Happy Lunar New Year!

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To my friends and dear readers all over the world who celebrate the lunar new year, happy belated new year.  I guess it's the year of the rooster.  It is traditional to go back home, spend time with family, being thankful and look forward to spring.  It's also a celebration that could last for weeks.  It's like Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day all packed into a 2 week span.  So, I think it's going to be a bit quiet on the mechanical keyboard news front as many folks take a well deserved rest.  If you do any business in Asia, you know exactly what I mean.  So, enjoy and send me some red envelopes.  :)  Happy New Year and many blessings.

Razer announces new gamer friendly mechanical switch

Credit: Tomshardware.com

Well, actually, Razer just announced a new gaming oriented mechanical keyboard with a new switch: a yellow one.  As with its previous products, it caters to the white hot and still growing PC gamer's market.  Since my focus tends to be on the switch, I will just keep attention there.  It should not be a surprise that this new switch now possess shorten actuation distance, linear force and now silent operating features.  So basically this is like combing various different types of MX linear switches traits into one.

I suspect that we will begin to see a volume decline of the more classical switches such as the MX brown and blue.  These switches will continue to be popular with typists, programmers and other non-gamer's market.  However, MX red and black now are standard with any gaming oriented keyboard.  I think even those two MX switches will eventually be surpassed in shipping volume by the newer short throw types.  Noise consideration is likely to be secondary, but the actuation distance war has begun.  Maybe we will come full cycle and back to the scissor/rubber dome switches because they have very small actuation distance already. Oh wait....  Razer has already announced something like that for the tablet/mobile device market.  I am just waiting for someone to produce a 0.5mm MX version within a year or two.  Let's see if I am right.  :)

Ducky Channel's new Shine 6 Special Edition

Without fail for the last few years, Ducky Channel does a re-engineered of their flagship keyboard model known as Shine.  This is now the 6th time.  As usual, Ducky doesn't mess its winning formula, but made some significant changes that alter the aesthetics of the keyboard to set it apart from the crowd.

First and most noticeable change is the floating keycaps.  It's a pretty sounding name, but basically, it's a keycap that is half height rather than full height.  Ducky is not the first one, but seeing it on their flagship board signals that this is now in vogue.  So, expect some other keyboard makers making similar changes in the near future.  Half height keycaps serve an important purpose: letting more light out underneath the switch.  Because of the cross-shape key switch and cap interface design, the LEDs must be put somewhere not in the way.  Having half height keycaps allows more light as well as creating a more striking picture.  Using a black metal back plate instead of white one (such as in Shine 5), Ducky is counting on the float keycaps and brighter LEDs to compensate for the darker background.  The advantage is a cleaner light definition with a dark background.  So, I expect the LED colors to be more distinct and less affected by the neighboring ones.

Also, something new is the host PC software controlled lighting profile.  Although Ducky retained all the on board lighting and motion features, it too offers a customized profile.  The user costumed profile is the way to go now days.  I don't know how programmable it is, but it's a new direction for Ducky Channel.  With Metadot and Ducky going to the customization route, I think this feature will be around for a while and expanded to other experimental use soon.

The core features stay pretty much the same with Cherry MX switches and other expected features.  So, it's not going too far off to the deep end.  It is now available in North America through the usual channels for around $160.  The price places the keyboard on the top, high end side of the market.  I like what they got this year and I look forward to see what Ducky Channel comes up next year.

Keyboard trends @ CES

Well, one thing that is for sure, the gamer's keyboard market seems to be getting more and more crowded with no signs of slowing down.  So, perhaps this boom is here to stay for a while.  I don't think one can easily escape from any mechanical keyboard vendors without spoting a RGB keyboard.  Even Matias is putting out backlit keyboard (with scissor switches however, I think).  The latest innovation in that area is to store the lighting program in the onboard memory, some comes with 8MB of that.  So, look out for some very fancy color effects to either excite the player or to drive the competition crazy with brilliance.....

The second trend seems to be retro styling.  There are quite a few keyboards trying to emulate that old-school typewriter look and feel.  Now, I am waiting for some clever vendor to use 400g load springs for the key switches to complete the effect.  Nothing wrong with that, just that fashionable things seem to come and go and then come back again.  At this rate, we will have a psychedelic RGB lighting retro typewriter style caps with 400g weighted keys mechanical keyboard.  Maybe Unicomp could put out a RGB lighted buckling spring Model M keyboard?  Welcome to a blast to the past.

Happy New Year!

Yeah, I am a few days late, but the year is still young.  So, happy new year.  In any case, with CES announcements going full swing right now and the trade show opening tomorrow, most of the focus is there.  There are some keyboard related announcements, but nothing earth shattering yet.  Perhaps as the week goes on, something of interest will surface.