Gboard: Do you really need a dedicated keyboard for Gmail shortcuts?

One of the things I like about Gmail, Google Reader, and other Google services is that they're easy to navigate using keyboard shortcuts. That means you don't need to lift your hand from the keyboard to use the mouse as often. But what if you have a hard time remembering all the keyboard shortcuts? You could hit the ? key to bring up a list, or you could write down a list and tape it to the side of your monitor. But Gboard has another solution.

The company sells a USB mini-keyboard that's maybe a bit larger than a numeric keypad. Each key corresponds to one of the keys used as a shortcut by Gmail. But rather than label the keys J, K, G, F, # and so on, the keys are labeled with icons and words like Trash, Archive, and Forward.

The concept is pretty cool. But the problem is that you still have to lift your hands off the normal keyboard to use the Gboard, so I'm not really convinced that it's much better than using a mouse... or just memorizing the keyboard shortcuts you need most frequently in the first place.

The keys are also not customizable, which means the Gboard pretty much only works with Gmail and other applications such as Google Reader which share many of the same shortcuts.

The Gboard is available for about $20.

[via The Gadgeteer]

Tags: gboard, gmail, hardware, keyboard shortcuts, KeyboardShortcuts