dabigkahuna: dabigkahuna: MultiTouch is the first hint. How many keyboards have thac?

Literally every one I’ve used. That’s how modifier keys work. You touch multiple keys at the same time. Unless TextBlade also acts as a MultiTouch trackpad with gestures, saying “multitouch” is meaningless marketing speak.

dabigkahuna: dabigkahuna: This doesn’t address the desktop usage, but again, how many mobile keyboards are so small and light?

What has this got to do with core functionality? The packaging is the primary reason I want a TextBlade. There are smaller keyboards available still, but not in the same packaging. This doesn’t make it “not just a keyboard.”

dabigkahuna: dabigkahuna: It isn’t described - and people might interpret it as marketing speak, bet “next-gen key switch technology” sure doesn’t sound ordinary. And, as it happens, that is real, not marketing speak.

It literally says “key switch” right there, which is descriptive of the underlying technology of a keyboard. You can remove the keycaps on a conventional keyboard and tap the switches directly if you so desired. Can TextBlade do that? Of course not. But this again does not make it “not just a keyboard.”

dabigkahuna: dabigkahuna: A keyboard with few computers? Even if I don’t know exactly how that all works, it clearly isn’t just another keyboard!

“Yay lets put computers in everything!” What’s your point here? My mice have ARM cores in them. My headset has an ARM core in it. My x86 CPU has an ARM core embedded init. ARM cores are in pretty much everything. To do certain things, a certain level of processing power is a necessity. How secure is this “network of 4 computers” exactly? What has this got to do with the product they embedded in being “not just a keyboard” exactly? Literally every modern keyboard has an ARM core in it.

dabigkahuna: dabigkahuna: How many mobile keyboards have desktop key-feel? Now, while they were still promoting it mainly for it’s mobility, this was a key statement that made me order it early.

Most of them. They’re pretty much all chiclets, so if you’ve got chiclet keyboard on your PC, it probably feels about the same. There’s no way the TextBlade “feels” like my HHKB Lite 2 though. It’s got fewer keys, smaller format, and requires me to learn a different layout to type on efficiently. It therefore must feel different. Still doesn’t make it “not just a keyboard” though.

dabigkahuna: dabigkahuna: Don’t see how anyone could read that and think there were describing “just” a keyboard.

I read that and think it’s just marketing speak, as it is. It’s a simplification of the underlying technology, to appeal to a wider audience. Doesn’t make it “not just a keyboard” either. It’s a keyboard made up of a different key switch technology, that requires a signal processor and math, to discern what key press/release events to send to the connected device.

dabigkahuna: dabigkahuna: Plenty of keyboards have special keys for such things, but the TB has fewer keys and does it.

Don’t care about Siri. I can assign whatever key combination I want to a traditional keyboard for media keys. Moving built-in events for such things to another layer again, does not make a keyboard “not just a keyboard.”

dabigkahuna: dabigkahuna: Sure sounds like a lot of new tech to me.

Nobody said it wasn’t. What’s that got to do with slipped deadlines and “not just a keyboard.” If I invent a new composite material, and the first product I create with it is a set of wheels for a car, it doesn’t make the wheels “not just wheels.” They are still just wheels. They might be lighter, and sturdier than traditional alloy/steel wheels, but that doesn’t make them not just wheels. The underlying technology might be something bigger, but the wheels are still wheels.

dabigkahuna: dabigkahuna: Like all those other “just keyboards”. NOT.

“We’re making a keyboard,” sure sounds like a keyboard to me. Topre keyboards use different switch mechanism than traditional mechanical or rubber dome switches. But that doesn’t make the keyboards more than keyboards.

dabigkahuna: dabigkahuna: How many keyboards do that? Usually you have to move to arrow keys, away from the home row.

Any keyboard where I program the firmware to behave that way, can do that. My keyboard has Fn+some keys, to move cursor, page up/dn, and home/end. I don’t need to leave the home row to use those.

dabigkahuna: dabigkahuna: I won’t include the screenshot, but it clearly shows a lot more is going on than people would normally expect.

Is it sending that key press to a remote site? Is that key press leaked over bluetooth so any spying antenna can pick it up? As long as it’s only done inside the keyboard itself and sent to the connected host, general populace doesn’t really care (and well, they probably don’t care about the privacy side either). As long as the key the press is what they get on the computer, they don’t care. Again, doesn’t make this “not just a keyboard.”

dabigkahuna: dabigkahuna: So not only new technology being used, but their own special designs for things that may exist in other forms. Which means a lot more work to get right.

Again, a diversion from the point. Razer designs and manufactures their own key switches too, based on the standard Cherry design. Custom parts design and manufacture doesn’t make a keyboard somehow “not just a keyboard.”

dabigkahuna: dabigkahuna: How many regular keyboards can do both?

What has that got to do with whether a keyboard is a keyboard or something more? I don’t have one, so this is not something I can verify. It’s a noble goal for sure, but doesn’t make a keyboard more than a keyboard.

dabigkahuna: dabigkahuna: Who expected a mobile keyboard that feels like high-end desktop keyboards?

Presumably anyone who purchased a TextBlade, given that’s how it’s marketed.

dabigkahuna: dabigkahuna: What other keyboard can do that?

Not something which is easy to verify, considering I do not have a TextBlade, nor is there any documentation on what data to send to the keyboard via bluetooth to change the force amount on it. How does the force variance work? An inductive charge which increases or decreases battery usage depending on what the force setting is? I would guess it would be doable as an addition to traditional mechanical keyboard designs though. Just like LEDs and so many other things have been added on over the years.

dabigkahuna: dabigkahuna: How many keyboards are customizable? Especially to the extent the TB is?

Most all of them? Probably more so. Does TextBlade have RGB? Can I print custom keycaps with backlighting for it? Or are we only talking software layout support? Key remapping and macros have been possible for decades.

dabigkahuna: dabigkahuna: Note especially that part about multi-device support. Sure, it was supposed to come after GR, but it is NOT scope creep. There would be no reason to not move forward on something which was projected to come just weeks after release when release is delayed for other reasons for so long!

Any modern bluetooh portable keyboard supports connecting to multiple devices. Most support 3-4 spots, some support up to 6-8. I definitely don’t need 8.

dabigkahuna: dabigkahuna: How can anyone read those things, see that picture, and think this is just a typical keyboard. No, normally seeing a picture like that would make you think it may be cool, but it is going to have massive compromises. But the opposite is more true.

Because all that picture is, is 1/3 of a smaller keyboard, laying on top of a larger keyboard. Doesn’t make it not a keyboard.

dabigkahuna: dabigkahuna: Ah, so they shipped too soon!

I don’t know about that. Poor management and being a horrible company from tip to toe, doesn’t necessarily mean the ship schedule was wrong. To say “oh well they shipped too soon” is a gross oversimplification of problems in the world today.

dabigkahuna: dabigkahuna: Whoops, that is a change. No one ever said ic was “more than a keyboard”. We have said it isn’t “just” a keyboard and the difference matters.

They are the same thing. If it isn’t “just a keyboard” then there must be something more than being a keyboard. Trying to be pedantic about the two words doesn’t make your rant any more true.

dabigkahuna: dabigkahuna: The “just” a keyboard makes it sound like there is nothing special about it, no reason it should take so long, etc. In short, it is a comment designed to support the complaints about delays and that is the typical context it is made in. But since the TB is using a new technology approach to keyboards, it isn’t easy at all, unexpected problems are far more likely to come up than you would get using old technology.

Only to the fanatics would such a statement be true. There can be many special things about it, but it’s still just a keyboard. Trying to justify delays and whatever else, by going on about how it’s “not just a keyboard” doesn’t change anything. All it does is make you look more fanatical. And your statement says as much. “It’s a comment designed to pacify those who would question the delays.”

dabigkahuna: dabigkahuna: But, no, it doesn’t do things that are not related to keyboards. You can’t watch videos on the space blade, etc. So, it isn’t MORE than a keyboard either. But it is more capable than any other keyboard I’ve seen or heard of. And the technology in it is more than any normal keyboard.

How is the keyboard itself “more capable” than any other keyboard? The technology is quite interesting, and the compact size is especially worth my $100, but in the end, it’s still a keyboard. When people ask questions about the technology, delays, etc… the patronizing comments and hand-waving commentary like “it’s not just a keyboard!” are not helpful.