A few boring Alps finds

Daniel Beardsmore · 19 Dec 2012, 19:23

Just got an Apple M0116 from someone in the US. A handful of observations:

If these are "salmon" Alps, they're nothing remotely like salmon colour. They're caucasian flesh colour of someone who's never seen sunlight in their life
The lock Alps switch is a new colour (dark grey), and the slider is a special shape. Will snap a pic when I have my camera to hand
It's short switchplate. Was NOT expecting that. It's significantly smoother than black Alps, yet not long switchplate. Either the switchplate idea is bogus after all (Edgar Matias noted that switch friction is affected by dye), or it's that NIB switches suck until they're well worn in and smoothed out
For the record, definitely nowhere near as sharp tactility as blues
The switches are however a lot quieter than black Alps, although the mounting of the plate itself seems weaker, as tugging on the caps lock (bottom-left key) cap heaves the whole plate up with it unless you hold down an adjacent key, so maybe this dampens the sound
Both the lock AND key switches say "ALPS" on them, so they're a later model than blue

The return key is horrible. It's a Slim-Ass™ enter, and the horizontal part is almost impossible to press.

tipo33 · 19 Dec 2012, 20:45

The ALPS saga and confusion continues... I love them. I was actualy looking at getting a M0116 to convert my Filco Zero. I guess I will have to be careful about chosing a donor.

Daniel Beardsmore · 19 Dec 2012, 20:51

You sure the M0116 has enough switches? I do not believe it does.

Wait until the new year and buy some Matias switches :)

maxrunner · 20 Dec 2012, 17:12

Hey daniel have you tried the matias switches? both the tactile and quiet versions?

Daniel Beardsmore · 20 Dec 2012, 17:15

Not getting my Quiet Pro until they arrive at Keyboard Co in February :-(

maxrunner · 20 Dec 2012, 17:32

they're both tactile right? i'm more a clicky type of guy, but i might get the quiet for using in work if its good. hope to hear from you about it.

Daniel Beardsmore · 20 Dec 2012, 17:43

Yes they are, although clicky switches are generally a lot more tactile than non-clicky switches, which is very much true of blue vs black and salmon Alps.

I would like to hope that the clicky Matias is like blue Alps, i.e. very tactile, but something like a 45 cN spring: the spring is very light, like Cherry brown — unlike other switches that come with a stiff spring. Blue Alps seems to have had the same design goal as the ergo clear: highly tactile yet soft.

I have no plans at the moment to buy the Tactile Pro for PC when it comes out, only the Quiet Pro, as I'm relatively settled with my Cherry blue Filco at home.

maxrunner · 20 Dec 2012, 17:49

i'm still in the middle of my modding of the ortek mck84 with blue alps....but i might be interested in this.

Daniel Beardsmore · 20 Dec 2012, 17:56

Interested in? I'm only describing vintage blue, not Matias.

maxrunner · 20 Dec 2012, 18:09

i was refering the matias switches, i might want to bite in one of the models...

spolia_optima · 20 Dec 2012, 18:10

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Would these be pink or salmon? If I dig further in my archives, i'm sure I have some snapshots of hybrid orange/pink switches all mingling together on the same board. Genetic engineering?

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Daniel Beardsmore · 20 Dec 2012, 20:50

I call them "skin of a person who's never seen daylight in their life" switches. It's a similar hue to salmon meat, but paler. AFAIK, "pink" and "salmon" refer to the same switch.

I love Apple's persistent sideways mounting of switches. The M0116 seems to only have one sideways switch, the power button. I've just taken a load of pics, including closeups of the push-to-lock switch that show how it actually works (it wasn't clear from the photos posted recently).

I was going to do one more of the dark grey and salmon side by side, but I'm out of juice :) I had to dismantle the whole keyboard after losing not one, but two springs inside when trying to put switches back together. Hopefully one day I'll figure out how to get the lid back on.

Daniel Beardsmore · 21 Dec 2012, 00:52

PS I've added your cream push-to-lock under http://deskthority.net/wiki/Alps_CM#Colours