Apple almost snuck this one past us, but friendly tipster Graham spotted the change-up: Apple has swapped out the standard wired Apple Keyboard for a new model lacking a numeric keypad. It's the same design as the
wireless model, which also lacks a numeric keypad, except that this one has USB plugs on each end, and a cord of its own snaking towards your otherwise immaculate desktop. The good news is that the regular keyboard hasn't gone anywhere, you just have to make sure to configure your new purchase with it when you order -- it's a free "upgrade." Inversely, the Mac Pros still ship with the regular keyboard, but you can get 'em numpad-free if you'd like, for a similar zero cost. We're not sure what game you're at, Apple, but if you're trying to make us forget all those maths we struggled so hard to comprehend back in the day... well, OK, you win. Another straight-on shot of the keyboard is after the break.
[Thanks, Graham]
posted Mar 3rd 2009 9:50AM
Ugly as usual.
Commence downranking.
Idd - Apple themselves should be able to come up with something better-looking than this.
no lowrank necessary, superhobo. I'm an apple fanboy, and even I'm saying wtf.
seriously, apple. wtf? and here I thought the onion was kidding with the apple wheel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BnLbv6QYcA
Well, the numeric key pad is associated with quick data entry, and you know Apple is too cool for the corporate world.
And coming soon..
Apple numeric keypad add-on. Only $39.99!
:-)
Ignoring is the new lowraking these days especially if you make clear that you see it coming.
@R
Does it come with a usb hub combo with 20 ports?
XD
Whoa, for a second I thought the story photo was from the front, and that Apple had introduced some kind of insane new typing paradigm...
It isn't true. :(
seriously people..
its an option. keypad or no keypad.
a little 12 year old girl on disney.com, or the stay at home mom who is looking up a recipe for broccoli casserole might not need to punch in excel spreadsheets at record breaking speeds. so these people might complain why the keyboard is almost doubled by useless keys.
@ Amish
@Thizzle
@ R
You are all correct.
I'm waiting for the iMac Touch.
Not only is it an option, but it's a free option. Nothing wrong with having a choice.
People need to read the whole article before overreacting!
Next thing you know, apple will try to take out the F keys, then the.....You will be left with nothing. Very much like an Iphone.
Apple is very good at taking functions away from technologies. Who needs USB ports, or removable battery, or optical drive....????
Just for good measure, apple will jack up the price so people will not think they are getting an inferior product.
Typical of Apple.
What some of you are forgetting is that the default option is the numpad-less keyboard (to save money, no doubt), and you have to specifically select the original keyboard to get it.
Cmon apple what are you doing?
Inching ever closer to the MacBookWheel.
"I never realised how much I hated using [numerical] keyboards until I tried this thing" :P
They are trying to make iMac a laptop replacement. I am serious.
Giving people an option to have a smaller keyboard? Are you gonna lose sleep over this tonight? The better question is why Engadget readers try so incredibly hard to talk shit on Apple. Do you feel challenged or something?
i was unaware that number pads were a bag of hurt...
EXCEL no longer FTW on standard mac's
From a macbook user, I agree that the numpad is useful for Excel. That's about it. Unless we do databases at school, I don't actually use the numpad for anything else.
and Quinn!
Well, if you dont use it then by all means lets just forget about it. People use computers differently. This is a problem with the Apple philosophy - its their (Steve's) way or the highway. Sometimes when its a good idea it improves the way we think about and use computers. And sometimes its just iron fisted bullshit.
And yes, its an option. I realize that so perhaps I was a bit harsh. Choice is good as long as there continues to be one.
As a NON-macbook user I find keypads handy for home-made application and games alike, but that's not germane to a discussion about an mac I guess.
I hate how the number pad on some keyboards makes me place my mouse uncomfortably far to my right. For that reason, and the fact that I'm rarely crunching numbers, my desktop keyboards are always of numberpad-less designs; either Logitech DiNovo or the Apple aluminum wireless.
I remember the 80's with the original MAC, getting a number pad was much touted upgrade feature on those early Apples and now they wish to get rid of them? Why? It just seems like progress moving in reverse.
I for one am constantly entering numeric data into all of my "creative" apps and I think it's asinine to get rid of the numeric keypad and wish their 17" included it.
If you disagree you can take this 234872x14233x9879234 blob of digits and shove it.
@required:
also have a 17", amen to wishing the numeric pad built in. as a CAD user, it's far and away the easiest way to enter coordinates.
@phoomp:
Then put the mouse on the left. Learned to do this when I was playing with CAD as a teenager; left hand on the digitizer puck, and right hand on the ten-key for numeric input. (My left hand is actually more dexterous with a mouse than my right, though I'm right-handed, because of practice.)
I've kept it since then, even though I use the keypad substantially less these days. My spaceball 6dof controller is now to the right, and it's just a joy using the spaceball with a mouse. (Unfortunately, I don't have much to _do_ with them, just playing around with them.) Normally pointing is just as easy and intuitive, and FPSes are no problem, after remapping keys around IJKL instead of WASD.
Numeric keypad is not just for excel, I use it when using calculator, punching in credit card or phone numbers, etc.
I hate the shallow, laptop-like keyboards on Macs. I like some depth to my keys. Next thing you know, Apple already only has 1-button mouses, but in another year it will probably eliminate reduce the button count on mouses too.
This just goes to show that Mac users dont have a need to put 2 and 2 together.
Don't have the brains*
Oh man, I could just smell the putrid bile if this news was coming from Dell or HP.
Seems like a cost cutting method.
Or cake.
Really.
Don't you think that if you sharpened one of those edges, you'd be able to make a really really awesome axe?
WTF eggo? Read the comments, there is a lot of putrid bile in here. Why would you imply that there is none? (And let us not forget - a lot of putrid bile about a NO COST option to get the keypad.) You fucking Apple-haters are just amazing - you heap bile on Apple *and* claim that they are not getting bile. Do you people even think, at all?
Pretty sneaky, sis . . . I want my number pad!
At least be clear that there's an option, rather than trying to hide it. Maybe there will be mass protests at apple stores with customers wielding numberpadless keyboards as weapons.
Well, I suppose the "average" user Apple mostly markets to doesn't do that much coding or keypunch, so offering a keyboard without the number pad would make a smaller keyboard...I'm sure there have to be people out there who say, "What's this thing for? I never, ever use it."
I still use the numpad all the time, so as long as they still sell one, I think we'll be ok.
This one sounds a lot like all the folks working to eliminate the Caps Lock key...secret Apple plot to remove the numpad from our memories?
Just kidding.
Pretty soon, Apple will be selling all keys individually for $1.99 each.
I'm a programmer and I never use the number pad, although that's probably because I've only owned laptops for years.
What's more bothersome is why they keep changing the functions associated with each F key. On my relatively new MacBook the volume keys are mapped to F3-F5 and Expose and Dashboard are mapped to F9-F12.
Gestures are around the bend maybe.
Apple tends to forget that functionality is the most important aspect of a device.
Good! I hate mine. It's WAY too damn long & I constantly find that I butt my mouse up against it when clicking/dragging things. And this is with my tracking tweaked out as far as it will go on a 24" iMac via a Terminal hack.
Wait... I just tried to recreate what you said about hitting the mouse on the keyboard and found it pretty difficult.
I have decided that you either have extremely terrible hand-eye coordination or you're approximately 10 inches wide from shoulder to shoulder.
the iDesk is designed to be short so it can only host the one button mouse plus a numericless keyboard?
Really?
"Good! I hate mine. It's WAY too damn long & I constantly find that I butt [mine] up against it when clicking/dragging things"
That's definitely what I told her too.
Apple giving the user a choice? For free? What's next, dogs and cats getting married?
Whats next ANIMALS getting married?
Humans ARE animals...someone forget basic high school biology?
@ Hamixda:
HERETIC!!!
Doesn't seem to make a big difference. The only situations that I can think of where a person would use a numpad would be at the office or for gaming purposes. If you're at the office, what the hell is your company doing spending money on iMacs, shouldn't you be working on a cheaper Dell/HP? If you're a gamer, what the hell are you doing with a Mac? I know you can run Windows on Macs but that still seems odd to me. Regardless, if you were a gamer you would probably be using a fancy configurable/ergonomic keyboard not the one boxed with the computer.
I consider myself a gamer, and I don't use a fancy configurable/ergonomic keyboard*. And most of the people I know who game, don't own them either. Please, don't make sweeping generalizations.
*it is wireless though.
Yeah, umm making excuses for the exclusion of the numeric pad is pretty ridiculous. Yes, I do realize there is an option for the free upgrade, but what is to keep Apple for charging for the "upgrade" to a regular keyboard in the future? I do all of my financial things on my computer: taxes, keeping track of my budget, etc. and a numeric keyboard is essential for doing that. It's incredibly annoying to use the numbers on the standard keyboard when trying to enter numbers quickly. Like I said, I realize that you can select the standard keyboard, but I see this as being something that one day, Apple might start charging for. That's what I would have a problem with.
I'm a gamer and I've NEVER used the keypad. WASD is all you really need, and your mouse.
@Barry: you're not a gamer; you're a n00b.
You mean to tell me you never enter numeric data such as an images ratio or a shapes coordinate?
this is thew oppsite of what people wanted, they wanted a wireless version of the full keyboard
Your forgetting that now apple have done it, people will think they want this now!
Now the wireless one is the same as the normal one. Everyone's happy!
Haha, you're absolutely right.
Out of the 4 possible combinations of aluminum keyboards (wired/wireless & with/without keypad), the one I want is of course the one they don't make.
Thanks Apple.
Here Here,
I missed being able to smash the bottom right enter key with gusto.
Fuck that. I use the num pad with Photoshop all the time. It's quicker and more efficient than using the numbers above the letters. Looks like I'll be going to other companies to buy my keyboards.
> Looks like I'll be going to other companies to buy my keyboards.
Why? As stated DOZENS of times already, Apple gives you the option of a keyboard with a number pad if you want it.
Wassat? You didn't bother to read the article or earlier replies before posting?
They give the option now, but a few months from now if their stock of keyboards with them are gone they might not.
um...why? I couldn't own a desktop without a number pad on my keyboard. I hate that you have to go all the way to 17" laptops to get them, but their is no other way around that unless the 15" laptops were over sized.
Well, unless you get one of the new Compaqs.
Numerical keyboards come standard on all their 15 inch laptops too!
I use numeric keypads all the time but dislike the asymmetry and how it pushes the mouse so far away.
Model Numbers:
w/ Keypad: BC791LL/A
No Keypad: BE626LL/A
Hmm, it looks like those model numbers are keyboard and mouse kits for the mini, not things you can order through the store. I don't see the keyboard without numeric keypad by itself yet.
I thought for a second you were showing the difference between typing the model number with or without the keypad.
weird, weird decision...
humph, Apple fixing what isn't broken. (Not that I use the num pad much but i still want it!)
keyboards are obsolete, iwheel is coming
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/apple_introduces_revolutionary?utm_source=onion_rss_daily
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB110LL/A?fnode=MTY1NDA1Mg&mco=NDE4NDU5NA
the other ones still there, and it costs the same. Apple's just giving everyone a choice
Erm, seems like most of you failed to read the article fully:
"The good news is that the regular keyboard hasn't gone anywhere, [...] -- it's a free "upgrade." "
So, if you want a number pad on your keyboard just choose it - it won't cost you any more.
What Apple's doing is giving customers a choice - and a free one at that.
Yes but in typical Apple fashion, they default to giving you less. They should give you the generally accepted keyboard with the number keypad and give you the free option to "downgrade" to the keypadless one.
What they're doing here is trying to mask saving themselves production costs on those who just accept the default configuration while painting themselves as generous for giving you a "free upgrade" option to something you've already been getting all this time.
That's why it's important to slow down, read, and understand what it is that you're plunking down money for. Instead of Click/buy/done.
Fantastic.
And what if I don't want to buy my iMac online? What do I do then?
Where is the big WIRELESS keyboard? That's what we need at the end!
Right, where is the bluetooth keyboard with keypad.
That's just stupid, but you can get the full keyboard with extra numpad for the same price.
Maybe Apple just wants to get rid of excess keyboards without numpad.
I completely agree with Jools, what's the big deal? Apple gives you the option of a short keyboard or a long keyboard. You get to choose. Me thinks some people might be reading a 'bit much into this post.
Fair enough that the option is there, but the default option should be for the keyboard with the number pad. If you want the less featured keyboard - then you can change it yourself.
Gosh... it's not only about removing the keypad. We are talking about cramped arrow keys under the return and shift keys, a missing control key, a smaller space bar, a function key taking the place of the left control key, losing home, page up, page down, end and delete without having to use the function key. I can use a keyboard like that on my MacBook but never on a desktop. Ughhh
If you don't like the design, that's certainly your prerogative; however, I'm surprised that many are so irked by the concept of choice. Certainly the short keyboard will not be for everyone, but neither is the longer keyboard. As a college student with limited space, I can appreciate a shorter keyboard.
The crux of the matter to me is cost. As long as Apple does not charge extra for the longer keyboard, I appreciate being given the choice. It's probably one of the few times Apple gives their customers options.
@Peter
"As a college student with limited space...": What are you talking about, can you not spare four inches of desk space? If so, maybe you should not spend your (or your parents) money on a mac, but instead work on finding better housing.
What bothers people so much, is the direction apple is going in. It appears apple is not catering towards people who use computers for work, but rather those who want an overpriced word processor and internet device. The fact that the default option is a stripped down keyboard means for some people, that in the future they will have to pay to get a regular keyboard. They did the same thing with the remote for macs, and the dock (for the iPod). They first do not offer it as a default option, and then they make you pay extra for it.
apple just wants to attend every man's needs. at least they offered those options for free. not additional 5 bucks for the numpad, which will definitely incur more negative/confused replies to this blog entry.
I prefer not having a keypad...
- home keys are centered, both within the keyboard, and directly under my monitor
- less distance to move my hand between the mouse and home keys
How often do you use the numerical keypad vs swap between the keyboard and mouse?
That said, I prefer full size up and down keys.
Yes! DOWN WITH NUMPAD!!!!!!!
Every time I want to type a series of numbers? It is much easier on the number pad.
"I prefer not having a keypad..."
i, for one, enjoy using keys to write responses like this
Apparently Mac users never use a right control key, home, end, pg up, pg down, or any of the other fun keys that people like myself use on a daily basis. And I thought it was only Thinkpads that made the fn key the farthest outside key...
I could see apple dropping the full sized keyboard all together with the next iMac/ Mac Mini refresh.
Perhaps a small keypad in the size you find on smaller calculators would be an idea, you don't need full sized typing keys for numerical entry really, but having none is a bit limiting.
Note to designers: Just make sure they have smooth action though, like quality calculators, not the kind that are dinky or need to be pressed hard, go for the old style metal contacts for instance, after all - for apple products you don't need to save a penny.
as a World of Warcraft player, the numeric keypad is must.
...and a full sized cursor diamond is even more-so a must for WoW!
Considering that most Mac users don't work in an office, this is not a big deal for them.
Thank god! It's impossible to find a nice small profile keyboard for a console or an area that requires a smaller keyboard for space reasons. No one makes a keyboard like this so it's finally nice to have this option. Even though it's "Mac" it will work really nice with other scenario's that uses USB. Logitech used to offer something like this but stopped and I still use it today on my PS3.
would be nice if they gave the option of black keys. mine get dirty frequently, and need a good wipe-down almost weekly. also, the silver and white keyboard doesn't match the silver and black imac too well.
Wash your hands a bit more frequently. Cuts down on bacteria leading to better health for you and a clean keyboard.
This is good. I have been using numeric-keypad-free keyboards for years, e.g. the "Happy Hacker" keyboard, because I never need to enter lots of numbers and having the mouse a bit closer is more ergonomic. And it frees up some desk space for extra clutter :-)
I bought the current wireless version of this shortly after it came out. I didn't need or want it to be wireless, especially at £20 extra, and the choice of wireless-narrow or wired-wide seemed arbitrary : surely the other combinations, wireless-wide and wired-narrow, would be just as popular? It took me ages to get my Linux PC (yes, I'm using this Apple keyboard with a non-Apple computer!) to talk to it and the batteries only seem to last a couple of months. But I think it was worth it because it's an excellent keyboard.
I do hope that this new one is available to buy separately. Currently, the UK apple store shows a picture that looks like it but with the title "Apple Keyboard with numeric keypad". But the keyboard descriptions have never been very accurate: they have titles like "UK layout" but the photos are always of the US layout.