It may be useful for really old people, but otherwise I think this is a bad idea. How will you learn to type like everyone else if you don’t use a normal keyboard? It’s kinda like learning how to drive using a car that has its gas and brake pedals reversed. But we at technabob are staunch defenders of democracy and of your right to a keyboard with alphabetically arranged keys, so if you want a Hunt and Peck keyboard, be my guest. firstStreet – makers of the old-people-friendly go computer – is selling the Hunt and Peck Keyboard for $30 (USD). Weirdly enough, the go computer’s keyboard layout is QWERTY. Go figure.

[via Likecool]

The first thing that you’ll notice about the Go Computer is its keyboard, which has magnified letters and symbols on it to mark the keys. It’s mostly a win, until you get a closer look at some of the keys:

You might consider this nitpicking, but I’ll point it out anyway: the symbols on the backspace key and the keys grouped with delete and print screen are all  abbreviated. How is that useful to a non-techie? Would they be more familiar with “BS” than “backspace”?  “Delete” isn’t even “Del”, it’s “DL”. And look at how small the backspace key is. The keyboard was designed for users who are either unfamiliar with the layout of the keys or have weak eyesight right? Considering that they’re bound to make a lot of typing mistakes, shouldn’t the key that erases those mistakes be easily identifiable and accessible?

Fortunately the on-screen interface is much cleaner and simpler than the keyboard; the list in the middle of the screen pops out when the user clicks the GO button. The main screen of the Go Computer is a simplified version of an iGoogle or My Yahoo page, where users can see various information at a glance. To help entice what I call the “old noob” demographic, firstSTREET made a “fact sheet” (pdf) that has more marketing speak than facts, as well as a bunch of images that shows what old noobs can do with a computer:

It’s all good right? Then shit gets weird:

Oooookay. Let’s get to the pricing so you old noobs can order your own Go Computer and grow something. The Go Computer is available at firstSTREET for $800 (USD), but a substantial part of the user-friendliness of the computer is that the company will also maintain it for users, e.g. they’ll block spam, update software, etc., so there’s also a monthly subscription fee of $20. A broadband connection is required of course. Unfortunately the “fact sheet” fails to mention the OS that the computer uses or even hardware specs, only that it has a 19″ screen. Considering that one can get a Core i7 package for $800, lets hope that the Go Computer isn’t made of old parts. Heheh. Old parts. See what I — yeah you’re not reading anymore.

[via gadget venue]

The study, published in Psychology & Aging, reports that the test group who played the real-time-strategy title Rise of Nations, showed some cognitive improvement after time with the title. While the subjects — all of whom were 60 or older — did not improve in all categories, the gaming group showed increased reasoning ability and were better able to swap between tasks. Clearly, they are spreading the ADD to our parents and grandparents now, but if it gets them into multiplayer Civilization on Wednesday nights, is it worth a complaint?

Arthur Kramer, the man behind the study, cautioned that spending hours building a nation is certainly not the only thing older adults should do to help stave off loss of cognitive function, but he pointed out the connection between managing resources in a strategy game and managing one’s real-life finances. Anything that can help with that, and which also happens to be fun, can’t be a bad idea.

[PhysOrg via Wonderland]