Lenovo Tinkers With Larger Delete and Escape Keys 586
Slatterz writes "After a year's research, Lenovo boffins have decided the time is right to install larger Delete and Escape keys on their updated ThinkPad laptop T400s range. While it is a small change, it is fairly radical to tinker with an area of hardware which has been largely unchanged since the 19th century. What convinced them to make the size-change was doing some tests on users to see which keys they use the most. They found that on average, people used the Escape and Delete keys 700 times per week, yet those were the only non-letter keys that Lenovo hasn't made any bigger." The article says Caps Lock may be next on the agenda; death is too good for Caps Lock.
Nineteenth Century (Score:5, Informative)
Re:HERE'S AN IDEA (Score:5, Informative)
This is a ridiculous story as HP already messed with keyboards.
Try checking out the HP laptop keyboards on Canadian laptops. Dear god the layout on those things is terrible. The old QWERTY stuff is in the right place but punctuation etc... Is all over the place. Absolutely horrendous keyboards. I wound up having to use a USB keyboard with it as the default keyboard is damn near unusable unless you like doing a LOT of deleting and retyping of stuff.
Re:Caps lock will be the end of unintended shoutin (Score:5, Informative)
How else would they use vi and emacs?
Re:Article?!? (Score:4, Informative)
Straight from Lenovo: http://lenovoblogs.com/designmatters/?p=1565 [lenovoblogs.com]
Re:Location, location, location (Score:3, Informative)
For my money, I wish they would just lay off the IBM keyboard design. Thinkpads should not have a Windows key. :)
Yes, absolutely. Lenovo's biggest mistake is tarnishing the ThinkPad keyboard with a 'doze key. The second biggest mistake is making (almost) all ThinkPads shortscreen, but my understanding is that they were essentially forced down that path by their suppliers.
Re:Location, location, location (Score:2, Informative)
This may not make you hate Apple laptop keyboards any less, but you can use fn + delete to delete characters.
Re:Boffins? (Score:5, Informative)
America doesn't use the word 'boffins'? That's such a 'regular' word (to me) that I never even realised it was slang. (I'm Australian but have lived in America for quite a while - never occurred to me you guys didn't use that word). Well you learn something every day.
Sure enough though, you are right (according to Wiki). And the fact that most of the hits you get on Google if you search for the term are .au or .uk sites.
Having said that, I think it's pretty obvious what it means given the rest of the sentence. Plus Slashdot often uses US slang (or not even slang, but US words which have other equivalents elsewhere) all the time in headlines, but that doesn't trouble the rest of us (too much). Context is your friend.
Re:Caps lock will be the end of unintended shoutin (Score:3, Informative)
More like pen and paper.
Re:No need (Score:3, Informative)
I could really use the CAPS LOCK key taken off. Completely.
I'm not sure why it's usually placed to the left of the "A" key at all. I've never used it in 3 decades of experience, except by accident. Hello?
The FIRST thing I do to a computer that I have to use for any length of time at all is turn off CAPSLOCK and make it a control key, unless the keyboard is sensible like a Sun keyboard.
Re:No need (Score:3, Informative)
...and since the ctrl-alt-delete keys are so often used in Windows PC's, why don't they regroup them to their own region of the keyboard? In fact, why not combine them into a unique oversized (and possibly bright red) "panic button"? But I digress... keyboards should reflect progressive user habits; not the failings of the operating system they control.
Key size is not the only pre-90's "tradition" that has to go - the "num lock" key is rather pointless for most desktop users - the numeric pad has been an integrated part of most all desktop keyboards since decades - mac recognised this trait quite early in the game.
Re:HERE'S AN IDEA (Score:4, Informative)
I've been very happy with my HP laptops and desktops and their quality control.
I wouldn't know about XP drivers, but the hardware runs current versions of Windows and Linux just fine.
Re:No need (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Location, location, location (Score:4, Informative)
But that doesn't make it OK for Apple to screw up the keys in the first place.
Re:HERE'S AN IDEA (Score:3, Informative)
If you hate typing, you could try using speech recognition software. It's come a long way.
All I need to ruin your argument is one letter.
C.
Re:No need (Score:3, Informative)
...the "num lock" key is rather pointless for most desktop users - the numeric pad has been an integrated part of most all desktop keyboards since decades...
Do you even know what NumLock is for? It's to allow you to toggle your numeric keypad between numbers and positioning keys (arrows, PgUp, etc.).
As the user of a laptop with a numeric keypad (one of the reasons I bought the unit), I happen to find NumLock extremely useful. If you really don't care for its presence on your keyboard, I'll be happy to loan you a pair of pliers.
Re:Boffins? (Score:3, Informative)
America doesn't use the word 'boffins'?
No. If there's one thing that instantly pegs someone as "not American", it's using the word 'boffin'. Either that, or looking shocked when we talk about "spanking a child's fanny."
Re:No need (Score:3, Informative)
it calls the almighty Task Manager to lay its hammer of destruction on the deviant criminal processes that are locked down.
You don't need Ctrl+Alt+Del for that. Ctrl+Shift+Esc will start the Task Manager directly, without the extra screen.
Re:HERE'S AN IDEA (Score:5, Informative)
Mods: Actually, he may have a point.
IIRC, Canada gets two different keyboard layouts - US English, and French-Canadian. I'm guessing someone accidentally bought a French-Canadian layout.
Re:Boffins? (Score:1, Informative)
The troll is now enjoying his tasty meal.
Re:No need (Score:5, Informative)
CTRL + SHIFT + ESC brings the task manager without bringing up the fullscreen
Re:HERE'S AN IDEA (Score:2, Informative)
"I hope they tinker with smaller price tags some day."
Actually, they have. I'm typing this from a Thinkpad SL500, which cost me about half as much as a "real" thinkpad with similar specs (P7370, 1680x1050 matte screen), but leaves a lot to be desired in terms of build quality. Had to fix a lot of stuff before I got around to using it (keyboard was bent because of wires below, weird metal pieces with no discernable function made the palmrest bulge to the left of the trackpad), and the keyboard isn't exactly stellar - a complete joke if you're used to T-series thinkpads. It's pretty much a throwaway-Thinkpad - don't buy one if you're not planning on buying a new one in 2 years anyway...
Re:No need (Score:4, Informative)
Re:No need (Score:4, Informative)
Re:No need (Score:2, Informative)
The Amiga also had its command keys in the same position. I presume some analysis was done to find the best place for a command key, and both companies decided on this location as a result. It was Windows that did things differently, when they (ten years later) introduced the Windows key, forever banishing Ctrl to the far corners of the main keyboard area.
Re:No need (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Location, location, location (Score:3, Informative)
You can "correct" the behavior of Home and End on a Mac by placing the following in ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict :
{ /* home */ /* end */ /* shift + home */ /* shift + end */
"\UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfLine:";
"\UF72B" = "moveToEndOfLine:";
"$\UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfLineAndModifySelection:";
"$\UF72B" = "moveToEndOfLineAndModifySelection:";
}