Apple Keyboard Kit

12 Comments

1. J. CHEN says:

   November 20, 2009 at 12:30 pm

   I though it should be as same as the one sold in apple store, but it just came in a brown box looked like OEM or refurbished product. The price is as same as apple store, so I decide to return it and buy from the apple store directly and just pay few more dollar for tax.
   Rating: 1 / 5
2. C. Pinckney says:

   November 20, 2009 at 1:11 pm

   This keyboard ios awful. hile it looks pretty, it often goive syou unexpected surprises when typing. Unless copnstantl;y correcting mistakes is something you don’t mindf doing, I’d stay away from this keyboard.
   Rating: 1 / 5
3. R. Earle says:

   November 20, 2009 at 1:55 pm

   I bought this keyboard because I tried it first in school, and I liked they way the keys don’t need to be pushed down very far, much like a laptop keyboard, which is what I’m used to. It’s easy to fix, clean and is pretty sturdy (I’ve dropped it once or twice). It looks decent, seems to resist scratches, and is light. the USB ports in either side of the bottom are pretty useful, and the keyboard itself comes with an extension cable, which is nice.
   
   Now the bad parts. First of all, Apple does not support this keyboard AT ALL for use on PCs. Most of the keys are the same, but there are some differences that you’ll have to get used to. The ALT and Windows (the apple key for you ignorant mac users) keys are switched, the “Clear” button is Num Lock, there is no Print Screen button or equivalent, but there are F13-F19. As far as I can tell, they can’t be reprogrammed for anything with any applications that I can find. Apple doesn’t make any drivers to get the keys to work, which is just bad marketing, but then again, the only good thing Apple does do is advertising, however untruthful, manipulative and misleading. The USB extension cord that comes with the keyboard has a little nib that prevents you from using it on any other device, which is kind of a dick move on Apple’s part.
   
   I gave the keyboard five stars because I’ve gotten over the shortcomings, taped over the stupid “Return”, “Apple” and “Eject”(Escape) buttons with electrical tape, and the whole thing looks pretty cool now. The Caps Lock key now has Caps Lock filed off and Billy Mays Mode professionally printed on it, so the overall makeover kind of makes up for how flamboyant and unprofessional it looks.
   Rating: 5 / 5
4. CJS says:

   November 20, 2009 at 4:27 pm

   Unfortunately this keyboard is too wide for general use. It is wider than perhaps any keyboard on the market. I am a tall guy with long arms, but even for me I couldn’t find the space on my desk to comfortably use this. The problem is that all the QWERTY keys are on the left, whilst a third of the right-hand side is taken up by the cursors and numeric keypad. Somehow Apple have managed to make this take up much more space than other manufacturers achieve.

   The upshot is that your mouse on the right keeps bumping into the edge of the keyboard. So, you move the keyboard further left – but that’s no good, now the QWERTY keys are way off-centre to your display screen. So you move the keyboard further right – oh no, now the mouse is bumping again – so you move the mouse further right – but that’s no good as it’s further than you naturally ever want to stretch your arm.

   There is no comfortable way to use this keyboard. It looks lovely, but is simply unworkable. I hope Apple will conduct more user testing before releasing their next – hopefully shorter – full corded keyboard.
   Rating: 1 / 5
5. Val says:

   November 20, 2009 at 6:14 pm

   The keyboard looks and feels great. However, I need to use a KVM switch to go between multiple computers, and the keyboard doesn’t seem to work with KVM switches. There are multiple posts on the mac support forums with similar problems using any number of KVM switches. So if you need to use a KVM switch, go with a different keyboard.
   Rating: 1 / 5