Past the Dragons
So I bought an Apple Wireless Keyboard, and it’s perhaps the best peripheral I’ve ever invested in.
After my recent post about the Mighty Mouse, I got to thinking that the input device I use for the vast bulk of my day is of course the keyboard. I use keyboard-navigation and keyboard shortcuts constantly; I hate having to take my fingers off the keys to use a pointing device. The two main tasks I do are coding and writing (blog posts, journal entries, emails, The Novel, and so on). I use a laptop full-time, with its compact keyboard, and I have no backup keyboard here at all. That struck me as a stupid state of affairs.
So, I went up to the Apple shop just off Byres Road here in the West End, and picked up an Apple Wireless Keyboard. Setup was of course child’s play: turn it on, go to the Bluetooth panel in System Preferences and click “Setup New Device”, choose Keyboard and it shows a five-digit passkey. Type that passkey on the keyboard and you’re done. I’ve had no signal loss at all, and there’s zero delay when typing. The keyboard has a nice touch to it, reminiscent of the keyboards you used to get with the LC range of Macs or the Color Classics, and having a full-size Return key is a luxury after using the PowerBook’s built-in keyboard for so long. It’s also nice to be able to get away from the desk a bit whilst typing, and the range is great - I was controlling iTunes from through in the living room with it yesterday.
If you’re in the market for a new keyboard, give it a shot. I’m pretty happy with mine. Of course this almost wouldn’t be a Matt Gemmell post if it didn’t include a chatlog with Neil at some point, so here’s one from this morning, which at least began on the topic of the keyboard:
Matt: dude Matt: just bought an Apple Wireless Keyboard Neil: w00t! they rule Neil: apart from getting really gunky Matt: I am teh cleanliness Neil: be prepared to hoover it every so often Neil: I bought a silicon overlay thing for it but it felt so weird on my fingers I had to destroy it by sending it to THE WORLD’S END. Matt: THE WORLD’S END? Neil: the end of the world… past the dragons Matt: right Neil: just before the edge of the world where we all fall off Matt: that is totally my new default way of destroying things Neil: there’s a pub round the corner from me called The World’s Ending Neil: I’m too afraid to go in though. Neil: in case the world does in fact end. Matt: take some reasonable precautions and head on in Neil: What precautions would those be though? Neil: A condom goes without saying, I guess. Matt: well indeed Matt: but also I was thinking like swords Neil: ah good thinking… plus some armor (possibly including a codpiece) Matt: black russian stylee Neil: although I think armour is for pussies…. Neil: Swords = cool, cause you can kill Neil: Armor = for pussies as wearing it means you’re admitting you’re not invincible Matt: which we totally are
Indeed. Until next time, remember: I’m kind of a big deal.
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