Having spent a little time with the new Apple Wired Keyboard, I have this to say:
A) I love it. I can put it on my lap and type on my MacBook sitting on a desk/table (i.e. at a hotel, as I am doing now) and almost not feel the weight of it. Truly cool.
B) Imagining what the wireless one will be like, I almost wonder if it will be too small (width). But we’ll have to wait and see.
C) I wouldn’t miss the number pad if it wasn’t there (yes I realize some of you consider a number pad to be the next step on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs after food and shelter, I’m just saying, for me it’s not). What I would like (and I realize this is crazy talk) is an integrated touchpad, yes on the keyboard itself, where the number pad usually is. Yes I realize they’d have to make a left and right handed version of this, and yes I realize that there are a number of reasons why this will never happen, but I would love it. Especially on the wireless version. Yes, I said a wireless touchpad. Never been done before? Well Apple should be the first.
D) As I Twittered earlier, the box that the wired keyboard comes in looks remarkably like a white Russell Stover candy box. The wireless version, which will be shorter, will probably look even more like one.
E) There was a lot of fuss made about the “Media Keys” but I find that it behaves exactly like my MacBook keyboard does, including which keys do which Expose’ related functions. UPDATE: Hrm. I haven’t installed the Keyboard Software Update 1.1 yet. Perhaps that’s why? I think I’m going to ignore this update unless someone can explain some reason that I really need it. I suspect it will be difficult to uninstall. Hrm. Now how do I get Software Updates to ignore it? I can do that pretty easily with Windows Update, but I’ve never tried with Software Update. Hrm. Anyone?
F) Other than a mouse, is there anything you can plug into the USB ports on a keyboard? Oh this is interesting:
Devices that draw high power from the USB connection, such as iPods, hard drives and some flash drives, can only be used with the new keyboard when it is attached to the aluminum iMac. (Source)
So if you have a new iMac, those USB ports are actually useful.
G) The Mighty Mouse is absolutely, without question, without doubt, the worse Apple hardware I have ever had the misfortune of using. I tried using a wired version at the Apple store and found it ever bit as wretched as the wireless version I made the colossal mistake of buying. I get RSI just thinking about it. And right clicking just doesn’t work through the magical interpretative skills that Apple thinks it has.
OK I realize G doesn’t really have anything to do with the new keyboard, except that looking at that thing attached to one of these lovely new keyboards made it look just ugly.
Oh, and lastly:
About a year or so ago I was in the Apple store looking at some hardware (I think the former white Apple keyboard) and asked if there was an academic discount.
The Apple store employee said “If we [Apple] make it, there’s a discount.” Recently when I bought my MacBook-to-S-Video adapter, there was a small discount ($1-$2). But it seems to no longer be a given. The new Apple wired keyboards are $49 and there is no academic discount.
Of course there’s no obligation for Apple to offer any sort of academic discount, but I wonder why they are ceasing to do so (see iPods) or reducing them (see iWork/iLife). My biggest wonder has to do with Leopard. Will there be an academic discount for the new OS? Will it be as substantial as it has been in the past? (iirc the academic price for Tiger was something like $70 instead of $120, so it was quite a drop.)
Only about a month or so before we find out.