Hacker News Reader

Comment by afro88 | Hacker News Reader

Define terrible. If terrible means trying something for a few seconds and hating it then sure, that's terrible. But by that definition coffee is terrible. When I first tried coffee I hated it within a few seconds. Of course I love it now and have for 2 decades.

I had the same kind of reaction to the new keyboard (albeit nowhere near as strongly). It's great now though. The small travel, the sound of it, it's quite effortless for typing. It's definitely an improvement over the old one, in my experience.

View on HN

Very little travel is my definition of terrible. Without travel, there is nothing to dampen my key presses, meaning my joints and fingers would get more fatigued over time. Apple have shortened the key travel to make their machines thinner, not to give you a better typing experience.

I only care because I worry the effect the Apple RDF will have on other manufacturers. For example, I can no longer buy a mobile phone without a glued-in battery.

You basically never have to even lift your fingers, the keys stay low. No need to dampen anything.

I would love to see a double-blind RSI study where they randomly assigned different people different keyboards with different amounts of travel, etc.

I think it's fair to say that typing style can be worse than the keyboard, but I also suspect that a keyboard where you "never have to even lift your fingers" causes more RSI than one that requires more activity.

Why do you suspect that?

Less activity means weaker muscles, and our muscles evolved for a wide range of movements. Reduced movement is generally less healthy in the long run, but feels easier in the short run.

Agreed. It would be nice too change typing habits but it is very hard.

I've used the keyboard for months now and it's still the worst keyboard I've ever used. Am I allowed to call it terrible now? :)

Anyone is free to call it whatever they want.

I've been using my 2016 MBP TB since near its release and it's my favorite laptop keyboard I've ever used.

I hope other manufacturers don't follow their lead. Greasy, bacteria covered, minimal travel keyboards are a great way to make people hate typing.

If your minimal travel keyboard is greasy and bacteria covered, I guarantee you your maximum depth mechanical keyboard is just as greasy and bacteria covered.

Not if you have a slightly textured keyboard and clean it on occasion. Apple's dead flat plastic keys on their laptop and bluetooth keyboards are a perfect growth medium for bacteria, while also accreting oil much more readily.

What's anti-microbial about bumps?

In my experience it just creates more hard to clean grooves for bacteria and dirt. Not exactly a challenge for microbes.

How does longer travel prevent grease or bacteria? If anything, bigger keys have larger surface area for grease and bacteria to stick on. There was a joke that programmer can survive a month by eating what he shakes out of their keyboard, does not really apply to Apple keyboards any more.

The anti-microbial coating (aka the small matte bumps on your standard keyboard) impair bacteria growth and slow oil accretion on the keys.

I think greasy and bacteria covered might just be a personal problem, and not a symptom of short key travel ;)

No, its a common complaint that the keys still look greasy post-cleaning on Mac keyboards. Apple doesn't texture them with an anti-microbial texturing, preferring to leave them deadpan flat. This speeds the accretion of oils and gives bacteria a nice, comfortable surface to grow on.

What is "anti-microbial texturing"?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com