Earlier quoted context omitted.
[deleted]
There are only two different versions for key shape and positions if I didn't miss one: the US variant and everything else.
Japanese has the fat enter.
Around the World in 33 Keyboards
51–60 of 74 posts
Re: Around the World in 33 Keyboards
#52It's interesting that Apple's keyboard designs all revolve around on-demand parts. The holes can be milled to any arbitrary size or shape. The labels on the keys themselves are lasered on as necessary.
Apart from the membrane and the key shapes, this keyboard looks like it's intended to be highly reconfigurable.
This probably makes it easy for a single assembly line to slot in the keyboard for the destination region without too much fuss. Russian keyboard on one unit, Belgian on the next, no big deal.
I can only imagine how complicated that might be for a company like Logitech or Dell where the caps themselves are injection molded with the letters built in.
Re: Around the World in 33 Keyboards
#53Looking at the subtle layout changes for Roman characters (which I assume are based only on letter frequency for each language) I wonder if it's possible to tell if they are more, less, or the same efficiency as QWERTY is for U.S. keyboards. Also, are there Dvorak equivalents for other languages?
There is one for German, the Neo layout: http://neo-layout.org/index_en.html
Re: Around the World in 33 Keyboards
#54[deleted]
I'm from Finland and have an used Thinkpad that originally came from Germany and has a German keyboard layout. As long as you can touch type, it's not actually an issue at all, since I can just switch the keyboard layout to Finnish in the OS and go from there - the keyboard has the same amount of keys in all the same places, after all.
The only time I've had an issue in this regard is with US keyboards, because the physical key layout is actually different. Most notably, "international" keyboard layouts have a a button next to left shift that's missing from US keyboards, which is used to write , and | in the Finnish layout (and most other intl layouts), and no key maps to it if you switch to a Finnish layout on a US keyboard. This made programming an exercise in great frustration. (I also really didn't like the short Enter, I kept constantly hitting the button above it due to having used a tall Enter for all of my life before.)
Re: Around the World in 33 Keyboards
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are only two different versions for key shape and positions if I didn't miss one: the US variant and everything else.
Japanese has the fat enter.
Thanks, you are right and upon closer inspection South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand use US-style keys as well. My point still stands: If you have an European laptop at hand and don't care about the markings, you can freely use any of the other European keyboard layouts.
Re: Around the World in 33 Keyboards
#56The Italian keyboard has a £ symbol. I wonder why.
It's a symbol for the now-defunct lira, though a 'L' was probably more usual.
Re: Around the World in 33 Keyboards
#57Apple only do one keyboard layout, it's US of A, anyone from the countries listed there will tell you that.
How could you possibly be more wrong?
Well when I ordered my first mac I clicked British keyboard. I nearly sent it back as I thought they'd sent the wrong one.
The " was not on number 2 The # symbol had appeared on number 3 Where was my £ symbol
If they can't get a British keyboard right I have serious doubts about other countries.
Re: Around the World in 33 Keyboards
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's kind of the point - because of the keyboard you cannot buy your laptop from Bulgaria, Taiwan, or the US where it might be cheaper because your users will want a German keyboard instead of Bulgarian, Chinese, or American.
Can you really call it "region-locking" if you are free to use anything else but your users prefer not because it provides advantages for them? Separate keys for ÄÖÜ are important to German users. It's not done to lower the resale value but to sell it to the first user at all.
It's not really region locking, I was just expanding on his point. Unlike region locking, the keyboard customizations don't have a purpose of locking out other users; however, they have a tiny side effect of inconvenience that's similar to region locking.
Re: Around the World in 33 Keyboards
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you really call it "region-locking" if you are free to use anything else but your users prefer not because it provides advantages for them? Separate keys for ÄÖÜ are important to German users. It's not done to lower the resale value but to sell it to the first user at all.
It's not really region locking, I was just expanding on his point. Unlike region locking, the keyboard customizations don't have a purpose of locking out other users; however, they have a tiny side effect of inconvenience that's similar to region locking.
The user claimed the the primary purpose was to lower resale value. That isn't the case.
Nobody forces one to buy the regional variant. The Apple online shop has different keyboards to choose from.
Re: Around the World in 33 Keyboards
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not really region locking, I was just expanding on his point. Unlike region locking, the keyboard customizations don't have a purpose of locking out other users; however, they have a tiny side effect of inconvenience that's similar to region locking.
The user claimed the the primary purpose was to lower resale value. That isn't the case. Nobody forces one to buy the regional variant. The Apple online shop has different keyboards to choose from.
Yeah, I glossed over that. No, I don't agree that the primary purpose is to lower resale value, that much is obvious; it's just a side effect in some cases.
There are some limitations - for example, the German Apple store limits itself to 8-9 kinds of keyboards, though I guess it's more out of practicality than nefarious business decisions.