Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Wireless keyboards finally arriving to retail.

Anonymous Freak

Anonymous Freak

macrumors 603
Original poster
Dec 12, 2002
5,725
1,842
Cascadia
Of the three Apple Stores in Portland, Oregon, two had a supply of Wireless Keyboards yesterday (but hadn't yet put them on the shelves, I had to ask for it.) One was getting wireless-equipped iMacs in, but not keyboards alone.

Today, all three have keyboards in stock.

I got mine yesterday. I must say, the thing is indeed tiny. I have had a chance to play with the wired one a few times, but this guy just takes the cake. It's even smaller than my old Happy Hacker keyboard.

Well worth the $79 off my iPhone credit. :D (Now what to do with the remaining $21.....) I was very hesitant about the lack of numeric keypad, as I am a very fast 10-key-er, but suck hitting the keys above the main keyboard. So I started actively paying attention to when I was using the 'missing' keys on my old Wireless Keyboard.

It turns out the only 'missing' keys that I hit on any regular basis are Page Up and Page Down. I'm willing to sacrifice two dedicated buttons to save this much space on my desk. Now I can have the main typing area centered properly, without interfering with my external SuperDrive. (Heck, it's so short the drive can just eject right over the top!)

Old and busted:
oldbusted.jpg


New hotness:
newhotness.jpg
 
awesome. that's quite a few docks you got there.

as much as i'd like to have that keyboard, i'll just stick to the wired one. i don't have to worry about batteries
 
twoodcc said:
awesome. that's quite a few docks you got there.

as much as i'd like to have that keyboard, i'll just stick to the wired one. i don't have to worry about batteries
Click to expand...

the old bluetooth keyboard, i had to change the batteries maybe once a year, its seriously not a big deal.
 
I also don't miss any of they keys left off of the wireless compared to the wired. I guess I just don't work with that many numbers, financial programs, etc.

My God how can you even work in a space that small?!? :confused: That's crazy! And I thought *mine* was cramped :D
 

Attachments

  • DSC_4697_800x530.shkl.JPG
    DSC_4697_800x530.shkl.JPG
    94.5 KB · Views: 112
While waiting at the Genius Bar today I picked one up too.:D

What was odd is that they didn't have one on display, and the associate said they'd been told to not put any out at this time. I wonder if it's due to potential pilfering?

It's the perfect size for me, and definitely more comfortable to use than the other Apple bt keyboard. Plus, it looks as if was made for the MacBook Pro.

I'm in peripheral Zen.:p
 
looks good, its too bad apple decided to let out the best phone ever, because now i have to save for that instead of buying the bt keyboard and the wireless mighty mouse.
 
i went to a store in a chicago suburb, and they had a few on the shelves. Ironically the big megastore in downtown chicago has NONE.
 
Nice, looks like you wouldnt have noticed another wire going to you keyboard from that budle you have there :)

So what happens to the page up/down and home/end keys then? how do you use those on the wireless keyboard?
I have a wired one and use these alot, not bothered about the number keys too much but I guess the navigation keys might be hidden somewhere else with a few different keystrokes?

They stock them in the uk now and was tempted but £50 for a keyboard!? :(
 
Veritas&Equitas said:
My God how can you even work in a space that small?!? :confused: That's crazy! And I thought *mine* was cramped :D
Click to expand...

Heh... Here's a picture from farther back of what the desk USED to look like.
oldsetup.jpg

The 'leaf' that the MacBook Pro is on in that picture has since been removed due to space constraints, so the MacBook Pro now lives in the shelf area. (I only actually use it there for 1-2 hours a day. Most of the time it's with me on the road.) You can also see the 12" PowerBook G4 that the MacBook Pro replaced in March of last year. This picture was taken when the MacBook Pro was brand new. I probably hadn't even transferred all my files yet.

I cropped my original pictures specifically to avoid seeing the eMac's section, because it's even messier than in THIS post's picture. The eMac is mainly my wife's computer, and that area is generally a disaster of papers and files.

Just like in the bathroom, I get one small section of my own, and my wife even encroaches on that regularly. Heck, just before taking the two pictures at the top of the thread, I had to move some papers of my wife's that had been put on top of "Dock Row". (In the bathroom, I get one shelf in the cabinet, and about one square foot of counter space.)

twoodcc: Yeah, they are for: 30 GB 3G iPod, 2G iPod shuffle (light green from the last set of colors,) and iPhone with Bluetooth headset (obviously). There is also a 1G iPod nano dock sitting right behind the 3G iPod dock. I only plug the 30 GB iPod in about once a month, and it happened to be the morning I took these pictures. Normally the nano dock is plugged in in front, with the 3G dock sitting way back in the deep recesses of the space there. (I have the music library on an external drive I connect to on my MacBook Pro; so my iPhone, my wife's nano (for running with Nike+,) and her shuffle (for work,) all are synced here. The big iPod sits in a JBL OnStage speaker/dock in the kitchen 99% of the time, only getting synced when there is enough new music in the iTunes Library to warrant re-syncing.)
 
johny5 said:
Nice, looks like you wouldnt have noticed another wire going to you keyboard from that budle you have there :)
Click to expand...

Yeah, the wire wasn't a big deal, it's the size that I like.

johny5 said:
So what happens to the page up/down and home/end keys then? how do you use those on the wireless keyboard?
I have a wired one and use these alot, not bothered about the number keys too much but I guess the navigation keys might be hidden somewhere else with a few different keystrokes?
Click to expand...

The new Wireless Keyboard has a "fn" button just like on the notebook keyboards. fn-down-arrow is Page Down, fn-up-arrow is Page Up, fn-left-arrow is Home, fn-right-arrow is End, and fn-delete is Forward Delete. (where "delete" is Apple's name for "backspace", and "Forward Delete" is Apple's name for the "delete" key in the navigation block next to End.)

The only possible downside is that, unlike notebook keyboards, this has no "embedded" numeric keypad. It is simply impossible to even emulate a 10-key on it. (On notebooks, you can hold fn, or hit F6/"num lock" and 0-uiopjkl;m./ all become a numeric keypad.)
 
oh great thanks for telling me this :( now I will have to go and buy one :)

tbh, I do have the previous wireless keyboard which I also use on my macbook, and as the macbooks keys are very similar to the new wireless kb I may aswell get one :)

I really cant believe how nice the new kb is to use especially compared to the older BT one, big ole fat chunky keys that clunk when used :D I think i feel an ebay sale coming on.......
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back