Vissles V84: Mechanical keyboard hits all the right buttons for Mac power users Mechanical keyboard manufacturers have typically swerved Mac users. It's not personal, it's just business. The Mac has a fraction of the traditional PC market share, and a significant proportion of mechanical keyboards are intended for competitive gamers, rather than those who type for work (be they developers or writers, or …
I just got a Keychron C2. Full keyboard. Defaults to Mac, switchable to windows, and no-solder swappable keyswitches. I'm running Gateron brown right now, which seems nice, but can change if I feel like it. Less than £65 for the fancy RGB backlight one (which I already switched to white)
My LMP is a great clone of the Apple one. It even has the built in USB connectors. Unlike a real Apple keyboard, however, they actually form a proper USB2 hub, rather than a USB1 hub, which is nice.
I'm always on the lookout for something better and this Vissles would be tempting if it was USB rather than Bluetooth as mine plugs into a KVM and does duty for 4 computers, not just the Mac.
Having gone through or used enough Sun Microsystems hardware to be able to evaluate or at least have reasonable expectations of good quality, a couple of years ago I paid good money (I'm cheap so YMMV) for a pair of lightly used Sun Type 7 keyboards.
Mushy, fragile, bad quality plastics, poor Linux driver support.
One word?
--> POS.
My daily driver now is a 1995 IBM Model 'M' I have recently refurbished.
Save that I had forgotten how noisy they are, no complaints whatsoever.
O.
I'm using a Redragon K580 mechanical keyboard I think I paid some GBP70 5 years ago. It's got replaceable Cherry style switches and works fine with both the two Macs and two PCs that it is connected to through a KVM switch.
It does have the standard LED lightship but it can be programmed not only through a Windows tool but also through a direct programming mode on the keyboard itself, and I just set it to constant white so I got a nice backlight keyboard (and I can control the intensity with the volume roller).
Build quality is excellent (like a tank) and even after half a decade of intensive use it still feels as solid as the legendary IBM keyboards from the old days.
> I need that keypad!
Here ya go: Matias Tactile Pro
Unreserved recommendation. It's an exact remake of the old historical Apple Extended Keyboard, keys-wise. Absolutely brilliant to type on.
I'm using the Magic keyboard with numeric keypad from Apple and it's the best keyboard I've owned. I used to have the Logitech K750 solar keyboard which was gorgeous... unfortunately when the battery died... the keyboard did also (non replaceable).
The Magic keyboard charges through USB-C and probably have to do this about once a month while using it several hours every day. It's a bit pricey but it's been worth every penny for me.
The keyboard is missing the right OPTION key.
On macOS, OPTION Is another type of shift, and therefore to touch type characters accessible via it you need an OPTION key on both sides. To touch type an upper case A you press A with your left little finger (pinky) and right SHIFT with your right little finger. To touch type one of the characters on the OPTION layer you do the same thing, so you need OPTION keys on *both sides*.
The pictured sample is a US layout. Using the default keymap for Australia (same as the US), the following characters cannot be properly typed: £, €, dead accent, dead grave. I don't even live in Europe and would miss those. At least the umlaut and curly quotes are possible, because those are on the right of the keyboard.
Now perhaps you could remap the very rarely-used right hand CTRL, but (i) do they supply a keycap for that? (ii) as the article points out, you'd need a Windows machine, and (iii) why on earth isn't it the default if it's claimed to be a Mac keyboard?
If easy typing of £, €, dead acute, and dead grave is a priority for you, then the solution is to not use the default input source for Australia (and the US); use the “ABC Extended” input source (which was called “U.S. Extended” in older versions of macOS) instead. I was able to install it via System Preferences → Keyboard → Input Sources; I dont know if that path has changed in recent versions of macOS. With ABC Extended active, £ is Option 3, € is Shift Option 2, dead acute is Option e (e.g. é is Option e then e), and dead grave is Option ` (e.g. à is Option ` then a).
As to Vissles’ design choices, they took a standard 84-key layout, installed macOS-friendly keycaps on the keyboard, and are marketing it as a Mac keyboard. If a right Option key is important to you, and you don’t want to remap keys using a program like Karabiner Elements so that its right Control key would function as a right Option key, then the V84 doesn’t meet your needs, and shouldn’t be on your to-buy list.
The key combinations you mention are all already supported by the Australian keyboard layout without any special configuration. If I go get a new Mac from the Apple Store 10 minutes down the road and turn it on, those will be active as soon as I select "English" in the setup screen.
I'm guessing if you didn't know that, those characters aren't important to you, and that is why you think it's perfectly all right for them to be hard to type.
And no, I don't want to install third party software like Karabiner into something as important and sensitive as the keyboard input processing.
I’ve used the U.S. Extended input source for a very long time, so I don’t remember what’s available in the default Australian/US English input source. I don’t consider those key combinations to be hard to type. Given your focus on having a keyboard with a right Option key, do you not consider the use of an Option key to produce £, €, &c. as “properly typed”? Which keys are acceptable to you to press to generate £, €, &c.?
Since you don’t want to install third-party software to obtain the functionality of a right Option key on a keyboard that lacks such a key, the V84 isn’t suitable for you.
What is it with modern keycaps? Semi-colon colon and the various bracket combinations could easily be printed one above the other but for some unexplained reason they are printed side-by-side.
At the moment I'm using an old Matias Tactile Pro keyboard which has extra USB ports on each side which I use to plug a headset in when I'm on calls. This works well when combined with an external monitor because the laptop is folded-up and tucked away at the side of the desk and I don't have to faff trying to plug the headset into one of its USBs when a call comes in.
As Sykowasp indicated, Cherry-compatible switches can't illuminate the entire keycap with only one LED. This is because the mechanism was never designed for backlighting so the LED has to sit on the edge of the switch and illuminates only about half of the cap.
One alternative is Logitech, which uses Omron mechanical switches (which it brands "Romer-G") in some of its keyboards. These have the LED in the middle of the switch, so they have normal looking keycaps and backlighting at the same time. They also don't splash light out the sides like Cherry switches either.
The other alternative is simply a keyboard without backlighting, which is fine (possibly even preferable) in an office environment. One very normal option that I've stumbled upon recently that has Mac support and a choice of switch types is iKBC.
Little Boxes - Malvina Reynolds 1962
Pete Seeger had a 1963 hit record during the Great Folk Music Scare but I have always preferred her own version with her slightly creaky-sounding voice adding even more authenticity.
Little boxes on the hillside
Little boxes made of ticky tacky
Little boxes on the hillside
Little boxes all the same
There's a pink one and a green one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same
And the people in the houses
All went to the university
Where they were put in boxes
And they came out all the same
And there's doctors and lawyers
And business executives
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same
And they all play on the golf course
And drink their martinis dry
And they all have pretty children
And the children go to school
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university
Where they are put in boxes
And they come out all the same
And the boys go into business
And marry and raise a family
In boxes made of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same
There's a pink one and a green one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same
The "Little Boxes" song describes modern houses in the UK. So-called Double Bedrooms that can only take a 4ft 6in Double. Single rooms where trying to swing a cat would lead to criminal charges and really shoddy construction.
I looked at a new-build house costing £525,000 near my 1930's built semi. If the new build lasts 25 years then I would be very surprised. The builder was offering me £325,000 in part exchange. Daylight robbery as I had mine valued at £410,000 in April.
Then there is the size of the plot. It was 1/3rd of the size of the plot that my current house is built on.
The final straw was the total lack of parking. Only space for 0.5 cars per house. no garages either. The nearest bus stop (no Sat or Sun Service) is over a mile away. numpties.
All this is less than 10 miles from the M25.
They did look all the same and were definitely made out of ticky-tacky.
The picture in this article poses too many questions, and doesn't quite add up IMHO....
Notebook, presumably for quickly noting things down. (Oooo... a spy?)
Coffee, for staying awake (.... a steakout, definitely a spy)
Camera, for the subtle picture taking (recon!)
Phone for net connectivity (Definitely recon!)
Air freshener, to mask nearby bad smells??? (....from a dumpster!!)
Then a loud as fuck keyboard? Which is hardly discreet??
What are you doing??!?
@FIA
Quote from original article...
"Linear key switches are preferable for those playing gaming titles, where you want to exert the least amount of force to register a keypress. They're also virtually silent, meaning you can use them in a crowded office without annoying your co-workers."
Otherwise, I shared your logic almost step by step.
Why manufacturers no longer publish where their products are being made?
Are they afraid of something?
If you want to make an ethical choice when buying your equipment, then you have to spend a lot of time researching every single product, because information as simple as country of origin is not available. Some companies even use deceiving tactics like only showing "Designed in" on the specs sheet.
It's pretty much like any other attribute: if they don't tell you, assume there's a reason for that. I have a policy of not purchasing goods made in China; if someone doesn't clearly label the country of origin or uses the slimy variants instead, I assume two things:
1. The product was made in China, so I don't buy it.
2. The corporation that branded it is dishonest, so I avoid other products bearing that brand also.
Nothing to it really. People who have their goods made (or make them themselves!) in places like the EU or USA almost invariably state that proudly.
Why manufacturers no longer publish where their products are being made?
Probably because it's quite hard.
Which bit do you mean? The overall assembly? The 'custom' bits? The underlying components? Or where were the plastics made; the metals mined?
If you want to make an ethical choice when buying your equipment
...then once you scratch the surface it becomes virtually impossible.
Even big ones like 'don't buy Chinese' aren't easy. It's easy to criticsise China for it's actions and human rights abuses but is the best policy to punish it's citizens, or does a wealthier and more savvy populace force internal change? If you blame a countries populace for it's actions, then do we have to look at our own places of residence? Or do you consider youself above the actions of your home country, in which case why not buy from a Chinese businessperson?
Kudos for trying, it's a bloody minefield!!
Or do you consider youself above the actions of your home country
'above' was the wrong choice of words, I mean 'seperate from'.
EG, I'm british, but my ancestors were down the pits mining the coal that powered the industry the rich people used to be a bit shitty to the rest of the world with.
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