Moonlander and Top Gun: Maverick

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Hi *|FNAME|*,

How do you fit the Moonlander into the studio setup of a world-class composer? And what does a setup like that even look like? Click to our interview with Darius Moldovan to see the setup, as well as some unique instruments (I've never heard of a Fingybass before).

This month's ZSA Loves post is about an addictive anti-RSI toy that costs $2 to make at home. I've been a little obsessed with this one.

Robin published three great technical posts this month, one of which is featured below. The other two are about the Fn key and about missing characters in macros. Useful and simple.

We're also announcing a new Keymapp feature, currently in closed Beta (you can apply below). It's called Smart Layers, and it automatically activates the layer you associate with a given app or game. Feels like magic.

By the way, we've got some Planck EZ leftovers: Complete Planck EZ keycap sets (which include all the keys you see on the Moonlander's Zip Kit and more, in nice PBT) for $75 per set, including international courier shipping. Available in black and white. This isn't on the site — it's for friends only, so just reply if you want one.

Thank you for voting on last month's plushie survey and for sending in your ideas and thoughts. Some fun stuff cooking there!

Finally and as always, thank you for reading, and email me anytime - ez@zsa.io.

All the best,
Erez

Introducing Smart Layers

Apply for the closed Beta

If you use any creative/design application or enjoy gaming with our boards, I think you'll love Smart Layers. It's a simple feature that makes it easier than ever to use dedicated layers full of handy shortcut keys and macros, giving you productivity (or gaming) superpowers with the board you already have.

How To Make Windows and macOS Shortcuts the same

Switching between operating systems has never been easier

When trying to use the same keyboard with two operating systems, it can be tricky to make shortcuts work consistently. It can be done, though, and isn’t even very hard once you dig into the settings.

Featured User Interview

Darius Moldovan

Media Composer

Darius worked on Top Gun: Maverick, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, various Call of Duty games, and many others. As you can imagine, his setup is pretty mind-blowing — it's so fun to see the Moonlander used in this context. Also, so many guitars.

"I’m currently using a ZSA Moonlander with customized keycaps and layouts. I have spent numerous hours perfecting and adjusting the custom layout for Cubase—copying the muscle memory I developed with a previous controller that I spent well over 10,000 hours developing."

Layout of the month: urza voy

All keys are in a reachable distance from home row, no need for hands to leave the typing position for navigation. My layout makes good use of the thumbs, no strange contortions for shortcuts with little fingers and keys over at the other side - just use your thumbs for the most common shortcuts like copy&paste. It also minimizes the use of tap-hold and tap-dance keys, and doesn't have home row mods, so it feels responsive and quick.

Things we liked

Squeezy →

Insert the tiles, discover the theme

Yet another daily word game, but this isn’t a Wordle-type thing: Instead, it shows you a list of words that you then “squeeze” letters into. There are two modes — easy and hard (or “Breezy” and “Wheezy”).

NASA+ →

NASA’s streaming service (really)

In case you missed it, this is a thing. It’s entirely free and has loads of interesting space videos, both documentaries and current events. Lots of PR here, of course, but it’s still fun.

Needs More Boom →

Any movie scene, directed by Michael Bay

The prompt I gave it was “the part in Donnie Darko where the threads follow him around”. The output did not disappoint. I was expecting some weird machine-generated image, but it spit out a snippet of movie script that was legible and actually funny.

Plain Text Sports →

Just the scores

This is wonderfully geeky: A text-only page showing scores for a whole bunch of sports leagues (NBA, NHL, MLS and more). Monospace, of course, and no banners or ads. There is a “dark mode”. As you can imagine, it loads fast. Looks like a personal passion project.

Tip: We have a subscriber-only link archive with all of the links we shared over the years. Just for you. ❤️

Wallpaper of the month

This month's striking printable was designed by Mark Feinstein, with the wallpaper created by our own amazing Steve, as usual. This fixed-angle tenting solution for the Voyager is worth checking out – comes in three different angles.

Thank you for reading!