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Wireless keyboard or not?

R

radiogoober

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 7, 2011
972
1
Hi all,

Thinking about grabbing a 21" iMac. I do a ton of writing. Should I get the wireless keyboard or wired? I don't care about the ultra-clean (physical) desktop look.

My concern with using the wireless keyboard is that it may slide around a bit while I'm typing.

.... Also, does the wired mouse do all the touch control stuff that the magic mouse does?
 
miniConvert said:
Wired keyboard with number pad, wireless magic mouse. Done. :)

That said, magic trackpad is awesome with Lion - really comes into its own.
Click to expand...

I agree. A wired keyboard never looses connectivity due to dead batteries. The Magic Mouse is really user friendly. It's the best mouse I've used so far.
 
Wired keyboard. Numeric keypad handy, 2 USB ports handy.

I picked up a new 21.5 inch a few weeks ago from my local Apple Store and asked for a wired keyboard. The guy couldn't be bothered taking the wireless one out of the box so I ended up with both for free. I've been using the wireless one with my iPad. Quite handy for blog posting from the sofa.
 
The big difference to me is the number pad. I always made heavy use of that and it is a big adjustment when I am using a keyboard without it.

I do not think that batteries are an issue. I have a wireless keyboard on a work desktop that I am at 6+ hours a day, and I go months and months between battery changes. I am not writing novels, but I do use the keyboard quite a bit. I think the battery life on it is fantastic (much better than, say, the trackpad, which requires a battery change every 3 weeks).
 
Honestly, the magic mouse is the worse piece of hardware I have used in my life. I find it way too big and cumbersome for my hands, and I am 1.8m tall with fairly large palms. Give me any discount bin logitech mouse any time of the day.

I would recommend the wireless keyboard+trackpad combination. As for batteries, I find myself having to change them once every 6-8 weeks on average (using rechargeable batteries), so it is not really the inconvenience people are making it out to be. Nor am I missing the absence of a numpad, but perhaps that's just me. :)
 
i love the clean look of the wireless keyboard, but i never use a numb pad. also the keyboard is very stable on my desk, no chance of it sliding around. The batteries last ages and if you ask the man from apple nicely he will probably give you an apple charger and six batteries, he gave one to me for free.
 
I find the weight of the batteries helps to keep the wireless keyboard in place.
Though I have both the wired and wireless versions, neither slides around even on my glass desk after it's been cleaned. Both seem to take around the same amount of force to make them slide.

Battery wise mine lasts for months and I have spare rechargeable on hand to swap over when they do run out.

I would go for the wired keyboard if the usb ports and/or the numpad is important. Additionally if you intent to use FileVault 2 drive encryption as it doesn't work too well with the wireless keyboard for entering the password at startup. Otherwise the wireless keyboard is fine.
 
Dark Dragoon said:
I find the weight of the batteries helps to keep the wireless keyboard in place.
Though I have both the wired and wireless versions, neither slides around even on my glass desk after it's been cleaned. Both seem to take around the same amount of force to make them slide.

Battery wise mine lasts for months and I have spare rechargeable on hand to swap over when they do run out.

I would go for the wired keyboard if the usb ports and/or the numpad is important. Additionally if you intent to use FileVault 2 drive encryption as it doesn't work too well with the wireless keyboard for entering the password at startup. Otherwise the wireless keyboard is fine.
Click to expand...

I use FV2 on all of our Macs, and never had a problem with using a wireless keyboard.

Regarding wired vs. wireless. Pre-Lion, I used the wired keyboard. The wireless seems too small without the number pad. Since I moved to Lion, I now use the wireless keyboard/Magic trackpad combo, held together with a Twelvesouth Magic Wand. It gives the combo the approximate size as the wired keyboard. I continue to the use the magic mouse as well.

/Jim
 
I use my keyboard a lot. I enjoy the keyboard on portable Apple computers such as the MBA and MBP. I tried to use both the wireless and the wired Apple keyboards and simply did not get on with them. The key travel and lack of feedback was the biggest issue for me. I ended up buying a Matias Tactile Pro. Quite expensive but it's just an amazing keyboard if you do a lot of typing as it allows you to type very quickly. It's a keyboard with mechanical switches and it is a bit noisy, but I love it (The mrs not so much :) )
 
Wired keyboard and magic trackpad. No magic mouse! To (comfortably) take advantage of Lion you will need a trackpad.
 
Dark Dragoon said:
Additionally if you intent to use FileVault 2 drive encryption as it doesn't work too well with the wireless keyboard for entering the password at startup. Otherwise the wireless keyboard is fine.
Click to expand...

I'm using the Apple wireless BT KB on my 2010 iMac with FV2 and it works perfectly. Maybe something wrong with your setup?
 
Weaselboy said:
I'm using the Apple wireless BT KB on my 2010 iMac with FV2 and it works perfectly. Maybe something wrong with your setup?
Click to expand...
Doesn't seem to work at all with my Mac Pro 2006, and only intermittently with a couple of old iMacs (2008 and 2009) and MacBook Pro 2010. Most of the time it will not connect to allow you to enter the password, but connect fine a bit later. This is with different wireless keyboards, not just the same one btw.
 
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