21 Apr
2011
21 Apr
'11
12:11 p.m.
Fred Cisin wrote:
and yet, it was the chiklets shaped keys that people
actually
objected to.
Commodore PET 2001 chiclet keyboard: hated by everyone, replaced with
normal keys on later models.
TRS-80 Color Computer chiclet keyboard: hated by everyone, replaced
with normal keys on later models.
TI-99/4 chiclet keyboard: hated by everyone, replaced with normal keys
on later 99/4A model.
IBM PCjr chiclet keyboard: hated by everyone, replaced with normal keys
on replacement keyboard
Apple chiclet keyboards: loved by all the Apple fanboys. Not only have
they not been replaced with normal keys on later models, but now other
notebook vendors have copied them!
Bletch!
There's a REASON that typewriter keys weren't just flat square things.
The concavity of the key tops made the typist's fingertips self-center
rather than wandering off. Chiclet keyboard don't do that, and are an
abomination.
This is a separate issue from whether the chiclets are rubber or hard
plastic. Rubber chicklets suck even more!
This is also a separate issue from the distance of travel. There's no
reason that a key top can't have the correct shape with short travel, as
was/is done on many notebooks. (Whether short or long travel is better
is a different debate entirely.)
Last time I shopped for a notebook, the only thing I could find that
came reasonably close to meeting all of my requirements was a Sony
VPCEB17FX. My main gripe with it is the damn chiclet keyboard. Sony
apparently thinks that they'll sell more notebooks if they copy Apple,
and for all I know, perhaps they're right. It sucks though. I would
have gladly paid an extra $100 to get the same thing with a real
keyboard instead of the f*#&ing chiclets.
The Onion story about the MacBook Wheel quoted a supposed customer:
"I'll buy almost anything If it's shiny and made by Apple." Apparently
they found reality to be more amusing than any parody they could think up.
http://www.theonion.com/video/apple-introduces-revolutionary-new-laptop-wit…