November 2008 Archives

Model: KB700PB-us
Switch Type: Membrane
Cost: $145 with "VIP" Accessory Kit
Connector: USB

I actually ordered this one way back in February, then returned it after a week or so. I've been meaning to write down some notes about it so here it is.

Free as in style

As its name implies, there are lots of choices with this keyboard. The two halves are entirely disjoint and connected by a cable. As such, there are literally an infinite number of configurations you can try.

And that's sort of the problem.

Originally, I bought into the whole "to each his own" idea of ergonomics. Surely, each person was built differently, so there's no one-size-fits-all when it comes to keyboard ergomonics right? You want the most flexible tool to find the optimum configuration right?

Well, yes and no. I found that with the Freestyle, I had too much freedom. There were so many positions you could try, and so little guidance on how to choose them. In some sense it returns the burden of designing an ergonomic layout back to the user. Sure my MS Natural might not be "perfect" for my body dimensions, but it seems definitely good enough. And certainly good enough that I don't want to spend hours and hours tweaking and second-guessing myself with a more flexible device.

Kinesis sells some accessories that make this problem slightly better. The "incline" and "ascent" mounts certainly reduce the variety of configurations that are possible with the two halves. Unfortunately, I went with the VIP, so now, not only did I have to think about how to position the two halves within the plane that is my desk surface, I had to worry about how much to slant each half in a vertical dimension as well.

As if all of this was frustrating enough, since each half is relatively light (it's just plastic), it's very easy to accidentally bump one and then lose the positioning that you had just spent so long to figure out. If, like me, your wrists are sensitive to even the slightest of adjustments, then this will drive you crazy. Of course, you could come up with all kinds of mechanisms to secure your layouts, but in the end, having to do this significantly diminishes the value of this keyboard.

If you think about how many people are having satisfactory experiences with something like the Kinesis Contoured keyboard, which gives you absolutely no flexibility in terms of positioning, it seems silly to spend so much time futzing around in an infinite configuration space.

Which accessory to buy?

Related to the above problem is the fact that there are four different accessories (as of this writing) that you can purchase with the Freestyle: the incline, VIP, V3, and ascent. How am I to know which one I really want? Do I buy them all and the return the ones I don't want? It's just too much hassle Kinesis. You guys are the ergonomics experts, so make a call, and tell me what I want. Give me a configuration space that is manageable, and once I find the optimum configuration, give me a way to replicate it or reproduce it easily.

Some good points

It's got no numpad. That's always good to see. In general, it's pretty compact.

I really like the switches that they use. They have a very nice tactile response, and are surprisingly light for a membrane switch.

It has some of the standard utility keys that you find on new keyboards. But no volume controls and no sleep button? Aren't those the ones that are used the most?

Other minor nits

There are quite a few little things about thie keyboard that bothered me as well.

• The escape key is not above tilde. It's way off in it's own corner. Really annoying as a VI user.
• Really small windows key. I've come to notice that the MS natural's are the only one that have an Alt key that extends all the way out so that it is under X and C, instead of Z and X on most keyboards. This makes it much easier to hit with your thumb when entering keyboard shortcuts.
• Funny delete key. The Freestyle has a delete key that is as big as the backspace key, but slightly above it. I manage to hit the wrong key a frustratingly frequently. I'm used to searching for the delete key by feeling around for the separate 6-key block found on most keyboards.

Ergonomics

At the end of the day, you get an ergonomic keyboard because of, well, the ergonomics. If you read what I wrote above, you won't be surprised to hear that I never did end up finding a positioning that I was totally happy with. Perhaps I bought the wrong accessory. I will never know.

So in conclusion, while this keyboard seemed to have many things going for it, I rather quickly realized that I still preferred my trusty old MS natural elite. That, and for all it's flexibility, my wrists still ended up hurting after several hours. Perhaps YMMV, but it's not a winner for me.

Well, I hate to say it, but I gave up.

It was going well for a good four days. But then I had a stress day at work. Lots of code to write, and not much time to think about hand position. Sure, I can type OK on the realforce when I'm just leisurely replying to my email, but come crunch time, all the "bad" habits come back, and I'm back to where I'm started: wrist pain.

Oh well. It was worth trying. And when it didn't hurt, it was a pleasurable experience. Maybe I just really have to give in and go with the kinesis now. It's the only real ergo keyboard with good switches, aside from the Cherry Ergo plus 5000 which is out of production and impossible to find.

Well it's been two days, and I'm doing a little bit better. I can now seem to type on the Realforce for a significantly longer time without having pains in my hands and wrists.

The main trick seems to be in the positioning of my floating hands over the keyboard. After using the MS natural for so long, it felt natural to position my hands such that the bottom of my palms were right above the wrist rest. When I do this I tend to strike a key with the flat part of my finger tip, and perform a "pulling" sort of action. Doing this however on the Realforce led to almost instant pain.. definitely shooting pains within 5 minutes.

Instead, now I move my hands forward a bit (so that the base of the palm is much more forward, and I type with the tips of my fingers. This simple change allows me to type for much longer. It's such a small change that it's mysterious that it would have such a noticeable effect.

That being said, I still don't feel at home. Part of the problem is that with my wrists floating in the air, my hands don't feel "rooted", and so I end up moving my hands to hit certain keys and that causes all the other keys to be in different relative positions. With the MS natural, I keep my hands down on the wrist rest, so every key is always typed the same way.

Plus it's tiring to hold your hands up. Do people really keep their hands in the air when they type? It's still hard for me the believe.

Today, a friend of mine had a Goldtouch ergonomic keyboard on his desk, so I tried it out... and three seconds later my hands hurt. Why?! Am I just addicted to the MS natural in way that I can no longer overcome now? That can't be true.

Thinking back, I do remember a time when I had to get "used to" the MS Natural. There is something about it that is definitely different from normal keyboards, and perhaps it lets you get into a mode of typing that makes it hard to go back to any other kind of keyboard. Perhaps this is the physical version of vendor "lock-in", which we all know MS excels at.

In any case, I'm starting an experiment. I'm going to try to use the Realforce again as my primary keyboard. I'm going to try to use it for a week, so that I forcefully un-learn any bad habits that the MS natural might be encouraging. I figure a week should be enough time for my hands to re-learn how to type on a normal-ish keyboard. If, at the end of this week, my hands still hurt, then I will admit defeat and recognize my own keyboard lameness. And that will be the end of that.

PC Watch claims that PFU is going to release a Japanese layout HHKB Pro2. Interestingly, this model will have cursor keys. Does this mean that they will release a US layout model with cursor keys as well?

The HHKB is the only non-ergo keyboard that I ever managed to use for a long time w/o hurting my hands. Something about it's compact size and the particular slant of the keys. I ended up not using it because of having to shift to hit arrow keys, but a model with dedicated arrow keys would definitely make me reconsider...