Elecom’s Portable Lazer Keyboard
There are so many awesome gadgets out there, many of which I can’t afford. The latest to catch my eye is a portable, projection-based Bluetooth keyboard for iOS and Android devices. The Elecom TK-PBL042BK — catchy name, I know — is a self-contained, rechargeable unit that projects a red wire-frame keyboard onto the surface of your choice. The keyboard itself comes with adjustable brightness settings to save battery life, and features up three levels of sensitivity, clocked up to 350 characters per minute. There’s even a mouse-mode built-in. Impressive, isn’t it?
Unfortunately, there’s a few catches. Anyone who has ever tried one of these projection keyboards can tell you that users with Carpel-Tunnel Syndrome might experience a few flare-ups. There’s also the price to take in — the product isn’t due out in Japan until April 10th or so, and the estimated retail price will be around ~$350. If you have money to spare, don’t really care about your wrists, or just have to have one, GeekStuff4U is taking pre-orders and currently have it priced at $347.00. I imagine the price probably has a lot to do with the fact that you’d be importing it, so you can always hold out hope that the product finds an international distributor at some point, but until then, importing might be your best bet.
