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This was, perhaps, the most remarkable year in the history of The *Ping*. High profile betrayals and failed sales lent a particularly dark air to the award. On the other hand, we all had good fun teasing Apple and Razer... They can't seem to stop their corporate shenanigans.
The official nominees were:
The Fold-2000 flexible keyboard
The Apple Touch Bar
Razer
berserkfan
IvanIvanovich
It was clear from the first poll that one nominee would run away with the award. The community has chosen this year's *Ping*:
Spoiler:
IvanIvanovich
IvanIvanovich was a GeekHack moderator and group buy organizer. Communications with Ivan gradually tapered off during several active group buys, eventually ceasing entirely. IvanIvanovich ultimately disappeared with the money. PayPal buyer protection failed to save any funds; too much time passed. Ivan's breach of trust deeply shook the keyboard community..
Hasta la vista, baby.
Runners-up:
Spoiler:
2nd place: The Apple Touch Bar
Apple is busying itself with shenanigans by, once again, giving users something new. Their products were innovative in the past. They had panache. iPods, Mac computers, and iPhone variants anticipated what people were looking for in tech products. Now Apple's lineup innovates with emoticon shortcut bars. Give us our Esc key back!
3rd place: Razer
You might expect them to be on the cutting edge of technology, but you are wrong. Oh so wrong. They set the keyboarding world back more than a decade by releasing the Razer Ornata. It "combines the soft cushioned touch of a membrane rubber dome with the crisp tactile click of a mechanical switch." In other words, they're selling you a rubber dome rainbow vomit keyboard with a minuscule tactile leaf for $100 US.
"Honorable" mentions:
Spoiler:
berserkfan
The Titanic was majestic when it sank. Berserkfan's moving sale ran into a similar iceberg. Items were sold twice, funds were sent via non-refundable channels, and delivery was a near-total failure. The full story is too long to post here. Was berserkfan a scammer, or just incompetent and stressed? I don't think we'll ever know for sure.
The Fold-2000 flexible keyboard
The ***** trumpet couldn't compete with the other candidates, unfortunately. It fell behind almost immediately. That said, it was fun to watch Chyros' video... Did you watch it multiple times too?
Glad to see that the Touch Bar came in second. I'm typing on my brother's new MacBook Pro 15" right now and the touch bar comes in handy at times. But when basic functions like the brightness, backlighting, and volume adjustments require a couple clicks to access, it is kinda annoying.
But emojis!
Seriously, there are so many emoji options on the touch bar in Safari, it is ridiculous. I actually could not originally submit this message because the forum software could not handle all the different emojis.
