site will have a full chip ID soon that will include images of the MEMS sensor that drives the pencil’s barrel roll feature that lets you twist the pencil to adjust the rotation of on-screen art tools.

Technology

Blue Origin’s first crewed launch since 2022: Where to watch

Published

14 hours ago

May 18, 2024

Press Room

Blue Origin’s first crewed launch since 2022: Where to watch

It’s been over a year and a half since Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket failed mid-flight, and more than two since its last crewed flight. Now, the company is go to launch six human beings into space. The company’s launch window begins at 6:30AM PT / 9:30AM ET, but will start streaming 40 minutes ahead of time on its website.

Blue Origin also normally streams its launches live on its YouTube channel, so it’s a pretty safe bet it will do so for its NS-25 mission tomorrow. Assuming the launch goes as planned, it will carry six passengers aboard, including the 90-year-old Ed Dwight, who was America’s first Black astronaut candidate but has never been to space. The other passengers are Mason Angel, Sylvain Chiron, Kenneth L. Hess, Carol Schaller, and Gopi Thotakura.

The Federal Aviation Administration closed its investigation of the mishap in September last year, requiring Blue Origin to carry out 21 corrective actions that included redesigning the engine and nozzle components to prevent future failures. In December, Blue Origin launched 33 science payloads from NASA and other institutions into space. The capsule and booster were successfully recovered afterwards.

Technology

Fox News AI Newsletter: How artificial intelligence is reshaping modern warfare

Published

14 hours ago

May 18, 2024

Press Room

AI used as tool to stalk unsuspecting victims (Fox News)

Welcome to Fox News’ Artificial Intelligence newsletter with the latest AI technology advancements.

IN TODAY’S NEWSLETTER:

– How artificial intelligence is reshaping modern warfare
– Sebastian Maniscalco admits AI makes a guy who writes like ‘Rocky Balboa’ sound like he ‘went to Yale’
– Researchers create AI-powered sarcasm detector

NEXT-GEN BATTLE: Modern warfare is changing rapidly, and harnessing artificial intelligence is key to staying ahead of America’s adversaries.

Modern warfare is rapidly changing — and artificial intelligence may only speed up that process. (istock)

TECHNICALLY SPEAKING: Comedian Sebastian Maniscalco isn’t sure what to make of artificial intelligence in the industry.

FUNNY BOT: A team of university researchers in the Netherlands says they’ve developed an artificial intelligence (AI) platform that can recognize sarcasm, according to a new report.

AI (artificial intelligence) letters are placed on a computer motherboard in this illustration taken on June 23, 2023. (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration)

‘OUTCOMPETE CHINA’: A bipartisan group of U.S. senators on Wednesday joined in a call to boost American funding of artificial intelligence research.

‘MACHINE LEARNING’: The widespread use of artificial intelligence tools has many workers concerned that the rapidly-evolving technology will eventually result in them losing their job, and one expert says that is a real concern — but not in the way some might expect.

A recruit of the 1st Separate Mechanized Battalion ‘Da Vinci Wolves’ named after Dmytro Kotsiubailo trains and learns to work with FPV strike drones while undergoing five-day training at a military outdoor firing range on March 12, 2024, in central Ukraine. After training, recruits can join the Armed Forces of Ukraine to defend Ukraine in the war started in 2014 and escalated during the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022. (Valentyna Polishchuk/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)

AI AT WAR: The world may end up breaking into tech alliances as a guiding political issue in the years to come, according to a retired American serviceman-turned-novelist as detailed in his new book.

Subscribe now to get the Fox News Artificial Intelligence Newsletter in your inbox.

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This article was written by Fox News staff.