Anyway, enough nonsense. I'm here to rant. To rant about a topic that has bothered me ever since I visited the Regent Street Apple Store one fine Sunday.
I've always been living in places where the currency is either the dollar (Singapore), or where there's no legislation to include the currency symbol on computer keyboards because, to be frank, doing so won't boost the economy by billions in their currency. Or would it? (Indonesia). But we all know that the world's de-facto currency - the one currency every currency exchange convertor app on my iPhone seem to base their conversions on - is the US Dollar (we all know the RMB will soon take its place. but who cares. Not IBM, not Apple, maybe Lenovo, but nobody else).
Well, call me cynical, but I believe all keyboards should have '§' in place of '$' on the number 4 key. So, when you press shift, it'll put the currency of the regional settings in your computer - if you set your Mac keyboard for the UK English, pressing Shift-4 will give you £ rather than $. If you're in China or Japan, you'll get ¥. If you're in Indonesia, you'll get Rp. It's like printing money - you want to automate the process, or else you're going to make your fingers run a 5k.
Now, why do I think this should be done? Well, I was walking into an Apple shop just today to check my suspicion on whether the UK keyboard on the Macs are different. I mean - think about it. If I were Apple, and I build these unibody enclosures using water jets, this process is going to be expensive, I shouldn't have too many variations in the cutting process, right? One standard keyboard layout for the international market. Not one for the EU, one for the US + Asia-Pacific, one for the Japs, etc. Well, apparently, Apple doesn't think so. They actually have a different cutting layout for the Unibodies in the EU/UK from the rest of the world. To illustrate this, you can look on Flickr, or you can read my description:
Note: For keys with 2 notations being referred to, the first is upper-shift character, the second is the lower shift'
1. The key where '~`' normally goes has '±§'.
2. The 'alt option' key has 'alt ⌥' displayed.
3. The number 2 key shows '@€' instead of just '@' for the upper case. Erm, ok, so what do I get when I hold shift down?
4. For number 3, the uppercase is '£' in place of '#'. Not good for HTML web coders, because to get '#', it's 'Alt-3' instead of the 'Shift-3' you're probably used to.
5. The Tab key, Caps Lock key, and shift keys are shown with their representative logos rather than text. What's so difficult, Apple? STANDARDIZE, PLEASE!
6. The most horrible bit that probably costs Apple quite a bit - the 'enter return' key to your right and '|\' key above it? They swap places. Well, when I say they swap places, the |\ key keeps its size, but it shifts down one row to occupy the left 60% of the enter. The leftover bit on the right and the empty space above is one key - the Enter key. So Apple has to remove a little strip. The result is a horrible looking keyboard.
My rant is - why can't we standardise? Why can't the world conform to one keyboard layout global, then make special versions for the specific needs of specific customers (e.g.: a numpad for accountants, a specific layout for Chinese people to help in typing Hanyupinyin (I can't type fast in Chinese, and I came with the conclusion that the Qwerty ain't cutting it for the Chinese. They MAY need something different). These are variations - I know. But at least they should be variations that are BTO - built to ORDER. If people didn't specify specific needs, give them the International keyboard with the § logo above the number 4 key! Let them decide what currency they often use. Let people map other currency symbols to keys the logically corresponding keys - alt-y for ¥, alt-s for $, alt-e or alt-c for €, you get my point.
On the subject of standardisation, it seems Lenovo is trying to act smart with one of their latest 'keyboard breakthroughs'. Not that you can innovate a lot if the keyboard whil keeping it to be what it should be - a cheap human-interface device that is mass-produced in factories in Mumbai, Guangzhou, or Taiwan. Nothing too complex. Well, not sure how much money or effort Lenovo spent on this, but they came up with a new keyboard layout for their latest Thinkpad based on some findings of user habits on the keyboard.
1. a 'taller' escape, and
2. a 'taller' delete key (Delete as in real delete. not the backspace on MacBooks that have been labelled as delete. That's another rant topic on its own there)
Firstly, bravo to Lenovo for a bigger delete key. They realised that people often tap 'Ctrl-Alt-Delete', whether it's to log in or to kill programmes. I have no objection to that.
Secondly, wtf, Lenovo? You researched on keyboard technology, and all you found that was significant enough to take action on was just two things? Really? You didn't think there's a few things you might have forgotten, or might be of actual use to people?!
I can name you a few.
1. The "Print Screen" key - Super misleading. It doesn't print the screen, does it. No. It copies the screen and places it in the clipboard, ready to be pasted. Now, where do you think I'm going with this "Screen Grab" idea?
2. The "Pause Break" and "Screen Lock" key - They do absolutely nothing on most people's keyboard. I suggest deleting them. No pun intended.
3. F1 - F12 - They mean absolutely nothing to me on a PC. On a mac, i know what happens when I press on them. F1-F2 adjusts the backlight, F3 launches Exposé, F4 for Dashboard, F5-F6 for keyboard backlight, F7-F9 for media, F10-F12 for speaker/headphone volume. that's minimum one purpose for each Function-key on my Mac. And no, I don't need to press the fn key on the bottom left hand corner to activate them. But Lenovo, your Function keys do nothing without the Fn key. Why? Don't answer me with a press release, answer with action! Speak to Microsoft!
4. Page up, Page down, Home and End - Erm, If you have a trackpad, why don't you add scrolling to the trackpad? It seems so clumsy having two separate places for the scrolling-related 'devices' (i.e.: the trackpad/mouse/navigation point and the Home/End/Page up/down keys)
5. An Eject key - I find it quite illogical having to press a button on the disc drive to have the disc tray pop out in the opposite direction of the force you exert. Newton's 3rd Law of Motion is "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction". Well, in the case of the disc tray, the opposing reaction is slightly larger, because the computer hates your fingers, and wants to shove it away. So why not follow Apple and put an eject key on the keyboard? I'm sure many consumers will think it makes more sense after a while.
6. Alignment - Make the Caps Lock key as wide as the Tab key, and the Enter key as wide as the two keys above it on the International layout (remember what I said about UK/EU keyboards?). Then everything in between shifts left . What do you get? A pretty neat Row 1 and Row 2 of the alphabet keys! Now, play around with row 3, and you get all the alphabets laid out neatly! much more pleasing to see. Perhaps more pleasing to type on? Only one way to give it a shot, isn't it? Do a proper longitudinal study this time, Lenovo. You did an observation on 30 employees to make adjustments on the Delete and Escape keys. That's not proper enough in most books, yet you found a 'revalation'. Try a proper study, and see what else you find!
7. WASD - draw arrows on them.
There - 7 adjustments that a 17-year-old can suggest, I wonder how many have a) been researched, b) been patented, or c) been thought of by manufacturers who want to maximise profit, even if it means to reduce the number of keys they have to mould, print, and assemble.
To be frank, the keyboard has come a long way, dating back from the days of the typewriter. From a thing only used by clerks and reserved for businesses, the keyboard has become a cheaply mass-produced item that is used by billions. However, as with other things that have come over from last century into the 21st, I really think it needs to get an update. Like the electric car is to cars, the keyboard still hasn't met its breakthrough successor. Perhaps one is due. Or perhaps we're just too stubborn and lazy to move on, like people are hesitant to switch from XP to Vista because it's so new and different?
What do you think?
Links to the Lenovo new keyboard story:
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