Maybe the end of email overload: Gmail Priority Inbox

Google is about to release a feature that I am looking forward to: Gmail Priority Inbox. It is supposed to make important emails more visible in our overloaded inbox.

A few years ago we had lots of spam: the spam filter was born and saved us from insanity. Nowadays, email overload is the problem and hopefully Gmail Priority Inbox will help.

How does it work? It compares incoming emails to similar older ones and increases an ”interest” value based on the number of reads and replies. The highest ranking emails will wear a visual cue to make them stand out. There is probably a lot of Bayesian statistical computation going on as there is in spam filters, but I am just guessing here.

iPad Contest Winner Named

Thanks to everyone who entered our contest to win an iPad. We enjoyed reading about your experience using Das Keyboard, how it has improved your typing and speed, and how many of you simply enjoy typing on it for the tactile feedback and “click.”

Our very scientific approach to selecting a winner was to drop everyone’s name in a trash can (unused!) and blindly select a name with an impartial witness to make sure the process was legit. (The use of a trash can is simply because no one in the office had a hat. It does not reflect our opinion of the contestants, because we love our fans!)

And now for the big reveal. The winner is…Bob Tregilus!

Here is what he said (among other things) about Das Keyboard:

“Hi Das Keyboard -

I love the positive feedback from each keystroke on my Das Keyboard -
it’s tactile typing on my Linux box at it’s best! Just like shutting the door of a Rolls Royce, that solid and firm response cuts down on this old mechanic’s flat-fingered typing mistakes.

Thanks for a top-of-line and easy to clean product!”

Congratulations to Bob, and thanks again to everyone who entered. Many t-shirts are underway. We hope you continue to enjoy your Das Keyboard experience. Happy typing!

Website and Store: New & Improved

We are happy to launch our revamped website for Das Keyboard along with its new store. The
look and feel is refreshed, more engaging and the site overall is more informative. Access to tech support is easier due to a seamless integration with our helpdesk service. The store is based on the Amazon Seller Central service for a safe, secure and reliable buying experience while Montastic monitors our website and emails us in case its down.

It took us longer than expected to nail the technical details but, thanks to the Amazon Seller Central team for they help, we are now ready.

The iPad contest – for our customers only – was supposed to start with the launch of our new website and store. So here we are. We pushed its end to May 31.

We’ll hope you’ll enjoy our new web experience.

Mod: Change your Fn key to a Win key

The General posted an article on geekhack on how to mod Das Keyboard with one Fn key and one Win key to become a 2-win key, getting rid of the Fn key altogether. It is pretty straight forward. Thanks to Colin  R. for sending us the pointer.

Das Keyboard Customer Only: Enter A Contest to Win an iPad

UPDATE: You now have till May 31 to send us your story (*). Our new store is not ready so you’ve got more time!

As we are preparing to launch our revamped website, we are looking for customer testimonials that will make an impact on our site visitors. If you blog or Facebook about your Das Keyboard experience, send us a link to iwantgoodies@daskeyboard.com along with a picture of you (just your pretty face is enough).

Choose a topic of your choice, productivity, speed improvement, comfort, typing enjoyment, mojo increase or anything you noticed changing while using Das Keyboard. If your testimonial is great we’ll post it on our website or blog. If it gets posted, you get a t-shirt.

How to get an iPad?

There will be a draw for all t-shirt winners on May 10th 23rd 26th(*). All t-shirt winners will automatically enter the iPad draw.

Results and updates will be announced on this blog.

Good luck.

(*) We postponed the end of the contest due to technical issue that delayed the launch of our new site and store.

Lance Desktop Picture

From time to time we get pictures from Das Keyboard users showing their desktop setup. Here is one we really like from Lance Hassan. Checkout the recursive background picture.

Also notable: the keyboard is the venerable first generation Das Keyboard that sports weighted keys we launched 5 years ago.

Video of Ultimate Typing Championship Final

Two of the fastest typists in the US came to SXSW for the Ultimate Typing Championship Final. Sean Wrona and Nate Bowen competed head to head to determine who is the fastest typist. Pay attention to the complexity of the text they typed during the second race… Sean Wrona won.

Here is the interview of Daniel Guermeur on Austin KXAN TV channel:

Wrona Wins the UTC Crown

Congratulations to Sean Wrona, our first Ultimate Typing Champion! During today’s UTC final round at SXSW Interactive, Wrona was simply EN FUEGO. He managed to type a 574-word text at a mind-blowing 163 words-per-minute. (The average professional adult types at about 40-50 words per minute.) Wrona captivated the audience in front of Das Keyboard’s SXSW booth with his blazing keyboard skills. He now heads back home to Ithaca a UTC typing champion, and $2,000 richer. Read some great hometown coverage of him in The Ithaca Journal.

A round of applause as well to the UTC runner-up, Nate Bowen, who takes home $500 for his speedy keyboard abilities. Nate was eager to get out and experience some Austin nightlife after taking his share of punishment in the final round. “Congrats to Sean … he was definitely quite intimidating, and is very worthy of the UTC crown,” Nate shared afterwards.

Thanks to everyone who participated in Das Keyboard’s Ultimate Typing Championship. Feel free to continue practicing your typing anytime at www.typrx.com. And one last ‘Way to Go’ to Sean Wrona – the country’s first Ultimate Typing Champion!

Who will be the Country’s First Ultimate Typing Champion?

SXSW Interactive starts later this week (March 12-16), which means the final round of Das Keyboard’s Ultimate Typing Championship is finally here. Our two finalists, Sean Wrona and Nate Bowen, will be competing in-person at the event on Sunday March 14 for a chance to claim bragging rights as the country’s first UTC champion. Oh, and that $2,000 grand prize isn’t so bad either. Sean and Nate are truly among the country’s typing elite, and we look forward to their final keyboard face-off. Speaking of which … have you noticed that they’re both from New York? That’s why we’re dubbing our first UTC Finals as “The Lone Star State’s Empire State Showdown.”

If you happen to be attending SXSW Interactive, be sure to stop by Das Keyboard’s booth — #221,320. We’ll be offering 25% off and free shipping on our keyboards for any orders placed at our booth during the event. If you can type fast, you also may be able to win a keyboard. We’ll be conducting daily typing contests at our booth, and will be giving away Model S Keyboards to two individuals each day who log the fastest typing speeds.

See you at SXSW Interactive … and good luck Sean and Nate!

Official press release.

Visiting SXSW? Join us at Interactive for the UTC Final Round. Sunday, March 14 at 4:30pm during the “Block Party.”  Booth #221,320.

Keyboard Talk: Das Keyboard v.s. Apple Keyboard

Apple keyboards are really great looking. They have little chicklets keys going for them. They look great on your desk. But do they get the job done?  Check out what keyboard sunstreaker84 would choose if he was trapped in a post-apocalyptic world and had to survive using his wits and computing skills alone.