Your Favorite Keyboard Item of 2013 | Your Keyboard Predictions for 2014

[CPTBadAss]

We're coming up on a new year so I thought this would be fun. What was your favorite new keyboard related item of 2013? And what is everyone looking forward to or excited about for 2014?

Quick Best of 2013 for me:

This is all off the top of my head. I thought the Code and V2 WASD keyboards, Poker II, and Ducky Mini/Shine 3 were cool. The Code and V2 were very customiziable with all the DIP switch settings, giving options for different swtiches like MX Clears, and (at least the V2) selling a keycap less board. Poker II is a programmable 60% board which is just plain cool. And I thought the Mini and Shine 3 just looked cool.

As well as tinlong's Kishsaver find ^__^. And for mods, I liked xwhatsit's Beam Spring controller and Matt30's custom keyboards. I think the keyboards I was most excited to touch this year were the AT F, Kingsaver, wcass' 60% custom buckling spring, KMAC, and a G80-5000.


For 2014 I'm most excited for:

- Matias' 60% Alps Group Buy
- Sprit's Alps PCB Group Buy
- The popularity of SA sets
- mkawa's SSK
- wcass' buckling spring projects
- Anything haata works on
- Kishsaver controllers

And even though I'm not a huge fan of Topre switches, I think the CoolerMaster Topre board is going to be cool as hell. Oh, before I forget, I'm calling it now, 2014 is the Year of the Alps

[Linkbane]

My vote for the Topre-compatible CM boards, and also for the new LED MX switches. New technology!

[MKULTRA]

Crazy predictions for 2014 right here people

GH60 will be shipped
Toxic will be shipped
Calm Derps will be shipped

EDIT:

Round 5 will NOT ship

[riotonthebay]

This is lame, but my favorite keyboard item is the only and first mechanical keyboard I've bought, my QFStealth. Yay mechanical keyboards! I've not had a hobby for a while, so 2014 will be exciting for me .

[tp4tissue]

Egdx4Lyf

[Moosecraft]

Calm Derps will be shipped

Lol Calm Derps

I'm most excited for mkawa's SSK and my LZ-FE

EDIT: CM storm MX compatible topre aswell

[AuRinBei]

This year: Penumbra set.

Next year: MX compatible Topre stems, Topre keycaps from Leopold (seriously, this needs to happen immediately), and Vortex PBT doubleshots (a more normal font? reverse colors?)

[Morwrath]

Fav Keyboard item of 2013 is easily Ducky Mini for me, never had a 60% so it was a lot of fun to get used to the layout.
Found out that white LEDs are my favourite aswel this year

[keymaster]

Excited for:
*MX-compatible Topre CM keyboard
*perfected double-shot PBT (think Dolch)

[genkidama]

This year was my start into this whole world and that I bought a Shine 3. The first among hopefully many to come keyboards.

What I'm excited for is a GH75% v2, getting a PBT or the new polycarbonate keycaps for my Ducky or a second keyboard and getting a new wallet, so the wallethack doesn't hurt so much )

[babyface]

A memorable moment would be the LZ-GH no? 

[terran5992]

Ill be lookiing forward to Bro caps next year

[Candyflip]

The new LED seem quite nice but the real thing to look out for in 2014 for me is the Topre x Cherry board teased by CM.

[tuxsavvy]

This is lame, but my favorite keyboard item is the only and first mechanical keyboard I've bought, my QFStealth. Yay mechanical keyboards! I've not had a hobby for a while, so 2014 will be exciting for me .

You're not alone there, my HHKB Pro JP Type-S is also my first (well not entirely true) mechanical keyboard. I guess it could be easily seen as my welcoming back into mechanical keyboard realm after having two partially working Alps based keyboards.

In either case I am sure there will be plenty of interesting things to look forward to in 2014. Compatible Topre stems, more colourful LED based key switches, Matias's 60% board are just barely skimming the surface of the iceberg for me.

[metalliqaz]

Best of 2013?  KMAC2 hands down.

[dante]

We're coming up on a new year so I thought this would be fun. What was your favorite new keyboard related item of 2013? And what is everyone looking forward to or excited about for 2014?

Quick Best of 2013 for me:

This is all off the top of my head. I thought the Code and V2 WASD keyboards, Poker II, and Ducky Mini/Shine 3 were cool. The Code and V2 were very customiziable with all the DIP switch settings, giving options for different swtiches like MX Clears, and (at least the V2) selling a keycap less board. Poker II is a programmable 60% board which is just plain cool. And I thought the Mini and Shine 3 just looked cool.


For 2014 I'm most excited for:

- Matias' 60% Alps Group Buy
- Sprit's Alps PCB Group Buy
- The popularity of SA sets
- mkawa's SSK
- wcass' buckling spring projects

And even though I'm not a huge fan of Topre switches, I think the CoolerMaster Topre board is going to be cool as hell. Oh, before I forget, I'm calling it now, 2014 is the Year of the Alps

Your list is pretty much similar to mine.  The only thing I'd like to add is more Cherry MX Green options (ie WASD 87 V2 barebones)

[kmiller8]

2014 year of D-Squad and RGB.

[JPG]

I think 2013 was the year of the 60%

I think 2014 will show custom buckling spring keyboards!

[dorkvader]

And even though I'm not a huge fan of Topre switches, I think the CoolerMaster Topre board is going to be cool as hell. Oh, before I forget, I'm calling it now, 2014 is the Year of the Alps

I call 2014 year of the Hall effect.

[tbc]

2013

this is the year I got into keyboards (I used to think CM QF TK was a endgame board in dec 2012 xD , so everything was awesome lol.  But the minila and shine 3 are going to ahve to be my greatest picks.

2014

I'm personally looking forward to ivan's blank black cherry PBT.  but the real game changer is definitely going to be the CM topre MX boards.

[Stevenator21]

2013 - This year was the year I got into Keyboards (Joined in August). I am getting a Ducky Shine 3 TKL so I guess that was my fav thing from this year.
2014- Looking foward to RGB Switches, although the fact that they will be Corsair-only dampens my excitement a little, and the rumored CM Boards w/ Topre.

[AKIMbO]

Best 2013= Kingsavers mang!
2014 predictions= More american custom keyboards, less Korean customs.

[CPTBadAss]

Best 2013= Kingsavers mang!
2014 predictions= More american custom keyboards, less Korean customs.

2014: Kingsaver 2 is released. Akimbro and CPTBadAss post their impromptu celebratory jig on YouTubes.

[Photekq]

2013 : My Cherry G80-1501HAD. I love this board so damn much. To think I bought it for like 40 euros shipped or something... Hands down the best board I've used so far (of course, tek80 hasn't been assembled yet)
2014: Big things from various people

[Wildcard]

The new Topre boards, including the Leopold FC660C.

2014 - looking forward to the HHKB 3

But seriously, 2014 is going to be the year of the SA profile sets.

Also, there's going to be a serious shortage of Topre key sets.

[Belfong]

I started this mechanical keyboard craze in Sept 2013 and since then I have owned quite a number of boards, most notably the HHKB and WASD Code. And on top of that, I have also spend quite a lot on key caps. So for 2014, I am going to try and slow down as I only have two hands and two PCs (work and home) - there isn't really any point in buying keyboards and key caps anymore until I used those I have.

Therefore, I am really looking forward to Matias 60% Alps GB and any key caps that he will offer AND any Bro bots caps. Other than that, I will recoup my hacked wallet for a year

[ynrozturk]

For me it was the Poker II. I just love this thing so hard.

[dante]

2014 = MechanicalKeyboards.com will roll out complete 60% and Phantom keyboard kits.

^ Maybe even stock some soldering equipment

[BlackWidowMan777]

I started this mechanical keyboard craze in Sept 2013 and since then I have owned quite a number of boards, most notably the HHKB and WASD Code. And on top of that, I have also spend quite a lot on key caps. So for 2014, I am going to try and slow down as I only have two hands and two PCs (work and home) - there isn't really any point in buying keyboards and key caps anymore until I used those I have.

Therefore, I am really looking forward to Matias 60% Alps GB and any key caps that he will offer AND any Bro bots caps. Other than that, I will recoup my hacked wallet for a year

You need to start a Keyboardaholics Anonymous Group cos I predict before long there will be more weird and wonderful stuff to tempt us gadget loving freaks like: self-levitating keyboards to use when lying in bed, 60% keyboards embedded in the car steering wheel, and as someone mentioned before a rotisserie-style keyboard rack for multiple keyboards. My advice to newbies is to get out now while you can still afford a decent pair of trousers!

[BlackWidowMan777]

I would dearly love to see a mechanical keyboard laptop/hydrid - something along the lines of a surface pro 2 or lenovo thinkpad helix that has the guts of the computer behind the screen with an attached mechanical keyboard. All they would then need to do is stick it in some rugged looking case and you would be good to go. Mechanical keyboard + windows/linux/ + tablet on the go!

[ahmadmzak]

2013 - Poker 2 (first mech kb) 60% size is just perfect imo. Not too small, and can do everything.

2014 - Interested to see what CM Topre will be like and how much it will cost. HHKB Pro 3 (55g) Type-S ?

 

[bueller]

2013 - For me it would probably be my KBT Pure. It was my first foray into 60% and I'm a convert. Swapped the stems out for clears and it's like keyboard nirvana! Dolch set is a very close second, love me some Cherry caps.

2014 - CM Storm Topre, all the new GMK caps and the possibility of getting a GMK Toxic set has me moist with anticipation *seedy grin*

[Dude]

Since I'm new to this world, I'll just post my 2014 prediction.

2014: More Topre keycap options.  With the new lower cost options for Topre keyboards, I am hopeful that there will be more custom keycap options in the upcoming year.

[Findecanor]

2013: My favourite keyboard-related "item" was the Desktority Keyboard Party in the Netherlands. Much too low attendance, though...
I also finally got hold of high-quality Cherry key sets in my native language: Swedish.

For this year I had predicted:

Cherry will come out with a new switch variant, but I predict that it will not be radically different from any of the existing types, and that will make people disappointed.

2014:
* I predict that the new capacitative rubber domes with Cherry MX-stem will confuse people about being mechanical or not.
* I will release the keyboard firmware for AVR that I have been working on, and people will have lots of problems with weird bugs and performance. Someone will fork it with a "fix", which will only make it run a lot of dead code instead of correctly.
* Keyboard manufacturers will unfortunately continue with the custom of producing "Nordic" key sets instead of separate key sets for Danish, Swedish-Finnish and Norwegian layouts. There might even be more manufacturers than before that do this. Cheap asses...
* GMK will do something to make it even harder for community-run runs of keycaps from them.

[CPTBadAss]

* GMK will do something to make it even harder for community-run runs of keycaps from them.

Ha, that made me laugh in real life!

[Game Theory]

2013 Xwhatsit's beam spring controller.  It rekindled my interest in keyboards.  And then Tinlong's Kishsaver find and distribution with CPTBadAss' help!
2014 Year of the capacitance controller and the resulting continued ramp of vintage keyboard prices.  Hopefully Haata's custom switch is revealed and design completed too.  Wish for continued Topre keyboard production.

[kyb]

2014  - hasu will finish the HHKB bluetooth controller

[daerid]

2013 Fav item: ErgoDox
2014 Prediction: More ErgoDoxen

[Pacifist]

2013--QazPad, which should be done by Christmas if the case arrives on time
2014--CM topre MX and the bunny raindrop GB to go on it

[taylordcraig]

Reserved for when I have the strength to edit.

For now I'm loving Code Keyboard from this year and looking forward to blank black PBT and decking out my boards in other ways.

[Pacifist]

code looked pretty good and was going to be my first mech. I was online when they restocked backorders, but my money was split between paypal and debit so couldn't buy one....then the second time they got restocked again I already bought a bunch of keycaps and a board and couldnt afford it

[Belfong]

code looked pretty good and was going to be my first mech. I was online when they restocked backorders, but my money was split between paypal and debit so couldn't buy one....then the second time they got restocked again I already bought a bunch of keycaps and a board and couldnt afford it

The new Code would have MX Greens and I find that exciting and different. It's time to order, Pacifist.

[tinlong117]

2013 - keyboard of the year - kishsaver!
-----------------------------
2014 - more clacks hype

[terran5992]

Metal Clack Skulls

[snoopy]

2013
Release of more colors for BucklingSpring Clacks
Nightowl
tinnie's discovery of the kishsavers
Metal v2 BroBots
......................................................................
2014
An affordable tri-color BS Clack
tinnie finds a pallet full of Industrial SSK
kishsaver will be usable on modern pc
Bro makes a metal BS Bot
SmallFry Keyboard release
I build my first custom mx keyboard (whatever this will be)


And I think I forgot something

[Jixr]

I would dearly love to see a mechanical keyboard laptop/hydrid - something along the lines of a surface pro 2 or lenovo thinkpad helix that has the guts of the computer behind the screen with an attached mechanical keyboard. All they would then need to do is stick it in some rugged looking case and you would be good to go. Mechanical keyboard + windows/linux/ + tablet on the go!

you can always do what i'm planning on doing, buying an ipad/surface and plugging a 60% into it.

Since I have an extra QFR laying around i'm really trying to see how hard it would be to buy a ipad stand and somehow
epoxy it to the case. its just an idea for now, but i'll be picking up an ipad sometime this week.

[Linkbane]

I would dearly love to see a mechanical keyboard laptop/hydrid - something along the lines of a surface pro 2 or lenovo thinkpad helix that has the guts of the computer behind the screen with an attached mechanical keyboard. All they would then need to do is stick it in some rugged looking case and you would be good to go. Mechanical keyboard + windows/linux/ + tablet on the go!

you can always do what i'm planning on doing, buying an ipad/surface and plugging a 60% into it.

Since I have an extra QFR laying around i'm really trying to see how hard it would be to buy a ipad stand and somehow
epoxy it to the case. its just an idea for now, but i'll be picking up an ipad sometime this week.

Wouldn't fitting be an issue? As far as I know, even the smallest 60% boards are slightly larger than the iPad, and the QFR should be quite a bit larger..
Please put some pictures though; if it works it'd be really interesting to see its dimensions.