AJAZZ AK510 RETRO-FUTURISTIC KEYBOARD REVIEW

As a lawyer, the tool that I will be spending the most time fondling will arguably be the computer keyboard.  Thousands of words will flow from a lawyer’s keyboard every working day: emails, letters, memoranda, motions and pleadings.  Thus, an investment in this tool is definitely well spent.

I have used a lot of rubber dome keyboards in this profession.  I used an A4tech Ergonomic layout keyboard, which worked adequately.  It was soft and didn’t really fatigue my fingers.  I also used an office-issued Logitech wireless keyboard which really felt bad as it didn’t really have enough key travel and the keys would often bind if you struck it on the edges instead of in the center.  That was a terrible keyboard and my fingers hurt using it.  I eventually had to replace it with the Rakk Mua (later on that).

  The Logitech   One of the worst keyboards I had ever used thanks to its low travel and terrible binding

I have also used a number of laptop keyboards.  None of which were really pleasing, but could get the job done.  Nothing would beat a full-sized keyboard with a number pad.  Especially for Filipino lawyers who need a numpad specifically to type alt+164 or alt+165 for those pesky Ñs and ñs.

For personal use and as an introduction to the “tactile” and backlit side of the keyboard market, I bought the Rakk Mua in orange.  This was basically a rubber dome with slider design.  I intended to bring and use this keyboard at the law firm because I craved having a keyboard with backlight and which seemed strong enough to withstand my heavy typing fingers.

The Rakk Mua, a rubber dome with slider design, the keys are a bit too stiff and loud to be a typist’s keyboard.

There was no doubt that I liked the Rakk Mua a lot and I keep it as a spare, but unlike the other rubber dome keyboards that I used, the Rakk Mua needed a lot of force to activate the keys.  It was also very loud—you can avoid making noise on bottom out by typing softly, but there is an inevitable clack on the upstroke thanks to the slider design.  Based on the design of the slider, the keyboard actually produced loud sounds both on bottom out and on return.  This was totally unexpected from a rubber dome keyboard.  On the other hand, the backlight feature of the Rakk Mua was very liberating.  While, I have no problem touch typing, there are really some instances where you really just need to look down at the keyboard for some symbol or function key.

Considering that the Rakk Mua was not quite up to my demands for an office keyboard, I kept looking around for one that would fit my needs.  What I wanted was a keyboard that is mechanical, backlit and tastefully designed.  I had decided (without actually trying one) that the keyboard should have a tactile and non-clicky keyswitch.  Personally, I would have wanted a tactile and clicky keyswitch (which would have been the best for typists overall), but it was intended to be used in the office, hence, a loud keyboard would have been unacceptable.

My shortlist of keyboards included:

1. Unicomp/vintage IBM Model M (true this isn’t a backlit keyboard and was clicky, but why not?);

2. Rakk Ilis;

3. Ajazz AK33; and

4. Ajazz AK510.

Naturally the Model M was difficult to get since I couldn’t find brand new Unicomps on Philippine online shopping stores, and I didn’t have the time to meet up with anyone selling a vintage Model M.  I considered the Rakk Ilis because I loved the space-saving design which still incorporated the numpad, but I had a hard time looking for a vendor selling a tactile-only version.  The Ajazz AK33 was very affordable and quite compact, but didn’t include a numpad.  Both the RAKK Ilis and the Ajazz AK33 were non-standard layouts, which meant that I was also going to have a hard time finding replacement keycap sets for them.  Then there was the Ajazz AK510, and I was quite in love with the retro-design and those spherical profile (SA profile) keycaps looked so comfortable to type on.  I also realized that since this was just a very ordinary keyboard layout, I could easily swap out the keycaps on it if I ended up not liking the SA profile keys.  So, in the first week of March, I pulled the trigger and within three (3) days I took delivery of the item in my office.

To be absolutely clear, I had no intention of writing a review of this keyboard.  I had fully expected to be too busy for any writing outside of what was needed for work.  Hence, I took no pictures of the unboxing, the packaging.  I simply excitedly took it out of the box, in full view of my co-workers and plugged it into my computer and I was happily clacking away.  I had typed out a number of pleadings and memoranda in no-time.

As it turns out, I would be forced to take a very long break from work because on March 13, 2020, the government had declared that the Philippines was under a state of emergency due to the COVID-19 virus.  So, for a few days, I had left the keyboard in my office unused while I tried to make do with my laptop’s keyboard at home as I tried to work from home.

One day, during the first week of quarantine, I went back to the office during the first week of the quarantine to haul some case folders back home, so that I would have something to work on while on quarantine. 

The office I worked in was practically empty.  There were also a few office professionals that I saw carrying office equipment—computers, monitors and various other peripherals.  The sight made me miss my new keyboard.  My fingers pined for the soft keys, the tactile bump, the full sized layout and the inviting spherical keycaps. It was then that I decided that I would take my Ajazz AK510 keyboard and take it home with me in preparation for the quarantine.  I would thereafter do all of my work from home using this full-sized keyboard in order to boost my productivity.

The Ajazz AK510 sitting at my desk before being evacuated.

That said, the following is my observations of this keyboard as a typist:

Packaging

The keyboard came in a sturdy cardboard box secured in foam and wrapped in plastic.  Aside from the keyboard, there was a wire keycap puller and a user manual.  The keyboard came in one piece, with nothing falling off and nothing to assemble.

I have seen unboxings of this keyboard by other reviewers and many of them included a transparent keyboard cover.  Sadly, mine didn’t come included with any of that.

Overall, the keyboard was well packaged and came complete with everything that you need to just plug in the keyboard and start typing.

Build

Right off the bat, one will be impressed by the weight of the keyboard.  It just exudes quality and reliability.  I am convinced that inside this keyboard is a metal mounting plate or weight.

The case is also very rigid and does not flex.  One problem I have with some keyboards is that if you will extend its flip out feet, the keyboard plastic will flex and bend inwards creating a permanent deformation.  This will not be noticeable while the flip out feet are extended, but when the feet are closed, the keyboard will no longer lay totally flat since the edges now curve upwards.  This may be a problem that most would never anticipate, but having experienced this problem first hard, I can say that this is extremely annoying. Credit should be given to AJAZZ for coming up with such a solid feeling design. 

One area where the keyboard could have improved on is its cable.  While it has a gold plated cable, it is still fairly ordinary.  It isn’t braided or coiled and it doesn’t include any built in cable management or cable gutters.

Design

I arguably just purchased this keyboard for the design aesthetic alone, and I really wasn’t disappointed.  It just has an interesting, unique and yet classy and professional look.  This means that it will look right at home on an office desk.

The keyboard was marketed as a “retro” keyboard.  Of course, they meant that it has a retro-look, as this is a thoroughly modern keyboard that doesn’t need any compromises to live with day-to-day.

As for its design, it doesn’t seem like it was trying to emulate any specific keyboard or design family.  It has an ‘80s-‘90s beige color scheme, but it also has SA profile keycaps, which belong in to the ‘70s.  It also has futuristic side accents with RGB.  Thus, this is keyboard is pure anachronism stew.

Funky side-glow lighting.  A retro-futuristic design(?)  Personally, I like this

One thing I’m sure of though, is that this keyboard is a modern keyboard built sometime in 2018.

At the end of the day, I am unabashedly a fan of its design.

Keycaps, Keyswitches and Lighting

The AJazz AK510 comes with SA Profile doubleshot PBT keycaps.  The keycaps alone, in my opinion, make the entire keyboard worth it.  SA Profile keycaps are normally quite expensive to get and sometimes exceed the cost of this keyboard, so getting it a full set of them at under PHP4,000.00 is definitely a bargain, especially since these keycaps are of a respectable thickness.

Keycaps next to a AA battery for comparison

As mentioned, SA Profile keycaps were quite popular in the ‘70s, and were phased out in favor of the modern cylindrical profile which dominates to this day.  This profile is taller than more modern profiles and the keys are shaped inwards which can make it feel comfortable for the typist.

SA Profile keycaps

The keycaps also have a nice font and the legends are still visible even without the backlight turned on.  With legends that look dark gray without the backlight, the keyboard arguably looks like it was made without backlighting in mind.

Keycap legends without and with backlighting

They keyboard uses some kind of Cherry MX clone keyswitches and are available with either “blue” (clicky tactile), “red” (linear), “black” (heavy linear) and “brown” (tactile) switches.  I selected the brown version since I was going to use this primarily for typing and the relatively quiet tactile feedback would be very much appreciated.

The keyswitches themselves are Ajazz branded, so there is really no way to be sure which company made these keyswitches.

A tactile “brown” keyswitch with Ajazz branding on the bottom corner.

They key feel is very good though, the tactile bump is noticeable but unobtrusive and the keys feel very soft.  I can literally type on this all day without getting tired since I don’t have to bottom out each time.  The keyboard is also fairly quiet unless you really smash your fingers on the keys like you are typing on a typewriter.

And the most joyful thing however is that the keys don’t bind!  Not that you will strike the keys off-center because the spherical keycaps will help guide your finger to the dead center of the key.

The downside is that the larger stabilized keys are very loud, the worst offender being the spacebar.  A knowledgeable keyboard enthusiast will know how to lubricate this properly to make it quieter.

This keyboard also has full RGB backlighting, as well as sidelighting through the design element on both sides (see picture above in the “Design” section).  The keyboard has about 13 preset lighting effects and 5 preset game modes (FPS, CF, COD, LOL and QQ) accessed by entering FN+F1 to F5.  The lighting is bright and the keys are all lit up, except for sublegends.  Aside from the colors of red, green and blue, the other colors are unfortunately, lacklustre. Especically yellow which shows up as a very obvious combination of red and green.

All in all, the tactile variant of this keyboard provides a very enjoyable and [relatively] quiet typing experience.  Your needs and/or preferences may dictate a different keyswitch however.

Software

At its heart, this is still a gaming keyboard, hence, it is almost a requirement for it to have some software to control its lighting effects and macros.  The software for this is fairly obscure and you won’t find it in the manual, but I was able to follow the instructions in this Reddit post about where to find the software/drivers (for Windows users). 

I felt that the software is a little limited though.  I wanted to use this program to assign different colors to the character keys and the function keys, but there was no way to do that.

However, using this software, I was able to create solid colors which were not among the pre-set colors of this keyboard.  Specifically, I was able to program a white color and a warm orange.  With this software, therefore, your color options are practically limitless.

creating custom colors for your keyboard

Unfortunately though, you can’t program your own effects or bind specific colors to specific keys.  At least, I couldn’t figure out how to do that.

The software also has the ability to program macros. Unfortunately, it is not a function which I have any use for and thus, I never tried it.

Verdict

This is a nice-looking keyboard for its price.  It looks well-built and you will surely grow to like the keycaps if you type for long periods. I recommend it if you like something that looks interesting on your desk and you aren’t snobbish about the kind of keyswitches you have in your keyboard, although, I’m sure that someone who is technically proficient can install different switches in it.

Definitely a recommended buy.

WORST INK STILL BETTER THAN THE BEST MEMORY?

When you snap a picture with your cellphone or digital camera, what do you do with it?  Do you still have it “developed”?  When your company asks for a report, do you still print it out or would it exist only in some computer or backed up in Dropbox or some cloud storage?    When you read a book, “do you read it off the screen just like everyone else” or do you still flip through pages like they did in days of old?

Argentine Humanist Alberto Manguel had this to say:

Even the newer electronic technologies cannot approach the experience of handling an original publication. As any reader knows, a printed page creates its own reading space, its own physical landscape in which the texture of the paper, the colour of the ink, the view of the whole ensemble acquire in the reader’s hands specific meanings that lend tone and context to the words. (Columbia University’s librarian Patricia Battin, a fierce advocate for the microfilming of books, disagreed with this notion. “The value,” she wrote, “in intellectual terms, of the proximity of the book to the user has never been satisfactorily established.” There speaks a dolt, someone utterly insensitive, in intellectual or any other terms, to the experience of reading.)

But above all, the argument that calls for electronic reproduction on account of the endangered life of paper is a false one. Anybody who has used a computer knows how easy it is to lose a text on the screen, to come upon a faulty disk or CD, to have the hard drive crash beyond all appeal. The tools of the electronic media are not immortal. The life of a disk is about seven years; a CD-ROM lasts about ten. In 1986, the BBC spent two and a half million pounds creating a computer-based, multi-media version of the Domesday Book, the eleventh-century census of England compiled by Norman monks.

More ambitious than its predecessor, the electronic Domesday Book contained 250,000 place names, 25,000 maps, 50,000 pictures, 3,000 data sets and 60 minutes of moving pictures, plus scores of accounts that recorded “life in Britain” during that year. Over a million people contributed to the project, which was stored on twelve-inch laser disks that could only be deciphered by a special BBC microcomputer. Sixteen years later, in March 2002, an attempt was made to read the information on one of the few such computers still in existence. The attempt failed. Further solutions were sought to retrieve the data, but none was entirely successful. “There is currently no demonstrably viable technical solution to this problem,” said Jeff Rothenberg of the Rand Corporation, one of the world experts on data preservation, called in to assist. “Yet, if it is not solved, our increasingly digital heritage is in grave risk of being lost.”  By contrast, the original Domesday Book, almost a thousand years old, written in ink on paper and kept at the Public Record Office in Kew, is in fine condition and still perfectly readable.

The director for the electronic records archive program at the National Archives and Records Administration of the United States confessed in November 2004 that the preservation of electronic material, even for the next decade, let alone for eternity, “is a global problem for the biggest governments and the biggest corporations all the way down to individuals.” Since no clear solution is available, electronic experts recommend that users copy their materials onto CDs, but even these are of short duration. The lifespan of data recorded on a CD with a CD burner could be as little as five years. In fact, we don’t know for how long it will be possible to read a text inscribed on a 2004 CD. And while it is true that acidity and brittleness, fire and the legendary bookworms threaten ancient codexes and scrolls, not everything written or printed on parchment or paper is condemned to an early grave. A few years ago, in the Archeological Museum of Naples, I saw, held between two plates of glass, the ashes of a papyrus rescued from the ruins of Pompeii. It was two thousand years old; it had been burnt by the fires of Vesuvius, it had been buried under a flow of lava—and I could still read the letters written on it, with astonishing clarity. (footnotes omitted)

The Beauty of Books 

Manuscripts and typescript drafts can easily be read if they are found.  You will also be able to find a wealth of meaning by examining various versions of the manuscript versus the published version.  But the ephemeral nature of electronic word processing makes it difficult to find the same level of textual analysis from authors.  With the advent of electronic composition and storage of books is the elimination and disappearance of drafts.  In the past, an author would make a series of drafts before coming up with a final manuscript.  Historians, hagiographers, biographers and other academics would find these drafts a very rich source of what the author was trying to write and what he was trying to say.  Remember José Rizal's lost chapter in the Noli Me Tangere, a chapter thatwas later included in some critical editions.  Jefferson's drafts of the declaration of liberty have been examined over and over again by historians and political scientists seeking to “get into Jefferson's brain.”  In this blog, I have an ongoing project to write a study guide of Los Pájaros de Fuego, the “lost novel” of José Balmori, is based on the critical edition of Isaac Donoso which contains glosses of previous drafts of the novel.

There are legal implications as well.  In the Philippine setting, legal instruments are, without exception, paper documents.  For example, there is no such thing as a “video will”.  In other legal traditions, we have the UK Parliament, where a law is only formally passed once it is printed in parchment.  Indeed, the durability of parchment and ink and paper and ink is not something we can easily replicate with the electronic medium.

What is the legal status therefore, of so called “electronic titles”?  Of late, the Land Registation Authority (LRA) has been digitizing the land records of our country.  Basically, all physical titles on file with the LRA are scanned and kept in a server somewhere in Scandinavia.¹  A law professor discussed that these electronic titles have no legal status.  The only title to land in the Philippines is the physical certificate of title on file with the LRA, and thus the title can still be physically destroyed and the scanned copy on file somewhere in Norway cannot simply replace the physical title. 

Imagine also if something were to happen to the hard drive in Norway, and everything up in the cloud were to suddenly disappear—all of the precious digital-only land title system would be in complete disarray.  People had a big row if Facebook or Instagram would suddenly go down and all of their precious pictures and memories with it, how much more the indefeasibility of a person’s ownership of a parcel of land?

The Feared Blue Screen of Death

What do you guys think?  Paper or electronic?

Footnotes:

[1] This is just an example, but many servers are located in Scandinavia to take advantage of cold weather to save on airconditioning costs.

BROUHAHA OVER FREE RIGHTS TO WINDOWS 10

This is a defense of the giant, Microsoft (MS) over the misunderstanding and subsequent misunderstanding surrounding a supposed backdoor to a free licensed copy of Windows 10, the latest, and somewhat groundbreaking, operating system (OS) coming from the Redmond company.

Windows 10 picks up after the widely panned Windows 8 and brings the OS across different platforms like the PCs, Tablets, Smartphone, the XboX, and even a Holo Lens. All versions will run “Universal Apps” which should work across all platforms. Windows 10 is generally shaping up to be a hit for Microsoft, key to this is the insider program where volunteer beta testers give useful feedback to Microsoft in order to perfect the OS before its July 29 release.

source: Windows Blog

Microsoft announced in an earlier version of its blog:

Windows Insiders running the Windows 10 Insider Preview (Home and Pro editions) with their registered MSA connected to their PC will receive the final release build of Windows 10 starting on 29 July ...

As long as you are running an Insider Preview build and connected with the MSA you used to register, you will receive the Windows 10 final release build and remain activated.

Once you have successfully installed this build and activated, you will also be able to clean install on that PC from final media if you want to start over fresh.

This led some amateur hackers to claim that theoretically, one will be able to obtain an unlimited number of copies of the new OS by simply signing up to the insider program, downloading a beta copy of Windows 10 and, when the new OS rolls out on July 29, 2015, their copy of the beta version will become a licensed copy of the OS. Theoretically, you can create an infinite number of these “legitimized versions” running on what were once pirated versions, builds and virtual desktops! One didn’t even need to install it over a licensed version of Windows 7 or 8.1 as would be required of regular users.

It seems the hack was first published on the Verge here.

When this hack was publicized, the hacking community was rejoicing. Never before had MS allowed one to download copies of their OS and for FREE at that!

So you can imagine the rage that Microsoft generated when it [secretly] amended its blog post with the following changes:

Source: zdnet.com

Needless to say, Microsoft was literally forced to clarify the confusion of who gets a free version of Windows 10. The final word on the matter was discussed by Microsoft’s Gabe Aul in an interview with the Verge:

The nuance here is that Microsoft will keep fresh copies of Windows 10 activated for testers only if they keep opting-in to future preview updates. So if you’ve clean installed a Windows 10 preview build and upgrade to the final then you don’t have to worry about activation as long as you keep receiving pre-release updates. "Since we’re continuing the Windows Insider Program you’ll be able to continue receiving builds and those builds will continue to be activated under the terms of the Windows Insider Program,"...

You could read Microsoft’s blog post clarifying this whole thing here.

Why did this create such a brouhaha? Was the furor justified? It seems that the community was simply used to getting stuff for free. Paying for software is no longer the norm. We have Cupertino and Incheon to blame for this. Cupertino was the company that pioneered the Over the Air (OTA)

Read: Apple Just Ended the Era of Paid Operating Systems

The fact of the matter is, Microsoft is a software company, its focus isn’t on making the machines that run the software itself - unlike Apple which both makes hardware and software, or unlike google which gives away free software and makes money off advertisers - completely different business model! And at the heart of this matter is that Microsoft has the right to make money off the licensing of its software and to prevent those running unlicensed versions of its software from getting away with things.

In no way is Microsoft the “bad guy” in this brouhaha, rather, it is the victim of those people seeking to take advantage of free software.

These people, thinking they’ve found a loophole published their theories and simply got disappointed when Microsoft “clarified itself” in order to avoid the very disappointment these people are feeling now. In now way will an ordinary/regular user of the software be affected by this at all.

Of course, there are those within the Windows 10 Insider program who were hurt stating that they should have been entitled to a free version of Windows 10 as well, compensation. Sorry to say guys, but what you went through was completely voluntary, thus Microsoft isn’t obligated to give you any compensation.

We can understand the frustration this caused, though, we’ve become spoiled with “free” OS upgrades thanks to the Open Source Android Operating System and the Hardware-Subsidized iOS, but paid operating systems, especially those that come with support contracts for personal users and enterprises is still a legitimate business model.

Remember when you had to buy this baby off the shelf?

source: guidebookgallery.com

With that, we should just go ahead and enjoy the free upgrade this July 29.