KissTunes is an online service that makes it easy to play and record music using your computer's keyboard. It offers three different instruments, and all the home row keys (and a few from the row above) represent notes. You can save your song, along with any comments from friends, as a .kiss file that will open from the KissTunes on any computer.

The "kiss" in KissTunes probably refers to a show of affection, but it could also very well stand for "Keep it Simple, Stupid!" KissTunes isn't a complex compositional tool, and it's not aimed at professionals. It's more akin to a greeting card, except instead of sending cheesy canned music, you play and send the music yourself. Obviously, this isn't going to revolutionize the Internet, but it's a fun idea.

You've never seen anything as tubular, funky or mondo as this web-based drum set from RonWinter.tv, loaded with awesome 80's sounds. It's got kicks, snares, a few vocoder-ed out vocal bits, and everything else you need to annoy the crap out of anyone in listening distance with your latest jam. The drum set is keyboard-controlled, so you don't have to let clicking on things slow you down.

On top of the retro sounds it makes, this drum set is also laid out like a garish rainbow keyboard that would make contemporary hardware designers nauseous just to look at. It also has what appears to be a Transformer in pink sunglasses at the top, which I'm going to assume is the 80's seal of approval. The only complaint I have about this otherwise amazing Internet sound machine is the lack of any kind of "save" feature, which means you'll never hear the amazing beats I made on it.

Mouseless has been mentioned on Downloadsquad before, and it's steadily improved since Jordan Running first posted about it.

The latest version offers improved support for dynamic web apps like GMail and Facebook. The number of "clickable" links has also been greatly increased and works amazingly well with complicated pages. On the Blogsmith post creation page where I'm writing this, for example, I've got 179 Mouseless links.

To "click" a link, just hold down your control key and type its number. Mouseless is smart enough to wait for additional digits if they might exist: if you've got a 110 available, it will give you time to enter a third number after 11. If not, the link is opened immediately.

You can also use Mouseless to create customizable navigation hotkeys. It's one of the best addons I haven't been using, and is definitely a productivity booster for anyone who uses a lot of web-based applications.

Good things really do come in small packages, as is the case with the URL Alias Firefox addon.
I originally installed it looking to make the address bar more launcher-like. For example, I wanted http://mail.google.com/mail/#inbox to open when I type mail or http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=SPORTS05 when I enter wings.

I prefer using words or abbreviations I can remember easily instead of hotkey combinations, and this experimental addon is the perfect tool for the job.

Since URL Alias also supports a variable (yep, just one), you can do a whole lot more with your aliases than just save keystrokes.

To manage aliases, type the following in your address bar: chrome://urlalias/content/urlalias.xul [enter]

Suppose you want to set up a Google search alias for results from downloadsquad.com.

dls http://www.google.com/search?q=%s%20site:downloadsquad.com

The %s is replaced by whatever text you enter after the keyword: dls firefox addons will return results for all matching DS posts. Change the alias text and url, and set up as many site-specific searches as you like.

So you think you can type? Before you say anything: no, it's not a pitch for a new reality show.

Whether you think that you're a fast typist or not, you have to appreciate this: a medical transcriptionist who typed so fast and so frequently that the keys of their keyboard became completely worn through.

Of course, we understand that there are a number of factors when it comes to wear on a keyboard. If you type in between bites of a KFC multi-piece extra crispy chicken bucket, for example, or if the tips of your fingers are worn rough from all those years of forced labor in a Siberian prison, then your keyboard might be more prone to degradation.

The question is, does reading about someone typing so fast that their keyboard melted make you green with envy? How about orange with desire?

If you'd like to try melting a keyboard with your keystrokes, then you'll need to get a little practice in. We've covered a large number of online typing tutors in the past. Or, if you prefer a download, you can check out Stamina Typing Tutor (thanks for the link, Aseem).

[via BoingBoing]

Have you ever bought a laptop that has a few keys that you're convinced our in the wrong place? We've seen keyboards that put the Windows key all the way in the top right corner, or which put the arrow keys a bit too closer to the shift key for comfort.

SharpKeys is a utility that lets you remap pretty much any key on your keyboard. Just fire SharpKeys up, select a key, and then decide what you would like its new function to be. To get the full effect, once you're done, you can even try prying the keys off of your keyboard and rearranging them. Just a quick warning though: your spacebar probably won't fit in the spot where the K key currently resides. We figured you probably knew that already, but figured we'd issue a disclaimer just in case spacial relations aren't your thing.

Also note that if anyone follows the recommendation in this post's title Download Squad and its parent company AOL will not be held responsible for the fallout. But if you happen to snap any pictures of the ensuing fun, please send them our way.

SharpKeys is designed for Window XP, 2000 and Vista.

[via jkOnTheRun]

It happens to everyone, and it's annoying. Sometimes the wrong tab gets closed in Firefox, but it's OK. There's a solution to the problem, and it comes in the form of CTRL + SHIFT + T in Windows or COMMAND + SHIFT + T in Mac OS X.

We've covered other solutions in the past such as Unclosetab, a Firefox extension that adds a right-click option to reopen a closed tab. Another easy way to reopen a closed tab is simply to visit the Recently Closed Tabs menu under History.

And if you'd like to close the tab currently up, CTRL + W or COMMAND + W should do the trick. Now you have no excuse for your lady to catch you browsing the Apple Store late at night.

Windows Mobile is great at a lot of things. Text entry is not one of them. While a lot of folks complain that the iPhone soft keyboard takes some getting used to, at least it allows 2 fingered typing on a device without a keypad. You need a stylus to type on most Windows Mobile devices without keyboard unless you're using a full-screen keyboard or Tengo Thumb.

The developer behind PocketCM Contacts has another solution, a 2-fingered software keyboard that takes up about the same amount of space as other software keyboards.



The keyboard looks and acts a lot like the iPhone keyboard. Key presses don't register until you lift your finger. This gives you time to shift your finger from one spot to the next until you've got the correct letter.

PocketCM Keyboard runs on Windows Mobile 5.0 and newer devices. It's still in beta, although it's under rapid development, so we can probably expect a final release soon. No word on whether the full version will be freeware, but PocketCM contacts is donateware, so one can only hope.

[via the unwired]

Looks like Google is in the process of developing some sort of on-screen keyboard gadget for iGoogle for entering search queries.

In its current incarnation, the iGoogle keyboard gadget is built by a Google Developer in Google's Bangalore India office with language options including:

• Hindi
• Tamil
• Kannada
• Malayalam
• Telugu
• Gujarati
• Sanskrit
• Bengali
• Punjabi
• Nepali
• Marathi
• Oriya
• Assamese

What could these keyboards be used for besides entering search terms? Some form of an early mobile phone application prototype? There are currently no English versions of the gadget, so if anyone has any other ideas on what it could be used for, please drop us a line.

[via Steve Rubel]

It was just a matter of time before we saw more iPhone inspired Windows Mobile mods. While we won't see a hack to let your phone automatically change from landscape to portrait when you rotate the screen anytime soon (it doesn't have the hardware), you can make your on-screen keyboard a bit more iPhone-like.

The folks over at XDA Developers have released a skin for Happy Tapping Keyboard that looks like the iPhone keyboard. While one of the main things iPhone users complain about is the lack of a physical keyboard, its on-screen keyboard is a bit easier to use for thumb typing than the default Windows Mobile keyboard.

This is just a skin, so don't expect Apple's predictive text system. Windows Mobile's predictive text will kick in, offering suggestions as you type, but it won't give you any leeway when you hit the wrong key as the iPhone sometimes will.

[via jkOnTheRun]

Getting around Wikipedia could take shorter than you have been previously use to. For instance, do you know about the keyboard shortcuts?

Keyboard shortcuts aren't a well known feature for users of the popular online encyclopedia, but they do exist. I recently came across a post by Steve Rubel reminding me of this fact.

These keyboard shortcuts work with any browser, and on both PC and Mac platforms, and don't need to install any special Greasemonkey script, and will surely speed up your time when searching for useful content.

Depending on which browser you are in you will have to use hold down this combination of keys, then hit your access key:

• Mozilla Firefox 1.5: hold Alt, press access key
• Mozilla Firefox 2: hold Alt-Shift, press access key
• Internet Explorer: hold Alt, press access key, and then press Enter
• Opera: press Shift-Esc, then press access key
• Mac OS: Control and a key

Check out a cheat sheet for the key shortcuts after the jump:

Enthusiastic users of an app or web service typically come to wish for some form of UI optimization or another. That near-vaporware Optimus keyboard that Engadget has been covering is a great example, but so is this Photoshopped mockup of a Google Reader-optimized keyboard from Flickr user paolovalde. For those who don't use Google's suddenly dominant newsreader, J is the key used to scroll through headlines in reverse (much like scrolling back through Gmail messages), which explains why paolovalde might be jonesing for a much larger and easier target to strike.

Who knows - with a rumored Google phone on the way, what's to stop the big G from cranking out an innovative keyboard?

[via Chris Wetherell of the Google Reader team]

Sometimes we all need a little practice with our typing, and it's nice to see someone kick some butt while we're at it. Pepsi is promoting Pepsi Nex -- a soft drink sold in Japan -- with Maximum Typing. It's a pretty nifty online typing game, in the vein of QWERTY Warriors.

Instead of zapping enemies by typing letters though, as you type in the letter or combination of letters on an ice cube, the little guy on the left of the screen rushes up and punches, kicks, knees, or otherwise pummels the cube to smithereens. In between stages he has a tendency to take a swig from a bottle. I'm going to assume that it's Coca-Cola.

[via Digital Inspiration]