Hi David

I actually still have one of those keyboard here, but I can't replicate your 
problems with pairing.  You describe the current keyboard as "toy-line".  Well, 
horses for courses I guess, but personally I really like them.  The typing 
action is nice and bouncy, the travel rate is just about right and I find the 
low profile keys much much better than the old clunky things that we used to 
use on PC.  Even things like the "Cherry" keyboard which I used to like, don't 
come close to the current Apple keyboard.  Yes, it would be nice with a number 
pad.  But one can't have everything.  Forgive my ignorance, but I am not quite 
sure what you mean by an ergonomic keyboard?  The standard keyboard layout has 
been used as long as I've been using keyboards, and that is since around 1966.  
Of course, in those days it was all clunky typewriters, but the keyboard's 
layout was exactly the same as it is today.

Are these "ergonomic" keyboards something produced for the visually impaired, 
or are they main stream?  I'm just curious as I haven't ever seen one.

Gordon

On 29 Aug 2011, at 00:59, David Griffith wrote:

One of the unfortunate things for me with the new I-Mac was the small toy like 
keyboard.
By friday night my  left wrist was in agony and had to be strapped up with 
tubular bandages. My right wrist was also in bad shape.
I had to do something urgently about this. After discussing this with the Apple 
store they said that many people found the now discontinued  A1016 a better 
keyboard to use with the I-Mac.

I found one of the first generation A1016 selling on Ebay for #
 £12 with £4 delivery.
Whilst the A1016 is far from the ergonomic keyboard I am used to it is far 
superior for my needs than the supplied small keyboard.

For this who  do not know the A1016 it is a bluetooth keyboard. It takes 4 AA 
batteries I think. Pairing was not straightforward. I could not do it whilst 
the original keyboard was still plugged into the Mac. I had to get sighted help 
to  paired the keyboard by using the Trackpad to navigate the pairing dialogues.
Once paired the keyboard worked immediately and predictably. There are a few 
small differences between  this keyboard and the newer versions. There is no FN 
key, instead in eht place where the FN key resides on the new keyboard is a 
help key on this older version.
This keyboard is not dissimilar in dimensions to the newer models with one 
significant exception.  It is at least 3 times thicker than the  newer models.  
 It is positively chunky by comparison. The keys therefore have a far greater 
travel and there is a good positive feedback from the springs .     keys. The 
depth of the keys means the the different key groups on the  are easy to feel 
by touch.
Unfortunately the function keys and number row are again placed in an unbroken 
single row. I placed a few tactile bumps to help me navigate these rows 
quickly.. most importantly the keyboard is an appropriate height to allow he 
use of a wrist support whilst typing. The pain in my left wrist has been 
steadily reducing since yesterday.
All in all I would recommend this keyboard to anybody who is getting RSI injury 
from using the new ultra thin Apple keyboards.

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