That's good to hear. The only thing keeping me from ordering their Tactile Pro was the fact that it was white. Nothing on their website yet about this...
Dear Brummell,
Due to popular demand, Matias Corporation will be producing a single
production run of special edition Tactile Pro 3 Keyboard with silver case
and black keys.
The keyboard will include all the features that you know and love:
• Option key characters on each key, for easy reference when typing
special symbols
• Caps Lock Key in the traditional location, with Caps Lock Light
• Volume Control Keys & CD Eject Key
• One cable to connect the keyboard to the computer
• 3 USB 2.0 ports: one located at the extreme left and right of the
keyboard, plus a third one at the back of the keyboard
• Premium quality Alps mechanical key switches, for maximum comfort & speed
We anticipate the keyboards to arrive in August 2011 and are accepting
pre-orders for North American clients via our web site:
http://matias.ca/order/#tactilepro
As in any pre-order situation, your credit card will be billed at the time
of purchase to reserve a unit for you.
A notice will be posted on our web site once shipping has begun.
The Silver/Black Tactile Pro 3 Keyboard will be available exclusively
through our online store during the pre-order period. If there are any
keyboards not reserved after pre-orders have shipped, we will fulfill new
purchases in the order in which they are received. If the production run
is sold out, we will close the pre-order link.
Thank you for your email expressing interest in this product.
We appreciate customer feedback!
Best regards,
Barbara
--
Barbara Perriman
Support Services Manager
Matias Corporation
Good to see a site with a .ca domain do something funky with keyboards for a change, eh? But what's with this "USD" thing....so passe.
It's like the Hipsters in my neighborhood.
Walking around with Kodak Brownie cameras.Show Image(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2024/2457663000_30e4ed2370_z.jpg)
These boards are hideous
These boards are hideousI remember those keyboards; they used to ship with the old apple i mac. (the one that actually looked like piece of fruit that had the swapable color panels)
Show Image(http://snpi.dell.com/snp/images/products/large/330-5317.JPG)
Immediate question: I wonder if the paint can be scratched off.
Those (the Dell KB-1421) are actually decent. They're pretty good as far as rubber domes go and miles better than the ones that preceded them ...
Wow, thanks for all the info. Great to hear it from the horse's mouth, but I probably won't be purchasing a Tactile Pro 3 due to its rather loud ping (based on recordings) compared to other boards and even the AEKII itself. Are there any plans to reduce the ping in a revised version of the TP3 or perhaps an upcoming TP4?
Cloning the old ALPS?
Boy, that could get COMPLICATED (http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?15648-TIL-%28Today-I-Learned%29-Just-WHY-The-Original-ALPS-Switch-is-called-quot-Complicated-quot)!
(Attachment) 28282[/ATTACH]
^^^See diagram in above post.
Wait … you mean that Apple carve laptops out of solid aluminium, only to then paint them to look like aluminium? (I know they paint the keycaps, though, which is a pity.) I know that they painted the titanium machines because all that paint came straight back off again.
Thank you for taking the time to respond to our issues!
As i mentioned in an earlier post, the feel of this keyboard is superb; my issue was with the case itself. Let's assume you are correct and the durability of the case is not an issue. There are still areas where a bit more attention to detail would have been appreciated. For instance, Filco's case may be cheaper but they place 4 rubber feet on the base of their boards; they even include 2 on the base of the extendable feet. You have 2 at the front of the keyboard (and that's it!). I find my keyboard slides around on my desk when I'm typing and I've never had that happen before.
I'm glad that someone is producing a quality keyboard for the Mac; and considering the fact that you are here and listening, I'm confident that your product will continue to improve!
Try editing the ALPS wiki sometime.
It's what has driven me to my current mental state.
That shouldn't happen. Do you use it with the feet extended?
That shouldn't happen. Do you use it with the feet extended?
Typing on my new TP3 S&B. I think it's a keeper. I can see why some people are complaining about the THOCK. The backspace key has a big THOCK too. But it's not a deal breaker for me.
Maybe I spoke too soon. It keyboard stopped working twice already. Some sort of driver issue with my Win 7 64-bit.
Just looked at the manual - I guess I need to go to matias website and download Windows drivers for it.
My white TP3 slides about on my desk, pivoting around the side that grips – it's pretty awful. I thought it was just the design of the feet, which seem to be made for minimal grip possible, but my Dell AT101W has the same problem, where only one side grips. No issues with my FILCO, or my Tulip, and the Topre is affected but much less so.
The desk is probably a bit bananad, and the design of the feet on some keyboards assumes a flawlessly flat desk. Diatec clearly know how to make feet that work.
I didn't get any ping on mine but what I did get was a severely amplified THOCK on the space bar. It sounded/felt completely bizarre. It took the same amount of pressure to depress but when it comes back up it has around 5g of extra release with amplified sound. Bizarre!
A keyboard is like a table with 4 legs. If the floor is uneven, it will rock back and forth on the 2 legs that constantly touch. A similar thing is happening with your keyboard.
The wider keys have a balance bar mechanism that allows you to press any spot on the key, and the whole key will go down (rather than seesaw). That mechanism changes the force curve a little, and combined with the large key mass also changes the sound.
It keyboard stopped working twice already. Some sort of driver issue with my Win 7 64-bit.
Just looked at the manual - I guess I need to go to matias website and download Windows drivers for it.
Windows has always had klunky USB support. It doesn't even run the USB keyboard and mouse drivers until you plug one in. That's why you have to wait for a while, the first time you plug a particular device in. It's completely retarded.
No, all four feet make contact and it doesn't rock. It's perfectly steady solid to type on, it just doesn't grip. I haven't figured out yet what's wrong with the feet, but I'm not sure the rubber grips on the front feet are even glued on straight, and the rear legs have very little grip surface and very poor desk tolerances. The desk is a little out it seems, but not enough to faze a cheaper FILCO with a bog standard Costar case, which serves me fine all day every day.
This is standard product design fare – too many companies re-inventing the same products and never learning from each other, so the same mistakes end up being made over and over (even within the same company, like Dell moving over to textured cases on laptops that instantly grease up, after years of smooth, grease-free cases). Even Topre feet are sub-optimal, which is poor considering the price point, but nowhere near as bad.
I think we get that much ;) However, the sound varies from keyboard to keyboard. As I said, on a Spacesaver the spacebar is disturbingly quiet!
It could be your desk is a little dusty. Try wiping it down, and then wiping down the pads with a damp cloth.
This thread needs pics.
I think the problem was fixed after I plugged it straight into USB port instead of into USB extension cable.
I've been using it at home for about a week now and I'm growing really fond of it, I wish it wasn't so noisy so I could bring it at work then again I love it's sound.
It has a lot more meat to it than say cherry blues and it also feels awesome.
Thank you for this quality product, I had been waiting for it for quite a while and it did not disapoint :D
ALPS Simplified Type-1 aren't what we call "Fukkas"? I always thought Matias TP3 had Fukkas but I've just been contradicted by Ripster on the ALPSulator thread.
Thanks for the rapid check in :P, I have also bought on of these keyboard calculator and I was wondering exactly which keyswitches were which. Better Fukkas in Matias, and poorer XMs in what ripster named ALPSulator (I'll assume, even though I think it still hasn't been proven).
I never knew Edgar was on Geekhack. I like that he took some time off to come and sort things out and respond to us.
most of it is Cherry related. :-)
do love the keyboard and the only thing I can say at the moment is that I wish there were more media keys (specifically: previous, play/pause, and next).
Looks like I'll have to send it back. I've been using it for 2 days at work and every time I unlock my PC the keyboard goes a little crazy if I start typing right away. I guess the "driver" takes a few seconds to reload.
You guys call them Fukkas too? Seems like a bad translation. Kinda fukka'd up.
Quote from: Matias;431118most of it is Cherry related. :-)
Well, we only appreciate the best.
*Ducks*
McDonald's is also very popular... ;-)
Unfortunately, this is how the MacOS handles non-Apple® keyboards. You can get those media key functions by installing SizzlingKeys... (which is free)
http://yellowmug.com/sk4it
That's not normal. You must have gotten a dud. Contact help@matias.ca and we'll arrange a replacement.
Just bumping (having read through) this thread.
Daniel Beardsmore: You are right about the lack of grip with the feet and pads on the bottom of the TP3. It's got bugger all to do with dusty or bowed desks. It doesn't matter what desk you put it on, there's absolutely no traction provided by the two pads that are stuck to the bottom of the keyboard. And the legs offer no additional traction whatsoever. In short, traction is ****. I gave up using mine with the legs extended because regardless of the desk it was on, the board went skating. Or maybe lots and lots of people just have very dusty and bowed desks.
But to the main reason for my bumping: Is anyone else using this on OS X, or are you all using it under Windows? The reason I ask is that I'm now having behaviour problems with my own Tactile Pro on OS X Lion. Occasionally the keyboard goes full derp and pressing keys ends up opening the applications, documents or downloads folder and other such things. It also screws up my mouse behaviour and if I try opening say Safari by clicking on the icon on the bottom bar, so I can google "tactile pro 3 faulty" it opens the applications folder again and trying to type anything has random windows popping open and close and selecting elements in various applications or shutting applications. To get the keyboard behaving properly again I have to unplug and plug it back in. It's actually been doing this for a while, but it's the first time I've had it plugged in for a time because I got so fed up with the board, I've been predominantly using the SMK-88 instead. But within 15 minutes of plugging in the Tactile Pro 3 today, it goes full derp again.
Hello:
This is my first post on this board, but not my first mechanical keyboard.
I am using the keyboard on OS X, Lion, and the works great. I have none of the problems you described. Maybe you just got a bad keyboard.
You are right about the traction, though in my case it’s not so bad. It does not move when I am typing or working with it, but the slighted lateral pressure will move it. It’s no worse than other keyboard I have owned, and better than some of them. I have one that actually attached to keyboard tray with Velcro to keep it from moving.
I really like this keyboard. I have the white one.
//skyekeeper
Those are actually decent. They're pretty good as far as rubber domes go and miles better than the ones that preceded them:Show Image(http://snpi.dell.com/snp/images/products/large/310-7995.jpg)