So, since I life just a couple of miles from Waytools, I got to pick up my TextBlade in person. While I was there, I met with Mark, the CEO and Ronny, one of the engineers. Mark gave me the most thorough walk through and demo of the TextBlade itself and the TextBlade app.
I'm the guy in the center proudly holding a new TextBlade.
I'll post my full impressions in a few days after I've really acclimated to the TextBlade, but here's my first impressions. First off, there's a learning curve to using this, sort of like there was a learning curve to getting used to the iOS on screen keyboard. But I'm already improving rapidly.
But for everyone that's been waiting all this time, the question is was the wait worth it. I can't answer that for you, but I can say that for me, I'm extremely happy with the TextBlade. Waiting was frustrating, but it's clear that WayTools has spent that extra time polishing the hell out of the experience. It's clear from just a few minutes with the device that it's the most carefully crafted keyboard I've ever used. Hell, the box it comes in is constructed with more care than most keyboards (I'm not kidding about that). The keys feel great, and the magnetic self-assembly is as cool as it looks in the videos. And jumps to switch between devices works amazingly well. I've had keyboards that supported multiple devices before, and was never really happy with them, the TextBlade easily beats them all.