Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/04/12

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Subject: [Leica] Re: Apple laptop keyboards
From: bdcolen at comcast.net (B. D. Colen)
Date: Wed Apr 12 17:06:45 2006

Boy, the keyboard on the Powerbook fits your description of near ideal to a
T - plenty of travel, snap back.

But the best computer keyboard ever had was that with the Kaypro -any former
Kaypro owner/users out there? CPM LUGgable with, as I recall, a pair of 5.5"
floppy drives. Metal case. Weighed a ton. And what a great keyboard.


On 4/12/06 7:55 PM, "lrzeitlin@optonline.net" <lrzeitlin@optonline.net>
wrote:

> <<You must be on an Apple desktop because the keyboard of my iBook G is
> the worst I have ever used.  When I try to type fast (or slow for that
> matter), the curser bounces all over the place landing in odd places
> elsewhere in the text.  I love the rest of the machine too much to part
> with it.>>
> 
> Apple keyboards, especially those on laptops, have gotten worse over the
> years. I have been a Mac user since
> 1984 and still have most of the computers I've owned since that time. (My 
> anal
> retentive obsession is the
> topic for another post.) The keyboards on recent iBooks are, perhaps the 
> worst
> ever affixed to an otherwise
> excellent computer. The main problem is the laptop flatness fetish. Keys
> should have a travel of at least 5
> mm and have a positive snap to give tactile feedback. The excellent early 
> IBM
> keyboards are good examples.
> To reduce the computer depth to less than 1 inch, Apple has sacrificed key
> travel and key "click." Moreover
> the thin iBook keyboard frame makes it bounce like a trampoline. The
> Powerbooks are somewhat better but
> still not good. Even the keyboard of the new MacIntel desktops is inferior 
> to
> that supplied on the original
> 128K Macintosh of 1984. Apple's most ergonomic laptop design and the one 
> with
> the best keyboard in recent
> memory is the G3 Firewire  My laptop using colleagues cherish this model 
> and
> some have upgraded it to
> absurd lengths in an attempt to emulate the speed of the newer models but 
> keep
> the usability of the old.
> 
> Larry Z
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
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In reply to: Message from lrzeitlin at optonline.net (lrzeitlin@optonline.net) ([Leica] Re: Apple laptop keyboards)