2 hours ago
3
Hey, real quick: look at this keyboard. There’s something cool about it.
It’s a mechanical keyboard. It’s a laser keyboard. It’s a magnetic induction keyboard.
It has the new switches. It has the old switches. It’s very thin. It’s got a weird layout. It has a trackpoint. Or a screen. It has cool keycaps. It has cool screens on its keycaps. It’s...furry? It folds in half. It’s retractable.
Maybe it’s not a keyboard at all, except spiritually. Sometimes it’s a mouse, or a trackpad, or a trackball.
Sometimes The Verge reviews keyboards. Other times, we just want to show them to you.
Look at this keyboard.
The Key Boy reimagines the Nintendo Game Boy as a keyboard.
Feeling nostalgic for the Game Boy’s glossy purple buttons? The Key Boy is a custom wireless keyboard, designed and built by YouTube’s The Lesser The Besser, that swaps traditional keycaps for 3D-printed recreations of the Game Boy’s controls, as spotted by Retro Dodo.
The Key Boy may not offer an ideal typing experience, but it looks great, and was cleverly designed as a shell that simply wraps around a Logitech K380 wireless keyboard.
Turn out the lights and I’ll glow.
The Classic-GLO is an $89 glow-in-the-dark mechanical keyboard kit from Novelkeys. It’s just as fun to build and nice to type on as the Classic-TKL I tested and really liked last year, and now it glows in the dark. You know, just in case you need a little more joy on your desk. It comes in three colors, and I tried them all. Check it out:
Build your own macrodata refinement keyboard.
The retrofuturistic computers used by Lumon employees in Severance are loosely based on the Data General Dasher terminals released in the late ‘70s. Signature Plastics, the same company responsible for the SA profile keycaps used on those terminals, is now selling a matching set of keycaps so you can upgrade your mechanical keyboard with Lumon aesthetics. The SA Macrodata Refinement set is available for preorder now for $197, and expected to ship in Q1 2025.
1/3You’ll need to provide your own keyboard for Signature Plastics’ new SA Macrodata Refinement keycap set. Image: Signature Plastics
The keyboard from 2005 with 113 tiny OLED screens.
Art Lebedev’s expensive Optimus keyboards seemed like a footnote in tech blogging history until a small German company saw the potential for a new generation of content creators.
Image: Art Lebedev
Freewrite’s latest keyboard has a mechanical word-counter to track your writing
Astrohaus has announced a new addition to its distraction-reducing Freewrite line of writing tools at CES. Unlike its previous all-in-one devices that pair a keyboard with basic monochromatic screens, its new Freewrite Wordrunner is a standalone mechanical keyboard customized with keys and tools designed to help writers stay focused and work more efficiently.
The company hasn’t announced pricing for the new Freewrite Wordrunner yet, but it’s expected to be available for preorder sometime in February 2025 through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign. The company’s all-in-one writing devices range in price from $349 to $999, but without a screen, storage, and other electronics, its keyboard will potentially be much cheaper. Discounts will be available to early backers, but Astrohaus is also currently selling $1 refundable reservations that promise “priority access” and “exclusive early-bird pricing.”
Read Article >
A better look at the zany ergo keyboard with Wolverine claw action.
I showed you the AutoKeybo right after I tried it, but here’s a video that gives you a better idea of how it works!
I think they need to build a proper cyberdeck out of this, something a bit more Ghost in the Shell. Maybe an Angry Miao collab?
The AutoKeybo is the keyboard for people who dream of Wolverine.
It’s supposed to be “automatic” and “natural” — feels like there’s a bit of a learning curve to me.
This solid aluminum keyboard costs as much as a MacBook Pro
Image: Serene Industries
If statement keyboards are your thing and you have some serious cash to burn, you should check out this brutalist flagship offering from Serene Industries. The Icebreaker is a wedge-shaped mechanical keyboard constructed from a single block of CNC-machined aluminum, featuring hot-swappable aluminum keycaps with configurable RGB backlighting.
Preorders are available now, with pricing starting at $1,500 for the wired version. A Bluetooth wireless and a wired version with magnetic hall effect switches are also available for $1,600 — the same price as a new 14-inch M4 MacBook Pro. The keyboard base comes in two colors — clear or black — with the latter option costing an additional $500. Serene Industries hasn’t provided an ETA on delivery, but says production will begin when pre-orders close on January 28th.
Read Article >
8BitDo added RGB backlights to the new Xbox version of its mechanical keyboard
8BitDo has announced a new version of its mechanical keyboard with a design inspired by the transparent green edition of Microsoft’s original Xbox console. The 8BitDo Retro 87 Mechanical Keyboard - Xbox Edition features a transparent green shell and matching keycaps similar to the console. But unlike previous iterations of the keyboard, this is the first from 8BitDo to incorporate RGB backlighting.
The Xbox Edition mechanical keyboard is now available for preorder through Amazon for $119.99 with shipping expected to start on January 16th, 2025. 8BitDo also announced the matching 8BitDo Retro R8 Mouse alongside the keyboard, which is also listed on Amazon, but not available for preorder yet.
Read Article >
This killer translucent keyboard kit is on sale for $95
The Omnitype Bauer Lite, one of my favorite keyboards of the year, is down to just $95 ($25 off) this week as part of Omnitype’s ongoing Black Friday sale. I paid full price for mine earlier this year, and it was a steal. It feels great to type on, it has a great layout, it’s customizable and fun to build, and it’s colorful. What’s not to love?
The Bauer Lite has a plastic case that comes in a bunch of fantastic translucent colors, from clear to atomic purple to bright blue, seafoam, coral, dark red, and my personal favorite: neon orange. This is great news if your brain, like mine, can sometimes be tricked into feeling a little happier by a jolt of fluorescent color.
Read Article >
Apple’s new Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, and Magic Trackpad have USB-C
Image: Apple
Apple is finally removing the Lightning port from its lineup of Mac accessories. Earlier today, the company announced a new iMac with M4 with updated versions of the Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, and Magic Trackpad that all have USB-C. Apple is also selling them individually in the Apple Store. All three have featured the proprietary Lightning port since 2015.
The prices haven’t changed from their Lightning versions: the USB-C Magic Mouse is $99; the Magic Keyboard, which is so far seemingly only available as the larger model with a numpad, is $199; and the Magic Trackpad is $149. All three are available in black or white. USB-C aside, their designs are overall unchanged. And after tapping the “View in your space” link to look at the 3D model on the mobile version of the iMac page, I regret to inform you that means the Magic Mouse still charges via a USB-C port on the bottom. (There are ways to fix that if you’re desperate.)
Read Article >
This $655 keyboard is wired-only because it has to power 389 LEDs.
Angry Miao’s Neon 80 mechanical keyboard has:
⌨️ A tenkeyless layout
🕳️ 3,120 drilled holes for its light show
🌈 QMK / Vial support for customizing keys and lighting
🔊 A near-identical sound and typing feel to the RGB 65
💸 A starting price of $515 or $655 with keycaps and switches, launching November 5th on IndiegogoI’ll let pictures do the rest of the talking.
1/10Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge
Let’s follow Google’s lead — and celebrate wacky keyboard day instead of April Fools’.
Today I learned that after Google stopped doing April Fools’ jokes in 2021 — a change we lauded — its Japan division started revealing zany keyboards on October 1st (because 10/1 = 101 keys) instead. Find the latest below; previous entries include the Gboard Teacup, Gboard Stick and Gboard Cap.
The HHKB Studio Snow makes a great keyboard prettier
Image: PFU America
After weeks of incredibly obvious teasers, PFU America has revealed the HHKB Studio Snow, a white version of one of the best and strangest keyboards I’ve used. A new color might seem like a minor thing, and it is. But it does answer one of the common complaints about the HHKB Studio, which until now was only available in black with black legends. The Snow edition is available today for $329 at PFU’s website and mechanicalkeyboards.com.
The HHKB Studio, which I reviewed last year, takes the layout from the cult classic Happy Hacking Keyboard, adds a ThinkPad-style trackpoint and mouse buttons, swaps the Topre electrocapacitive dome switches that are in the Professional series for standard Cherry MX-compatible mechanical ones, and adds four reprogrammable “gesture pads” to the sides of the keyboard. It also has Bluetooth.
Read Article >
Modder gives a 38-year-old Apple keyboard a wireless upgrade.
The Apple IIGS (graphics and sound) debuted in 1986 with enhanced multimedia capabilities, but software developer Matt Chesters remembers it best for the sleek mechanical keyboard the computer shipped with.
In a 15-minute YouTube video they detail how they revived a used Apple Desktop Bus Keyboard and upgraded it with wireless Bluetooth connectivity, a rechargeable battery, a tiny OLED screen, and a dedicated volume control wheel.
This retro mechanical keyboard kit is all modern on the inside
There’s never been a better time to buy an off-the-shelf mechanical keyboard. It’s flat-out hard to beat Keychron for price, features, and layout options. Iqunix and Lofree are doing interesting things with low-profile switches, and Epomaker keeps doing Epomaker things. But there’s nothing like putting a keyboard together yourself.
The Ikea effect is real, and kit keyboards give you way more customization options than prebuilts, if that’s your thing: you choose everything from the switches and the stabilizers to the keycaps.
Read Article >
The best folding portable Bluetooth keyboard I’ve tried yet is a Royal Kludge.
I don’t need a lot in a folding Bluetooth keyboard. It just needs to support multiple wireless devices, plus USB-C direct connect, and not get all floppy on my lap! Would you believe there aren’t a lot of keyboards like that?
Angry Miao’s new $559 keyboard has a huge dot-matrix display and retro details
)
English (US) ·