Tap Your Way to the Great American Novel, Bluetooth Retro Style
There is a reason why there is a romance with older geeks and the old ‘clicky’ keys of the late 80’s. We need feedback. Tactile and auditory feedback. That’s our world since birth. Our eyes might get a tickle, but when we reach out for a thing, we need to feel it. Glass touch screens feel great when swiping left and right or up and down – but it leaves a person wanting. I love getting the haptic feedback on my Apple Watch and on my iPhone. It’s confirmation that it reads my input. Call me insecure – I need that. 🙂
More and more people are abandoning the notion of getting a laptop for the cheaper option of a tablet. For coders, this seems nutty at times – because we NEED to have our keyboards and multiple screens and multiple apps. What if you’re away from your desk when you realize there’s some code editing you need to do and all you have is your iPad? You can go to your GitHub repository or go to CodePen – but having to tap out code (or that great American novel you’ve been telling everyone you’re going to write) on a flat piece of glass just isn’t working. There’s no tactile feedback of the actual keys – so you have to keep looking and correcting.
You’ve got choices, but they’re not all ‘clicky’
There are TONS of bluetooth keyboards to choose from – some are full-size, solar powered and fairly decent – but still lacking what our parents and grandparents grew up with – the feel of mechanical, ‘clicky’ typewriter keys. Yeah, buddy!
Enter Penna. El Retron, a company created by James Hughes, has launched a Kickstarter Campaign to get Penna off the ground. Penna has already tripled its funding goal with nearly a month left on the campaign. Penna features Cherry Key Switches – the gold standard of the very pricey and well-loved gaming keyboards for their clicky sounds, amazing feel, and key-click accuracy and zero-latency responsiveness.
This is not just a flat keyboard with ‘clicky’ keys – this has stair step ergonomics to make keyboarding easier to do by touch. Imagine keyboarding while gazing out a window, at your screen or at your cat – but without having to gaze at your keys!
Just over three weeks to go to get this deal
As of this writing, there are still some earlybird options for just $89 for the basic Penna. This is in step with a lot of high end bluetooth keyboards – and when you see the attention to detail put into this set-up, you realize what a bargain that is. I’d love to get my hands on one of these – but I’m sadly over my crowdfunding budget for the month after backing the Populele on Indiegogo. 🙂 Oops.
The keyboard has a generous slot for inserting your phone or even large tablet – more elegantly designed than any I’ve seen. And guess what, Superfans! – You don’t have to use it with a smartdevice – you can use it with your bluetooth-capable desktop computer as well. It’s not just functional, but an elegant conversation piece as well. Think of how gorgeous this keyboard will look in front of an iMac. Even better news – the battery lasts for 6 months.
If you want to really push the envelope on retro – Penna comes in a delectable wood version as well, but you’ll have to pay the tree spirits an extra Benjamin for that privilege.
You can check out the Kickstarter Campaign for Penna, check out the El Retron website, or check them out on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.