Cellphones are rapidly replacing land lines across Hawaii and the U.S. A survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year showed that nearly 2 out of 5 American homes had cellular phones only. (The CDC tracks these statistics because it affects its health survey samples.)
The steady march of technology in the cellular world has brought us to the new LTE or 4G services. This technology is as fast, or faster, than copper wire systems for everyday use. They are also less expensive for the end user.
Enter the Verizon 4G LTE Broadband Router. This is the first shot at replacing cable-and-copper home and small-office telephone and Internet services with an LTE cellular system.
Verizon 4G LTE Broadband Router provides connectivity for a home’s entire voice and data system — two phones, three network connections and a blazing fast Wi-Fi. The router comes with a Verizon account and phone number. The company will move an existing home or office phone number to the account for you. It is simple to set up and provides an instant hot spot with telephone and network connectivity for a work site or traveling office wherever Verizon has LTE coverage. The voice and data plan is about $30 per month for those with Verizon accounts and integrates with your cellular plan into a simple and low-cost package.
There was so much response from a recent review we did on keyboards, I thought we should visit the theme again. As we move to smartphones, tablets and ultra-books, full-size keyboards seem to be an endangered species. I’ve found a couple of excellent keyboards that hark back to the days of the IBM Selectric, the machine that I learned to type on.
There is something satisfying about a solid, satisfying click especially when you hit the keys that you need without looking. The TactilePro keyboard ($128 on Amazon), manufactured by Canadian-based Matias, is a case in point. Configured for the Mac, each key is assembled with an individual Alps Mechanical Switch. The upshot is that it’s built like a tank. It also has three USB ports which makes it convenient for iMac users who would otherwise have to reach around the back of the box to pop in a thumb drive. I tried it on my Mac recently and realized what I had been missing. After pecking away on flat, minuscule keys or, even worse, on screens, it is refreshing to use the TactilePro’s full-featured keyboard.
In the same stellar league is Das Keyboard’s Professional Model S ($135 on Amazon), which is built for the PC. German-engineered with gold-plated, mechanical key switches, it also has a high-speed USB hub with two ports so that you can sync and charge your iPhone, iPod and other USB devices. The main asset, though, is the feel. The keys are well spaced, perfectly sized and comfortably formatted for typing or gaming. It uses “Cherry MX Blue” mechanical switches, which are considered the “clickiest” of them all. Just note that this keyboard and the TactilePro are louder than what you may be used to. The solid “click” sound is perfectly compatible with the emotional satisfaction you feel when typing, kind of like the sound of uncorking a champagne bottle.
If you’re like many people who spend most of the day at a keyboard, it may as well be on one that is a joy to use.
Both the Professional Model S and the Tactile Pro fall into this category. You’re not going to go wrong with either of them.
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Mike Meyer, formerly Internet general manager at Oceanic Time Warner Cable, is now chief information officer at Honolulu Community College. Reach him at mmeyer@hawaii.edu.
