About 4 years in the past I invested in a Logitech MX Keys, a responsive, clicky, low-profile keyboard geared towards work and productiveness. Options like multi-device connectivity and the comfortably-shaped keycaps offered me on the workplace accent, however its confidence-inspiring design and lack of distracting RGB lights made it a mainstay on my desk.
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So it piqued my curiosity when Logitech invited me for a briefing earlier this month to take a look at the corporate’s new model of my every day keyboard. “What precisely does an MX Keys ‘S’ model entail when the unique has already handled me so properly?”, I requested myself. Longer battery life? A lighter footprint? Quieter key presses?
Lo and behold, Logitech pitched the successor to me with the one use case that ought to have been on my thoughts for the reason that very starting: how AI matches into all of this. And belief me, this typing software doesn’t disappoint.
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Logitech MX Keys S
A full-size, low-profile keyboard that is each Home windows and Mac suitable.
For starters, if you happen to’re conversant in the unique Logitech MX Keys — whether or not it is the full-size mannequin or Mini — then you definitely’ll really feel proper at house when typing on the MX Keys S. Logitech retained a lot of the design components of the unique with this newer model, which isn’t as risk-taking as I might hoped the corporate could be, but when it ain’t broke, do not repair it, I suppose.
The keyboard nonetheless has a non-adjustable tilt angle (although I by no means had a difficulty with the prevailing peak), helps USB-C quick charging for as much as 5 months of utilization per cycle, has a wise backlighting system that wakes every time the keyboard detects your fingers reaching for it, and is simply as pleasurable to sort on because the outdated.
The MX Keys S is offered in Graphite and Pale Grey. June Wan/ZDNET
Every keycap has constant, tactile suggestions that thumps in the identical journey distance and quantity, whether or not it is the escape key on the far left or the enter key on the far proper. This uniformity is vital to typists since you’re much less more likely to lose rhythm (or your practice of thought) when growing, enhancing, or writing articles like this.
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As for what’s new, Logitech has swapped in three new perform keys: Dictation, mute/unmute microphone, and an emoji menu to provide customers extra serviceable controls within the age of hybrid work. The MX Keys S additionally helps the corporate’s proprietary connection platform, Logi Choices+, by way of Logi Bolt now. Meaning house owners of different current Logitech peripherals just like the MX Grasp 3S can use only one unifying receiver for all of their equipment.
However what we’re all right here for is a brand new characteristic known as Sensible Actions. You’ll be able to consider it like macros — preset or self-customized routines that may be triggered with a press of a key. For instance, on the finish of a workday, I’ve the emoji menu key set to shut all my lively Chrome tabs and Zoom, open Spotify, after which play music. By pre-registering keystrokes and inputs, one key’s now programmed to set off an order of instructions.
Some Sensible Actions I’ve set for my most-used purposes and providers. June Wan/ZDNET
Maybe the best routine integration is what I labeled as “ChatGPT Enter”.
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Image this: A coworker asks you for native restaurant suggestions. So, you enlist the assistance of ChatGPT to scan the online and fetch you the very best eateries close by. By tapping a single key — I’ve my Sensible Motion set to the Mute/unmute key — the MX Keys S indicators the pc to repeat the question, open a brand new tab to ChatGPT, give a second delay for the service to load, then paste the immediate and hit enter.
That is the sequence that offered me on the brand new keyboard throughout my briefing, and it was so good that I needed to recreate it myself. It is principally ChatGPT on velocity dial, and I can think about such a characteristic making different generative AI instruments simply as environment friendly to make use of.
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For extra inspiration, my different Sensible Actions embody shortly zooming into a picture on Photoshop and activating the mixer brush for mixing, and bringing Slack to the foreground and beginning a brand new message to myself every time I have to jot down concepts.
Sensible Actions could be mapped to most, if not all, Logitech peripherals that help Logi Choices+. So whereas it is not an unique characteristic for the brand new MX Keys S per se and also you’re technically sacrificing the unique performance of a key or two, it is nonetheless a unbelievable addition to an already confirmed keyboard. And at $109, $10 lower than what the unique MX Keys value, I am unable to suggest a greater accent on your typing and generative AI wants.
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