The Tippy Type makes typing with long nails less tedious | Hacker News Reader

The Tippy Type makes typing with long nails less tedious

theverge.com

58 pointssurprisetalk59 comments

It is always fascinates me how far people could go in a pursuit of their definition of a beauty. I'm not surprised at all when someone builds a keyboard from scratch because they do not like the arrangement of the keys: whether they are right or wrong, they see the problem and they try out a solution to it. But when people just create problems for themselves out of a thin air and insist on keeping these problems as pets, I just cannot fathom what goes in their heads.

People are wonderful beings with an infinite individual variety, one cannot claim to truly understand it.

> I just cannot fathom what goes in their heads.

Broadly, yes. But in this case, she explained the decision tree pretty clearly.

Look as a guy, who could care less about societal standards of beauty (mine or anyone elses) I feel under qualified to comment on the beauty choices of others.

But I can say I felt the decision tree explanation in the article was unconvincing. Reviewers need long nails because photos? Because to some demographic long nails "look better". (Personally I think long nails look bad, but that's maybe just me.)

I felt like the author like long nails. They're clearly invested in long nails. That should be enough to like or dislike the product. They should have to justify their desire for long nails. (Justifing it suggests they know it has disadvantages.)

I concur that conforming to beauty standards in a world that both presents them as standards, then designs away from those standards consumes more energy than I have to expend.

I read the author's statement that they were "not out here wearing long nails for fun" to mean that they were not the one liking or invested in long nails. I may be reading too deeply between the lines, but I believe that reading the critical comments left by the "Internet Nail Police" may be more energy-consuming than the alternative of conforming to beauty standards. I felt a tone of sarcasm from the offense taken at "god forbid, there’s a smudge of dirt under [their] natural nail," which I took to mean that these comments are nitpicky and extremely likely to occur. Though it may be easy to brush off some amount of social scorn, being a public figure on the Internet comes with a volume of it that I've heard many influencers and content creators describe as difficult to cope with no matter how strong I assumed them to be.

Yeah, I don't love it either and I can think of workarounds (short fake nails?), but it's silly to say you (the previous poster, rather) "cannot fathom what goes on in their head" when they've spelled it out.

I'm not sure what you mean by people creating problems for themselves out of a thin air. The article explains the constraints (speed, accuracy, comfort, avoiding online criticism, attractiveness, etc) that the author lives with. Did you intend to point at a more general situation that you've encountered?

I too cannot fathom what goes on in many people's heads and do not claim to truly understand them, but so far it's not been because they've created problems for themselves out of thin air and insisted on keeping these problems as pets.

> The article explains the constraints (speed, accuracy, comfort, avoiding online criticism, attractiveness, etc) that the author lives with. Did you intend to point at a more general situation that you've encountered?

Yes, I refer to a more general situation. It seems to me, that the author of the article explains her choice as a way to try products and to write reviews that would be useful for people with long manicured nails. I can accept this explanation and to understand that. But it means that there are other people who choose long nails for other reasons, aren't they?

How dare people prioritize their style and aesthetic over the utility their body provides.

Let people have long nails if they want.

This seems like a fine niche product if it works and is comfortable.

I didn't say that it is bad. I said I can't understand it. I also cant understand quantum mechanics, it doesn't mean that QM is bad.

> But when people just create problems for themselves out of a thin air and insist on keeping these problems as pets

People aren’t creating these problems for themselves, society is. Think of it this way, you might have decided that you want to focus your carriers on Rust, but your workplace has put you on a task that requires C++, and you can whine and complain all you want, but that’s the requirement. Then you dig in, get the job done post a smart solution you made to make work on HN, and the first post is a Rust programmer calling you out for choosing C++ and making life difficult for yourself.

And sure, you could just quit your job, but that’s a high consequence move. So to act like you chose this all on your own in a vacuum is just insulting.

I used to teach typing to young latinas from the Bronx. I would have bought 20 of these.

Were the young latinas from the Bronx typing on MacBooks? ))

I can't help but think edward scissor switch keyboard hands.

Low-profile keyboards are pretty ubiquitous on all laptops these days, and even many desktop keyboards as well.

The fine article mentions that the product is Mac only for now. Though they do have plans for other laptops soon.

Ah, missed that detail, thanks.

I have watched a couple people type with long nails and been somewhat amazed at their proficiency. This looks like a good idea. Has any one out there tried one?

I assume that they were angling their fingers in a way to still press with the pads of their fingers? At first I imagined using the tips of their nails, but it seems like it would be difficult to learn using the tips since the length and angle of the nails would frequently change.

The Verge: "We and our 847 partners store and access personal data..."

Is that a new record? Anyone know a site that's in 4 digits yet?

It's one partner for every 1/10 mm of nail.

It sounds familiar; I'm guessing there's a standard set of 847 partners.

If you look into the cookie settings, they claim that 517 partners need access to the "strictly necessary cookies". I suspect that their idea of "strictly necessary cookies" might not actually hold up in court.

Back when I played classical guitar this product would have been a life saver. You must not type fast with long nails or they will break. Then you can't play well until they grow back (may take a week or more). Even if they don't break you'll probably ruin their curvature. The correct way to type is to hit the keys at an almost 90 degree angle and that is very, very bad for long nails. Fake nails are sturdier, but I play better with natural nails.

I just angrily chew my nails off and get back to what I was doing.

> Typing is one of the most annoying things about having long nails.

I frequently have long nails because I don't like clipping them. I once had a girl complain to me that she couldn't get her nails to grow as long, if she tried, as I grew mine through neglect.

Typing barely registers. The only difference is that you get more clicking sounds than otherwise. The most annoying thing, by far, is that you need to approach a phone touchscreen with the side of your finger instead of the tip. The second most annoying thing is that sometimes something goes wrong and a part of the environment will encounter and tear or break your nail.

Typing with long nails is like walking whilst wearing pumps. Practice makes perfect.

What do you mean by "pumps". Where I'm from in the UK it means very basic trainers (USA: sneakers), like plimsolls. Something like a Converse Allstar, say.

I've got to assume from the context you mean 'high-heeled shoes'?

Must be a regional or class dialect thing? You've never heard the Amy Winehouse song? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVaqQe3V498

Where I live indeed naaldhakken are called pumps as well. I hence, maybe uncorrectly, assumed it is an English word... Flemish/Dutch is so full of English words.

We use words like sneakers, shorts, wonderbra, jeans, hoodie,... often there is no Dutch alternative even.

The original asr33 was somewhat like this. I think the key profiles of an IBM selectric or the equivalent Olivetti would have been tolerably forgiving of frenched nails.

(I break mine off short but I've destroyed the keycaps of the home keys and space bar on every keyboard i own. Rowing is better in short nails you need to be hands together enough in the return to catch you cut your hand on a long thumbnail)

This gave me an idea: what about changing keyboard layouts? Have a silicon cover for the Swiss-German keyboard layout. Of course the form of the keys needs to be different because I don't have long nails. And I am not sure about the tactile feel.

Do women actually like long nails? I already cut mine when they're even less than a millimetre :) it annoys me so much. And I often cut my own skin by mistake when they're too long.

If I were a girl I wouldn't wear them I'm sure.

This is my new favorite quintessential HN comment.

The article covers this.

I'm female and do the same thing you do.

I'm sure this product works just as well for anyone who does like having long nails, whatever their reasons and regardless of sex, but it sounds like you and I simply aren't the target customer.

True it isn't necessarily about gender (of course not every woman wears them) though I haven't seen anyone who identifies as male wear them (though I suspect it might happen in the Gothic community). Hence the way I stated the question. Sorry I didn't mean to offend.

I asked my female identifying friends and most of them said that they don't like to wear them but they think they look good so they do it anyway :) And one said she loves them because she can sharpen them so she can scratch people (she's a dominatrix :). So yeah, reasons can vary.

I guess that you could ask a woman, maybe one with long nails.

This has nothing to do with fashion or 2cm long nails, but I'm a man and I sometimes like having my thumbnail around 2mm. It's like having a butter knife on the end of your thumb. You can strip wire, break through thinner plastic packaging, remove splinters without tweezers, and more.

In the 80s one long nail was a sign of someone who often would need a small spoon at hand.

It's common for lower-class Chinese men to have one long nail. I tend to assume the reason isn't drugs, but I don't know what it is.

I was annoyed once when I stumbled upon an advice column named "Ask a Chinese Girl", and someone had written in asking what that one long nail was about, and the official answer was "What? That sounds dirty, it's definitely not something Chinese people would do."

You can easily observe that they do do it by walking around outside. So weak support, I guess, for the drugs theory, but I still tend to suspect it's a cultural thing.

Anyone know?

I had thought it was a historically recurring status symbol, showing that the owner of the hands wasn't required to use them for manual labor.

Surely it's to show the user does not lift a single finger for themselves. Not just labour, but all useful action is shown to be eschewed by someone with lengthy pieces of plastic glued to each fingernail.

These are people who definitely are required to do manual labor.

My girlfriend has long, vampy, very pointy, totally annoying nails by her own admission, and loves them.

People have different priorities. From the article:

> If it’s so inconvenient, why not just have short nails? Well, I’m not out here wearing long nails for fun. Being a reviewer often means acting as a part-time hand model for whatever gadget I’m testing. The Internet Nail Police has repeatedly shown up in my comments over the years if my polish is chipped or, god forbid, there’s a smudge of dirt under my natural nail.

"For example, the arrow keys are small and awkward, and there’s no cover for the function keys aside from the Esc key."

Sounds like it was made for MBP with a second gen Touch Bar after they brought back the Esc key

But the whole idea of long nails is to make you visibly unable to do manual labour .same as stilettos or long hair beeing a handicap in battle. why work around a signal that you will refuse work ?

For those caught in between :

https://www.tiktok.com/@glamnetic/video/6946266618020318469?...

Would just going back to a standard mechanical keyboard get you most of the same benefits?

Probably, especially with the taller spherical-dished SA keycaps.

Maybe use snap-on/snap-off nails instead? (I checked, they exist).

"please remove weave to use faceid"

Snap-on sells a good hammer, but I've never seen their nails.

deleted

Careful, that's awfully close to a misogynistic stereotype. You wouldn't happen to be wearing a red hat would you?

Could you explain please. I'm really trying to be better.

It does definitely read a bit strange, but you seem genuine which makes up for that.

Your original comment sounded a lot like 1950/60s thinking of an all female secretarial pool like in Mad Men where a secretary was the glass ceiling for women. It also sounded like a line spoken by one of the men in Mad Men. It's also the specific ideal for a particular political movement known for wearing their red hats that think this is what would make the country great again.

Hey dude. Good on you for trying. Sexism is often extremely deeply rooted. So much so that sexist people don’t even recognize without someone else pointing it out. It takes YEARs of self reflection and even then, you’re still going to catch that worse part of oneself breaking through.

Some people vastly over compensate and that’s really no fun either.

Careful with your stereotypes.

I'm not wearing a Red Hat, but I am running one.

Which reminds me of a prank I pulled a few years ago. I was working at a startup that had been acquired by a BigCo. (Alas, I joined after the acquisition.)

One of the founders decided to put his newfound wealth to a good purpose: fighting white supremacy. This was during the pandemic, so we had a going-away party on Zoom and shared little video tributes to him.

When it was my turn, I told him, "I want you to know exactly how I feel about your new project. I didn't have time to order an embroidered hat, so I mocked it up with my printer and an old baseball cap. It's a MAKA hat."

I deliberately slurred the pronunciation so it almost sounded like that other acronym.

I held up the hat with my finger covering the spot where "Great" would be, and put it on my head. And then I moved my hand away for the reveal.

The word was "Kind": Make America Kind Again.

Everyone loved it!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shridhar_Chillal

Long nails have more serious problems.

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