Apple's new metallic keyboard biased against Caps Lock?

Rather than blatantly demoting it, Apple has apparently chosen to snub the Caps Lock key on its newest metallic keyboards ever so quietly. Judging by a video taken by Jonathan Rentzsch, the wired version of the new 'board seems to have a built-in resistance to activating the Caps Lock key. To demonstrate, he quickly tapped the key three times in succession -- mimicking "accidental presses" -- only to find that the device refused to acknowledge his actions. Then, he mashed and held it for a tick, and magically the button was lit. As if that weren't enough, it also appeared that the button would deactivate with one of those "lightning quick presses" that wouldn't turn it on, further substantiating the conspiracy. We know this is a polarizing issue, so make sure it doesn't get too heated in comments, okay?

[Via Wired]

[Steve @ Oct 5th 2007 6:06PM]

Maybe there tired of people emailing them in all caps "ME IZ BROKN HALP!"

[Dave @ Oct 5th 2007 7:10PM]

Now if only they'd fix that "crap grammar" button..

[Mike M @ Oct 6th 2007 12:16AM]

"Tell 'em STEVE DAVE!"

sorry...i saw the sequence of posts and i just had to share...

-Mike

[Grant @ Oct 6th 2007 12:08PM]

They should probably include a little tidbit about this new feature in whatever documentation ships with it.
But then again who would ever read a keyboard manual, especially if the people that email apple type like that(steve), then they probably can't read anyways.

and just why is engadget reporting this as a bug? it's clearly a feature.

[V3LOCIP3D3 @ Oct 7th 2007 8:36PM]

Why would mac build this BUG directly into the keyboard as an unchangeable setting? Couldn't they have built a setting into the OS instead? Another ratty feature built by steve jobbs. Too stubborn to let anyone change anything about their products. But then again, I side with Jobbs for not trusting his consumers enough to be able to do that themselves.

What's this about microsoft being a monopoly?

[camron @ Oct 5th 2007 6:06PM]

awesome feature, I love it about my new kb

[Xavier Gill @ Oct 5th 2007 7:00PM]

Apple ripped off the design from the Sony X505

[Ben @ Oct 6th 2007 5:48PM]

Apple stole than keyboard design from Texas Instruments' calculators...

[Indiana Jenkins @ Oct 5th 2007 6:07PM]

MY CAPS LOCK KEY SEEMS TO BE BROKEN!

[octoberasian @ Oct 5th 2007 6:10PM]

too loud, the noises! they hurt!

*covers ears*

[James @ Oct 5th 2007 8:48PM]

MINE SEEMS TO WORK PERFECTLY FINE.

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Oct 6th 2007 12:20AM]

APPLE, I AM OFFENDED AND DEEPLY HURT.....

[Tricky @ Oct 6th 2007 12:41AM]

CAPS LOCK IS CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL!

[Beamey @ Oct 6th 2007 4:41AM]

EVEN IN CRUISE CONTROL YOU NEED TO STEER

[christapher @ Oct 6th 2007 3:22PM]

my fVORITE IS WHEN YOU ccidentLLY HIT IT INSTEd of the CTUAL a button

[camron @ Oct 5th 2007 6:07PM]

awesome feature, I love it about my new kb

[Andrew Stone @ Oct 5th 2007 6:20PM]

You should say it twice, just so we are sure.

Oh wait, thanks.

[mushrooshi @ Oct 5th 2007 6:07PM]

I hope they have a replaceable key or key set for the macbook keyboard, I am tired of repeatedly hitting the capslock when I type in "A"

Example:

I wS Wlking to school todY WHEN SOME DOG BITE ME IN THE STOMch. It hurt LOT nd it hurt.

[Ondra Soukup @ Oct 5th 2007 6:42PM]

go to keyboard preferences in sys prefs, modifier key and remap it to something you like ;)

[Zach @ Oct 5th 2007 6:42PM]

If you hit the caps lock key instead of the a key, wouldn't the word that was intended to be "walking" be "wLKING", not the other way around?

And if a dog was to bite you in the stomach, wouldn't you seek medical attention instead of whining about it over the Internet? Apparently you can't be too computer savvy if you can't hit the a key with accuracy.

[ryan @ Oct 5th 2007 6:44PM]

Zach

What are you talking about? That's exactly what he did. Read it again.

[getz76 @ Oct 5th 2007 6:58PM]

It also wouldn't be "zCH", it would be "dumbSS".

[rob72 @ Oct 5th 2007 6:09PM]

Is that not one of those keys on the keyboard that you only ever hit by accident? sort of like windows keys?

[Drexl @ Oct 5th 2007 6:09PM]

i dON'T rEALLY tHINK tHAT'S sUCH A bIG dEAL.

[john @ Oct 5th 2007 6:09PM]

IT JUST WORKS. (SOMETIMeS)

[Chan @ Oct 5th 2007 6:09PM]

It's a deliberate and good move. Not only did they have to code in the delay, they had to code it such that it was fast to turn off it it was already turned on. So it's hard to turn on, easy to turn off. Besides, who uses caps lock these days?

[diner @ Oct 5th 2007 6:24PM]

I happen to use cap lock a lot. When coding one often has to type long strings in all caps (e.g. constants) and holding Shift during the sequences can be straining, so I turn cap lock on and off very frequently. I wonder if you can turn that feature off. I wouldn't be surprised if you couldn't. Apple knows what's best for you after all.

[comrade @ Oct 6th 2007 4:09AM]

If you haven't yet remapped to swap your capslock and control keys then you're not a real coder...

[Brad @ Oct 6th 2007 1:26PM]

BRING BACK COBOL !!!

[Don Lanini @ Oct 10th 2007 5:53PM]

The other (and IMHO much bigger) problem with this new Caps Lock behavior is that even if remap it to be Control (where is should be...), it still uses this delay making it totally useless.

As a coder, I cannot use this keyboard with Control being delayed and hard to type... and I never got used to control in the finger-breaking lower-left hand position. sigh
/d

[mushrooshi @ Oct 5th 2007 6:10PM]

Oh, and on the other post about removing CapsLock forever, that wouldn't be a good idea considering thT SOME APPS NEED Cps lock to run. Like a command that isn't used my but is used anyways.

[john @ Oct 5th 2007 6:11PM]

WITH THE NEXT FIRMWARE UPDATE, NO KEYS WILL WORK.

[bombastinator @ Oct 5th 2007 6:14PM]

..."and apple suggests you buy a new keyboard"

[Ryhan @ Oct 5th 2007 11:17PM]

I'm getting really tired of all these people going like
"ITS NOT A PROBLEM",etc...
it was funny the first time, but now its just stale ....

[john @ Oct 5th 2007 6:13PM]

StEvE joBS kNoWS WHATs BEsT FOr YoU StupID CONSuMERS.

[Billy @ Oct 5th 2007 6:14PM]

Caps lock is stupid. Anyone who disagrees is also stupid.

[Jake @ Oct 5th 2007 6:17PM]

Actually, I always use it instead of shift for capital letters. (a quick succession of Caps Lock - letter - Caps Lock). I type at 120WPM with a grand total of 2 fingers, too, so it's definitely not slow. Using Shift, on the other hand, slows me right down.

SAVE CAPS LOCK! :)

[hays315 @ Oct 5th 2007 6:25PM]

I use caps lock everyday to make engineering drawings. I disagree, therefore I am stupid. Thank you for your intelligent addition to this post.

[ryan @ Oct 5th 2007 6:49PM]

Jake

I call shenanigans.

[Kris Burbidge @ Oct 5th 2007 6:15PM]

HOW CAN YOU TELL IM 12 YEARS OLD FROM WHAT IM WRITEING???????

[Zach @ Oct 5th 2007 6:44PM]

1. Spelling
2. Grammar
3. I'm kidding.

[Kris Burbidge @ Oct 5th 2007 6:49PM]

i know. ever read bash.org?

[Alex Padilla @ Oct 5th 2007 6:59PM]

@ Kris

That's exactly what I was thinking, actually...

[john @ Oct 5th 2007 6:16PM]

ITS CaLLEd SMaRT dESiGN!!

More like smart-ass design.

[Wolfticket @ Oct 5th 2007 6:18PM]

Surely this would be better as a selectable feature of the keyboard driver than built in to the hardware. I bet there are some people it would piss off, and you can already get programmes that customise keys like this.

[BND @ Oct 5th 2007 6:20PM]

What do you expect from a laptop keyboard parading around as a desktop keyboard?

I can't belive consumers are buying this crap, if I wanted the tactless feel of laptop typing all day, I'd use my MBP.

[Josh @ Oct 5th 2007 11:22PM]

No kidding, i never understood why people liked laptop keyboards. Good 'normal' keyboards (saitek for example) are so much better and just feel better under my fingers.

[DBrim @ Oct 5th 2007 7:09PM]

Personally, I think that the new Apple keyboard (which I am typing this comment on) is a lot more tactile than the Macbook Pro keyboard is.

[Ian @ Oct 5th 2007 8:17PM]

I have a MacBook Pro and also one of these keyboards. I prefer the feel of this keyboard (which is the same as my wife's MacBook keyboard) to the one built into the Mac Book Pro. Now when I go to work and have to use the long-throw Dell keyboard on my (ugh) PC, I hate it.

[Chris Knight @ Oct 5th 2007 6:20PM]

Well, that sucks for us low-life After Effects users that depend quite a bit on Caps Lock.