das keyboard: no letters = faster typing

computing | design | media players | strange and wonderful

July 13th, 2008 post a comment (14) stumble it! by: technabob

I sit at a computer much of the day and always thought I was a pretty fast typer. But apparently, those pesky painted letters on my key caps are actually slowing me down. Thankfully, there’s a new keyboard that gets rid of the tiny bit of extra drag that those characters put on my tapping fingertips.

DAS Ultimate Keyboard Black up Close

The Das Ultimate Keyboard is completely blank. That’s right, each and every one of its 104 keys (105 in Europe) is devoid of letters, numbers, or special characters of any sort. For those of us who are completely in touch with our touch-typing capabilities, I say, why the heck not?

DAS Pro No Letter Keyboard

Your friends and co-workers will certainly think you’re way too cool for them, what with this stealthy black beast on your desktop. Never mind the fact that Das Keyboards are designed to be the best and fastest keyboards on the planet. Featuring German-engineered gold-plated mechanical switches, each key offers up a satisfying tactile and audible “click” when pressed (supposedly reminiscent of the “legendary” IBM model M keyboard).

DAS Ultimate Keyboard No Letters

Also along for the ride is a built-in high-speed USB hub, and a nice long 2-meter (6.6 foot) USB cable, giving you plenty of slack for efficient typing. But if your QWERTY often reads QSFRTG, you can go for the Das Professional - which still has all its letters - but what are you, some sort of wimp?

Das Ultimate and Professional keyboards normally retail for $129, but if you pre-order now you can grab one for just $99. (They’re supposed to be released on 7/14, so you better get a move on!)

[via Gear Diary]

July 13th, 2008 post a comment (14) stumble it! by: technabob

14 comments post a comment

1. lol | July 14th, 2008 at 9:49 am

awessoomeee
2. Tiny Tiger | July 14th, 2008 at 10:20 am

Majority of us have used keyboards for quite some time…so we all know where all the keys are. Subconciously, we know where all the keys are anyway (I type this looking at the keyboard twice just incase!)
3. DudeZilla | July 15th, 2008 at 9:10 am

Its true that we get used to KBs, but what do you do when you are cleaning it ? *Evil*
4. Oloijo | July 15th, 2008 at 3:37 pm

This keyboard is better
http://klawiatura.wordpress.com

but write on it a signs
5. Angry Roy | July 15th, 2008 at 10:27 pm

you can make your own. just paint over the letters. i’m doing that on my laptop right now. i beat the system. fuck you.
6. Ken | July 15th, 2008 at 11:46 pm

Man, this is weirdly awesome! No letters keyboard will amazed my nieces - because they will wondering how I can type on this alien keyboard! LOL
7. Alan | July 16th, 2008 at 2:21 am

They’ll think it really alien if you paint weird symbols and squiggles on the keys.
8. Ian S | July 16th, 2008 at 3:59 am

At 3. Whats it matter if you don’t know where the buttons came from.? They’re all the same anyway.
9. Calum | July 16th, 2008 at 7:16 am

I have a simpler solution…. Grab an old keyboard and apply Tip-ex to the keys?! Why the hell would i pay (only) $99 for what is already an old idea. I’ve seen other versions of this and frankly, there are better keyboards on the market for a fraction of the price.

You’re only paying an extorsionate ammount for the privallige of not being able to see the keys. As i said, nothing a bit of Tip-ex can’t handle!
10. jbee | July 16th, 2008 at 9:50 am

Photoshopped!
11. Rawr | July 16th, 2008 at 5:15 pm

http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/
Optimus ;D
12. Axion | July 16th, 2008 at 11:02 pm

this has been on thinkgeek.com for about 4 years. What is this “release” you talk of?
13. Dave | July 17th, 2008 at 3:38 am

How does it make you type faster?
o_O
14. technabob | July 17th, 2008 at 10:47 am

To Axion: The release is that these are a redesigned version (v3.0) of the keyboard which improves upon the original which has been up on ThinkGeek for a while.

To Dave: Okay - you got me. Maybe it’s not any faster because its blank (unless you think that the paint on the keys cause wind resistance). But the Das keyboards in general do improve typing speed and accuracy because of their high-quality switches and excellent tactile feedback.