Platypus switches and Frankfurt visit

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Hi *|FNAME|*,

Two big things happened this month: We launched our Kailh Choc Platypus switches, and we went to Mechanicon in Frankfurt. Both were tricky, and went off without a hitch. The keyswitches sold out in two days (we're getting more) and Mechanicon was full of nice people who were happy to see us and try out the keyboards and the backpack in person, and take part in our typing contest.

This is actually a rare three-announcement newsletter (packed!) because we also launched a way to design your own shell for the Navigator trackball and trackpad right on the site. You can design custom shells that will work with both the Moonlander and the Voyager just by dragging sliders around to get the perfect shell for you. Details below.

In other news, I wrote a love letter to my eReader. I'm an avid reader and over the years I tried many eReaders (Kindle, Kobo, Boox, etc), and landed on a device that I've never seen in any "best of" lists. I think people are sleeping on this one (it's not that little eReader you stick on the back of your phone). Here's what makes it great.

As always, thank you for reading, and if you were one of the hundreds of people we met at Mechanicon, thank you for coming to see us in person.

Love,
Erez

Navigator Shell Configurator

Make your own perfect shell

If you want to use the Navigator trackpad or trackball with a Moonlander, or if you want to use it with the Voyager but have it on your thumb, or if you just want to get creative… this is now easier than ever. We launched a visual configurator that you can use directly on the site and make your own custom printables. Read all the details in the post.

Introducing Kailh Choc Platypus switches

Silent, linear, and purple

We've been very happy with these switches and with how they've been received so far. 200 sets sold out within 48 hours, but we should be getting more in November. If you'd like to be notified when these come in, just reply to this newsletter and we'll add you to the list.

Mechanicon wrap-up

We went to Frankfurt

Mechanicon is Europe's largest mechanical keyboard conference, and this year we were one of the sponsors. We created a typ.ing competition, and I gave a talk. It's a short event, one intense day, and very fun.

Featured User Interview

Tim Howlinson

Infrastructure Engineer

I enjoyed everything about Tim's interview, but my favorite part was the discussion of the two chairs he uses, as well as the photos of his "Captain's Chair" setup in the IKEA Poäng with the Voyager magnetically mounted on the arms. So cool.

"Outside of work my favourite thing to do is spend time with my boys. It’s incredibly rewarding to see them grow and develop over time. There’s nothing that can really prepare you or compares with becoming a parent and the amazing journey it takes you on. I’ve been teaching my oldest son how to type, and one of our favourite activities has been playing the Epistory and Nanotale Typing Chronicles games."

Maxdlr

As a Neovim user, I realised that special characters are used to code, but also to navigate/interact. It wouldn't make sense for me to prioritise some key over another as they are frequently used in coding but are constantly used in navigating the code. Combos allow me to have special characters right under my fingers all the time, with no latency.

New on typ.ing this month

Sense and Sensibility

I never knew Jane Austen first published this book anonymously, and that it took her fifteen years from completing the book to publishing it. If it's a little short for you, we do have War and Peace below as well (email me if you type that one through in full).

And also...

Things we liked

Three Body Orbits →

Shiny swirly lines

This is a visual exploration of the three-body problem, where each body leaves a trail in its wake. So you get these funky spirograph-like shapes, or some that look like hard candy (with the wrapper), and some that are just plain chaotic. I love the graphics, even if the website copy sounds like Claude (please don’t let Claude write the copy for your vibe-coded projects).

Wikipop →

What Wikipedia page was everyone looking at yesterday?

If, like me, you’ve been trying to avoid the news, Wikipop is an interesting peek into the zeitgeist. It shows you the most-viewed Wikipedia article from one day ago. You can also browse the #1 article of previous days. It was eye-opening to see articles that got over a million views in a single day that were about topics and people I didn’t even recognize.

Solidcraft →

Open-source parametric CAD

A completely free and open-source tool for parametric modeling. The way it's being developed is interesting too, with people coordinating and distributing work among their coding agents. The results are impressive and rapidly evolving.

Big words →

For any screen

Sometimes you just need to show very large text on a monitor or a phone. Basically use it as a sign in the real world. This site lets you do that quickly and simply. Pick a look, type a few words, and you’re done. All info is in the link, so you can set it up on one device and open it on another, with no accounts needed.

Tiny Little Office →

The link is the document

This is a no-frills suite of several productivity tools (Word Processor, Outliner, Spreadsheet and others) where the draw is that the link to the document contains the actual document. This won’t replace Google Docs but I can definitely see myself using this for some smaller/quicker projects and docs.

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 wallpaper shows off the printable Navigator shell for the Moonlander. Quite timely, given that now you can customize your own version on the site.

Thank you for reading!