Originally published at: Incase picks up Microsoft's discontinued range of keyboards, mice and other desktop gadgets - Boing Boing
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So, one less reason to respect microsoft. (the list is getting awfully short)
Must be time for me to try my first mechanical keyboard.
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It’s probably too much to hope that they’ll bring back the Trackball Explorer. That was always my favorite trackball.
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Logitech’s MX keys one is a nice entry point to the cult, but you can’t put custom keycaps on it. Which is fine, there’s only so long you can scroll subreddits looking at things with names like “45g double shot lubed puddings” before you go mad
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It will be interesting to see what price they come back at.
If I’m remembering correctly the move the from the ‘Microsoft’ branded options to the “Surface” branded ones, offences against design aside, was an increase in ASP pretty much across the board; with the subsequent removal of the ‘Microsoft’ ones looking an awful lot like a change from wanting PC users to have a solid, sensible, low to midrange choice to wanting to make more money per unit on nominally halo-brand stuff.
Will they let Incase bring back the old arrangement; or is there some combination of license fees or outright conditions on MSRPs that will deliberately consign these to being a concession to the whiners who don’t appreciate our Modern vision; but not actually undercutting what we want you to buy?
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Remember the old school optical mice they made? Shit was revolutionary back in the worn down trackball days
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Students in our division felt compelled to steal those track balls …. our IT dept was very happy to swap out for optical mice!
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I sure remember. My very favorite mouse was the Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical because it had the best location of shoulder buttons. My thumbs are short, so these were perfectly located. Also, the location on both left and right sides was the exact same so it works as well for left-handed folks as right-handed.
The switches in mine wore out after many years of use and no other mouse since has quite satisfied me.
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Microsoft used to make wonderful keyboards and mice. I had a whole stack of the Ergonomic Keyboards that I went through over several years replacing after they got worn out. They weren’t mechanical keyboards but they felt great to type on, had wired options, and just enough superfluous bonus functionality. They made great ergonomic mice and other niche products as well.
About maybe 5-7 years ago they shifted away from a mix of consumer and professional-oriented products towards things like “multimedia” keyboards and crappy mice. No more wired products, no more ergonomic stuff, no more niche products like the trackball. Clearly they had good hardware engineers; they Surface lineup of keyboards were some of the best laptop keyboards outside of Apple’s own. But everything else was just garbage unless you really wanted a wireless multimedia keyboard with chiclet keys. The mighty had truly fallen.
I didn’t even realize they had shuttered their keyboard and mouse division but I can’t say I’m surprised. Once Microsoft stopped making hardware I would ever use, I’ve long since moved on to other brands. Mechanical keyboards from various brands, and Logitech MX series mice (which are incredibly good). Incase may be picking up their portfolio, but unless they start making Ergonomic Keyboards and other great pro hardware again, I doubt I’ll be bothered to give a shit.
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Ditto, I bought 2 of the things when I realized it was last chance time. The last one bit the dust last year (keyboard, meet G&T (I wasn’t even home at the time)) and I still haven’t adjusted to the replacement, as nice as it is.
I’ve a decade-old wireless Microsoft keyboard that I use from the sofa and it’s still going strong despite being bashed about a lot. Hope Incase’s stuff has the same solidity.
I still have 4 of them on my various work/home desktops! I looked at the Ars Technica article and it appears that the trackball explorer is not included, unfortunately.
That and the Intellemouse Explorer. I had both, the mouse for work and the trackball for play, thinking that would help reduce my carpal tunnel.
Unintended side effect - the trackball let me do wicked 360s in WoW. 
Mechanical keyboards are so good. I appreciate the solid feel and heft, the click and key travel, the LEDs, the swappable keycaps… never going back to commodity keyboards. I found a crazy deal on them for the holidays and got one for each of my kids. They love them too.
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