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ROCCAT Vulcan 120 AIMO mechanical keyboard review

REVIEW – I have been using my old ROCCAT keyboard for a few years now, and despite checking out several other keyboards in the past, I keep going back to my old faithful. A new challenger has appeared, this time from ROCCAT themselves with their Vulcan 120 AIMO mechanical keyboard. With its smaller size and fully customizable RGB lighting, will it be able to dethrone it’s predecessor? Let’s find out.

What is it?

The ROCCAT Vulcan 120 AIMO is a gaming keyboard that is stylish and easy to use.

Hardware specs

  • ROCCAT Titan Switches
  • 1.8mm Actuation Points with 3.6mm Travel Distance
  • Ultra-light key-caps
  • RGB customizable to each key with 16.8 million color choices
  • 18.1″ x 9.25″ x 1.25″ in size

What’s in the box?

In the box you’ll find the owners manual, ROCCAT Vulcan 120 mechanical keyboard, and removable magnetic palm rest.

Design and features

I already had the ROCCAT swarm software installed, and it detected my keyboard when I plugged it in. You can plug and play without the software or download it from their website to customize the colors, key bindings, gaming profiles, and more.

Because I love colorful things, I customized the keyboard to exactly the color scheme I wanted. Each key can be customized with color, intensity, and effect. As an Overwatch player, I had to make sure my “Q” button had an effect, while the rest of the keys stayed a solid color. When I put my computer to sleep at night, I was happy to see that the lights turned off.

The keyboard, without the palm rest, is about the same size as most standard keyboards. There’s not a lot of excess on the sides, which is nice, because it makes my desk look less cluttered. Adding the palm rest to the bottom adds a little bit to the size, but it is much more manageable than my previous keyboard.

One thing that I would improve with this keyboard is the palm rest and how it attaches to the keyboard. Most of the time, when my palms are against it, it stays in place, but if I press down a little too hard where it hangs slightly over the edge of the desk, it will pop up easily. I feel that if there was a little stronger magnet that attaches it to the keyboard, it would stay in place. Is it a game breaker? No, but it can be annoying during an intense gaming moment.

The keys feel much different than my old keyboard. They do not have the smooth glide that my old one does, but they do have a nice tactile feel when you press each key down. I knew when each key was pressed. Each press of the key was also a tiny bit quicker, which I tested by putting the keyboards side by side and pressing the keys at the same time.

While my gaming hasn’t improved due to the keyboard, it certainly hasn’t gotten worse. I experienced no issues with multiple key presses, keys not registering, or key presses being slow to register. Typing is just as easy as it was on the previous keyboard. The click each key makes when typing is about as loud as most other mechanical keyboards that I have tried. It may annoy someone trying to sleep in the same room as the keyboard while in use, but it shouldn’t annoy them if they are on their computer as well.

Another thing I like about the Vulcan 120 AIMO is the volume/multimedia wheel. Yes, I can press FN and use the number keys to control volume, but it is just so much quicker this way. The location they added it, on the top right, also is out of the way yet easy to access if needed. I only used it for volume controls, but pressing the FX button next to it offers access to the multimedia functions if desired.

The aluminum top plate gives the keyboard an overall sturdy feel. It has resisted/hidden dust quite well compared to the black plastic areas. The palm rest is also made of quality plastic since I have tested it by it dropping on the ground several times on accident. There are rubber pieces on the bottom of the keyboard to prevent it from sliding around and it worked well. Also, on the top of each side there is a flip-up foot that is a little wider than some of the other keyboards I’ve tried out, and I prefer this because not once has it accidentally flipped down when moving the keyboard around.

What I like

  • Very easy/quick to press keys
  • Dedicated volume controls on the keyboard
  • Customizable colors on each key
  • Easy to set up and use

What needs to be improved

  • The magnetic wrist rest needs a stronger magnet.

Final thoughts

Overall, I really liked the ROCCAT Vulcan 120 AIMO mechanical keyboard. It worked great for both gaming and everyday use and is customized to my own style. Each key gives a light click when pressed, and it does not seem as loud as some of my previous keyboards. Alas, it has dethroned its old ancestor, and I will be sticking with this one in the future. If you are in the market for a fully customizable keyboard, the ROCCAT Vulcan 120 AIMO is one I would recommend taking a look at.

Price: $159.99
Where to buy: Best Buy
Source: The sample of this product was provided by ROCCAT.

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ROCCAT Vulcan 120 AIMO mechanical keyboard review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 6, 2019 at 10:00 am.

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Add new dimension to your love this Valentine’s Day with Hallmark Paper Wonder greeting cards

NEWS – For many people, greeting cards are a big part of celebrating holidays.  I can tell you from personal experience, my mom saved every single card she ever received and used them as reminders of special occasions. Hallmark, probably the biggest name in the greeting card business is upping their game with a new Paper Wonder three-dimensional card line.

The Paper Wonder line seems to be a direct competitor, and potential step up from Lovepop’s pop-up card line. Rather than just a flat card with sentimental writing, Paper Wonder cards offer intricate pop-ups and/or unfold and expand into three-dimensional paper sculptures.

If you’re looking for something out of the ordinary to help you express your feelings to the special ones in your life, Hallmark’s Paper Wonder might just catch the attention of your sweetie.

In addition to Valentine’s Day cards, you can find Paper Wonder cards for Christmas, anniversary, birthday, new baby and wedding giving. Paper Wonder cards are priced from $3.99 – $8.99 are available directly from Hallmark.

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Add new dimension to your love this Valentine’s Day with Hallmark Paper Wonder greeting cards originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 6, 2019 at 9:00 am.

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Gadgeteer time machine – Remembering the PalmPilot and its spinoffs

ARTICLE – For those of you who are new here, The Gadgeteer will be 22 years old this summer. That’s a long time to be writing about gadgets and as you can imagine, I’ve amassed quite a collection of devices over the years which I keep in a special drawer down in my Gadgeteer lair.

The other day I opened that drawer of gadgets-from-days-gone-by (yes, that’s the drawer’s name) and started sifting through the contents and ended up taking everything out to create the group shot that you see above.

There are a lot of great memories connected to these devices and I thought it would be fun to take a walk down memory lane and bring all of you along with me for the trip. So let’s go!

PalmPilot and friends

I consider the USRobotics PalmPilot to be the first real PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). I know there were Casio and Sharp databank style devices before the PalmPilot came on the scene, but they weren’t real PDAs in the way I/we think of them today. When I think of a PDA, I think of a touch screen, with a stylus, a selection of core apps like a calendar, task manager, address book, memo pad, etc., and the ability to install other apps to extend its capabilities.




The PalmPilot with its grey plastic housing, matching “toothpick” stylus, and iconic black on green non-back lit LCD display is the device that you can really thank for the Gadgeteer website.  This device is what originally fueled my excitement for reviewing products. I had so much fun with that little device, testing and writing about 100’s of cases, styluses, programs, and all the crazy accessories.

Do you remember The Bridge from Midwest PCB Designs? This little adapter would let you use a case with the PalmPilot’s HotSync cradle and was actually inspired by me. Go read the review for more on that back story.

Jeff Hawkins, Donna Dubinsky, and Ed Colligan were the inventors of the PalmPilot and ended up leaving USRobotics/3Com/Palm Computing to start their own company called Handspring. They developed the Handspring Visor devices which also ran the Palm operating system. I had (and still do) several Visors which were exciting devices because they had a Springboard slot which allowed 3rd parties to create special accessories like modems, remote controls, etc.

But Handspring wasn’t the only company who made PDAs powered by the Palm operating system. Sony’s line of Clie devices was also popular. Back in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, Palm, Sony, and Handspring were popping out new devices with stunning frequency. Sony was one of the best innovators of the time with their devices that had rotating displays and other unique features.

The image above is the Sony Clie PEG-N710C. It’s funny to read my review of this device from 2001 and see how excited I was about the fact that this device had a 320 x 320 resolution display back when 160 x 160 was the norm. My how times have changed. 😉

My first smartphone

The Palm Treo 650 was my first smartphone and as luck would have it, I still have this 15-year-old device and was able to find a charging cable that works with it. When I plugged it in, I was really surprised when it powered up. I thought it would be fun to see if it might still work as a phone, but when I checked for the SIM card slot, I didn’t find one because it was a Sprint phone. Those were the days when Sprint and Verizon didn’t use SIM cards and phone batteries lasted for days instead of hours.

Here’s an interesting tidbit… I “hacked” that Sprint branded Treo 650 to work on the Verizon network. The Treo was high tech then, but we are talking 2G speeds (if that). So it wasn’t that great as a web surfing device, but it worked if you had an unlimited supply of patience. Those were the good old days.

The Palm Centro was another favorite smartphone of mine mainly because it was so cute. I still had one in my drawer and was able to charge it up too and was very surprised to find a bunch of old text messages and a few old emails still saved on it.

Today Apple, Samsung, and even Sony could learn a thing or two by revisiting these devices from 15 – 20 years ago. Then Palm, Handspring, and Sony were in a pseudo “arms race” to see who could come up with the most featured packed devices. It was like they threw everything but the kitchen sink into each new model just to see which features would stick. Now, they only seem to throw in extra cameras and consider that to be the pinnacle of innovative.

Did you enjoy this quick stroll down nostalgia lane? What was your favorite device from 10 – 20 years ago? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below. And also be sure to check out our new Gadgeteer Time Machine widget in the right sidebar towards the top of the page. It shows Gadgeteer reviews from 1, 5, 10, and even 20 years ago each day.

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Gadgeteer time machine – Remembering the PalmPilot and its spinoffs originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 6, 2019 at 7:55 am.

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Skip the litter boxes and pooper scoopers and build your own pet

NEWS – Check out these DIY block building kits from JEKCA that feature LEGO-like bricks that lock together using a special tool to create your favorite dog or cat breed among other things.

The dog and cat kits are available in different sizes and a variety of action poses for each breed. Use them as art for your home or office, or if you’re off your meds, use them as a stand-in for a real pet. The JEKCA kits are priced from $40 – $140 and are available at jekca.com

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Skip the litter boxes and pooper scoopers and build your own pet originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 5, 2019 at 4:06 pm.

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What is PHP? (Video Explanation)

Come across the term ‘PHP’ (also known as ‘Hypertext Preprocessor’) and wondering what on earth it means? Fear not: we’ve got you covered! In short: it’s basically a scripting language used to power most of the web. In this quick video (below), we’ll go into both what PHP is, and how it fits in with… View Article

The post What is PHP? (Video Explanation) appeared first on WinningWP.