Sitting in the Head’s office this morning and noticed a box on the window ledge beside me with an odd looking keyboard in it. An ‘AirTouch’ flexible thing like typing on a membrane with raised keys. The head of the library was amused at my interest because everyone else who’d tried it had hated it. But what really attracted me to it was the selling point that it’s silent. Now it might just be me, but there are occasions I do need to be able to type in an absolutely silent environment without feeling that I’m disturbing anyone. And not just because I work in a library (which are never that quiet these days in any case with computers, trolleys and of course students!) (Not to mention the ubiquitous cell phones). Running the AV desk in church I sometimes produce notes on screen during sermons or prayer times – and in such silence it’s amazing how noisy a typical keyboard is.

Not entirely sure about it for regular typing – though you adjust remarkably quickly - but it is certainly much quieter than the usual kind especially if I stop thumping the keys so much. Not actually silent though – it’s nearly impossible to do away with any movement between finger and keyboard, but it’s certainly worth giving it a go. It’s also handy that I can plug it into the USB port and it works alongside the other keyboard without having to swap them over – I can have the best of both worlds.

And rather than cluttering up his office, the Head is happy to make a small donation to charity!


[This entry brought to you courtesy of AirTouch, any errors or typos brought to you courtesy of the author.]