Keyboard Shortcut

I don't have much to say about tech gear; this may be because I use Macs at home and at work, and they tend to just work without fuss. But recently I noticed that the keyboard I use at home was seeming a little tired. It came with the desktop G4 Mac that I bought in 1998, so it was not exactly a surprise.

I don't care for the keyboards that Apple currently sells; they are too flat, so the keys don't have as much travel and thus have a very poor tactile feel, and I also don't like how the keys are spaced. So I looked around a few online spots and read some reviews, and decided to try a Logitech keyboard.

I don't need to move the keyboard around while I'm using it, so I decided to stick with a USB-corded model. They make a "compact" keyboard that has approximately the same footprint as the Apple keyboard I wanted to replace, which is convenient because the slide-out keyboard shelf on my desk at home has just about enough room for that keyboard and the Apple trackpad I got for my birthday from the Mrs. The compact model is inexpensive, solidly built, and has good key feel—there's a certain springiness to the keys that makes it pleasant to type on.

After I bought it, I happened to see a different model in a store, also a Logitech, with a much sleeker design and illuminated keys. It looked about as flat as one of the Apple keyboards, but the key feel was nothing like the Apple. It felt even better than the one I'd bought, and the keys were also very quiet. It was pretty sharp-looking, and I wanted one, but this one retails for $80 and I could not justify spending that much to replace a keyboard I'd just bought.

But I could justify getting it to use at work. I set up an eBay search for that model and checked it every couple of days. It took several weeks, mainly because the fixed-price auctions were asking too much, but I won an auction for an open-box unit for $30. I've been using it at work for a couple of weeks now, and I highly recommend it.