Impressions of the new Apple Keyboard
I've been playing with the new Apple keyboard on my MBP for only a few hours, now. I was scared of hooking it up for a couple reasons. First, I was in anticipation of the keyboard taking a big adjustment. Typing would be weird because of the low-travel keys, and a lot of the functions I was used to had been moved around. On top of that, I use Synergy to share my keyboard and mouse between my MacBook Pro, and my desktop PC, and I wanted to switch my configuration so I wouldn't lose the functionality of the Exposé, Dashboard, and iTunes keys. That was gonna be little bit of work, and I didn't feel like jumping into it in the middle of the workday.
This morning, I decided to take on the task, and thus far it's totally worth it. I was a big fan of the MacBook keyboard, and I like this every bit as much. The low-travel isn't a bad thing at all. It's actually very easy to get used to, and the tactile response is pleasant, ending each keystroke with a solid but gentile "thud."
It takes a matter of seconds of looking at and using the keyboard to realize that we're dealing with an whole new animal. This isn't some incremental upgrade of the keyboard. It's totally different. And, while it looks like it'll be pretty easy to keep clean, there's no more putting your keyboard in the dishwasher.
It didn't take me long to miss my old Exposé keys. I spent about 10 minutes trying to figure out a way to set up keyboard shortcuts that would work for situations where I have my external keyboard plugged in, and when I have only the laptop keyboard. While playing around with this, I learned that ⌘+F3 exposes the Desktop, the same functionality that F11 used to have (and still does, if I don't have my keyboard plugged in). But, even better to figure out, there's an fn key! There it is! Right above forward delete! So, that gives me the same functions that are on my laptop keyboard. HA. Sucks to be you guys who bought the amputated Bluetooth keyboards!
The iTunes keys are awesome to have. I've always wanted them, and refused to buy a non-Apple keyboard, and refused to set up keyboard shortcuts because I couldn't get them perfect. I'd use Quicksilver as the next-best-thing.
Anyhow, my initial impressions are this: the keyboard is overall good. But it's going to take some getting used to, and re-wiring the parts of my brain that have become instinctual for certain things.
UPDATE: In the Keyboard and Mouse pref. pane, checking the "Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys" will allow you to do as you'd expect. Use the "old" keystrokes (e.g., F9-F11 for Exposé) when you do not have the fn key pressed, and the new functions by pressing fn+[fKey]. That's how I want it to behave. I like this keyboard. I might need one or two for home.
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