Lemokey managed to win me over with its P1 HE keyboard, which offers a level of features and customization that’s unparalleled at $170. Its Hall-effect switches, excellent acoustics, and aluminum chassis aren’t common to find in a keyboard under $200. These features made the P1 HE my daily driver, and I was excited to try out one of Lemokey’s upcoming Hall-effect keyboard, the $210 L5 HE 8K. Lemokey ran a successful Kickstarter campaign and expects to ship the keyboard to backers in May. Backers can secure a unit for $199, though its retail price will be $210.

Based on looks alone, it’s easy to mistake the L5 HE for the P1 HE I’ve been using. The L5 HE offers a similar 75% layout, and is equipped with Hall-effect switches and a detachable USB-C connection — just like the P1 HE. However, the biggest difference in the L5 HE (and the main reason why its price is higher) is its 8,000 Hz polling rate, which dwarfs the 1,000 Hz polling rate found on the P1 HE and many other keyboards.

In theory, a higher polling rate allows your inputs to be registered faster and cuts down on response time — good things! But when I compared the performance between the L5 and the P1, I couldn’t notice a clear difference. Additionally, the L5 HE and its 8K polling rate can only be used in wired mode, making it the less ideal choice if you want to rely on the wireless capabilities of the P1 HE.

There are some minor cosmetic adjustments, too, but I wouldn’t necessarily consider them to be improvements. This includes a small RGB light strip fitted into the L5 HE’s base and some non-standard keycaps fitted to some of the modifier keys.

In terms of what you can expect from day-to-day use of the L5 HE, it’s almost identical to using the P1 HE. The L5 HE uses the same web-based configuration software as the P1 HE, allowing you to customize inputs, adjust the actuation points of your switches, and change the RGB lighting. You also have the option to lower the polling rate if you’d like, but I can’t think of a reason why you would. 

Just like the P1 HE, the internals of the L5 HE are pretty easy to customize. Six small screws hold the board together, and you don’t even have to remove any of the switches if you’re just making small adjustments to the PCB. The acoustics of the L5 HE are fine, although personally, I thought the P1 HE sounded better out of the box. 

Lemokey includes a variety of small silicone dampeners with the L5 HE that can be swapped out along the contact points of the PCB. This allows you to modify the acoustics of the keyboard, but I found this practice to be extremely finicky due to some of the dampeners being both extremely small and in hard-to-reach spots along the PCB. While I’m glad that this is an option, it’s an annoying process, and I just wish Lemokey had improved the acoustics out of the box.

My biggest issue with the L5 HE 8K is that it’s too similar to the P1 HE, and the L5’s higher price isn’t totally justified. In fact, it makes the P1 look better by comparison, given that it has Hall-effect switches and deep hardware customization) for less — plus Bluetooth and 2.4 GHz wireless as options. The aesthetic changes and higher polling rate might be important to some users, but I can’t justify paying an extra $30 for some questionable upgrades.

Most people have noticed the… shenanigans that are affecting international trade at the moment.

But people might not necessarily appreciate how this affects small economies like Iceland.

Or, specifically, how this affects smaller currencies.

We’re still using our own Icelandic Krona. It’s not the most stable in the world, mostly because of the small size of our economy: it can easily be disrupted by changes in currency flows that would be considered minor in other countries.

Up until now, pricing in US Dollars has been the safest route to take for somebody like me, who is selling digital goods and services to both the US and Europe.

But this rubric has changed over the past couple of months. The dollar is more volatile and, because of how US politics are affecting international trade and tourism, there’s a very real risk that it might weaken even further in the future. Because the krona is such a small currency, its relationship with the USD is likely to be even more volatile than most other currencies.

US economic chaos also gives European businesses an incentive to migrate away from US-based services.

I’m not quite ready to do that with my payment provider, but an essential first step is to switch my pricing over to Euro.

This is effectively a price increase, my first since I started publishing.

But to offset that somewhat, I’m doing two things.

The first is that I’m switching to tax-inclusive pricing, which is a bit unfamiliar to many Americans but is the norm in Europe (indeed, it’s a legal requirement for consumer pricing). That means that even though a straight-up switch from $35 USD to €35 EUR could at the moment be effectively a 10% price hike, if you’re in a country that has a %10 VAT on ebooks, the switch is effectively a wash: the effective price is roughly the same.

But, to ease the transition, especially for those in countries with low to no sales tax or VAT on ebooks which might be hit more hard by this price change, I’m also offering a €5 EUR discount until the 19th of March.

Just use this discount code at checkout:

JACKPOTBEGINS

Or, use these direct purchase links that have the discount already included:

• The Intelligence Illusion: Second Edition
• Out of the Software Crisis
• Every Ebook Bundle

A woman who was part of a group charged with setting a cross on fire in front of a defaced campaign sign for a candidate who became Colorado Springs’ first Black mayor pleaded guilty on Tuesday in what authorities say was a hoax.

Deanna West, one of three people indicted in the 2023 incident, pleaded guilty in Denver federal court to one count of being part of a conspiracy to set the fire and then spread false information about it in the run-up to the election of Mayor Yemi Mobolade.

In exchange, prosecutors said they would drop an additional charge related to setting the fire.

Prosecutors say that after staging the cross burning, a photo and video of it were sent to media and civic organizations making it seem like an attack on Mobolade.

According to the plea agreement, the conspiracy’s goal was to interfere in the campaign of Mobolade’s opponent and create the belief that Mobolade was being discouraged from running because of his race. West was dependent on one of the other three people charged, Derrick Bernard, for employment and housing and agreed to participate to curry favor with him, the document said.

Owning a physical piece of anime history is pretty rare, but some fans will get exactly that opportunity thanks to a new auction that includes thousands of production cels from anime projects ranging from Dragon Ball Z and Akira to numerous Studio Ghibli films.

The auction is being held on the Heritage Auctions website, and is all wrapped up in the organization’s Art of Anime Volume IV event, which puts a particular spotlight on “Celebrating 40 years of Studio Ghibli.”

The auction itself includes art from dozens of different anime series and films. The auction features over 60 items from Studio Ghibli films, including a few from Kiki’s Delivery Service and My Neighbor Totoro, that are particularly gorgeous. There’s also and extensive collection of Akira cells, feature backgrounds and characters from the film. On top of all that, there are also items from Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell, Berserk, One Piece, Sailor Moon, Pokémon, and more. You can dig through Heritage Auctions’ entire anime collection on its website to find all of the hidden gems.

All of the items in this auction will collect their final bids between March 22 and March 24, so you’ve got a few days to pick out the pieces you can’t live without.

The first new Katamari Damacy game in eight years will launch exclusively on Apple Arcade on April 3.

Katamari Damacy Rolling Live follows series protagonist The Prince of All Cosmos as he once again rolls up tons and tons of Earth junk for turning into stars. This time around, however, the Prince’s mission is all about boosting viewer numbers for his father’s livestream.

“As users advance, comments from in-game fans appear, and the longer they play, the larger their audience grows,” Apple’s announcement said. “By completing the king’s challenges and boosting their subscriber count, players can unlock dynamic new stages.”

Much like previous games, levels will include royal gifts for unlocking costumes as well as the prince’s hidden cousins who become playable once found. Katamari Damacy Rolling Live developer Bandai Namco recommends playing with a controller “for the best experience,” which doesn’t bode well for the game’s touch controls.

Katamari Damacy, the brainchild of offbeat designer Keita Takahashi, first debuted on PlayStation 2 in 2004. Takahashi hasn’t been involved with the series since directing the 2005 sequel We Love Katamari. His next game, to a T, is launching on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X on May 28.

Other games coming to Apple Arcade on April 3 include Space Invaders Infinity Gene Evolve, puffies., and ad- and microtranscation-free versions of RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic, The Game of Life 2, and Sesame Street Mecha Builders.