So today, along with 10.5 I picked up the new Apple Keyboard.
Initially it was going to be for my mom but it looks like I'm keeping this one all to myself
. The keyboard feels very good to use. The keys are crisp unlike a lot of other "laptop" style keyboards where the keys seem mushy. The aluminum body feels solid and they finally put a USB 2.0 hub in the keyboard itself (for some reason, Logitech [Apple's main keyboard OEM] doesn't seem to do this very often, even on it's own product *cough*G15*cough*). Because of the Aluminum construction, I'm pretty sure even that Angry German kid would have a hard time breaking it . In addition, the lack of clear plastic and the nooks and crannies the previous keyboards had means that this keyboard will look a lot nicer for a whole lot longer.
The keyboard is also physically smaller while not being cramped. They did this by reducing the size of the F keys and the combo F keys/Multimedia key setup works well. I have mine set so that the F keys are the "native" keys and the sound, brightness, and eject keys use the function button. For those of you curious about using it with a PC or non 10.4.10/10.5 Mac, the default for the keyboard is to use the F keys as F keys and not as Multimedia keys. The smaller size plays out well for my keyboard tray which is too small to be practical with many keyboards out there, especially those with palm rests.
So the long and the short...
Is it a must have? No.
Is it nice? Yes
It's also available in a bluetooth version but that one lacks the numeric pad which I actually use sometimes, and I like the USB 2.0 ports.
Initially it was going to be for my mom but it looks like I'm keeping this one all to myself
. The keyboard feels very good to use. The keys are crisp unlike a lot of other "laptop" style keyboards where the keys seem mushy. The aluminum body feels solid and they finally put a USB 2.0 hub in the keyboard itself (for some reason, Logitech [Apple's main keyboard OEM] doesn't seem to do this very often, even on it's own product *cough*G15*cough*). Because of the Aluminum construction, I'm pretty sure even that Angry German kid would have a hard time breaking it . In addition, the lack of clear plastic and the nooks and crannies the previous keyboards had means that this keyboard will look a lot nicer for a whole lot longer.The keyboard is also physically smaller while not being cramped. They did this by reducing the size of the F keys and the combo F keys/Multimedia key setup works well. I have mine set so that the F keys are the "native" keys and the sound, brightness, and eject keys use the function button. For those of you curious about using it with a PC or non 10.4.10/10.5 Mac, the default for the keyboard is to use the F keys as F keys and not as Multimedia keys. The smaller size plays out well for my keyboard tray which is too small to be practical with many keyboards out there, especially those with palm rests.
So the long and the short...
Is it a must have? No.
Is it nice? Yes
It's also available in a bluetooth version but that one lacks the numeric pad which I actually use sometimes, and I like the USB 2.0 ports.
