Typing on the new Apple aluminum keyboard

I’m in love.

The new Apple aluminum keyboard is a dream to use. After just 24 hours of using it, I’m convinced that I’m going to have to go buy myself another one to use at work on my Windows PC. It feels fantastic. There’s none of the key-stickiness that seemed to affect my previous iMac wireless keyboard, and it has a much easier, lighter feel than any keyboards I’ve used before. (Admittedly, I haven’t spent any time on the MacBook, which has a similar keyboard, or so I hear.) I was worried that with the keys so light I’d end up with a lot of unintentional key presses, but I guess my fingers are accurate enough that it’s not a problem.

One gripe: I wish Apple made a wireless version exactly like this one. The wireless version is supposedly the same feel, but everything east of the return key has been lopped off, and to compensate they have to fiddle around with the modifier keys on the bottom row, like a laptop keyboard. I don’t care much about the numeric keypad, but I would miss the Home/End/Page Up/Page Down keys in their current location very much, and I don’t like having a whole bunch of extra keys stuffed onto the bottom row, where my muscle memory expects the Ctrl keys to be (especially since I’m going to be buying one for Windows). I don’t want my wireless keyboards smaller; I just want them wireless, so I have one fewer ugly wire snaking across my desk. It’s why I put up with the Mighty Mouse, even though there are mice with a much better feel out there, because it seems like most of the other Bluetooth mice out there are little teeny travel ones.

I also am a little confused about what Apple’s doing to my keyboard shortcuts. As suggested in the manual, I immediately downloaded and installed the Apple Keyboard Update. I don’t know if that’s what made the changes that allow the Brightness/Expose/Dashboard/Volume keys to work, but what’s weird is that it didn’t change my options in the Dashboard & Expose preference panel:

So what’s showing here is not accurate; my F9 key now maps to the Skip button (for iTunes), F10 maps to mute, F11 to decrease volume, and F12 to increase volume. So what gives? If I change them here, the change takes, but shouldn’t the software update (or whatever made the change) have fixed the selections in the preference panel too? Weird.

In any case — I love this keyboard. A major improvement over the last one, and a nicer feel than any keyboard I’ve used before. I’m hooked. Maybe when it looks like the next update is coming down the road (a few years from now, probably), I should go buy myself a stack of these so I can replace them as they break down. I might hold out to see if Apple comes out with a wireless version of the full-size keyboard, though.