Framework held an event earlier this week to announce a handful of new products. I watched the event live while I was working and then jumped through to rewatch portions of it again later in the day.

Much of what was announced looks great — the type of products that will likely have me reaching for my wallet when the time is right.

One thing that was heavily emphasized during the event is that they are building a company around products that you fully own and control.

You can own everything and be free.

The phrase above was prominently displayed during the presentation and embodied by everything that the company produces. When everyone else in the tech industries seems to be obsessed with services revenue, subscriptions, and locked down hardware, Framework is bucking the trend.

10G Ethernet Expansion Card

Developed in partnership with WisdPi, Framework has expanded their lineup of expansion cards with a new networking accessory that supports 10Gb ethernet.

I don’t have any use for something like this, but I’m sure it’s invaluable for those that are working with massive video files over the network or other, similar applications.

Framework 16 Updates

I don’t own a Framework 16 and can’t imagine ever purchasing one. I’m not particularly interested in this class of laptop. I prefer more compact, thin and light laptops. But Framework had some solid updates for their larger form factor machine:

• One Piece Touchpad Module, which utilizes four piezo haptic elements with adjustable click force and feedback.
• One Piece Keyboard Module.
• Translucent smoke gray bezel.
• Oculink Dev Kit.

The Oculink Dev Kit is notable because, as Nirav Patel noted during the event, this gives the Framework 16 the highest throughput external connector that’s ever been put into a laptop.

Framework 13 Pro

This was clearly the star of the show — A brand new Framework 13 variant that they’ve added the moniker “Pro” to.

The Framework 13 Pro features significantly improved battery life. They’re quoting 20 hours on this new machine, which they achieved by modifying the chassis’s bottom edge to accommodate a physically larger, higher density battery alongside efficiency gains from Intel’s new Panther Lake CPUs.

The chassis changes aren’t limited to a more roomy battery section, though, it also comes in a new color they’re calling “graphite”, is manufactured with CNC aluminum, and offers improved rigidity compared to the existing Framework 13 chassis.

The display is brand new — This is the first display that Framework has designed from the ground up for their products rather than sourcing an existing design.

It’s still a 3:2 LCD and features a matte finish, but offers variable refresh rate from 30–120Hz, 700 nits of brightness, and is a touch screen.

I’m not positive the touch screen is all that useful to me given that the machine can’t convert into a tablet form factor. I’ve never actually used a laptop with a touch screen before, but the closest comparison I can make is using an iPad with a keyboard case. And I didn’t really like that experience at all. Switching between touch screen and the keyboard/trackpad always felt cumbersome to me.

The Framework 13, like the 16, is also getting a new trackpad with haptic feedback. I may end up upgrading to this at some point, depending on pricing. Framework says the new input cover, which includes the keyboard and trackpad, fits all existing Framework 13 systems.

The current Framework 13 trackpad is fine, but not great. I think it’s better than any trackpad I’ve used on a Windows laptop, but my experience in that realm is limited. I know for certain the current trackpad isn’t as good as the MacBook trackpad and I’m hoping this new one is closer to the experience of Apple’s offering.

On the operating system front, the Framework 13 Pro is the first laptop from the company to be officially Ubuntu-certified. This means it should work right out of the box with that distribution and will even be available with Ubuntu pre-installed if you’d prefer it that way.

The pricing on this new machine is a bit steep. It starts at $1,199 for the DIY edition and pre-built systems start at $1,499. But that’s likely more indicative of the state of hardware pricing in general rather than a reflection on Framework.

The machine itself looks great. It’s a bit too expensive for me at the moment — not to mention I’m not currently in the market for a new system. But that’s not even the best part of the announcement.

Keeping with the spirit of Framework and their commitment to repairability and upgradability, most of the components in this new Framework 13 Pro are backwards compatible with every Framework 13 the company has ever shipped.

If you own an existing Framework 13 and want to use the new touch screen display, you can order it as a part and drop it in to your existing machine. The same goes for the new mainboard and input cover.

The only components that actually require the new Framework 13 Pro chassis are the battery and new speakers. But, Framework is even offering the new chassis as a standalone purchase. This means you can take your existing Framework 13 and migrate all of the internal components into the new 13 Pro chassis.

There is literally an upgrade path for everyone. And none of it requires the purchase of an entirely new machine. You can mix and match the components that you want to upgrade over time to get the machine configured with the features that best suit you and your wallet.

This is how every computer manufacturer should be producing products.

Framework Laptop Sleeve

I wish they would have spent a little more time discussing the Framework Laptop Sleeve. I currently use some random Tomtoc sleeve with my Framework 13, but it’s not a perfect fit.

It would be nice to have learned more about the materials it’s made out of and some video of it in use to give us a better idea of its size compared to the laptop itself.

I’ll have to wait for some video reviews or something because I may end up ordering one to replace my Tomtoc.

Wireless Touchpad Keyboard

I loved the bit at the opening of this segment where Nirav joked about Framework making a printer. He actually had me going for a split second because I have heard, on several occasions, the company being asked about whether or not they’d ever build one.

But alas, maybe another day. Instead, they announced a keyboard with integrated trackpad. Certainly a more niche product, but the type of hardware that would get Framework fans excited.

I actually own the exact Logitech keyboard that Nirav had in one of the slides and I absolutely hate it. The keys feel like mush, the trackpad is inconsistent, and the whole thing feels like it’s one wrong bend away from snapping in half.

I eventually bought a ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II in hopes of replacing the Logitech keyboard, but it isn’t much better. The keys feel slippery and, for some reason, I always had trouble getting it working right on various Linux systems.

But now, we have a new contender, the Framework Wireless Touchpad Keyboard. It looks awesome.

I absolutely love the keyboard on my Framework 13 — I would consider it to be the best laptop keyboard I’ve ever used, including those from Apple. And this new, standalone keyboard from Framework is based on the input system used in the Framework 12. I expect it to feel fantastic.

Here’s a quick rundown of the features:

• Bluetooth LE
• USB-A Dongle in the box.
• It has four connection profiles to easily switch between hosts.
• It can be used as a wired keyboard.
• It has a built-in rechargeable and replaceable battery.
• The firmware is open source.

I didn’t see any pricing for this product yet, but they say it will ship later this year. I expect I will end up with one eventually. I have all kinds of computers around the house that I randomly want to connect a keyboard and mouse/trackpad to for management and this seems like a big upgrade compared to the devices I’ve used previously.

Overall

It’s so nice to see a company announcing products in front of a live audience. This used to be a staple of Apple events, but they seem to all be pre-recorded, heavily edited and produced videos now rather than live demos in front of an audience.

And while Nirav Patel and the rest of the presenters have nowhere near the polish that Apple events had in their heyday, there’s a scrappy charm to them that I appreciate. Framework is undoubtedly an underdog in the industry, but they continue to release products that force everyone to take notice.

The Framework Wireless Touchpad Keyboard and Framework 13 Pro are the standout announcements from the event and I’m excited to see how they hold up to scrutiny once reviewers get their hands on them. I expect they’ll fare well — Framework seems to be making all the right trade-offs with their products and building excellent machines that give users the ability to upgrade and improve them over time.

Imagine buying a laptop and just upgrading it a few years later with a new display, more storage, additional RAM, an adjustment to your port selection, and so on. What a concept!

Apple used to ship computers like that. But I don’t expect it will ever happen again. Apple would rather stop offering macOS updates on a perfectly usable computer, forcing you to buy an entirely new machine. That may be the game that Apple plays, but Framework rejects it wholeheartedly and they’re gaining a loyal fanbase because of it. Myself included.

I guess my predictions regarding Apple’s iPad mini aren’t going to pan out.

There’s comes a time where you just have to forget about all your fears and bite the bullet. Today is that day. The above image is what my site has looked like for the past two and a half years. But, that has finally changed.

On April 22, 2011 at 12:38 PM I sent a text message to my brother-in-law asking “what would you think of a tech news site entitled ‘Initial Charge’?” From that day I spent the following four and a half months working on my next project: “Initial Charge.”

Along the way there was a lot of resistance from myself. I’ve never undertaken such a big project before. I wasn’t just going to buy a domain name, install WordPress, and slap a pre-made theme on it. I wanted to build something better and different than what I already had, but still keep it familiar to readers who’ve been with me along the way. The structure of the site is the same, I even used the same WordPress theme files as I used on mickerlodeon. But, the color scheme and font choices should look a lot more attractive to browsers of the site. There was a lot of work that went into these design changes, even if it doesn’t seem like there was.

I also had some design work done that I wasn’t able to do myself. The new logo at the top of the page was designed by Aaron Mahnke of Wet Frog Studios. He was a pleasure to work with and managed to design a fantastic logo for Initial Charge, even when I had little to suggest to him.

But aside from all the design details, there was a lot of changes that I wanted to get done. There’s a brand new archive page that lists every feature article I’ve written for the site. There’s a projects page that lists some of the other things that I’ve been working on, like my geek-related apparel site that I’ve entitled “Geek Tees” or the suggested reading page that lists my most recent liked articles on Instapaper. There’s now a dedicated section of the site that shows all of the Linked List items. I also offer a few RSS feed options on the Subscribe page, there’s an articles-only feed, a Linked List-only feed, and the main feed which contains both.

So, a lot of work went into the new site. And, I was trying to do all of this while working a full time job and making an attempt to keep up with writing (which has been hit or miss as of late but will change from this point forward).

So, that brings me to the section where I talk about what I didn’t ship and why I titled this “Biting the Bullet.” The biggest fear I have about launching this now is that it doesn’t feel finished yet. This is mostly because of my own expectations about what I would have done when I finally flipped the switch. For one thing, I wanted to re-categorize and re-edit everything I’ve written on this site. This proved to be too much and, unfortunately, became a part of this project that never really got off the ground.

Another thing that didn’t ship was the Mac Media Server project. It is listed on the Projects page as “coming soon” but I don’t really have a timeframe for when it will be finished. This is undoubtedly the biggest disappointment to me. I have thought about this project for a few years now but didn’t have the resources until just recently to actually make the project happen. The Media Server itself is finished and is working away in the closet of my office streaming video and audio to all the rooms in my house. But, the actual write-up explaining how I set it up, listing the software that I used, and why I made the decisions that I did isn’t finished yet. All of my notes for the write-up are in a spiral notebook just waiting for me to find the time to write it.

There were other things that I wanted to get done before I launched Initial Charge, but those  (and the ones mentioned above) are just going to have to wait on the back burner for now. I’m incredibly proud of the site and everything I’ve done to get it to where it is today. I would love to hear feedback about the changes — good, bad, or otherwise — so don’t hesitate to email me your thoughts.

So, going forward I expect to be writing a lot more often and have that writing be a lot more meaningful than it has been over the past few months. Getting everything ready to go for this launch has been quite taxing on my free time and I know that with it out of the way I’ll be more likely to write much more thoughtful pieces and link to much more interesting things in a timely manner. But for now, thanks for reading.

Apple has updated their homepage today teasing an iTunes announcement that will be coming tomorrow. The teaser reads:

Tomorrow is just another day. That you’ll never forget. Check back here tomorrow for an exciting announcement from iTunes.

The teaser also displays four clocks showing the time of the announcement in various locations. 7:00 AM California, 10:00 AM New York, 3:00 PM London, and 12:00 AM Tokyo.

And, now we begin the speculation. There have been rumors of a cloud backup service, an Apple TV update bringing AirPlay support, a music subscription service, and even a television subscription service. But, this announcement is quite interesting to me because there hasn’t been a build up of rumors leading up to it. It came out of the nowhere.

None of the rumors listed above have had many credible updates in recent weeks. And, those that have didn’t depict the new product or service as being ready for an announcement.

But I have a feeling that this is going to be a major announcement. Apple has a habit of under-promising and over-delivering. And, “tomorrow is just another day. That you’ll never forget” doesn’t sound like a small announcement.