Logitech G15 keyboard finally replaced

Couple of days ago, my Logitech G15 keyboard finally retired from the computer desk to the closet, because it stopped functioning due to a water spill or some other unexplainable cause. So it was time for me to buy a new keyboard. Fun times?

Woohoo.

I guess you know what keyboard I bought but now. The Logitech G910 is an amazing keyboard, with a hefty price tag. With the amazing Logitech (sorry, Logicool) support here in Japan, this is the obvious choice when spending that much money on a keyboard. I guess you better read a review here because I'm not going to review it as I did NOT buy the G910. Sad scene!

You’d be surprised by my final decision. Read on.

My Logitech G15 keyboard died

Yesterday I stayed at home because I was not well. I was watching the match between West Indies and Zimbabwe when the PC screen went into standby, which shouldn't have happened as the video was being viewed full-screen. Thinking that Chrome was acting funny, I wanted to go into power options to temporarily turn off the display going into standby when the PC was idle for sometime. When I pressed the Windows button + X to make the system menu show up (it’s a Windows 8 thing, fyi), it didn't. I thought I had disabled Windows button because the baby loves pressing it when he is having his meals, which causes the cartoons to disappear, driving my wife insane. But I hadn't disabled the Windows key.

The keyboard wasn't responding to any key presses!!!!

I unplugged the keyboard from the USB port and replugged it. This has happened a few times, but only when I had LGS running. LGS is a buggy pile of crap software. That didn't make any difference, as I didn’t have LGS running in the first place. It’s not only buggy, but adds input lag which is a nuisance when playing Crysis 3 online.

Option two: I switched the USB port they keyboard was plugged into. No change again.

Option three: I tried it on the Asus T100 tablet and the MacBook Air. Nothing!!!

I have to confess that the keyboard wasn’t totally dead. The 6 G-keys seemed to register something, as I heard the exclamation sound of Windows 8.1 faintly but I didn't have the Logitech Gaming Software installed so I couldn't check it they really were sending out a signal. So, not 100% dead. but dead enough to be hardly useful.

So what could have killed the keyboard?

[Article] Using SwiftKey "app" on the iPhone 5S

Apple doesn't let you replace the default keyboard on iOS devices. That is a big bummer. While the keyboard's auto correction has improved in the last few iterations of the OS, there are still ways to improve the accuracy and typing speed of these virtual keyboards. The issue with stock iOS virtual keyboard is that there is no feedback from the keys. You are just hitting different places of the screen. But I'm sure, with time you can improve on your typing even with the default keyboard - as I have.

When I bought my first touch screen device, the Samsung Omnia i900 running Windows Mobile 6.0, I had trouble typing quickly. Well, I've never been good with the keyboards on my old phones either. Maybe that was because I didn't have a girlfriend to frequently send SMS to. With the Omnia, there was haptic feedback to give you some kind of feedback when typing. But it wasn't good. I felt the keyboard was laggy with it enabled so I always disabled it.

That was when I watched a video on Swype, a new keyboard that worked by swiping on top of the keys, instead of hitting them. You didn't have to swipe perfectly on top of the letters nor had to be very accurate with the order of the letters. It was truly "intelligent". You could insert new words by going them in. Luckily, there was a compatible port for the Omnia. Not an official one though. I installed it and was impressed with it. Very impressed!!!

But I got rid of the Omnia before I came to Japan and switched the iPhone. IPhone 3GS was my first iPhone. Then the iPhone 4S and now the iPhone 5S. So I had been using the stock iPhone keyboard since 2010. But if you could Jailbreak your iPhone, there is a version of Swype (but it's just a mockup and not very functional) on Cydia store.

[Rant] Finally cleaned the G15 keyboard

Putting my vacation into good use, today I cleaned my keyboard. There were a lot of dirt trapped between the keys. This is the first time I have cleaned it since buying it second hand from my friend, Saman.

I followed this guide to disassemble the keyboard. First of all, I took photos of the layout of the keyboard. Even though the guy says he used a brush the clean the dirt, I had to use soap and wash it. There was too much dirt and most of it was stuck in there. They wouldn’t come off, even with a tooth brush. After washing the keyboard, I used a cloth to wipe off the moisture and then used the hairdryer to dry it.