Playing with the new Apple Keyboard
Ok, I admit it. I broke down and bought one of the new Apple keyboards.
I'm temporarily using it instead of my Logitech S530 keyboard and mouse combo with my MacBook Pro when I'm at home and running it as a desktop. To be clear, that means the MBP is operating with its top down and slid underneath a monitor stand that holds up a 20 inch Apple Cinema Display. The MBP gets connected to the display's Firewire 400 and USB 2.0 chords, a power adapter, a Firewire 800 Maxtor 320GB external hard disk, an external speaker system, and a keyboard and mouse.
As I had expected, I love the feel of the keys. However, the keyboard itself is smaller, and so I'm shuffling the keyboard around to find the right spot for it. I tried using it at first without the software update (V1.1) that enables the special keys. The CD Eject key worked anyway, and I could still control Dashboard and Expose using the F keys. With this keyboard, though, you have to hold down the Fn key located in the small pad between the regular keyset and the numeric pad to get the Function keys to work. (Like you were working on a MacBook or MacBook Pro keyboard.) The keys have a nice separation to them, and it's just enough with the smaller keyboard to throw me off. None of the volume or video control keys work without the update, but the brightness keys do. I booted my MBP into Windows and found the keyboard worked just fine there, including the CD Eject key. I then booted back to OS X and downloaded the software update. All keys then worked like they're supposed to, though the Expose key seemed only to move the windows to a tile layout and does not clear the windows off the desktop. To do that, you have to hit the "fn" key and the "F11" key, taking more steps than using a regular keyboard would. That almmost makes the "special" Expose key not worth it.
I had my wife sit down at the keyboard and try it, and she seemed to like it, though she wasn't sure she liked it more than her old Apple keyboard.
As for me, though I like the keyboard, I consider my jury still out. I regained one piece of the functionality lost by switching off the Logitech 530 keyboard by combining a Logitech MX500 Optical mouse with cruise buttons with Apple's. The new keyboard has volume and video control keys as does the S530, but it does not have buttons to launch iTunes, iPhoto, or Mail on its own. The S530 does. Loss of those items may not be enough to cause me to abandon the new Apple keyboard; but, then again, they might. I'll probably figure out in the next week or so whether the new Apple keyboard is going to stay or whether the S530 comes back and the Apple AL keyboard tries to find a new home with my wife.
I'm temporarily using it instead of my Logitech S530 keyboard and mouse combo with my MacBook Pro when I'm at home and running it as a desktop. To be clear, that means the MBP is operating with its top down and slid underneath a monitor stand that holds up a 20 inch Apple Cinema Display. The MBP gets connected to the display's Firewire 400 and USB 2.0 chords, a power adapter, a Firewire 800 Maxtor 320GB external hard disk, an external speaker system, and a keyboard and mouse.
As I had expected, I love the feel of the keys. However, the keyboard itself is smaller, and so I'm shuffling the keyboard around to find the right spot for it. I tried using it at first without the software update (V1.1) that enables the special keys. The CD Eject key worked anyway, and I could still control Dashboard and Expose using the F keys. With this keyboard, though, you have to hold down the Fn key located in the small pad between the regular keyset and the numeric pad to get the Function keys to work. (Like you were working on a MacBook or MacBook Pro keyboard.) The keys have a nice separation to them, and it's just enough with the smaller keyboard to throw me off. None of the volume or video control keys work without the update, but the brightness keys do. I booted my MBP into Windows and found the keyboard worked just fine there, including the CD Eject key. I then booted back to OS X and downloaded the software update. All keys then worked like they're supposed to, though the Expose key seemed only to move the windows to a tile layout and does not clear the windows off the desktop. To do that, you have to hit the "fn" key and the "F11" key, taking more steps than using a regular keyboard would. That almmost makes the "special" Expose key not worth it.
I had my wife sit down at the keyboard and try it, and she seemed to like it, though she wasn't sure she liked it more than her old Apple keyboard.
As for me, though I like the keyboard, I consider my jury still out. I regained one piece of the functionality lost by switching off the Logitech 530 keyboard by combining a Logitech MX500 Optical mouse with cruise buttons with Apple's. The new keyboard has volume and video control keys as does the S530, but it does not have buttons to launch iTunes, iPhoto, or Mail on its own. The S530 does. Loss of those items may not be enough to cause me to abandon the new Apple keyboard; but, then again, they might. I'll probably figure out in the next week or so whether the new Apple keyboard is going to stay or whether the S530 comes back and the Apple AL keyboard tries to find a new home with my wife.
posted by Andy Foster at
9:29 AM
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