Make your Office Weird and/or Productive With This Tech
The Logitech G Pro X 60
Logitech has been honing down what gamers want out of a gaming keyboard. Logitech has now whittled it down to just the essentials with the G Pro X 60, a 60% keyboard that gives maximum real-estate to the mouse while maintaining a form-factor that’s easily set to any position that makes slamming WASD all day a comfortable experience.
In the box you get a semi-hardcase with a handle to make it easy to carry around. Inside is a spare Esc key if you aren’t a fan of the accented key that’s been pre-installed. Alongside that you get the LIGHTSPEED adapter dongle for a super fast, zero lag connection. If you aren’t interested in using LIGHTSPEED there’s also a button to switch over to standard bluetooth pairing, handy for if you’re connecting to something that doesn’t have USB.
While the function key bar has been stripped out, the board has no lack of shortcut keys via a function button. The key presses feel good and tactile, without the massive clatter of a mechanical switch, this is due to it using GX Optical switches, which uses light to actuate your press instantly.
Available in Black, White, and Pink, the PRO X 60 LIGHTSPEED Wireless Gaming Keyboard is available now for RRP $429.95 NZD from Logitech G and will be available from major participating retailers.
WatchOut For This
Wrist watches have been a tough prospect for most tech consumers since we started carrying around tiny super computers in our pockets. Producers see that naked spot on our wrist and they see dollar signs, but what can they entice us with? Of course when we’re heading out we’ll pick up our favourite matching timepiece to set our look off, but apart from that Fitbits have laid claim to many, and Apple Watches have an ardent following. In 2023 the Huawei Watch Bud dropped, and gave us the idea that perhaps watches could do even more. As wireless earbuds have exploded in popularity we’ve had to put them somewhere, normally in my back pocket. Now the Indian startup WatchOut is having a crack with their WearPods Smartwatch. Instead of lifting the face of the watch the earbuds tuck into the side of the watch, and look like just regular buttons when they’re tucked away. The watch keeps the buds charged, but will share battery with the 1.93” display and 48.5 mm dial. It does all the other things you expect a smartwatch to do with variable faces and health monitoring. The earbuds last 8 hours on a single charge and the watch comes with IP67 rated dust and water resistance.
This Is A Mouse
Weighing under 40 grams and being just 5mm thick the myAir.0 OriMouse isn’t like any mouse we’ve ever seen before. Inspired by origami this mouse manages to strip things back to the absolute bare basics while somehow looking more complicated than any non-gamer mouse before it. It comes in a bevy of different colours as you’d expect of a showpiece like this. Honestly the first time I saw this thing I was repulsed, but now I’m intrigued. I guess that’s how all new fetishes go.
When folded flat it can travel nicely inside a mousebag (sold seperately) that is also so thin it also acts as the mousepad. The OriMouse itself turns on as soon as it’s folded into it’s default mouse shape. It has a tracking pad under the material where you’d normally expect a wheel, and at it’s nose is a 4,000DPI HD infrared sensor. It connects via bluetooth 5.2 with 2.4GHz frequency range. A subtle Type-C connection lets you wire it if you want and a single charge lasts up to 3 months.
That’ll 8bitdo for me
I own 3 8BitDo controllers of varying shapes and sizes. They are my children and I love them, so I have no problem recommending anything this brand puts out. As far as 3rd party controllers go they’re fantastic bang for buck with a high quality build to boot. Their latest release is the 8BitDo M30 Wired Controller for Xbox. There are wireless models of the M30 but they don’t have the swish xbox home button and aesthetic. This is a six button layout perfect for Sega fans and people who focus on fighters. It’s compatible with PC and Xbox, and on the back are dedicated switches for changing button layout modes, perfect for if you’re going between regular gaming and competitive Street Fighter. It also comes with a microphone mute switch and a 3.5mm audio jack, which is a sweet bonus. Downsides is that the cable is a usb-c cable plugged into a port. They should have just gone full wired to lower the chances of disconnect.
There’s Ink On My Phone
In the last issue I talked about the Clicks phone case, that added a QWERTY board to your iPhone. It’s great don’t get me wrong, but a wee bit redundant considering how responsive the touchscreen is. Where a QWERTY board would really help though is on the much more sluggish E-Ink screens. Enter The Minimalist Phone, an E-Ink smartphone running android 13 that comes with a full keyboard. It has a very simple layout and design appropriate for the screen, and gives users trying to be more mindful of their phone habits the best of both worlds. It can still do all the basics you need out of a phone, but not at the turbo crackhead speeds you’d need to properly endlessly scroll Twitter and instagram with. It is however fantastic for reading books on with a resolution of 300PPI on a 3.5 inch screen. It’s not as tall as we’ve come to expect from a phone, opting for a more squat design. It’s powered by a MTK 6769 processor, has 4G LTE, a 12MP rear camera and 8MP on the front. 128gb of storage is more than enough for this bad boy and 6gb of ram keeps things running smoothly. WIFI connections are your standard 2.5/5GHZ, and Bluetooth is running 5.0. NFC is also packed in for paywave.
Shelling Out
The ZTE Nubia Flip 5G is just about the cheapest foldable you’ll find on the market punting around the $1,000 mark, about $500 cheaper than the Galaxy Z Flip5. It’s a little underpowered, but dang it’s adorable. I didn’t think I’d be living through a second generation of clamshell phones, but here we are. When folded out it looks like your typical 6.9” 120Hz display phone powered by a Snapdragon 7 and a 4310mAh battery with 33W fast charging. When closed an outward facing 466×466 porthole style circular screen activates allowing for a number of actions like activating the selfie camera, controlling music, checking the time or checking notifications. It has a 50MP primary camera with a 16MP front-facing camera. The hinge is a dual-rail suspended centerboard which can handle over 200,000 unfolds. Judging by how much I unconsciously look at my phone that means it should last at least one day.
Get Lost
The Motorola Defy Satellite Link unlocks non-Apple devices satellite connectivity, meaning you can send a text even when you’re way out in the whops. It connects to any bluetooth enabled phone making it super accessible. This is particularly handy as an SOS device, of which one of the three buttons is entirely dedicated to. Pressing this button sends an alert to ocusPoint International, an ERaaS (Emergency Response as a Service) company. A location button on the other side sends your co-ordinates to a close contact if things go pear shaped but you don’t want to make a big fuss. They sting you with a subscription fee to this life-saving connection though, starting at $5 a month. It has a 600mAh battery which charges via USB-C and weights just 70 grams, so not much to add to your overall load. It’s got IP68 waterproofing and is attached via a small carabiner strap.
A Paper Screen?
Our experience of touch devices has primarily been one of stabbing at the internet through a sheet of glass. TCL is doing its best to rethink this relationship which marries the best of touch devices and easy on the eyes E-Readers. The result is the TCL NXTPAPER 14 Pro. Previous versions of NXTPAPER have been well received by users and this latest iteration is no exception. Its screen is trying to feel and act as much like paper as possible, with no smudging and no intense glare. The 120Hz 14-inch 2.8K display filters up to 61% of blue light at the hardware level and a new Circular Polarized Light (CPL) screen cranks the brightness to 700 nits, making it a bit easier to read in full sunlight. A dedicated button allows you to switch to a faux e-ink monochrome mode which also simplifies the UI to a clean and breezy aesthetic. Be zen. Read more.