The new Model M keyboard – American made, that same IBM-like clickety feel #Keyboards @TidBITS

Did you know the venerable, iconic IBM Model M Keyboard is still in production?

The Model M represents a long-gone era of keyboards designed to satisfy typewriter users, featuring satisfyingly clicky buckling-spring keys. In 1992, IBM offloaded most of its keyboard manufacturing to Lexmark, which continued to produce Model M keyboards for Big Blue.

The industry eventually moved to cheaper and mushier mechanisms like rubber domes, and Lexmark and IBM both bowed out of the Model M business in the late 1990s. However, a group of Lexmark employees bought the factory in Lexington, Kentucky and formed Unicomp.

Unicomp even makes Mac compatible Model M keyboards. Unicomp invested in brand-new tooling to make the first brand-new Model M in a quarter-century, simply named the New Model M. You can swap out the keycaps, and Unicomp sells a variety of keycaps.

See the video below on the clickiness of the new keyboard and details on the post on TidBITS.


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