Gboard

Looking for the perfect, unique gift for the Gmail addict this holiday season? Look no further than the Gboard, a keyboard just for Gmail users. Rather than commit all of those keyboard shortcuts to muscle memory, you can execute the same tasks with action-specific keys. At $19.99, it’s an interesting stocking-stuffer.
We’re not going to lie. When we were first heard about the Gboard, we were a little skeptical. Visions of the OOMouse insanity flashed in our heads and we wanted to hide. However, the nice guys at Gboard sent us a unit to review, and, we have to say, we’re impressed.

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Setting it Up

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Using the Gboard is extremely easy. Just plug it into the USB port on your computer (it works with both Windows and Mac, although we can’t imagine that Linux would have any problem either — we didn’t test it out) and then enable keyboard shortcuts in Gmail or Google Apps if you haven’t done so already.
To enable keyboard shortcuts, just click on the Settings button, and, in the general tab, select the radio button to turn keyboard shortcuts on.
That’s it, now all the buttons work exactly as they appear on the pad.
Tip for Mac Users: Mac OS X won’t recognize the Gboard when you plug it in, but it will see that a keyboard device has been conncected. Select the ANSI keyboard type and you’ll be good to go. Your regular keyboard will continue to work without interruption.

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Using the Gboard

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The Gboard has 19 buttons and each corresponds with a task in Gmail. From the board, you can search, go to results, go to starred mail, compose a message, reply, reply to all, forward a message, star and archive messages, delete and mark messages as spam, flip through your messages (and within message threads themselves), select messages and go right to the inbox.
In my tests, I found that the Gboard acted exactly as if I was using the regular shortcuts. Although there are some things you can do with Gmail shortcuts that you can’t do on the Gboard (like label messages or move messages to a different label), the most frequently used functions are all there and the layout is actually pretty ergonomic.
Moreover, the placement of the keys doesn’t seem to be totally random, and moving forward and backwards through messages was actually much nicer on the Gboard than pressing “k” and “j” repeatedly on my keyboard.

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Why Not Just Use Keyboard Shortcuts?

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Lots of people are going to question the Gboard’s mere existence. After all, can’t you just use the keys on your laptop or keyboard and get the exact same results?
Yes, you can absolutely get the same results from a regular keyboard (and, as I stated, there are a few things you can do with the keyboard that you can’t do with the Gboard). That doesn’t mean that the Gboard is without merit or that it doesn’t have its own benefits.
Lots of Gmail users — even heavy Gmail users — don’t use keyboard shortcuts, either because they don’t know they exist or because they can’t ever remember what keys do what. I’m one of those users who lives and dies by my keyboard shortcuts. However, because I typically use Mail.app for my mail needs, my muscle-memory shortcuts are all off whenever I try to use Gmail. In the past, I’ve gone through the motions of customizing my Gmail shortcuts so that they match what I use in Mail.app, but because I have about four or five different Google Apps accounts that handle my mail (and each account is different), having to set those for each and every mailbox has been something I’ve never really had the patience to do.
The nice thing about having a separate pad just for Gmail is you don’t have to memorize each keyboard shortcut (just look at the button, or if you are a touch typist like me, a few hours of use is probably all it will take to get the location of the buttons mapped to your fingertips).
For users who aren’t familiar with the concept of shortcuts and just how much time can be saved by not using your mouse to click on everything, the Gboard is a nice introduction.

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Overall

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Overall we’re impressed with the Gboard. It does what it says it will do, the keys are laid out in a way that makes sense, and, for heavy Gmail users, shortcuts can save a tremendous amo