New Design 60% keyboard + New Keycap With surface pro

[bl1978]

New Design 60% keyboard + New Keycap With surface pro



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[Muirium]

I recognise those caps. Are these doubleshot PBT?

[tinnie]

Yes, these are pbt doubleshot with Uber ugly font.

[Muirium]

Looking forward to when they come in nice Helvetica and proper colours: white legends on black caps.

Dyesub PBT already does a decent job on white plastic. Black's the challenge!

[mashby]

Great looking case. It's really coming along nicely!

[Muirium]

Good point. Those PBT doubleshots blinded me from the case. Your cable management design is very smart on a travelling keyboard.

[kvad]

Seriously nice and practical design on your case, looks like the keyboard nuts perfect companion for the Surface Pro : )

[tlt]

Looks nice is it 3D printed?

[bl1978]

yes is doubleshot PBT

Made using cnc machining no 3D print

[Cafeine]

I WANT ONE

[Halvar]

Your cable management design is very smart on a travelling keyboard.

Yes, I agree, a very nice keyboard to go with a Windows 8 tablet! I love the cable compartment. It would be even greater to have the keyboard's mini usb connector on the inside.

[Muirium]

I had a compact record player with that arrangement! (A 1960s hand me down that I played dusty old 45s on as a kid because albums were "boring!") The cable compartment had the socket on the inside, and a little hole drilled into the door so you could spool out some of the cable while keeping the rest inside.

[Dubsgalore]

Are those the doubleshot PBT caps? ewww those legends

I could see using this as a complete travel board for school..

[IonutZ]

Seeing as you are ancient Muirium, can you throw me in your will for one of your keyboards? lol

[Muirium]

"And for the bloke from the internet who asked for it, I do bequeath my most unwashed boards."

The record player was from the 60s. Not me. I assure you it was already most verily olde!

[IonutZ]

dude. no. I bought an IBM M ANSI from some dude on Craigslist for $15... I was excited when I got it, figured I'd clean it myself... well there's no qualifier for how peta-nasty that keyboard was, I found everything from sun flower and sesame seeds to hair, nails and some orange stuff throughout which was definitely not rust. never again.

[cookie]

What is surface pro?

[Muirium]

What is surface pro?

<Must resist instinct to kick Microsoft while they're down. Ungh!>

It's a, uh, "tablet" much like the Blackberry Playbook and the HP TouchPad!

[Halvar]

And it's a, uh, "PC" much like a laptop with a way too small screen and battery.

[Vierax]

The Microsoft Surface Pro is a computer device but not a PC at all, it's an ARM tablet that you can transform into laptop. The only good thing about it's the arm architecture but this is one of the worst use of it if you want a plenty control of your computer and an ergonomic device.

[Halvar]

No -- the "Surface" is an ARM device, the "Surface Pro" has an Intel Processor and is meant to be both a Tablet and a PC. The problem seems to be that it is neither a good tablet nor a good PC.

[Muirium]

Cunningly, Microsoft made two versions (efficient ARM and compatible Intel) so they couldn't possibly fail to find the sweet spot. Then it did so well they sacked their CEO.

[Vierax]

Han OK ! So only the insane Windows RT is running ARM device(s)… that's a shame. The more the time runs, the gladder I am to have stepped to the penguin OS.

[cookie]

Haha I actually thought the surface pro is some kind of keycap coating to prevent shine or something like this

[nourathar]

hmm,

I'm seriously thinking of getting one of the Surface Pro 2 models: specs-wise they're pretty much identical to some of the nicer ultrabooks at the moment, such as the Thinkpad Yoga. I see it as an ultrabook without crappy keyboard, and so portable that I can still imagine me carrying a 60% keyboard or my siig minitouch along with it. And when looked upon as a tablet, it is one of the rare tablets that can run Linux without any problems. It leaves me wondering about how touch-ready Arch Linux is and it would certainly mark a drastic reversal if I think of my Microsoft-hating Apple years ('93-'11, roughly..)

Does anybody use a similar setup on a regular basis ? I'm curious to hear some experiences...

J.

[Monster-Toys]

Cannot say anything about Linux, but I own a Surface pro 2 (256GB dic and 8GB RAM) and love it. I use it mainly for media playing and as good ebook and brilliant comic-reader, for graphic design stuff (digital painting, inking etc.) and for writing. Using it with an external keyboard (via USB) is no problem (i use my model f at often and have much much fun ), (Bluetooth should not be a problem as well, but i did not try it).

[Halvar]

I use a WeTab a.k.a. ExoPC, which is an open 11.6" Megoo Tablet from 2010 with an Atom processor. The Meego OS (a Linux derivative for touch hardware) that came with it was a nice idea, but never really worked that well, so I eventually put Windows 8 on it, and now it's actually a very nice tablet. The hardware is quite outdated by now, I still like to use it, but I'm sure there's better x86 tablet hardware out today. Windows 8 is actually a quite good OS on a tablet IMO, with the added benefit that you can use it as a PC by plugging in a keyboard. You don't need a mouse most of the time because of the touch screen, but if you're working on a desk anyway, a mouse is a bit more comfortable.

Before that, I also tried Android-x86 and Ubuntu on that tablet. Ubuntu is kind of usable with a tablet, but no comparison to Windows 8. Maybe in one of the next versions -- Ubuntu is going in that direction. You can already install "Ubuntu Touch" on X86 tablets with a bit of tinkering I think, but I never tried that so far. Android-X86 is missing some drivers on my tablet and has no Google support, but Android 4.0 does work for playing some games etc.

The Wetab community (German, but they understand and answer in English and the are some Nederlandse the too) is pretty dead nowadays because the hardware is so old, but they have a lot of experience with Linux on tablets, and you can probably still get some good advice there.

I'm not advising you to buy a WeTab, but I'm saying that a) Windows 8 or 8.1 is actually a good OS on an X86 tablet, and b) Linux, especially Ubuntu, is worth trying if you're the type that like to tinker around a bit. There is no Linux distribution for x86 that I know of that is really touch-friendly out-of-the-box at the moment.

Definitely don't buy a Windows 8 RT tablet with ARM hardware though. You can't install any other OS on these, and you can't really use it as a laptop either.

[nourathar]

Hi Halvar,

thanks for the thoughtful remarks: I remember looking at the WeTab when it came out, but also I remember it seemed to be over very soon, in any case before I bought one....
I have not really done my research very well yet, but in terms of touch and Linux I read that KDE had quite a few features that should work well with touch, including a switch between more 'tablet' and more 'desktop' modes, in smae ways perhaps similar to Windows 8 and Ubuntu/Unity. And I've been looking at Enlightenment, which I've never used but which seems to be quite lean, relatively elegant and also developed for hybrid use scenario's. I fled away from Ubuntu (towards Kubuntu) when Unity happened, but I think I should check it out if/when I buy the Surface Pro. But after Arch it will be hard to go back to a Ubunut flavor, I think.
I decided I want to hold a Surface before going for it; some of these things can not be reasoned alone...

thanks,

J.