The 3-Key Copy-Paste Keyboard Is a Real Product You Can Buy

What originally started as an April Fools joke by programmer community help forum Stack Overflow, the Key Macropad (aka copy-paste keyboard) is now a real product you can buy from Drop for $29. I can already feel my programming workload getting infinitely lighter.

According to Stack Overflow’s director of content Ben Popper, “Good artists copy, great artists steal, but [the] greatest artists copy, then paste.” Truer words have never been spoken. The Key Macropad features three QMK programmable keys atop Kailh Black Box switches in a CNC-machined aluminum case with an anodized black finish. And not only will it make copy-pasting second nature, a portion of the proceeds “will go to Digitalundivided, a nonprofit set up to help Black and Latinx women succeed as technology entrepreneurs.” It’s a win/win.

Don’t like the plain keycaps? No worries, you can customize them with any XDA profile keycaps to truly make The Key Macropad your own. Now if only I could create a keyboard shortcut that made it look like I was actually working…

[via BoingBoing]

PopClip for Mac: An iOS Feature That Lion Forgot

OS X Lion borrowed several features from iOS, like the Home-Screenish Launchpad and the annoying “natural scrolling,” which many of us have disabled. The necessity of any of those new features is debatable, but developer PilotMoon found an iOS trick that still makes sense in a desktop UI: the contextual menu that pops-up when you highlight text.

popclip for mac1

If you’ve used iOS, you already know how PopClip works. Highlight a text – either by click-dragging with your mouse or double-clicking a word – and several options pop up depending on what you selected. It can cut, copy and paste text, open the OS X dictionary, look up words or open links in your browser and more. Check out this short review by YouTuber XIMacManIX to see the app in action:

From my brief experience with the app, I still found it faster to move text around using my keyboard (⌘-X/C/V), but I do appreciate the quick access to the dictionary and online search functions. I also use a normal two-button mouse, so highlighting text is easier for me, but perhaps those who use the Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad – not to mention new OS X users – will find the quick access to the cut/copy/paste functions more useful.

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PopClip works with both OS X Snow Leopard and Lion. You can buy it on the Mac App Store for $4.99 (USD), but I suggest you download the demo first – full functionality, good for 150 uses – from PilotMoon’s website. I almost wish that PopClip gets integrated into OS X, but I’d rather have PilotMoon rewarded for their clever idea.

[via Minimal Mac]