Mac Forum / General / Hardware / June 2007

RE:
<< I just want a good typing USB full keyboard for my Mac Book Pro.  I hate
the Apple white keyboards. I really have to pound on them to type without
missing letters.  The keyboard on the MacBook Pro is great, but I like a full
keyboard at my desk.  I don't need or want wireless.  What would you
recommend?   >>

I have a MacAlly "iMediaKey" and like it a lot. Their other products look
good, too.

- John

I share your sense of frustration.  Apple has, for the most part, gotten
out of the keyboard business.  They provide the most basic keyboard to
get you started, but as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for.
Two of mine had degraded to near-uselessness in just six months of use;
I had to nearly pound some of the keys to get them to trigger.  PC-
wielding friends used to be beside themselves trying to figure out why
Mac users would willingly pay $80 for an Apple-branded keyboard, but
those things were both light to the touch and built like a brick.  They
generally lasted 3-4 years under heavy use, bordering on abuse. :)  What
Apple currently sells are more like toys.

Since I swore off Apple keyboards, I've been using a Macally IceKey for
the past eight or nine months, and have been delighted with it.  It's a
slim, scissor-key mechanism keyboard with a light touch.  You'll find
its feel similar to an Apple laptop keyboard, but the key cap size and
arrangement is a full 108-key desktop setup.  It has all the keys you
would expect on an Apple keyboard: F1-F15 function keys, Command (a.k.a.
"Apple" key), speaker control keys, and a CD eject button.  The last
couple of key groups require the installation of the IceKey keyboard
driver.  Without the driver, the keyboard will act like a generic 102-
key USB keyboard.  The unit also comes with USB ports on both sides of
the top, to allow the use of mice, trackballs, and similar devices to be
chained off the keyboard.

Only bad things I've found: I doubt the key caps can be easily removed,
if at all, for cleaning, though they seem easier to clean with
compressed air than other models I've used with full-height key caps.
While the light-touch keyboard is excellent for me, people who require
keys with more "bounce" (harder pressure to actuate the keys) may find
this type of keyboard too sensitive.  Finally, the rear legs that keep
the back of the keyboard tilted up, which many people require for
comfortable typing, are not very sturdy.  I've had to learn to type on
a flatter keyboard, as one of the legs on mine has already broken off.

At present, this is the best USB keyboard on the market for Macs.
In spite of the leg problem, it's fairly sturdy, attractive, and
comfortable to use.  In the year before I bought one, I had tried four
other keyboards from various manufacturers.  All of them were cheap
pieces of garbage, both in cost and quality.  The IceKey retails for
$49, and seems worth every penny.

Current model is white.  According to the Macally web site, a black
version is due out soon.

I too use a Macally keyboard, iMediaKey, and it is a signigicant
improvement on the Apple rubbish.  However I don't think the iMediaKey
is the bees knees.  If you can afford it, you couldn't do better than a
Logitech IMHO.  They have one product specifically for Macs.