Hacker News Reader

Comment by nihilazo | Hacker News Reader

the website doesn't even work for me but I looked up some images, and even if this thing actually exists and isn't vaporware, it looks like a truly bad keyboard. All the things that actually matter in a keyboard (key feel, travel, ergonomics) are all things this design gets dead wrong. It seems mostly modelled after the apple mac keyboard (which has awful key feel and even worse ergonomics) and to be incredibly short-travel. The design also seems to have no respect at all for any ergonomics improvements made to keyboards in the past 20 years.

Also, anybody buying a high-end keyboard will probably be able to touch type anyway, so what is the point of this product even? When you're using a computer, you're looking at your display, not your keyboard.

View on HN

It's really unfortunate to see how tightly product designers hold on to the traditional staggered-typewriter layout.

People tend to believe that more esoteric designs won't sell, but the $300+ model01 I'm typing this comment with begs to differ. It seems to me like they are targeting the wrong market.

My ergodox, lily58, atreus, and soon sofle also beg to differ.

Sofle looks nice. I really like the idea of having dials on-board.

The only thing I would miss is the thumb-cluster design of the Model01. Having thumb keys a little farther to the side, and having a thumb-knuckle key is really comfortable.

The extra portability of the lily58/sofle design would be nice, though.

It's meant for Mac users, not "Keyboard Nerds". I can't imagine there's a market. Mac users want to use a proper Apple product. They'd still use the hockey-puck mouse if Apple still bundled them with the iMac.

Yeah, I felt saddened to see the command, ctrl, alt keys were not programmable.

I get people wanting to design only for the apple devices, but frankly I find lately that I enjoy less branding on my devices/clothing/etc in general, and that includes the windows keys on my laptops.

I'm one of the founders. The site crashed due to the traffic, we sold the technology, IP and some of the key talent joined Foxconn late last year; and scaled back our servers during the transition.

I'm a keyboard enthusiast, it started with an IMB model M and that's how the original prototypes started. The feedback regarding adopting Apple design and ergonomics was a reflection that our main strategic partner, investor, and eventually owner was Foxconn, and the customers we engaged with were B2B and set the spec.

For our Macbook projects, it was specifically a Butterfly switch spec we have to match in performance and design. I'd have loved to create a product aligned to what you're referring to, but strategically we have to achieve a MOQ of displays to be economically feasible, and our cooperation with Apple was easier to secure the 300k of displays required than trying to tackle the B2C premium keyboard consumer market.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com