Caps lock should not be changed despite it's ostensible uselessness. Programmers often remap caps lock (I personally use this tool [1]), and it's nice to have a big target for the pinky. Remapping is of course possible with these new keyboards, but the split key design that replaces caps lock leaves a much smaller target. In addition, I'm sure there are hunt and peck typists that still legitimately use caps locks instead of shift because it requires less coordination and hand contortions, so leaving caps lock alone also has accessibility benefits.
One area where keyboard designers aren't innovating enough is the spacebar. The left 2/3 of the space bar is rarely used by most touch typists and hogs very accessible real estate. I like how Microsoft split the spacebar on their new keyboard [2] and replaced the left half with backspace, the most commonly typed (but normally most hard to reach) key.
I'm disappointed to see thinkpad/lenovo make these mistakes given their reputation for quality laptop keyboards. I personally use an x230 [3], which has a similar chiclet keyboard as the x1 carbon in the article without the transgressions.
One area where keyboard designers aren't innovating enough is the spacebar. The left 2/3 of the space bar is rarely used by most touch typists and hogs very accessible real estate. I like how Microsoft split the spacebar on their new keyboard [2] and replaced the left half with backspace, the most commonly typed (but normally most hard to reach) key.
I'm disappointed to see thinkpad/lenovo make these mistakes given their reputation for quality laptop keyboards. I personally use an x230 [3], which has a similar chiclet keyboard as the x1 carbon in the article without the transgressions.
[1] https://github.com/alols/xcape
[2] http://techland.time.com/2012/09/20/new-microsoft-keyboard-s...
[3] http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/x-series/x230/