You know I love gadgets, you know I love spending money, and you know that I blame this disease on my mother; so to save a little time and breath I’ll just say “it’s my Mother’s fault I drove out to DigiLife yesterday and bought a wireless keyboard and a Griffin iCurve”. See? Much easier.
In all seriousness though, my trip out to DL (my nearest Apple reseller… and quite possibly the best one in Perth) was spurred by my recently–reported stiff neck; it was time to sort out my desktop–laptop ergonomics. In that previous post I mentioned the Lapvantage Dome as a frontrunner in my laptop elevation game, but there were a few factors weighing in on my final decision to get an iCurve instead:
- I received an email from one Ben Drago reminding me that the iCurve existed, as I had forgotten it completely until then.
- It’s half the price of the Dome, and only a ½–inch shorter.
- They had the iCurve in stock at DL, any they don’t carry Lapvantage at all.
Given the choice between instant gratification and waiting for a delivery, the answer becomes obvious.
The iCurve is, in a word, brilliant. It’s beautiful, it’s minimalist, it has a slippery base (so I can swivel it and the PowerBook at will), and comes packaged with some rubber feet if you don’t like the slick base. It leaves a majority of the computer’s underside exposed for maximum airflow, it tilts the keyboard down at an inviting and easy–access angle (for those seconds between awakening and bluetooth connection… so I can enter my password quickly), and it fits my 12" perfectly (though I’m told it will accommodate 15" and 17" notebooks just as readily).
There’s just one downside… it’s still too short. Five inches too short if you want to be precise (a measurement reached through experimenting with books, boxes, and blocks), and it’s driving me mad. Of course, at 6'4", it’s quite possible that I’m just five inches too tall; not an unreasonable assumption when you’re aiming a general–purpose product at a wildly–varying market, but still… y’know… mad.
The solution is, of course, to mod my desk so that the rear is platformed by five inches. One might argue that I should’ve just platformed it by eleven inches and foregone any sparkly–looking laptop stands, but one might fail to understand me, and one might be looking for an ass–whupping. I digress. I don’t expect any manufacturers out there to actually produce an eleven–inches–high laptop stand, since such a height would be counterintuitive to 80% of the market, but a man can dream. A man can dream.
Posted by Chris Clark on February 20, 2004 at 2:06 AM
I’m constantly amused by the blurbs Apple attaches to their software updates:
This software update will upgrade your version of GarageBand 1.0 to GarageBand 1.0.1. This update clarifies specific alert dialogs regarding system performance.
Right. A 19.9MB update addresses alert dialogs. What are they, full–screen TIFFs? And are there a thousand of them? It’s be nice to know what else the update fixes… it’s not as though you’re tight for room in that little text box. Just say “performance enhancements” and we’d probably believe any sized update.
Posted by Chris Clark on February 20, 2004 at 2:14 AM
Given that I only outlined my experience with the iCurve in my earlier post, you might be begging for my impressions of the wireless keyboard.
In a word: “meh”.
Don’t get me wrong, wireless anything is sure to excite me, but it’s the ‘keyboard’ part of the title ‘wireless keyboard’ that fails to impress. I’m usually more–than–pleased with Apple hardware (except for that one time), but this falls kinda flat for a number of reasons.
- Borderless
When you’re using a physical object to interface with a virtual, remote, or abstracted object (eg: video game controller, mouse, keyboard), the very shape of it dictates how you interact. People far and wide complained about the original iMac’s “hockey puck” mouse, and for good reason, interaction depends on orientation.
I may be barking up the wrong tree from a touch–typer’s perspective (you’re supposed to orient yourself with the home keys, after all… and they’re signified by oh–so–obvious raised bumps on the keyboard), but being able to feel the edges of the keyboard and even rest your fingers on them is an experience steeped in orientation. More often than not on a standard keyboard, and on my PowerBook, I find myself leaning my thumbs on the plastic border below the space bar (I’m supposed to be leaning them gently on the spacebar, stupid me) but the compact form of the wireless keyboard has no room for plastic borders. It lacks left, right, and top borders too, which may be less of a concern for those without long fingers or odd typing habits, but it irks me.
The more compact design looks a hell of a lot cooler, but at what expense?
- Spongebob
Compared to both the standard Apple Pro Keyboard and the PowerBook’s fairly compact, low–profile keyboard, the wireless feels remarkably spongy. It just feels less responsive, and a little softer on the rebound than the others. That’s not to say it sucks; hell, it still feels a great deal better under my fingers than some of the keyboards I’ve bought in the past for my PCs (even the expensive ones… and they weren’t even wireless), but when you’re switching between three different Apple keyboards in your day–to–day life and this is the least impressive, you have to wonder what has gone awry.
- Rubber feet
Like my iCurve, my mouse, and my run–of–the–mill Apple Pro Keyboard, I like to shuffle the wireless keyboard around on my desk from time to time. Maybe I’m just fidgety, but I like to move it around while I’m finding a comfortable spot for today’s writing adventure. Unlike all of the aforementioned computer accessories, the wireless keyboard has little rubber feet that aim to prevent just that. Sliding it around on the desk isn’t a breeze, it’s a conscious effort; a chore.
And I hate chores.
All said and done though, it’s a freakin’ keyboard. The fate of the free world does not depend on this peripheral… I’m just fond of complaint. It’s fun to be complaining in the hardware realm for once though; software can get so tedious.
‘Til next time.
Posted by Chris Clark on February 20, 2004 at 3:56 AM