CVT Avant Prime arrives.

First impression is that it feels exactly like the Tactile Pro. The N-key rollover works pretty well, but it seems to not work if you press down more than 8 keys at once. The key remap-ability is quite useful. I’ve already remapped the control key to be in the right place, and I will soon […]

ExtremeTech reviews Das Keyboard II

Link. Mostly a standard review. They tested themselves to see if and how much their typing rate would improve, and they got roughtly a 10% increase over a week or so. Couple mistakes from their article: IBM Model M keyboards and Das Keyboard II have very different switches. The former has buckling springs with a […]

Keytronic

Found a co-worker with a Keytronic keyboard today, and surprisingly, it feels quite nice. I pulled off the key cap to see what kind of switch it was, and saw that it was a membrane switch.. hmm.. time to dig a little deeper.. Then, on their website, I found these tidbits: Ergo Technology has 5 […]

Ordered the Avant Prime

150 + 15 shipping. Also, turns out not all ps/2 to USB adapters are created the same. I tried to hook my IBM keyboard up through the one that I had lying around, and it didn’t work at all. Well, the pc recognized it or a sec, but then it went away. Then it kept […]

Dilemma

I’ve narrowed it down to either the MS Ergo 4000 or the Avant Prime as my next candidate. But it’s hard to choose between the two. On the one hand, I’m pretty happy with the MS Natural Elite that I have now, so MS Ergo 4000 seems like a safe bet. It’s also a lot […]

Back on the icekey

As most of the other people who write about it say, the Apple keyboards are really just too mushy. It’s really much easier to do work on the iceKey than it is on the Apple. It seems there really is just a scarcity of good Mac keyboards. The only ones out there that are reviewed […]

A few more notes.

This review (Japanese) contains four opinions on the new Happy Hacking Keyboard Pro 2, which is a USB 2.0 model. In general, people seem to like the feel, but there was consistent concern over the fact that larger keys such as control and shift did not go down as smoothly when not pressed exactly in […]

Keyboard Page Update

Updated the keyboards section with conclusions about the Tactile Pro. Started a links section. It’s amazing to me how much more organized the Japanese keyboard enthusiasts community seems. As far as I can tell, there is one guy who started a small store in Akihabara (Tokyo’s electric town area) just to serve this community. There […]

Next Up: SMK-88 Mac Mini USB keyboard

With the cash freed up by the return of the Tactile Pro, it’s time to move on to the next candidate. This one wasn’t actually on my list until very recently. It’s the SMK-88 sold by DSI for $60 USD. It uses the black-stemmed Cherry ‘linear’ feel switches. I’m a little nervous because the Qwerter’s […]

Back it goes.

Got a reply from Matias. Turns out their manufacturer has exhausted their supply of ALPS switches, so they can’t make any more new ones. So no more new versions left. I guess that’s also why the price has gone up to $150 on their website. They should look into using Cherry switches instead. There are […]