Welcome to Gadget Dreams and Nightmares, the column that ventures forth into the land of new gadget announcements to seek out the best and brightest gizmos.

On the horizon this week are a modular smartphone, a highly modern keyboard, and an update to a classic set of headphones.

As always, these are not reviews, and the ratings reflect only how much I'd like to test them for myself -- probably with extreme care in the case of the headphones, because, boy, are those pricey.

Heart-Eyed Keyboard

To communicate online in 2015 is to have at least a passing awareness of emoji -- the colorful symbols that are endemic in social media and text messages. Inputting emoji into a post or message from a computer is often awkward, though this item might help.

EmojiWorks has a physical keyboard which, at the touch of a modifier (think ctrl, alt or command), you can use to type emoji.

A skintone changer lets you bring each icon in line with recent diversity adjustments to the various emoji images.

There are multiple models of the EmojiWorks keyboard. Users can choose 47, 94 or 120 emoji to input. It works with Windows, Mac and iOS devices over Bluetooth.

It's a fun idea, and I've been known to slide a few emoji into my tweets or texts.

However, I'm apprehensive about learning an entirely new keyboard and remembering where more than a hundred new functions are on it. If EmojiWorks can explain just why the devil there are so many emoji for trains, I'll happily buy a keyboard in return.

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Gadget-Ogling-An-Emotional-Keyboard-a-Puzzling-Phone-and-Exquisite-Headphones-82717.html