' At some point in the history of gaming peripherals, some bright spark thought that slapping an LCD screen onto a keyboard was a good idea. No one quite knows why this happened. After all, it's not as if gaming keyboards are short of inputs, with rows of extra media and macro keys commonplace. Nor (despite the cries of 14-year-old boys the world over) are they really in need of any more needless lighting bling--if a keyboard has enough LEDs on it to light an entire room, it has probably gone too far.

　　"Some bright spark thought that slapping an LCD screen onto a keyboard was a good idea. No one quite knows why this happened."

　　They're of a limited practicality too, mostly down to poor software integration, or the fact that you're going to spend most of your time looking at your PC monitor, rather than squinting at a low-resolution LCD display to check your PC's core temperature. Still, there's clearly a market for such things, and big peripheral makers like Logitech and Razer have seen fit to include them on their highest-end offerings such as the G19, and Old Republic keyboards.

　　The trouble is, even if you love the idea of having a secondary screen, the keyboards are far from cheap, starting at a minimum of £100. Razer's Old Republic keyboard goes for a staggering £229. But what if you could take the functionality of the built-in LCD screen--checking your PC's status, receiving social media updates, or creating virtual macro keys--but bring it to a device that's portable, that already has a nice high-quality screen, and that does it all for absolutely nothing?

　　That's exactly what pro peripheral-maker Roccat is doing with Power-Grid, a free app for iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone that interfaces wirelessly with your PC. It's made up of four different grids, each accessible from a shortcut button at the bottom of the app: Incoming Center, Stats Control, Sound Control, and Custom.

　　Incoming Center is effectively a communications hub, which lets you keep chatting over your favourite social networks or IM clients without having to Alt and Tab out of your game. It works by routing all voice and text communication from your PC to your smartphone. Updates appear in a Twitter-like stream, and tapping on the requisite message lets you bash out a reply right there on your phone. Support for Skype, Facebook, TeamSpeak, and Twitter is promised, along with a handful of IM clients.

　　Stats Control lets you monitor different aspects of your computer, such as CPU status, hard drive space, and network traffic. It comes complete with a bunch of snazzy-looking graphs and numbers, though it's questionable how useful it is. That is, unless you really need to know how hot your PC has got since booting up Crysis, or if your other half is trying to stream episodes of 90210 in the other room (it's a problem for me anyhow).

　　The Sound Control grid does exactly what it says on the tin; that is, it adjusts various sound settings on your PC. You see what song is currently playing in your media player, skip tracks, pause music, and adjust the volume of your speakers and microphone. It also lets you change the settings in VOIP applications such as Skype.

　　The final grid is a custom one, and the most useful. You can drag in components from any of the other grids, as well as create macros for use with your favourite games. Custom graphics can be assigned to each of your macros, letting you see at a glance what the button does. You can even share your custom grids with other users, which is great if you want someone to do all the hard work of programming and arranging the macros for you.

　　What's neat about the whole setup is that it's easily portable; all that's required is the installation of the Power-Grid launcher software on the host PC. Plus, the whole thing is free if you already own a smartphone or iPod Touch, and you don't have to replace your existing keyboard. If you're dead set on having the screen integrated with your keyboard, Roccat is releasing a new mechanical keyboard called Phobo that features a dock for your smartphone, keeping the virtual controls within easy reach.

　　Power-Grid will initially launch on iOS, and eager gamers can sign up for the beta now over at power-grid.roccat.org. Android users will be able to get their hands on the App round about the time Gamescom rolls round in August. So what do you think? Is Roccat's Power-Grid the next step in gaming peripherals, or just another bit of useless desktop bling? Let us know in the comments below.

　　'