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New aluminum keyboard: caps lock issues

S

skeen

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 12, 2007
264
0
London, England
Got the new keyboard. :D It rocks, except for one thing: the caps lock isn't as sensitive as the other keys. Turning off caps is fine, but turning it on, I have to press the key a little harder than the others for it to activate.

Is anyone else experiencing this? I'm wondering if for some reason it's supposed to be like that?
 
skeen said:
Got the new keyboard. :D It rocks, except for one thing: the caps lock isn't as sensitive as the other keys. Turning off caps is fine, but turning it on, I have to press the key a little harder than the others for it to activate.

Is anyone else experiencing this? I'm wondering if for some reason it's supposed to be like that?
Click to expand...

Yes, this was one of the first things I noticed about it. I don't like it, personally. :p
 
I guess its to stop accidental pressing of the Caps Lock Key. Personally I use Shift for caps, at least unless im REALLY REALLY ANGRY. :p
 
I'm glad to report that mine is absolutely fine .. :)

It's great that Apple have at last made a great keyboard. I found the old ones similar to using a "Typewriter" ... perhaps a slight exaggeration ..:eek:
 
I have this issue too - I'm finding that when I hit the caps key to turn caps on it doesn't respond, but when I click it a second time it responds.

sO I USUALLY END UP WITH A LINE LIKE THIS.
 
That's a brilliant thing, I think. All other keyboards I have to disable the caps lock key in preferences due to the slightest accidentaL TOUCH WHEN I HIT THE TAB, SHIFT OR A KEY NEXT TO IT AND SWITCHING TO ALL CAPS WHILE I'M TYPING AND THEN I LOOK UP AT THE SCREEN and see it's not what I wanted.
 
The problem I have observed with this key is not the amount of pressure but rather the speed at which it is pressed.

If I tap the key very quickly, the Caps Lock light does not change state. But if I tap it slowly or moderately quick at any pressure level, even very lightly, then the state change occurs.

This could be either a hardware or a software problem. I changed the Keyboard settings in System Preferences to see if I could make the Caps Lock key respond differently. It did not make any difference no matter where I placed the slider.
 
MK2007 said:
The problem I have observed with this key is not the amount of pressure but rather the speed at which it is pressed.

If I tap the key very quickly, the Caps Lock light does not change state. But if I tap it slowly or moderately quick at any pressure level, even very lightly, then the state change occurs.

This could be either a hardware or a software problem. I changed the Keyboard settings in System Preferences to see if I could make the Caps Lock key respond differently. It did not make any difference no matter where I placed the slider.
Click to expand...

This is the exact experience I'm having. I thought that perhaps it could be a feature, but it's really not helping - it's the only thing I cannot get used to. Seems to be a software issue then - I hope they'll fix it.
 
MK2007 said:
The problem I have observed with this key is not the amount of pressure but rather the speed at which it is pressed.

If I tap the key very quickly, the Caps Lock light does not change state. But if I tap it slowly or moderately quick at any pressure level, even very lightly, then the state change occurs.
Click to expand...

That's exactly how mine works - amount of pressure makes no difference. I think it's a brilliant design.
 
I've found the eject key appears to operate the same way. A quick tap won't open the tray, but a press will.

It's the difference between tapping and pressing.
 
awmazz said:
I've found the eject key appears to operate the same way. A quick tap won't open the tray, but a press will.

It's the difference between tapping and pressing.
Click to expand...

That's the way it is with the old keyboard too, after some OS update last year. I am not pleased with it, but understand it and just have to hold the key longer. It does help, though, because I used to accidentally open the tray every so often.

Can't wait to get my aluminum wireless keyboard, tho. This white plastic tinker toy is crud.
 
awmazz said:
I've found the eject key appears to operate the same way. A quick tap won't open the tray, but a press will.

It's the difference between tapping and pressing.
Click to expand...

Exactly. The eject think I think they added in OS X 10.4.10. Confused me at first, but I can see their point. Caps Lock makes more sense to me, since I almost never use it intentionally, occasionally hit it accidentally, and it's in prime keyboard real estate. But I can see why it would annoy frequent users, or people who re-map it to a more important key.
 
MK2007 said:
The problem I have observed with this key is not the amount of pressure but rather the speed at which it is pressed.

If I tap the key very quickly, the Caps Lock light does not change state. But if I tap it slowly or moderately quick at any pressure level, even very lightly, then the state change occurs.
Click to expand...


I like this feature. You don't make mistakes in this case. When I first got it, there was a few times I tapped the eject key because I was so use to backspace there. When that happened I though CRAP it's going to open the disc tray, but it never happened because it was a quick tap. :D

Chris F said:
Do you guys really use caps lock that much?
Click to expand...

Very rarely.
 
Nice feature. I like it -- makes sense. Personally I think that key could be in a much less prominent place, too. I hardly ever use it. I don't know what I'd put there in its place though. Maybe just make tab bigger?
 
wordmunger said:
Nice feature. I like it -- makes sense. Personally I think that key could be in a much less prominent place, too. I hardly ever use it. I don't know what I'd put there in its place though. Maybe just make tab bigger?
Click to expand...

I think some UNIX types have traditionally mapped "CTRL" there, so they don't have to stretch their pinky all the time to do keyboard shortcuts.
 
I don't think this is a good feature though. I never accidently hit caps. Frankly, I'm sick of hitting backspace when I want to type a word in CAPS. It's annoying.

The old regular Apple keyboard didn't have this "feature" in my experience. There really should be an option, or a command to disable it.
 
skeen said:
I don't think this is a good feature though. I never accidently hit caps. Frankly, I'm sick of hitting backspace when I want to type a word in CAPS. It's annoying.

The old regular Apple keyboard didn't have this "feature" in my experience. There really should be an option, or a command to disable it.
Click to expand...

I understand both sides and I agree they should make an option (if they can) to take it away. For me, I like it. I have big hands and if I slip and hit the CAPS lock by accident it doesn't turn it on.
I have no problem using it when I want to though. I think it probably had to do with the design of the keyboard itself. Being more "low profile" I could see them seeing this setting as a fix to hitting it by accident compared to other original type keyboards.

All-in-all, I just got the keyboard and love it.

Note: a way to test the CAPS lock function is slower, tap any number or letter key as fast as you can in a word document or something, see the reaction time. Then do the same thing to the CAPS lock key, it doesn't go green if you tap it really fast.
 
MK2007 said:
The problem I have observed with this key is not the amount of pressure but rather the speed at which it is pressed.

If I tap the key very quickly, the Caps Lock light does not change state. But if I tap it slowly or moderately quick at any pressure level, even very lightly, then the state change occurs.

This could be either a hardware or a software problem. I changed the Keyboard settings in System Preferences to see if I could make the Caps Lock key respond differently. It did not make any difference no matter where I placed the slider.
Click to expand...

Hey guys.. Per the above, I would agree that speed is the issue, 100%, whether by fault or design.. however, I can press it 100+ times in a row, really fast, the the light never turns on.. however, I can press it 100+ times in a row a at slow to moderate pace, and it's all good.. so for a guy whom types all day long, I find this feature (if by design) both handy and annoying at the same time...

Thus it led me to call Apple (I live in Canada). Their engineers had no idea about the issue. I was passed between 4 different people before I was transfered to the correct one.. and they don't even use these keyboards at their office yet..

So they said they've made a note to engineering, and bascially couldn't say what would be done with the note/information..

However, they did agree that if enough people address the issue, by bringing it to their attention, the more likely they'll address it.

Apparently, I'm the first Canadian customer to bring this to their attention. So I pointed them the a google of the issue (this thead included), and they agreed 'it must be real'.. and that was all they could give me.

My question is: there's folks claiming they took their boards in for an exchange, and their new boards worked perfectly.. what do you think?

Did we get lemons, or are the folks with new perfectly working boards living in an alternate state of typing?

Cheers,

The Honk.
 
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