GoKawiil
Tech News
A software developer with years of repetitive strain injury from keyboard use describes noticing far less arm pain recently, including while playing piano. They attribute this to having reduced the amount of raw typing they do, particularly symbol-heavy keystrokes, since incorporating LLM tools into their workflow.
A new explainer breaks down how contactless keyboard switches—including optical, Hall-effect, and TMR (tunneling magnetoresistance) designs—work compared to traditional mechanical switches, which rely on two metal leaves physically touching to close a circuit. These newer switch types have grown more common over roughly six years and typically cost more than standard mechanical keyboards, which themselves cost more than basic membrane boards.
Despite the shift toward wireless devices, many high-end and gaming keyboards remain wired or offer no Bluetooth option at all, largely because of measurable input delay. Bluetooth connections introduce a few extra milliseconds of lag between a keypress and its registration on a computer, which barely matters for typing but can affect gaming or music production. A 2.4GHz USB dongle connection offers a faster alternative to Bluetooth, often approaching wired performance for latency-sensitive tasks.
A retrospective look at old Apple keyboards reveals that Canada had its own layout variant in the late 1990s and early 2000s, distinct from both the US and European versions. While it shared the same physical layout as the European keyboard, it used entirely different pictograms for keys like Ctrl, Alt, Tab, Caps Lock, Esc, Enter and the arrow keys.