deskthority

Cargo cults tried to summon gifts from the sky (western airdrops in World War 2) by imitating what they saw foreigners do on their Pacific islands. Clearly the keyboard community needs more coconut headphones! The Cherry cult try to summon a good typing experience from Cherry's 'rainbow' of colors ...

How are you doing on a regular keyboard? I can switch but I don't like it. I do better on laptop keyboards than regular mechanical oddly. I found this to be the case as well; Laptop keyboards now have key caps that are 3mm wider than regular desktop key caps. My Thinkpad has the newer caps that are...

But it's hard to gain traction when you have a firmly established rival like Cherry to face, with a version of their product tailored for almost every customer. Every customer except typists, IMO. Their only medium-weight tactile switch happens to make a horrendous sound, as if trying to puncture t...

Matias Laptop Pro is 6-row and non-foldable, but still very compact and mechanical too. It has bluetooth and can recharge its Li-ion batt via USB.

Lenovo also makes a nice bluetooth ThinkPad keyboard.

Those are the ones I'm familiar with.

Trev's unit was defective IIRC.

Seems so — I'm now holding a damped clicky switch. Actually, this feels good … That's actually a good idea: Get rid of the noise that doesn't correspond to actuation, while keeping the actuation clicks. Matias could have two more whole lines of switches... if they also did linears. They could even ...

I'm not feeling any tendency to bind, even when I try to force it by putting the middle of my fingertip on the edge of a key and pressing diagonally, toward or away from the key. Compared with the black ALPS on my Dell, the Matias quiet switches feel completely unobstructed.

Yes. Asymmetry can be disturbing. Moreover, the imbalance of the standard modern keyboard creates ergonomic problems. e.g., right-handers using the mouse with the keyboard. Things didn't start out this way, at least for Mac users. I ran across a wonderful post chronicling the history of the Mac key...

I think a wel dampered MX ergo clear could kick topres ASS! :D Modify Quiet Pro switches with a click leaf... I think Edgar Matias even mentioned on GH this could be done. Then you'd have a tactile, clicky switch with some of the dampened RD qualities, plus the actuation point near the top. EDIT: O...

"Revolutionary"...staggered layout. LOL

Yes it bothers me. I wanted to get a matrix keyboard for a while, but decided against it because I knew I would be typing a lot on laptop built-in keyboards also. So I got tenkeyless/compact boards instead: I have 2 MiniTouch's and now a Mini Quiet Pro.

I've been using my mini Quiet Pro for a week now so I can say the switches have smooth travel; probably the smoothest I've used in a long time.

Matias switches can be backlit (switch bodies are translucent) and they are electronically identical to Cherry MX: simple SPST contact switches. I think the main difference would be in the mounting and soldering holes.

The PC version of the Mini QP is all black.

Also, a third new keyboard was announced: The Mini Tactile Pro (wired + clicky).

Those of us who referred to the full sized boards as MQP will now have to say MMQP, etc. when referring to the compact models.

Hmmm... bad news. I had a 1903 already and then bought a 1948 so I could replace the XMs with Matias switches.

If the keyfeel is the only thing that changed beside the connector, then the pinouts on the 1948 will be incompatible with Matias and other ALPS switches.

I think that 'ergonomic' is a matter of degree. So the MS E4000 is ergonomic because it is split, but only just. A board like the TE gets rid of a (IMHO) very nasty legacy in keyboard design, horizontal staggering, and goes further in making keys easier to press. Now if they can finally resolve thei...

Matias QuietPro and TactilePro

The Japanese supposedly swear by the practice of using lube on their Alps boards, as if it were the only way to use them. I think they may be right because my AT101 changes from day to day and I think it may be due to changing humidity. So maybe I'll try lube soon. As it stands now, my Dell feels li...

Depends, if you're just writing a bunch of numbers all you need is a numpad and the tab key and I'd imagine that's just as quick. If you're writing both letters and numbers then obviously learning the top row would be quicker. I am having a bit of trouble learning the top row though, for me the num...

I'm in the "use a separate numpad when needed" camp. The most important thing is easier/more ergonomic use of the mouse, and have more freedom in positioning the keyboard (esp. on keyboard trays).

Re: green-on-black...

Try amber instead. Old-school but classier and easier on the eyes. Also, don't go with the fully saturated monochrome values; they don't look authentic. De-saturate the foreground color just a bit, and make the scanlines blur just a bit.

The bottoming out sound is so high that there is really no difference between blue, brown and Matias Tactile. Could you make samples where you don't bottom out? The Matias Quiet sounds a lot like a cherry with o rings. I have been looking for a quiet one which doesn't feel like you are bottom out o...

Good job on that sound widget! Funny thing: While listening between the samples the Tactile Pro started to remind me of castanets, and the Blackwidow of a tambourine. The Quiet Pro sounded more like an RD keyboard than a music instrument, though. If you ever see a Flamenco dancer flailing a TP3 arou...

Oooh, classic keycaps. Despite being shiny I always found them to feel very 'grippy'. What are they made of?

Daniel Beardsmore wrote:TL;DR Don't trust recordings

Most cameras have microphones with automatic gain circuitry. They will tend to make different sounds seem to be the same loudness.

So the trick is to display a loudness meter and/or use a mic/recorder without automatic gain.

Mechanical , the keyboardist jargon edition: When two or more solid parts come in and out of physical contact with each other to create some effect (i.e. close a circuit, make a noise, or create a sensation of feedback). IMO, Topres aren't mechanical. They just feel good enough to place them in the...

Low profile and less expensive = Good.

Otherwise, the design aesthetics just scream 1980s subcompact car (even the font and legends).

http://www.matias.ca/onekeyboard/tactile/ Matias Tactile One keyboard for iPhone, says it also works with iPads and newer iPods (and computers and other bluetooth devices). It is a slightly redesigned Tactile Pro 3 using Alps white switches. The Tactile Pro 4 with Matias-redesigned switches is suppo...