You hit a button on the mouse or keyboard and switch between machines. For those situations, Logitech's Easy Switch mechanism is a total win. Or we want to be able to switch between machines without a Medusa's tangle of cables. Some of you may remember those round green and purple mouse and keyboard connectors from back in the day.īut sometimes we want to share one monitor (in this case, our TV).
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Fun fact: Back in the day, I bought a giant, multi-thousand dollar KVM (about the size of a PC tower on its side) for work that connected 16 computers to one monitor, keyboard, and mouse - using IBM PS/2-style connectors. The acronym KVM means Keyboard/Video/Mouse and the purpose of a KVM switch is to connect multiple computers to one set of peripherals. Many of ZDNet's readers are IT pros, so many of you will be familiar with KVM switches. When you have to produce as much work output as I do each year, optimizing becomes mission-critical just to get it all done.Īll that brings me back to the three computers in our living room and Logitech's Easy Switch technology.
One of the most important is that the more optimized your space is, the more productivity improves. My work at home environment has changed a lot over the years, and I've learned many lessons.
But when we bought our house a year or so ago, we chose it knowing it had to provide work at home space.Īnd yet, here I am, typing away on the couch, in our living room. I spent most of 20 working out of a kitchen using a $50 desk. So, it's important for me to acknowledge how lucky I am to be able to work from home, and especially in pandemic times where many folks can't work at home or work at all, that I have a highly optimized and comfortable work at home space. Look, I know right about now, a bunch of you have just about reached the "it must be nice" stage of this discussion. We are also not drawn to our La-Z-Boy reclining couch. Another is hooked up to a monitor mounted on an Ergotron arm that rotates out and serves as my primary development machine. In addition to streaming period British costume dramas (the dog prefers them over loud science fiction), we've turned our living room into a shared office space and conference room. We also have a low-cost TCL big screen Roku TV. My wife, who also works at home, and I both have our own separate offices, where we can go for meetings, conferences, and focused concentration time.Īlso: Best mouse in 2021: The top computer mice comparedīut we have a little dog who yaps loud enough to wake the dead when we leave him alone in the living room for any appreciable time. Over the years, we've tweaked and refined our working at home environment, learning what works and what doesn't. I've worked at home for almost two decades, and on-and-off in the years before that. Like many here at ZDNet, I'm a long-time work-at-homer. ZDNet contributors welcome you inside their home-based workspaces and show off the tech gear that drives their productivity. We also showcase some high-quality budget mice and keyboard options.
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We look at Logitech's MX series with an eye towards how easy the company makes it to switch mice and keyboards between computers. Logitech Easy Switch: Switching mice and keyboards between computers is so un-KVM If you see inaccuracies in our content, please report the mistake via this form If we have made an error or published misleading information, we will correct or clarify the article. Our editors thoroughly review and fact-check every article to ensure that our content meets the highest standards. Our goal is to deliver the most accurate information and the most knowledgeable advice possible in order to help you make smarter buying decisions on tech gear and a wide array of products and services. ZDNet's editorial team writes on behalf of YOU, our reader. Indeed, we follow strict guidelines that ensure our editorial content is never influenced by advertisers. Neither ZDNet nor the author are compensated for these independent reviews. This helps support our work, but does not affect what we cover or how, and it does not affect the price you pay. When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or service, we may earn affiliate commissions. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites.
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