On April Fool’s Day last year, Stack Overflow announced a keyboard with only Ctrl, C, and V. At the time, officials teased that it would limit the number of times users could copy and paste code from websites, and that developers would need to buy a special keyboard if they wanted to use it indefinitely.
Once announced, the keyboard attracted the attention of many developers, who asked Stack Overflow to mass produce it. After hearing the call from users, last September Stack Overflow and Drop, a keyboard customization startup, really launched the keyboard – The Key – for $29. According to official statistics, The Key has sold over 10,000 units.
Now Stack Overflow, Drop, and designer Cassidy Williams are building on the previous generation with a successor with RGB light pollution – The Key V2.
As you can see from the pictures, The Key V2 is almost identical to the previous generation of The Key in terms of appearance, with the same three buttons dedicated to copy/paste, and its price remains unchanged at $29.
The only difference in appearance is that The Key V2 is now equipped with RGB lighting (two built-in RGB LEDs), which makes it more consistent when paired with mice, keyboards and cases that also come with lighting effects. But it is also due to the addition of RGB that the housing of The Key V2 has been changed from the previous generation metal aluminum to acrylic, which is the only way to let the light through.
Another difference in the new version is on the inside. The Key V2’s key shafts are hot-swappable, which means users can replace the included Kailh Box black shaft with other compatible key shafts on the market (such as Cherry’s cyan, red and tea shafts, etc.).
Stack Overflow is still partnering with Drop, so users can go to the Drop website to order The Key V2, which is only available in quantities of 4,900 units. The expected shipping date is June 30th of this year, and a portion of the proceeds from The Key V2 will be donated to non-profit organizations.
Will my programming efficiency increase 100% after I buy it?
Purchase address: https://drop.com/buy/stack-overflow-the-key-v2-macropad