TypeDrum

Getting your Chinese and English keyboard layouts confused? TypeDrum tries to help minimize typing errors by playing a particular sound each time you hit a key on a particular layout. Unfortunately, its unintuitive design, simple output, and questionable premise don't add up to a very compelling whole. TypeDrum automatically identifies your keyboard layout and displays it in its small interface. From there it's not immediately clear what to do, especially since the program doesn't come with a help file. You'll need to enter a value in the Hertz field to assign the layout a sound. In theory, each time you hit a key, the beeps remind you which layout you're using. We're skeptical. Even if it works, how long can you put up with all that noise? TypeDrum offers a 14-day tryout, but we suspect most users will give up long before that.