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Comment by SonderDesign | Hacker News Reader

Hi HN,

I'm one of the engineers working on the project, if you have any questions please ask.

It says on the site that all your configurations are saved automatically to the cloud. How exactly do you go about achieving this? Is there any way to disable this functionality?

Best analogy is like dropbox, I have files stored on my terminal, but if I want I can back it up online and download new files to my machine. It's just an option that creative design professionals constantly request so it had to be included in the scope.

So it requires us to install an extra piece of software on the device that isn't just a driver to be able to use the keyboard? Sounds cumbersome, especially since you make it sound like it's not optional. Can it be disabled?

Any plans on releasing a version that is not tied to the apple ecosystem? ("super/windows" vs "option", "command" vs "alt") Why are those not configurable, as well?

Are "fn" and "control" swappable?

The peripheral keys which were static in the old design was because we had to use an existing display. Making a custom E Ink display needs to be in at least 300k minimum order quantity and a $500k NRE so we had to wait until we had a mass production order; the current design has a new display which means all the keys are remappable.

It wasn't lazy design, just a compromise we had to make until we had the capital.

What's the timeline like until I can buy(not pre-order) this?

Edit: would also be wanting the ability to completely disable any 'cloud' functions. That's a real no-go for me.

Q1 2017, depending on where you area. Also the cloud function is totally optional. The mappings are stored on the flash, if you want to update or back them up you can, but it's optional. Some users really really want it so we had to include it.

Neat, thanks.

Hi,

What kind of key mechanism do you use? It looks more like a apple keyboard than other keyboards, will it have the same very short travel?

It's a patented mechanism, the profile is more similar to the older macbooks but audibly sounds a little like a mech; like a topre, not like cherry blues.

Probably a long, long shot, but do you have any plans to create ISO layout boards in the future?

Since most ISO boards only differ in keycap and not layout, it would theoretically be possible to create a massive number of configurations with just one layout, which would be amazing!

We wanted to create one standard that could be used for all different layouts. Due to accents used in many Asian and European layouts, and only a few Western European nations adopting ISO (UK et al) we went for a single row enter.

We did testing with users and it's a compromise but our intention is redefine the standard, having 2 dominant standards doesn't make sense, likewise with non ergonomic design and staggered keys.

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