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Logitech mice add a ChatGPT button nobody asked for
Please, I'm begging you, make the buzzwords stop
In an unexpected, yet entirely unsurprising move, Logitech has announced a new mouse with an important feature that everyone surely can't wait to get their hands on: a button dedicated solely to pulling up a large language model, AKA an AI interface.
Ever-increasing efficiency, performance, and software optimization make today's best Chromebooks more versatile than ever before. And while they all have touchpads and most have touchscreens, a dependable mouse is one of the most useful accessories to pair with any laptop. And not only can you spend anywhere from $10 to $100, you can choose from typical two-button affairs, stationary trackballs, advanced models packed with novel features, and vertical mice that minimize wrist pain.
How to use your Android phone as a Bluetooth mouse or keyboard
Missing a mouse or trackpad? Here's how to set up your Android phone as a mouse in minutes
Android users have been wondering if their compact phone could act as a wireless mouse in a pinch for over a decade. The moment our smartphones got slim enough to fit inside our pockets, people started wondering if they could take the spot of a Bluetooth mouse and save some room, as well as some cash, when on the go. It can also solve a crisis like a laptop trackpad suddenly shutting down.
Android 14 adopts a new mouse pointer ahead of Google’s Pixel Tablet release
The little things add up on large-screen devices
It's clear that one of Google's main goals with Android 14 has been to improve the tablet experience — just in time for the release of the company's new large-screen lineup, the Pixel Fold and Pixel Tablet. In earlier versions, we've found a massive new list of hardware keyboard shortcuts, support for touchpad gestures, and a new App Pairs feature for automatic split-screen multitasking, among other quality of life improvements for large-screen devices. Now, Android 14 Beta 3 has brought a subtle change for people who use an external mouse with their tablet.
Chromebooks are getting better keyboard and mouse support in games with this new change
It extends keyboard and mouse support to incompatible games
Many of us have been working from home for a long time now, and if you've got a stressful job, it's vital to take time relaxing and winding down after work. With the vast catalog of apps now available for Chromebooks thanks to the Play Store, it's easier than ever to get hooked on addictive games like PUBG or Among Us. But despite Google's efforts to optimize Android on Chrome OS, a lot of games are still incompatible with keyboard and mouse input — simply because the developers built them for phones and tablets. So if your Chromebook lacks a touchscreen, you've been out of luck. Thankfully, it looks like that may soon change.
Chrome OS is getting old-school cool with an upcoming productivity feature
A classic window management feature used in the Unix days
Chrome OS has been steadily growing up over the years, with Linux and Android app support helping it to stray from its "just a browser" roots. Thanks to powerful multitasking features like virtual desks and window snapping, Google's operating system is a solid productivity choice for consumers and many professionals. To help you work even faster, Chrome OS will soon pick up a classic productivity feature that will give your Chromebook the old-school coolness you never thought you needed.
It's been several years since Google overhauled the app drawer for Chromebooks. It replaced the aging "card" launcher with a touch-focused one, bearing a striking resemblance to Apple's Launchpad for macOS. While it brought usability improvements to touchscreen Chromebooks, the experience is largely unintuitive with a mouse. Worse, the launcher feels slippery and unpolished, even on a tablet — Google is testing some improvements to fix this. Your mouse woes may soon be over, though, as Google is testing a completely redesigned launcher that's much more mouse friendly.
Stadia's Android TV workaround can now be used without a mouse
Still no official support, but we're getting there
A few months ago in June, a Stadia app update added (unofficial) support for Android TV. To get it up and running, you need a mouse, a Bluetooth controller, and you have to sideload the Stadia phone app including some weird scaling, all of which makes it more of a proof of concept right now. The latest Stadia update to version 2.26 doesn't quite fix any of these gripes, but at least you don't need a mouse to navigate the Stadia store and game selector anymore — controllers are finally supported for that.
Accessories specifically tailored to Chrome OS are few and far between, but Logitech is doing its part to rectify that with the announcement of a new mouse and keyboard made just for Google's operating system. The mouse is really just a mouse, but the keyboard's got Chrome OS-specific function keys and a Google Assistant button — rarities among Bluetooth keyboards.
Android has never really been designed for use on desktop or laptop PCs, but various ports like Android x86 and Remix OS have appeared over the years. Now that Android apps can run on Chromebooks, perhaps Google thought it was finally time to implement pointer capture support in Android.
What is this witchcraft? DeskDock, now available on the Play Store, allows you to share your computer's keyboard and mouse with your Android device. If you've ever used Synergy, it's very close to that.
Android is mainly a touch environment, but it has had rudimentary support for mice and keyboards for years. Mice will be getting more useful in Android N with the addition of a new mouse cursor API, which is available in its final form as of dev preview 4. The cursor can actually change to indicate actions just like on a desktop OS.
It wouldn't be fair to call the Razer Forge TV a failure. No, that simply wouldn't be right. If I did that, I'd miss the opportunity to call it a half-baked, poorly-supported product that lags behind even the limited field of Android TV devices like a three-legged dog chasing a nitrous-powered mail truck. Almost a year after its US launch the set-top box is still inexplicably incompatible with Netflix, the promised PC game streaming software feature has disappeared, and even after being injected with the decrepit soul of OUYA the Forge is basically a dead platform. But there's one last thing to report on before we can finally lay it to rest: the Turret.
We've known that Razer was working on its own branded version of an Android TV set-top box for more than half a year, but at CES 2015 the well-known gaming peripheral company has given the gadget its coming out party. The Razer Forge TV hopes to be the go-to choice for gamers, with support for up to four simultaneous players, keyboard and mouse input, and (eventually) streaming high-end games from a local gaming PC.
Android manufacturers have been using the Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) standard since 2011. While most Android device owners are blissfully unaware that their gadgets can output HDMI (among other things) via a nifty little adapter, power users treasure MHL as an easy way to expand functionality. Today the MHL LLC announced the 3.0 revision of the standard, including a ton of new goodies.
Motorola introduces a novel idea with its Atrix phone: a lapdock. The idea was simple. All these Android app can be extremely productive, so why limit them to a single, small screen? Plug your phone into the lapdock, use its frankly-over-powered processor to run a larger screen with a keyboard and trackpad. Well, that's exactly what the ClamBook does. Only it does it way better.
Last week, I traded my Google I/O Chromebook for an ASUS Eee Pad Transformer/keyboard dock combo and started exploring the fascinating laptop/tablet hybrid. Overall, my impressions so far are more positive than I thought they would be, and I'll most likely end up selling the 3G XOOM that has none of the features the Transformer with the dock have to offer. The only problem with the Transformer that I've experienced is a relatively poor battery life compared to both the XOOM and the Tab 10.1, which I can't explain yet... but I'm getting carried away.
According to a tipster at Droid-life, the Motorola XOOM will be receiving a (relatively minor) system update tomorrow, and no - it doesn't include SD card support (exactly why, we can't even begin to guess). Here's the list of changes and additions:
For all 5 people who are actually using the gTablet's stock UI instead of a custom ROM that is miles ahead of it in features, ViewSonic released a new over-the-air (OTA) update that finally adds Adobe Flash, along with external docking station and USB keyboard/mouse support and a few other things. The full list, found on ViewSonic's news page, is reproduced below:
If you have a Playstation 3 and have ever surfed the web or chatted with a gaming buddy, you may already be familiar with one of the most annoying text entry systems known to mankind. Pushing a directional pad (or joystick) to select letters may have been fun when entering the Super Macho Man code in Mike Tyson's Punchout, but this isn't 1987, and you expect an easier method of typing. Of course, Sony (and third party vendors) will be happy to sell you a pricey keyboard peripheral, but do you really want to buy yet another accessory for your gaming console? A clever developer has something up his sleeve that may save you some annoyance soon with PS3 input app BlueputDroid.