Clone this...clone that these days in the world of ALPs and Cherry MX...

Look at bottom right Computex pics.

http://www.facebook.com/MechanicalKeyboards


This is a followup to the Blue APC ALPs.

http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?22127-APC-Blue-ALPS

Nobody cares about the terrible font on that Back-space?

This customer lassitude is the reason why Keyboard Manufacturers feed their customers crap.

And it sounds like this switch is the new one Matias will use on his keyboards....

Matias wrote:They are bright orange. Internal structure is similar to the switches on the Apple Extended Keyboard II, but more tactile and quieter.

Damn, fucking Keyboard Sherlock does it again!
http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?2516 ... servations

The font on the backspace key *is* awful, but I’d be more outraged about the size of the key than the font. Serving up a keyboard with a vestigial key is poor form.

Taiwanese BigAss enter key side effect.

Now I have to figure out if that is a F21-7d keyboard or not.

ripster wrote:Nobody cares about the terrible font on that Back-space?

This customer lassitude is the reason why Keyboard Manufacturers feed their customers crap.

I wish I could say I haven't seen worse, but that's pretty bad.

ripster wrote:And it sounds like this switch is the new one Matias will use on his keyboards....

Matias wrote:They are bright orange. Internal structure is similar to the switches on the Apple Extended Keyboard II, but more tactile and quieter.

That's not ours.

Wrong shade of orange.

Bwahahaah...Shiftlock Holmes powers of deduction fails him..

Hi Matias,

Welcome to Deskthority! We LIKE ALPs here.

Matias wrote:That's not ours.

Wrong shade of orange.

Didn't really look like what I would call bright orange as you described. But I really don't care so much what the color is so long as they feel nice.

ripster wrote:Bwahahaah...Shiftlock Holmes powers of deduction fails him..

Hi Matias,

Welcome to Deskthority! We LIKE ALPs here.

Speak for yourself, but I might pick up a TactilePro if the switch is really that good.

You'll have to pry Cherry browns from my cold, dead hands.

I like the font. Shame it's on just one key, thus ruining it, instead of a full board with for that semi-typewriter feel.

Really cool to hear about those incoming cheap yet improved Alps copies though!

[Account and posts deleted on request]

cactux wrote:Nowadays People cares more about price than quality. If the can get pseudo crappy mechanical board for 20 usd, they will buy it. I am old fashion guy, because when I buy something I am considering something that will last long time

There's always a lot of cheaping out, especially when large corporations are in the mix, buying and/or selling, which is all too common these days. Kind of sets up an anti-quality cheapest possible dynamic.

Such whiners.

You guys must both be GH moderators.

I don't miss the days of $2k pcs/laptops and $400 IBM model M keyboard list prices one bit.
http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?9629 ... pace-Saver

It is a good remark though, my excitement at these new switches being cheap basically directly conflicts with my stance on quality being the honourable and best thing to release.

I'm a bit surprised at ripster's oblique defense of $20 rubber domes flooding the market but everyone is entitled to their opinion I guess.

TexasFlood wrote:I'm a bit surprised at ripster's oblique defense of $20 rubber domes flooding the market but everyone is entitled to their opinion I guess.

The thing mentioned was $20 mechanicals, which honestly, does sound tempting as gift/test/donor... Shame they are either crap or not available over here at those prices (unless second hand ).
No hanging.

TexasFlood wrote:I'm a bit surprised at ripster's oblique defense of $20 rubber domes flooding the market but everyone is entitled to their opinion I guess.

I like the recent flood of cheap Chinese clone mechanical keyboards myself. More choice. More competition.

Better oblique than obtuse!


Baaaa....

off wrote:The thing mentioned was $20 mechanicals, which honestly, does sound tempting as gift/test/donor... Shame they are either crap or not available over here at those prices (unless second hand ).
No hanging.

I stand corrected, guess I read into it what I was thinking rather than what it said...

ripster wrote:

TexasFlood wrote:I'm a bit surprised at ripster's oblique defense of $20 rubber domes flooding the market but everyone is entitled to their opinion I guess.

I like the recent flood of cheap Chinese clone mechanical keyboards myself. More choice. More competition.

Better oblique than obtuse!

I guess more competition is better. Maybe I'm a bit touchy about foreign competition for other reasons...

I gotta repeat though, the quality thing is quite hard to measure in the short term, which is the timeframe that price-competition tends to get settled in; hence more competition leading to lower prices and lower quality yet with the latter going unnoticed until the more expensive parties are already out of business practically.
Double edged for sure.

I'm more upset about the lack of design ethos in most fugly Chinese Clone mechanical keyboards.

NOT the Apple Alipuminum wireless though. THAT, my friends, is good design.
http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?2449 ... m-Wireless

ripster wrote:I'm more upset about the lack of design ethos in most fugly Chinese Clone mechanical keyboards.
NOT the Apple Alipuminum wireless though. THAT, my friends, is good design.
http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?2449 ... m-Wireless

Yes it looks halfway towards good, yes you can smack someone over the head with it, yes you can stick it in your bag. But no, I would not like to buy/own it. Perhaps as a bookstand when it's $20/E15,- here.

I'm just glad this thread got Matias to register at Deskthority.


Next he needs to join Reddit/keyboards.

http://www.reddit.com/r/keyboards/comme ... alps_type/

http://www.reddit.com/r/keyboards/comme ... _computex/

ripster wrote:NOT the Apple Alipuminum wireless though. THAT, my friends, is good design.

It could be better:
* The edges are sharp. You cut your hands on them when you try to move it.
* See how the \ key is only one unit wide on US-ANSI keyboards. Well.. on ISO keyboards, that is the widest part of the Enter key.
* The location of the Command and Option keys are slightly off compared to the full-sized keyboard. This quickly gets annoying if you switch keyboards and use these keys often. (such as when programming in C with a European keyboard layout).
* Windows and terminal users may miss the right Control key.

But yes, the scissor switches are pretty good. Logitech makes some that are better, though.

ripster wrote:Bwahahaah...Shiftlock Holmes powers of deduction fails him..

Hi Matias,

Welcome to Deskthority! We LIKE ALPs here.

Thanks. Nice to be around people who also like ALPS.

Too much Cherry in the world...

TexasFlood wrote:

off wrote:The thing mentioned was $20 mechanicals, which honestly, does sound tempting as gift/test/donor... Shame they are either crap or not available over here at those prices (unless second hand ).
No hanging.

I stand corrected, guess I read into it what I was thinking rather than what it said...

ripster wrote:

TexasFlood wrote:I'm a bit surprised at ripster's oblique defense of $20 rubber domes flooding the market but everyone is entitled to their opinion I guess.

I like the recent flood of cheap Chinese clone mechanical keyboards myself. More choice. More competition.

Better oblique than obtuse!

I guess more competition is better. Maybe I'm a bit touchy about foreign competition for other reasons...

You want the right amount of competition, and no more than that. Too little competition drives prices up. Too much competition drives quality down. Have you flown on a US airline recently? You'll know what I mean.

off wrote:

ripster wrote:I'm more upset about the lack of design ethos in most fugly Chinese Clone mechanical keyboards.
NOT the Apple Alipuminum wireless though. THAT, my friends, is good design.
http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?2449 ... m-Wireless

Yes it looks halfway towards good, yes you can smack someone over the head with it, yes you can stick it in your bag. But no, I would not like to buy/own it. Perhaps as a bookstand when it's $20/E15,- here.

I know the vendor that makes that Apple Keyboard clone. It's the only product they make that isn't fugly -- and only because they basically just copied Apple.

Every other keyboard they make has something wrong with it.

ripster wrote:I'm just glad this thread got Matias to register at Deskthority.


Next he needs to join Reddit/keyboards.

http://www.reddit.com/r/keyboards/comme ... alps_type/

http://www.reddit.com/r/keyboards/comme ... _computex/

Okay, I just joined. Thanks for the heads-up.

Matias wrote:You want the right amount of competition, and no more than that. Too little competition drives prices up. Too much competition drives quality down. Have you flown on a US airline recently? You'll know what I mean.

Well said. I used to work for a major GDS and saw the I/T cost cutting taking place and the impact of that.

Matias wrote:I know the vendor that makes that Apple Keyboard clone.

I was referring to the 'original' Apple one though; not at all sure what copy you are talking about..

off wrote:

Matias wrote:I know the vendor that makes that Apple Keyboard clone.

I was referring to the 'original' Apple one though; not at all sure what copy you are talking about..

Sorry, was referring to the "DealExtreme HHKB Killah" mentioned in the review and pictured here (in black)...

http://is.gd/ZFRrEP

Matias wrote:Sorry, was referring to the "DealExtreme HHKB Killah" mentioned in the review and pictured here (in black)... http://is.gd/ZFRrEP

That link forwards to http://geekhack.org/attachment.php?atta ... 1323448529 which for someone that is not logged in there, is not available.
This I guess is the one you're referring to:
and ofcourse ripster's dealextreme hhkb killer review wiki/thread.