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Topic: Apple

iMac keyboard morphs into MacBook keyboard

Summary: By now you've seen the leaked photos of the purported new iMac keyboard. The new keyboard design is pretty significant because it represents a shift to a new low-profile design that began with the MacBook.

Jason D. O'Grady

By for The Apple Core |

Mac keyboards compared

By now you've seen the leaked photos of the purported new iMac keyboard. The new keyboard design is pretty significant because it represents a shift to a new low-profile design that began with the MacBook. The new keyboard is rumored to arrive as soon as 7 August 2007 with a new iMac revision featuring a super-thin, low-profile aluminum design.

When depressed the new keys are flush with the casing beneath them. The keys are more square (rather than the traditional trapezoidal shape) which means that they're the same width at the top as they are at the bottom. The square shape provides more contact area at the top of the key because it doesn't slope out lower down the key. The new keys tops are completely flat as opposed to the old keytops which are slightly concave.

Gizmodo has posted side-by-side pictures (small version above) of the alleged keyboard with the current 109-key Apple keyboard. Some of the differences between the two:

  • Volume controls were moved from above the numeric keypad to the F10, F11 and F12 keys
  • The Eject key is now directly above the delete key (like it is on the MacBook)
  • The Help key has been replaced by a Function ("fn") key
  • The Apple logo has been replaced by the word "Command" – a boon for support techs everywhere
  • New playback keys (back, play/pause, forward) have been added to F7, F8 and F9
  • Bright and Dim keys have been added to F1 and F2 (like the MacBook)
  • Expose (F3) and Dashboard (F4) keys have been added

While I was sure that I wouldn't like the low-throw (often called "stroke" or "travel"), chiclet-style keys of the MacBook, my recent switch from a MacBook Pro to a MacBook wasn't as bad as I expected. I find the keyboard easy to type on and most importantly, it's quiet. The main thing that I miss from my MBP is the keyboard backlighting which is only found in the Pro notebook. The black MacBook's keyboard is incredibly dark and will be difficult for non touch-typists to use in low-light.

The questions that beg to be asked:

  • Why Apple didn't add the power button back to the new USB desktop keyboard? If they're truly moving toward the MacBook design, shouldn't they have included the power button?
  • Will future MacBooks (and MBPs) move to the new keyboard design with the permanent Dashboard and Expose keys?
  • Will a Bluetooth version follow?
  • Can we expect a revision to the mouse as well?

What do you think about the new keyboard design and layout?

Topics: Apple, Hardware

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27 comments
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  • "New" keyboard design

    It was "new" back on the Apple //c, now it's just "different". I use a Dell laptop, black MacBook, and MacBook pro on a near-daily basis and I prefer the Dell over both Macs, and the MacBook Pro keyboard is much more pleasant to use than the black MacBook. I've used the iMac keyboard on a few occasions and hated that even more. So at least this is a step up (in my opinion).
    StickyC
    Reply Vote

  • And All That Was Old . . .

    http://oldcomputers.net/coco.html

    . . . is new again.

    Give Apple time. At this rate, within a few years, we'll see a line of Mac keyboards resembling the old Atari 400 membrane keyboards. :P
    Whyaylooh
    Reply Vote

    • Identical

      yeah, that looks exactly the same.
      SquishyParts
      Reply Vote

      • It Does? Wow!

        And here I thought that I was just presenting things on a conceptual, not literal, level. Though, oddly, it doesn't look identical to me. Strange . . .

        Sarcasm aside, the point is, the flat square push-buttons (a.k.a. "chiclets") instead of keys for a keyboard has been done, and, for most folks who were actually using these silly 'puter things back then, the keyboard of the original TRS-80 Color Computer was not exactly one of its brag-worthy features. Quite the contrary, most folks couldn't stand it, and fans of the machine tolerated it simply because the underlying system was pretty darned good. It was cheap, difficult to touch-type on, and wore your fingers out like nobody's business. In short, it was a pretty lousy idea for a keyboard that you might have to spend more than 5-10 minutes in front of.

        Further accenting this point is the fact that the later model TRS-80 Color Computers and TRS-80 Color Computer 2 did away with the flat square push-button keyboard, and instead used a more traditional keyboard, eventually evolving to a full-throw standard keyboard that was considered a vast improvement, and made the machine far more useable.

        Which brings us to the new (non-Pro) MacBook and iMac keyboards. No, they aren't identical to the old chiclet CoCo keyboard. (Duh.) The concept is the same, however: flat square push-buttons instead of actual full-throw keys. Apparently, the designers at Apple have forgotten their history, and that it isn't because they've stumbled across some new whiz-bang idea no one's ever thought of before that this keyboard concept isn't used, but that it has been used, and fared so poorly that the companies that tried it wised up and moved away from it. Either that, or users' fingers have become a lot more tolerant in the last 27 years.
        Whyaylooh
        Reply Vote

        • Don't forget the ...

          TI99/4 with the chiclet keyboard.

          However, my daughter has a MacBook, and I really like the keyboard. It doesn't
          feel at all like the old chiclet.
          msalzberg
          Reply Vote

          • The Wound! THE WOUND!

            You know, I'd almost succeeded in forgetting about that old clunker. Thanks for re-opening that wound. ;) Seriously, though, at least the key faces were slightly curved, though that advantage is wiped out by the fact that -- if I recall correctly -- it was only a 3/4 scale keyboard, so your fingers were not only sore from mashing buttons, but also from being cramped together. Blech!

            But, back to the MacBook, true, I'll concede that it's not an entirely fair comparison to the old chiclet keyboards, since you don't have to mash the buttons to get the darned thing to respond. (I will be interested to see how those keyboards fare after a year or two of use, though, since that's when those old chiclet keyboards REALLY started becoming painful to use.) Quite the contrary, when I dabbled with them at the local Apple store, the keys were very responsive. There just seemed to be something very awkward and, well, just not right about it, though. Maybe it's just because I'm an old dog who's been using regular keyboards most of his life -- even on my old afforementioned Atari 400, the first thing I did was replace that hideous membrane keyboard with a regular one -- and maybe it would get better with use. All I know is, after about five minutes of quick brown foxes jumping over lazy dogs to try to get a feel for the keyboard, it just didn't feel right on my fingertips and hands, and I found that I vastly prefered the keyboard on the MacBook Pro instead.

            To each one's own, I suppose?
            Whyaylooh
            Reply Vote

    • We can only hope for the old...

      The original Macintosh Pro 101 keyboard was outstanding. That's what I'd like to see come back.
      BitTwiddler
      Reply Vote

    • RE: iMac keyboard morphs into MacBook keyboard

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  • Apple wouldn't know a good keyboard if it bit them

    Hey, I *own* a Macbook, and while the keyboard is pleasant enough *for a laptop*, good it certainly isn't. Better than the competition--well, maybe. :) But that's damning with faint praise indeed. Every laptop keyboard *sucks*.

    Apple has always disdained the keyboard. Always. Style over function, every time. I guess Steve Jobs renowned hatred of keyboards (what, he can't touch type?) put up a forcefield so the HIG guys couldn't get through...

    Besides, 10 to 1 this "leak" is just a photoshopped fake!
    wolf_z
    Reply Vote

    • The best Apple keyboard ever is STILL the ADB Extended Keyboard II

      It felt almost as good as the clicky-key IBM keyboards of yore. Wonderful feel, great
      feedback, heavy like a stack of bricks, and it had the power button.

      The apple ergo keyboard was a close #2 - the normal keys felt great, it's adjustability
      was unsurpassed (3 separate parts), but the special function keys sucked.

      BTW, Apple can bring the power button back. They'll just need enough +5vsb going to
      the system to support USB.
      nix_hed
      Reply Vote

    • The best Apple keyboard ever is STILL the ADB Extended Keyboard II

      It felt almost as good as the clicky-key IBM keyboards of yore. Wonderful feel, great
      feedback, heavy like a stack of bricks, and it had the power button.

      The apple ergo keyboard was a close #2 - the normal keys felt great, it's adjustability
      was unsurpassed (3 separate parts), but the special function keys sucked.

      BTW, Apple can bring the power button back. They'll just need enough +5vsb going to
      the system to support USB.
      nix_hed
      Reply Vote

  • Keyboards are sooooo very subjective......

    My hands are small and I find my MacBook gen 2 is not half bad. I do often find
    myself using the A typical MacPro Keyboard and it's OK as far as I'm concerned. Will
    this keyboard design fly? Don't know. I'm more curious about the inards of the iMac
    than the keyboard design cause I can always get a different keyboard if I find I need
    it....the inards are so easy to adjust...heh heh heh. Still I do think my next mac will
    be an iMac since I have a perfectly good MacBook I don't need a mobile computer
    and a nice desktop would fit my needs and or wants very nicely.

    Pagan jim
    Laff
    Reply Vote

  • That's why I sold my IBM PC JR

    I think many people who need to type a lot will find the new keyboard annoying.
    dankatzir
    Reply Vote

    • Couldn't you just have bought a third party keyboard?

      Or was that market not around during the PC jr days?

      Pagan jim
      Laff
      Reply Vote

      • PCjr Replacement Keyboard

        Depending upon how quickly he dumped the machine, the PCjr did have a replacement keyboard available from IBM -- and, a year or so later, from a few third-party vendors -- that had standard keys, introduced after the chiclet-style keyboard was received about as well as a can of Spaghetti-O's at a five-star Italian restaurant.

        Unfortunately for the PCjr, the lousy original stock keyboard was the least of its problems.
        Whyaylooh
        Reply Vote

    • Not the chiclet...

      If this new keyboard (assuming it even IS the new keyboard) is indeed a descendant of the MacBook keyboard, I can tell you it is NOTHING like the horrible PCJr chiclet board. I was skeptical about the MacBook, but I found the keyboard very useable & comfortable. No keyboard is going to work for everybody, but I would encourage people to actually try this one before deriding it.

      Even if you don't like it, it's not anything near a fatal flaw for the new iMacs. Pretty much any USB keyboard will work with Macs.
      cseanor
      Reply Vote

  • Power button?

    There was a power button on the first iMac and PMG4 keyboards. Apple removed it because it did not follow USB specs (it was a kludge). I guess there is no way to implement a proper power button for startup on a USB keyboard.
    Eriamjh
    Reply Vote

    • I miss the Power button...

      I miss the Power button on the keyboard, it was pretty darn handy.
      olePigeon
      Reply Vote

      • I'll second that.

        That's one thing I find annoying about the new macs-having to reach down, up, over to where ever you put the box to shut down and start up.
        Kid Icarus-21097050858087920245213802267493
        Reply Vote

        • Heheheh...

          Actually I meant,

          -having to reach down, up, over to where ever you put the box to start up and not having it on the keyboard to quickly shut down.

          Eating food and posting doesn't mix with me apparently...
          Kid Icarus-21097050858087920245213802267493
          Reply Vote
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