A theory regarding the "mystery" blank key on the iPad dock keyboard...

Uh, no.

Just because there are blank keys doesn't mean that they are going to be used anything. Have you seen the bluetooth keyboard?

NT1440 said:

Uh, no.

Just because there are blank keys doesn't mean that they are going to be used anything. Have you seen the bluetooth keyboard?

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But the Bluetooth keyboard can be used with a computer and you (or applications) can assign functions to it. That's pointless with the Dock keyboard, so clearly it may be used for something.

I think the blank key will be used to signal the mothership to bring more tin foil for the hats!

Mark

Adding a Tab key sure would be nice. And why the heck is the apostrophe not on the home page? The exclamation mark is and I use that far less commonly than the apostrophe.

I was assuming that the blank key was just the "home" button on the iPad.

NT1440 said:

Uh, no.

Just because there are blank keys doesn't mean that they are going to be used anything. Have you seen the bluetooth keyboard?

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Uh, no.

The bluetooth keyboard does not have blank keys.

Apple would not leave a key completely blank, so this is actually the most plausible reason.

HiRez said:

Adding a Tab key sure would be nice. And why the heck is the apostrophe not on the home page? The exclamation mark is and I use that far less commonly than the apostrophe.

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Yes! How are you supposed to indent lists in Pages in landscape mode where there is no toolbar?

B.i.n.g.o

That's where the Windows key will go once Steve Ballmer initiates a hostile takeover with Monopoly money.

ravenvii said:

Maybe because Apple figured most of your apostrophe needs would be handled by the auto-correcting feature? It converts ill to I'll, im to I'm, and its to it's and so forth.

Just a guess.

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I think you are right. At first this annoyed me, but considering that the majority of people out there don't seem to know how to use the apostrophe correctly in the first place, it is probably for the best.

Um no? People already have the keyboard dock. and MacBooks have blank keys. And they left it there so they don't screw up the keyboard layout.

goobot said:

Um no? People already have the keyboard dock. and MacBooks have blank keys. And they left it there so they don't screw up the keyboard layout.

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MacBooks do not have blank keys. Function keys are not blank.

pooryou said:

MacBooks do not have blank keys. Function keys are not blank.

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My MacBook Pro has F11 and F12 Blank. Maybe you guys are just 'thinking too much'?

Except "it's" and "its" are two different things, how would autocorrect know which one to use? I don't think it's that smart.

HiRez said:

Adding a Tab key sure would be nice. And why the heck is the apostrophe not on the home page? The exclamation mark is and I use that far less commonly than the apostrophe.

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I think that this is about the physical keyboard dock, not the on-screen keyboard.

Babybandit said:

My MacBook Pro has F11 and F12 Blank. Maybe you guys are just 'thinking too much'?

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See next post.

Just in case people haven't seen what we are talking about here..this one is 100% blank, not a like function key.

Is it possible that they are just using the exact same keyboard as the bluetooth one (to keep manufacturing costs down) and they just didn't have anything left to put on that key?

^^^ Apple doesn't do anything without a purpose. Example: All of the iphone marketing materials (posters, pics, etc...) show the time as 9:42 all of the ipad ones show as 9:41. Those were the times they were announced. If the key was meant to be left blank, the would have removed it from the keyboard or put some arbitrary function. It could possibly be some sort of hot key function, but I think OP may be right about it being a function related to OS 4.0.

ravenvii said:

Since the keyboard is stated to be shipping "late April", perhaps this is because Apple plans to introduce an feature (Expose? Dashboard?) in iPhone OS 4.0 that will use that key, and they don't want to reveal it until after the announcement this Thursday? Maybe that's also when the SDK will be released, and developers can test it on their iPads - blank key and all?

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Its a new revolutionary F6 key without F6 on it.

None of the function keys have F numbers on the displayed picture which kind of leaves F6 no choice but to be blank. Aesthetically it would look better not being blank.

Steve ballmer was invited to give it a use and he placed on it the first thing that came to mind......Nothing So from now on the blank key on a Apple keyboard should be called the Ballmer key.

They could of used LEDs instead of that button. What a missed opportunity. The keyboard would be so cool with LEDs.

Guys come on its a frickin' button. Why all the conspiracy theories?

It theres no specific function it doesnt get an icon. If the buttons had F1 F2 F3 on them then it would be F7 yet still not have a function assigned to it unless you give it one. The reason its not labelled as F7 is because the others are not labelled F1, F2 F3, etc.

Theres no 'new' iPad function in the pipeline. If there was what are they going to do? Recall all the keyboards and label up the buttons again?

MacBoobsPro said:

Guys come on its a frickin' button. Why all the conspiracy theories?

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Remember that Apple is the company that kept the iPad under lock and key at the Wall Street Journal having an employee unlock it every day then lock it back up to keep it secret. Conspiracy theories don't sound so far fetched when dealing with Apple.

Conspiracies are very common actually; many people seem to be confused as to what the word actually means.