Thanks for the continued support. I appreciate all those who continue to read these.
Two things came out of nowhere this past week which were things I thought I’d never see.
HHKB Professional BT
The first one. I’m sure this hasn’t flown under the radar at all, but if you didn’t know, there is finally an official bluetooth HHKB. Ripster’s yearly keyboard predictions have always included the hope for a HHKB 3 and I’m not sure if this counts but, it is close.
Nearly everything seems good with this latest HHKB iteration. The only complaint I can think of is the bluetooth addition has ruined the aesthetic of the keyboard. I have always thought of the HHKB as meticulously designed and a very aesthetically pleasing product. As you can see from the images, the bluetooth addition culminates in a protruding monstrosity to put the batteries.
Important Information:
3 Months Battery Life with battery saving on. 1 to 1.5 with battery saving off (allegedly, but probably not a lie)
2 AA Batteries
Cross platform support (Mac & Windows but I would imagine you could get it to work on anything linux)
Any colour if it’s black
Available to Pre-order releasing 22nd of April
¥29,700 - £192 - $274
Differences from The Pro 2:
Uses a Micro USB on the keyboard for when bluetooth is not in use
Additional rubber bumpers beside the feet
Logo says “HHKB Professional BT”
Buying one is going to require living in Japan or a proxy.
The other option is hasu’s bt controller. The advantage with this controller is that it is not going to portrude from your HHKB. However, you will get significantly less battery life.
The second thing I thought I’d never see. The Textblade has been a keyboard in production for a long time. The short brief is that it is a small keyboard designed to be portable but retain some nice typing feeling. It has been notorious for not being shipped to those who pre-ordered it but at least some people are getting theirs. I am not entirely sure if this is a wide release or they are just being released to testers.
Typing Video:
I wouldn’t quite buy one of these just yet as I really want to know a bit more about how it is to type on.
The Macropad is a small keypad (macropad) designed by RAMA, who you may recognise as the person behind these aluminium keycaps.
It’s small size means it isn’t for everyone but with the ability to program it to anything you want, you can use it for whatever you desire. It’s not out yet but I am keeping an eye on this. So I will definitely post about it on release.
This is a working example of a Topre and MX stem hybrid. Many attempts to do this have been in the works for a long time, but this is a very good example of it working.
It’s possible that this Deal with It Jack could be the possible massdrop collaboration.
It was only a matter of time, the planck is back on massdrop. After a very successful first run, it is back with the newest iteration of the pcb. Most notably in the latest iteration is the speaker.
It is also worth mentioning that another ortholinear keyboard is also on massdrop. The preonic is similar to the planck except it has an additional row in top. This makes it closer to a 60% and might be more suitable for those who don’t like the planck’s size.
This is not the greatest announcement as the actual keyboard is still not available to buy. However, it is said to be finished, so that would indicate that it is coming soon.
If you couldn’t tell from the picture, the TK78 is a 60% with the addition of a numpad. From all the photos it looks to be a solid product and the aluminium case is similar to the POK3R.
Dodgy has been around for a while I only wish they were a little more active. They have quite a unique two piece construction and an excellent stamp on the back.
There was a new design in January which I was quite a fan of but no sales to speak of. I’m sure there will be more in the future but it is a shame some makers are so rare in their appearances.
It has most definitely been confirmed that clack is or has least been back for the past month. This month has brought us clackvent. Where each day has brought a lucky person a keycap, I am not one of those but there is still hope for the future.
How clackvent works is you follow the thread like a hawk and await the daily instructions on how you can attain a keycap. This is often a simple task but the volume of people doing it means it is infinitely harder to getting the single cap.
Retro
Sad news for now but Retro is currently on hold. Nothing seems too bad, but I hope this is not the end of retrocaps.
“I can assure you that this is not an April fools joke :thumb:”
Well today is the day and hopefully something happens. The reason for all the excitement and hope that something will happen is the amount of teasing that has mostly taken place on instagram.
I’m fairly certain these keycaps are from WiddleKitty. WiddleKitty popped up not so long back with some impressive first tries. They also made their own aluminium master
Pictured above is a keycap with coffee grounds in the top which gives it an incredible visual texture.
The other eye-catching cap I saw a long time ago was the Ransom Note keycap:
I would be very interested in getting one of these coffee keycaps. I have tried a similar theme myself but mine turned out more like milky latte’s.
Zorb has had a lot of sales since I last mentioned them. Pictured above is the Carbon MetalJaw which was featured in the Carbon Mine Sales.
But luckily there is one running right now but this is also a sad sale. As zorb has retired from designing their own keycaps, all future designs will be outsourced to their 9 year old sister. This seems like a solid decision and I can see why this has happened.
Running as of the 1st of April:
It’s only $15 for a design by one of the hottest designers currently out there.
WoB has launched a new site featuring the many designs that were teased on instagram. These are very creative but not entirely to my taste.
One thing I am quite interested in is the rifle keycap puller which was teased a long time ago at the beginning of WoB.
flehrad has finally ascended and bought one of the better keyboards on the market. And with this ascension they quickly began work on making some mod sets. Mod sets are not at all easy and get even trickier when you introduce more colours. I am interested to see where this goes.
Jelly Key has been the talk of the town for what seems like forever. But they are still not widely available. They do look awesome and there isn’t much else to say.
They will probably be sold through the facebook store which has been in testing.
These are on the top side of my favourites from the past few months. Bold colours and simple designs done with apparent competence. Ericaps had a debut sale on the 16th of march featuring 3 designs.
This month KatzenKinder has been prototyping MX + Fn set. A couple of sets were sold on mechmarket. But I expect more will be coming when they are no longer in the prototyping stage.
There has been some movement on the keycap making aid the $ynth. On the left you have the pre-production model and on the right you have the production. It’s not quite ready as it was almost released a couple of weeks ago.
Very popular and very awesome. I was taken by these caps the moment I saw them. Eat_the_Food or Nightcaps was the hype before jelly key. It started out with the half shell pictured above.
I wanted to share this image because it looks like a matte painting from STAR WARS.
Fugu Set
There are too many good caps to show off so have a look at the whole albums.
As always it is a little hard to keep up with all that KeyKollectiv has done as they get up to a lot. But one thing that happened was the booper and KeyKollectiv collaboration.
The French Cuff sale happened featuring new designs.
I also highly recommend reading Bambino’s thread as there is lots of good information if you want to make some keycaps. You will also get to see a lot of upcoming keycaps.
Just a little bit of sculpting from a new person. I really like the look of the pig and even with the uneven surface it looks like something from a clay animation.
I was skeptical of these keycaps when I first saw the renders but they have come out very nice. With the renders as smooth and detailed as they were I just didn’t think they would translate to the 3d printing.
They are available to purchase from shapeways.
Thanks to everyone who liked my fb page from this week and the last. My new social buttons are doing as exactly as they intended. If you follow me on any of the following, I would most appreciate it.