Do I Need to Lube My Keyboard Switches?
Figure 1: Sometime around here is a good time to ask that question... If you’re new to the mechanical keyboard hobby, I have no doubt that planning your first keyboard build is a bit of a daunting task. To be entirely honest with you, it’s only a tiny bit less daunting for your second or even third keyboard builds should you stay around a little while longer. You’ve got the keyboard itself to worry about, stabilizers, keycaps, and even switches on top of all of the intangible marks you want your dream keyboard to hit. Switches are especially daunting right out of the gate as there’s just so many options out there to pick from – each with their own unique specifications, manufacturers, and more. Yet, in spite of all of these differences between switches, time and time again I find people always asking about lubing switches as one of their chief concerns when it comes to picking some up. With countless numbers of content creators talking about lubing switches, its no...
Apr 17, 2024
It does look really nice though...
Kana input on a phone is nice because you can use a 12-key (push-button telephone style) input pad, which gives you nice, big buttons to use. This gives you 10 keys (key images on the touch screen) for the rows of the kana syllabary (a, ka, sa, ta, etc.), and a couple of buttons for specialized stuff like dakuon and han-dakuon conversion.
Each key holds five possible characters, the character on the key, and four more in the four "flicking" directions, up, down, left, and right. So you either tap the key or flick starting from the key in one of the four directions. You get a whole kana row on one key, e.g., ka ki ku ke ko. The ka key produces a ka when tapped, and a ki when flicked left. A chi is the ta key flicked left. This is really fast, and can be done one handed while holding onto a subway strap with the other hand, which is how most urban Japanese spend a couple of hours of their lives every weekday.