The keyboard.io Model 01 vs the Kinesis Advantage

Several years ago I took the plunge and bought a Kinesis Advantage (after even more years of lusting) and it’s still my favourite keyboard (so far) and the one that I have used exclusively in work ever since (every new work colleague at some point says “how do you type on THAT…?” in a tone of voice somewhere between suspicion and awe). Even so, I have found over time that it does have its issues. The tiny escape key is probably the most annoying, as well as the general rubbery crapness of the entire function key row. I find it very easy to accidentally trigger the embedded keypad, which is not as immediately noticeable as you might think. The number keys are also surprisingly difficult to type on without changing hand position.

I also found that I needed to do a LOT of remapping to get keys in a fully ergonomic position (the shift keys are by default under the pinkies rather than the thumbs, for example). And if I remove it from power for too long it forgets and I need to do the whole dance again (I have the steps stuck to the underneath in case I forget). It would be nice if this was scriptable, or unnecessary.

I did once disassemble an IBM model M with the intent of hotwiring it into a more sensible arrangement, but was put off by the difficulty of performing surgery on the underlying membrane circuitry. I think the bits are still in a box under the sofa on my mum’s landing…

The keyboard.io Model 01 is almost exactly the keyboard I envisioned at the time but didn’t have the patience to see through. It’s good to see someone finally build what I was dreaming of all those years ago (and after seeing how much work went into it, I’m sort of relieved it wasn’t me!). They are currently making tons of money on kickstarter, so it looks like full steam ahead. They plan to have the first shipments next year, and I plan to have one in my home office soon thereafter (the Microsoft Natural currently in there just can’t compete with the Kinesis).

In other cool keyboard news, it looks like waytools.com are nearly ready to start shipping their dinky TextBlade Bluetooth keyboard. I may have one of those on preorder too…

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