Blank Keyboard

Raynach writes "A friend of mine recently sent me a link for Das Keyboard, the keyboard for UberGeeks. This keyboard is unique in that it has no inscriptions on the keys, which the maker touts will make you type 100% faster in a few weeks since it will keep you from looking at the keyboard. This keyboard also features individually weighted keyswitches, "The keys are divided into groups and their feedback springs are weighted differently; from 35 grams to 80 grams, which correspond to the strength of the finger that touches the keys." But is this "UberGeek" keyboard really worth the high price tag?"

Comments

Keytronic Ergoforce

[Zarhan]

I thought that the differing force between various keys has been standard in all keyboards for a very long time. Keytronic has called it Ergoforce.

Re:Keytronic Ergoforce

[Alowishus]

I'm a big fan and longtime user of Keytronic's keyboards, and I'd say it's more likely that Das Keyboard is simply reselling the Keytronic with new keycaps (and a 4x markup). Perhaps Keytronic is even doing the manufacturing for them.

Das Keyboard looks EXACTLY like Keytronic's standard black USB model.

I'd also venture to say that this "article" submission was done by someone who would benefit from more sales of Das Keyboard. :)

A disaster for Europeans!

[christophe]

Friends of mine live in France at borders, work in Germany or Switzerland, occasionnaly fly to the US or China. These people are used to mentally swith keyboard mappings. (*)
Imagine blank keyboard everywhere: impossible to know wich language it uses!!

[(*) As many people of my generation used to games which thought American keyboards were the only ones: in France convert A to Q, W to Z, comma and M, and do not use Shift for numbers...]

On the other side, these keyboards would be the first real international keyboards: just configure the OS, and you don't have to learn a new keyboard mapping each time you visit a new country.
(Yes, we can already do that, but it seems humans need a reason to be lazy and force the computer to adapt to them instead of adapting to it).

Keytronic E03600 Black

[mr.bri]

This keyboard is simply a Keytronic E03600 Black USB with the caps replaced. They didn't even change their wording for most of the description.

See the link for the Keytronic E03600, notice the pictures, key placement/arrangement, are exactly the same.

They didn't even bother to update the layout image for the different key weights (they simply resized it and put a note that "...the letters are visible on this diagram for information purposes only." See Keytronic's version and Das Keyboard's Version. Though for some reason, Das Keyboard's image is better.

And you can buy Keytronic's for $21.50 directly from the manufacturer, or even less elsewhere. It's currently out of stock from Keytronic; maybe these people bought them all thinking they had a gold mine at 400% profit! :-b

Marketing! Marketing! Marketing!

Re:a tip

[lav-chan]

I don't really do any coding, but i have remapped a lot of my keys. Like i put ( and ) where [ and ] are (and vice versa). Easier to reach them that way. And i switched / and ' around, so the / is on the home row. And i switched ~ and ` (since i use ~ all the time and i never use `).

If you use Windows, Microsoft has a fancy little program that lets you create keyboard lay-outs. It's called, ingeniously enough, Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator. You can download it from their site. The benefit is that they're regular software keyboard lay-outs, so you don't have to worry about screwing with the Registry or anything that takes a bunch of work to undo. You just create a new lay-out and double-click the file it makes and select it in Regional Settings.