Computer Keyboards, Mice & Pointers

Computer Keyboards, Mice and Pointers

There are two computer peripherals that you can’t do without, or at least couldn’t until a few years ago, and a lot of variations on a theme. ‘Mouse and keyboard’ has gone with ‘computer’ for more or less as long as personal computing has been around, with niche products like trackballs available for people who have a preference for them. Keyboards in all shapes and sizes, made for computers on the go and sitting at your desk both, are available too. In these days of touch-screen tablets, folding keyboards made specifically for those devices are especially popular. These keyboard folios, as they are sometimes called, both prop up the screen and provide a comfortable typing option when sitting at a table or desk.

Everyone who works with computers for any amount of time quickly develops a preference for what kind of keyboard they prefer. Many prefer one that’s got a good heft to it, with chunky keys that audibly clack down when you press them. Others prefer something light that gives just the gentlest tap. On the high end of computer keyboards and keypads you can find keyboards made specifically for gaming, with extra buttons and feedback, and which light up in cool and exciting ways that can be set and customised. Small, remotely connected keyboards also exist for use in entertainment rooms and at work for rooms used for presentations.

Just as polarising as keyboards are mice. When you’re not typing, you’re probably moving your cursor or selecting something by clicking on it, and a mouse that fits comfortably in the hand can be the difference between keeping your joints healthy or not. There’s even more variety in computer mice, trackballs, and touchpads than in keyboards. Besides size and shape, high end gaming mice will often feature a dazzling array of extra buttons that you can map to functions normally reserved for the keyboard, allowing you to select a spell or throw a grenade without moving your keyboard hand.

Besides mice and keyboards, there are a few other input devices of more specialised use. Chief among these is the drawing tablet and stylus, almost ubiquitous among digital artists. Remote controls for use both in entertainment and board rooms also exist, along with a range of highly specialised peripherals, most of them for gaming.