Reserved! I would have paid the 249 today btw :) she looks beautiful.
Show HN: I spent 2 years designing a mechanical Magic Keyboard
91–100 of 246 posts
Re: Show HN: I spent 2 years designing a mechanical Magic Keyboard
#92Great work! Have you, or do you intend to, write about the process of bringing this to fruition? Would love to learn more about how a polished bit of hardware like this is designed.
Re: Show HN: I spent 2 years designing a mechanical Magic Keyboard
#93I love it when people obsessively iterate over something seemingly trivial until it's exactly what they want. This looks amazing, congrats on the launch. I love mechanical keys, but I keep coming back to the Magic keyboard because mechanical keyboards are so clunky. I would order this in a heartbeat if it was available with a nordic layout
> ... but I keep coming back to the Magic keyboard because mechanical keyboards are so clunky
For a laptop or for a desktop? For a desktop the keyboard sits its entire life on the... desk?
And a laptop happens to have its own keyboard. The only people I know who use an external keyboard with a laptop do it precisely because they want a particular mechanical switch / keyboard layout.
Are there people taking their Magic keyboard with them in their backpack or car or whatever just to hook it to a laptop? I don't think many do that.
So you find a keyboard on a desk looks clunky? Do you need a "not clunky" keyboard to take pictures you post on Instagram?
I've got a 60% mechanical keyboard on my desk: its footprint is smaller than some Magic keyboard versions. And, well, vertically there's room on my desk.
Re: Show HN: I spent 2 years designing a mechanical Magic Keyboard
#94Very cool looking, but there is an ocean of mechanical keyboards already available with the US keyboard layout. I would explore making ISO international versions. That market is underserved. Because I wanted a mechanical keyboard with a CAN/CSA Z243.200-92 layout with Mac modifiers, I had to design my own layout in SVG for a Max Keyboards custom job. Keep in mind, I did not want to design my own, but I had to!
Tu connais Qwerty Lafayette? https://qwerty-lafayette.org/
Je suis gaucher, et j'ai fait le choix idiot quand j'étais jeune de mettre ma souris à gauche. C'est un choix très étrange, mais ça fait en sorte que je n'ai jamais eu à me troubler des touches supplémentaires à droite. Sont juste là, accessible, et pas dans mon chemin. Mon clavier est de pleine taille sans enjeu ergonomique pour moi.
Re: Show HN: I spent 2 years designing a mechanical Magic Keyboard
#95[dead]
Re: Show HN: I spent 2 years designing a mechanical Magic Keyboard
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
The travel distance on the Altar II switches is 1.8mm, so about 0.8mm more than on a MacBook keyboard. Similar to those keyboards, there is very little pre-travel on Altar II keys. With regard to Windows keys that is a possibility. We shipped our previous keyboard, Altar I, with both Mac and Windows markings on the keys.
It looks like the travel distance on the Microsoft Designer Keyboard is 1.35mm, so not far off. How long are preorders/is the preorder discount available? I may seriously consider this.
Reservations are open until the Kickstarter launches on November 10th 2026.
Re: Show HN: I spent 2 years designing a mechanical Magic Keyboard
#97Great looking keyboard but why are the numbers on the number keys so large? They stick out like a sore thumb.
Re: Show HN: I spent 2 years designing a mechanical Magic Keyboard
#98I love this! Though I don't own a Mac anymore. I expect this to work as a standard keyboard in Linux? Which features are mac-only?
Re: Show HN: I spent 2 years designing a mechanical Magic Keyboard
#99Well, for programming it's not convenient -- no Insert/Pageup/Screenshot buttons.
Re: Show HN: I spent 2 years designing a mechanical Magic Keyboard
#100What a beautiful device. Few questions:
Will it be okay for someone who switches between devices and OSes often? Can I have layers that I can swap between like on a VIA board?
What is the click latency?
Is USB just for charging or can I use it without BT?