In 2012 when Apple debuted the first EarPods, Jony Ive made a rather important observation – the ear canal is a very complex shaped part of our body. It certainly isn’t circular, so the idea of circular earphones (which were the norm back then) was flawed, to begin with. The EarPods explored a design that complimented the shape of the human ear in a way that was designed to have a fit that’s as universally comfortable as it can get. That same shape was carried into the AirPods too, making them the most popular TWS earbuds in the world. The point is, a human-centric approach always makes a product experience better. It’s the same reason why an ergonomic chair feels much more comfortable to sit in as compared to a hard wooden chair, and why typing on touchscreens still absolutely sucks in comparison to typing on a proper keyboard. The Glove80, however, pushes the boundary by making the mechanical keyboard EVEN MORE human-centric.
Designers: Stephen Cheng & Chris Andreae
Click Here to Buy Now: $299 $400 (23% off). Raised over $250,000.
Named after the fact that it’s inspired by a pair of gloves, the Glove80 is a split keyboard with an ergonomic design and layout that literally follows the shape of human hands. Designed over a period of 6 years, with over 500 comparative A/B tests, the overall form of the Glove80 effectively puts every key within the span of your fingertips, achieving a level of comfort that the EarPods did with their ear canal-inspired design.
The Glove80, as its name suggests, comes with 80 keys laid out in the shape of a pair of gloves (with 40 on each side), complete with palm-rests and adjustable feet for the most customizable experience. Its split-keyboard design allows your wrists, forearms, and shoulders to assume their most natural position, eliminating fatigue over time, and the unique layout lets you type without lifting your wrists or stretching your fingers, giving you a comfortable typing experience, without the risk of a carpal tunnel flareup.
The Glove80 even sports a patent-pending 6-key layout right underneath each thumb, letting you easily reach them with minimal movement. As a result, the keyboard’s typing experience isn’t just more comfortable, it’s faster too (since your fingers don’t travel as far).
Like any good keyboard on the market, the Glove80 supports wireless as well as wired use, offering the ability to connect to multiple Bluetooth devices (up to 4) simultaneously. Under the sculpted POM keycaps of the Glove80 sit low-profile mechanical Kailh Choc v1 switches, providing a wonderfully tactile experience that’s far better than the ones found on laptops. While choosing your Glove80, you can even select between clicky, tactile, or linear-style switches, and each Glove80 comes with a keycap puller and optional spare keycaps, letting you customize your key layout to suit your needs. The keyboard also ships with the open-source ZMK firmware which lets you add shortcuts, macros, and tweak the keyboard’s internal RGB lighting to your liking.
The ergonomic split keyboard weighs a total of 600 grams along with the detachable palm rests, and ships in either white or black. Moreover, its two-part design even enhances portability, making it less monolithic and bulky so you can easily pack it up and carry it anywhere. It runs on a USB-C connection (if you want near-zero-latency input for gaming) and is equipped with two 500mAh batteries (one within each half of the keyboard). The Glove80 runs on Bluetooth LE 5.2 for a seamless connection and is compatible with Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, iPadOS, and Chrome. You can grab your own Glove80 at a Super Early Bird 25% discount for $299 using the link below.
Click Here to Buy Now: $299 $400 (23% off). Raised over $250,000.