| Computers |
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Feature Review: Datadesk 101E
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The World’s Best Computer Keyboard is coming in USB, in PC and Mac versions. $49.95.. Concise Description:
The Datadesk 101E is currently available in one Macintosh ADB model. USB models for both Mac and PC are expected to ship in August. We wanted to write a review on this product because we’re so pleased with the dramatic increase in our typing speed and reduction in errors. Interestingly, after we drafted this review, we read the Datadesk website carefully to check for inaccuracies in our material. Datadesk attributes the defining difference in their keyboard as its “high-quality positive-tactile feedback keys that allow you to type faster with fewer mistakes.” Datadesk’s product pages also feature several other innovative keyboard models with ergonomic key placement, compact design. Of special note is “LittleFingers”, a full-function keyboard scaled to a child’s hands. At Summitlake.com we would take Datadesk’s “touch and feel” claim one step further. In our not inconsiderable experience, we think the Datadesk 101E is very possibly the best keyboard in the world. $49.95. Available direct from Datadesk, or from selected retailers.
“My Qualifications and Experience” A keyboard shouldn’t be a big deal for people who don’t write much, though I suspect many people who don’t write much have just never discovered how well a good keyboard can facilitate word flow. People who write professionally think about keyboard issues a lot. None of us are as unique as we think we are, but I write professionally with an untamed typing technique. I never learned touch-typing. I understand the needs of the professional, but can speak for the needs of people who stumble over the keys in frustration. In a sense, I speak for the worst of both worlds. I write a lot, and my typing technique is so poor that I can boast about it. I use the same deplorable hunt-and-peck typing method I taught myself at age 7. Today, I use more fingers, and my fingers know where all the keys are, but I still need to look at the keyboard to keep the key positioning correct. At age 17, I took a military typing test, at 45 words per minute, on an old Underwood manual typewriter. Many years later, I took a more rigorous test on an IBM Selectric, clocking 70-1/2 words per minute for five minutes, with one error. It seems plausible that a well-designed keyboard could help a typist like me, relatively more so than a highly trained typist. However, the Datadesk website shows a testimonial from a “typing world record holder” that another model of Datadesk, with the same feel, improved his speed, too. I’ve written all my life. Summitlake.com currently hosts some 650 pages, most of which were authored by me in the last 5 years. My professional career is also writing intensive, and I create many hundreds of pages of finished test and product documentation every year. Like so many people today, I also field thousands of email messages a month. A really good keyboard is really important to me. My current goal: to replace my “fleet” of PC keyboards at work and home with Datadesk 101E’s as soon as the USB models hit the market. I also just bought a new iMac, which I like, but I just can’t type on the beautiful, exquisitely styled keyboard supplied with my iMac. I already ordered the old-style ADB 101E from Datadesk for my iMac, and a USB-to-ADB converter so I can operate it, because I can’t stand the idea of being without a Datadesk any longer. To make a long story short: I bought my Datadesk 101E in 1997. It quickly improved my typing speed by about 50% without special attention on my part, and reduced my error rate noticeably. When Apple dumped the Mac clones in that same year, I bought a PC. My almost-new Power Computing clone and my Datadesk languished, almost unused, for four years, ending up in a closet in Phoenix. On vacation in Phoenix last month, I had occasion to set up the old Power Tower Pro again. My fingers remembered the Datadesk 101E immediately, and I was amazed at how quickly my typing speed picked up. It was like visiting a great old friend for the first time in years. Thus was my search for new Datadesks reborn. A Short Recent History of Keyboards Enter the wonderful world of PC’s. In its frenzy to re-invent everything, new industries threw out everything we knew about keyboards. We had flat panels with all of the “touch” of a Formica countertop. We had “keys” that were flat plastic paddles sitting on top of the flimsiest plastic and foil contacts. In a word, they were dreadful. And, IBM re-invented the Selectric keyboard for its PC, with much of the look and feel of the original. Each keystroke bore the distinctive IBM PC key clack, “the shot heard round the world”, just as if users still needed to hear the sound of a metal ball striking typewriter ribbon and platen. An office full of the distinctive IBM “keyclick” sounds like a hailstorm on a tin roof. Office wars are still fought over keyboard sounds. I recall some hair-raising annoyances. There was one person who used to channel amazing frustration and nervous energy into her keyboard. You could tell what kind of a day she was having anywhere in the office by the rise, fall and erratic clatter of her typing. On a particularly bad day, you could hear short nervous bursts of keystrokes, followed by irregular pauses like a stopped heartbeat. These would erupt into a frenzied burst of staccato keyboard chatter, punctuated by an occasional angry CLACK! upon hitting the <enter> key. Then there was “M.”, who submitted mainframe jobs on a terminal emulator. The procedure was simple: type sub, and hit the <enter> key. This simple sequence can unleash awesome processing power, and for M. required a similarly awesome delivery. “M.” would type “sub”, raise his massive paw to shoulder height, and then slam it down on the <enter> key with a BANG report that would wake the dead in Forest Lawn. You can’t blame all of this on inferior keyboard design, but careful and thoughtful design can greatly help minimize this kind of distraction. What We know About Ergonomics The Datadesk 101E is a quiet, remarkably fast keyboard. I don’t possess the technical terminology to describe it adequately, but you can read the specs on the Datadesk website. What I can tell you is what the experience feels like. In a single word: natural. I don’t know how to explain the “natural” flow of words from the brain to the fingers to the keyboard to the monitor screen. What I do know is that bad keyboards interfere with this flow. Good keyboards don’t get in your way. Badly designed keyboards throw a monkey wrench into the hand-eye coordination. A single typo can throw the whole flow out of whack. Correcting it can become a project unto itself. Even for someone like me, who must still look at the keys to ensure proper finger placement, the fingers can get out of synch with the brain and eyes if they trip over a mechanical issue with the keys. Keys that don’t depress uniformly, or which stick, or which give no tactile feedback, will require users to check their work more frequently no matter what typing method they use. Similarly, unfriendly keys must be depressed too deeply to actuate the desired letter, else they type something at the slightest touch. A lack of tactile feedback only magnifies these problems.
Carpal Tunnel syndrome is an ever-present borderline issue for me. I have to pay attention to what my wrists and tendons tell me. I’ve never pushed it over the edge, but I do have the little stress balls and rubber bands for my wrist and finger exercises. I try to watch my typing position and posture. While I saw no claims by Datadesk about a possible reduction in repetitive stress injuries, I exert far less effort to type rapidly and well on my Datadesk, and I can feel the difference as a welcome relief from my early-warning twinges of RSI pain. A Phone Call to Datadesk With all of these considerations freshly in mind, and with my recent distaste of the new iMac keyboard (I know that some people love it), I visited the Datadesk website once again. I was horrified to see no listing for the 101E. (It was there, but I missed it. You have to select 101E in the pop-up field on the product page) I wrote Datadesk, and received a prompt reply inviting me to call them. I reached a friendly, knowledgeable contact who confirmed they did have my 101E in stock, for only $49.95. I asked if they were taking pre-orders on the USB models. I want to order one Mac and two PC USB models, replacing almost my entire fleet. The USB models are scheduled for release in August, but the exact date is not firm so they are not yet taking pre-orders. The new USB models will have the same key mechanism, feel and quality of the original ADB 101E, but the company has made some concessions to styling. The original ADB Mac 101E, while not bad looking, does not have an appearance that would prompt many teenagers to call it “cool”. To me, the 101E features "classic" styling, not so "Buck Rogers" as more expensive high-end underperformers, and I like it. The 101E keyboard is full-sized and full-function. Key spacing is “perfect” for me; my current PC keyboards have large gaps between the keys. This slows me down, whereas my iMac keyboard has the same size keys spaced very closely together, sending my error rate through the roof. You can notice a remarkable difference in the “feel” by “dry typing”, as you would do in a store display rack where the keyboards are displayed but not connected to anything. You immediately notice the full effect of this difference, though, in real-world typing. The “cool” is inside the mechanism. It’s in the usage. Your fingers will know right away. This is the kind of keyboard that's easy to hoard. This is not one of those keyboards that “you get used to in 6 months”. This is the kind of product that is really easy to get used to, like DSL. Once you use a 101E, you will wonder how you ever did it any other way. Alex Forbes |
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