I have to admit, ladies and gentlemen, I have never ever understood ergonomic keyboards. I am not referring to those keyboards that come with an ergonomic hand resting pad but those keyboards that claim to be so ergonomic that in order to attain the level of comfort desired by the manufacturing company, they had to have everything changed, including their form factor. Speaking of ergonomic keyboards that come with a twist, let me introduce you to the Advantage USB Keyboard for PC and Mac.

Compatible with any operating system ranging from Windows 98 to Mac OS 8.6 and higher and featuring no drivers whatsoever, the Kinesis Advantage keyboard comes with quite a twist, in that your hand will get literally twisted in trying to adapt to its extremely strange form factor. The peripheral is separated into two halves, reminding me of the platters on a DJ table, with the numpad keys being fixed in the middle section of the whole thingamajig.

Now, the way the keyboard is made, you are either supposed to have very broad shoulders or be used to keeping your hands at quite a distance from each other. Also, you have to be ambidextrous because both your hands have to be moving at the same time on a pretty unfamiliar keyboard layout. Why do I say unfamiliar? Because as I type these words in order to express my... distrust regarding the device, I am using both my hands, held close together and press the keys on my keyboard without having to look down and see what keys I press.

I have been using a standard keyboard for so long that I have gotten to learn the keys by heart and especially the keyboard's layout. While I don't have any issues to someone bringing a new concept to the fray, I believe that in this particular case, small steps are necessary. Anyway, the keyboard is 299 USD (you must be joking, for that???) should you desire to get it. Oh, and I suggest you go for the black version, the white one looks... a lot cheaper than it is!


We are just a few, but there are many of you, Softpedia users, out there. That's why we thought it would be a good idea to create an email address for you to help us a little in finding gadgets we missed. Interesting links are bound to be posted with recognition going mainly to those who submit. The address is .