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Comment by shawabawa3 | Hacker News Reader

The sentence explaining what it does has a typo which makes it confusing:

> Unclack is the small but mighty Mac utility that mutes your keyboard while you type.

This should say "mutes your _microphone_ while you type". You can't mute a keyboard

Same. I know Apple does software/tactile interactions (firm press, click sound on trackpads for instance) so I assumed this had to do with that, and that new Apple keyboards created an artificial click. "Mutes your call while typing" or something similar would have been more clear. I assumed this app wouldn't apply to me, but it does.

Darn. I thought it might do something clever like play interfering sounds to cancel it out, like noise canceling headphones.

Thank you, this makes more sense. Initially I thought that macOS was making some sort of unturnoffable keyboard clack sounds through the speakers. This is far more reasonable than my first impression of the article title.

I actually quite like the phrase ‘mute your keyboard’ for this purpose.

If it said ‘mutes your microphone when you type’ the use case isn’t immediately clear unless you add ‘so people can’t hear your keyboard’. Adding the rest makes it clear but less concise.

Each to their own, but I think this is fine for marketing copy. It’s clear what it means, and redbull doesn’t actually give you wings.

I disagree - it's not clear. I thought it was going to be some fancy machine learning to silence keyboard sounds while keeping the mic active for voice.

in addition to what everyone else said about muting a microphone being a totally legit thing in English, you _can_ mute a keyboard. For example, adding soft foam to soften the hit when it bottoms out would mute your keyboard somewhat. Obviously this app doesn't "mute the keyboard" but since we're being pedantic, it's not accurate to say it can't be done.

keep in mind mute does not only mean "to silence" (verb form). It's also "deaden, muffle, or soften the sound of."

So, practically speaking, there are very few physical objects that produce sound that can't be muted.

You definitely can't mute any random keyboard with software, though (before someone comes out with some kind of switch with a electrically controlled clickbar or something)

Thanks so much for your feedback! I actually just pushed an update to the homepage to make that tweak - you're right that it was a bit misleading.

Ok, I've made that edit in the title above. Belatedly but oh well. Thanks!

Colloquially we say "mute yourself" or "mute this or that person," so it functions in that context.

In that case, “mutes yourself” would be more appropriate.

Not colloquially. That's correct. Muting a mic is the colloquial expression. Think about what the word means: silence a thing. The mic does not make a sound.

But you're not muting the keyboard, you're muting everything.

You can't mute a microphone. Mute is when something can't make a sound. You put a mic on mute.

So no, the text is correct. But obviously it's wrong. It doesn't ONLY mute the keyboard, it mutes everything for the person typing. The keyboard, the person, the squeaking chair.

You can absolutely mute a microphone, since you can say "I muted my microphone" and any English speaker will understand exactly what you mean.

edit: in fact I would go so far as to say that the majority of English speakers, at least here in America, would prefer saying "mute the mic" instead "put the mic on mute" (I've never heard anyone say the latter in actual conversation, to be honest).

Just want to confirm I understood this sentence. Don't speak a lick of English though.

As a native english speaker, I was confused about how it was possible to mute a keyboard. I did not immediately make the leap to "it mutes your mic when it detects typing on the keyboard"

But what boxed is saying is that that leap is incorrect and shouldn’t happen and that “it mutes the mic” is incorrect.

Yeah, but he's wrong.

"Mute your microphone" is quite standard.

Most UIs show a microphone, that you can click on to disable. A circle with a slash through it will appear on top of the picture of the microphone. This is referred to as "muting."

This should be enough to see why it is called "muting your microphone." While you could say "disable your microphone," this can lead to confusion, such as thinking that you are talking about more permanently disabling it, such as you do in your computer settings.

The most important thing about language is that it is understood. "Mute your microphone" is going to be understood.

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