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Apple’s new keyboard; simply awesome
Sunday, October 14, 2007
New Apple Keyboard Don’t get me wrong… Apple’s peripherals usually suck. The Mighty Mouse and the the slightly older version of the Mac keyboard are example of completely failed products (in my opinion). Currently, at work, I’m using the Apple keyboard that came with iMacs early 2006. (The white version with a raised back). This keyboard was nice for about a month… after which, it became visibly filthy from use and a year later (now) the keys resist being pressed so much that I actually feel like I’m wasting development time when I’m coding. This also introduces annoying typos that take even more time to detect. As for the Mighty Mouse… uhh!! It’s horrible! Although its functionality and design are nice, it simply breaks down way to often! Both my colleague and I have sent back our mice for an exchange about 9 months ago. A few weeks ago, my colleague opted for a new Logitech mouse as hers had given out already. Mine still works but I can’t scroll with it and sometimes the movement isn’t detected well. No really, a horrible mouse. Apple really needs to improve their external hardware and I think the new keyboard is a start. That being said, I recently acquired Apple’s latest keyboard for personal use. It’s slim, silver, with 2 high-speed USB ports and white keys. The keyboard also has built-in buttons for some of Mac OSX’s most common and used features and software (Dashboard, iTunes, Volume up/down, etc.). Although I used the keyboard for a few hours using a Mac, I’m primarily using it at home on my IBM laptop running Windows XP. I was thinking of getting the wireless bluetooth version of the keyboard but after some research on the net, the compatibility with Windows didn’t seem to be quite there. Officially, this keyboard does not support Windows at all. Unofficially, the full version of the keyboard works just fine with it. My experience in plugging it in was seamless; I simply connected the keyboard’s USB to my laptop and then, I did nothing. A few seconds later, the keyboard was detected and ready for use. I then ventured into plugging a wireless mouse into the left USB port of the keyboard and that also worked immediately! I was very happy by then. Though most of the keys were being recognized, including all the letters and numbers, some useful keys were not; such as the function keys, some number pad keys, etc. In order to fix this, I downloaded a neat little program called SharpKeys which allowed me to easily re-map the keys to functions that were already built into my system by other keyboard drivers. All in all, this is a nice keyboard. My old keyboard, a Wireless Microsoft Mouse+Keyboard set, still works fine and I have nothing to complain about it; except for its bulkiness. This new Apple Keyboard is a welcome change mostly due to its size and layout.
 
Conclusion:
So… when can we expect a new mouse? Posted by: Nick in
• IT / Technology
• Personal
• Reviews
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