Apple axes the numeric keypad on iMac's standard wired keyboard

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]

[superhobo @ Mar 3rd 2009 9:54AM]

Ugly as usual.

Commence downranking.

[r3loaded @ Mar 3rd 2009 10:25AM]

Idd - Apple themselves should be able to come up with something better-looking than this.

[AMiSH PiRATE @ Mar 3rd 2009 10:36AM]

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

[THizzle7XU @ Mar 3rd 2009 11:17AM]

Well, the numeric key pad is associated with quick data entry, and you know Apple is too cool for the corporate world.

[R @ Mar 3rd 2009 11:39AM]

And coming soon..

Apple numeric keypad add-on. Only $39.99!

:-)

[Eleazar @ Mar 3rd 2009 2:02PM]

Ignoring is the new lowraking these days especially if you make clear that you see it coming.

[Tin @ Mar 3rd 2009 2:29PM]

@R
Does it come with a usb hub combo with 20 ports?

XD

[Gibson @ Mar 3rd 2009 2:31PM]

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. :(

[cod69 @ Mar 3rd 2009 2:41PM]

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.

[reisa @ Mar 3rd 2009 2:50PM]

@ Amish
@Thizzle
@ R

You are all correct.

[jlopez_15 @ Mar 3rd 2009 5:43PM]

I'm waiting for the iMac Touch.

[puhsitch @ Mar 3rd 2009 6:19PM]

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!

[BlackBerry @ Mar 3rd 2009 10:42PM]

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.

[superhobo @ Mar 4th 2009 4:59AM]

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.

[JedixJarf @ Mar 3rd 2009 9:56AM]

Cmon apple what are you doing?

[joe23521 @ Mar 3rd 2009 10:55AM]

Inching ever closer to the MacBookWheel.

[fanman @ Mar 3rd 2009 1:06PM]

"I never realised how much I hated using [numerical] keyboards until I tried this thing" :P

[Tin @ Mar 3rd 2009 2:22PM]

They are trying to make iMac a laptop replacement. I am serious.

[utahnkid @ Mar 4th 2009 4:20AM]

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?

[From My Cube @ Mar 3rd 2009 9:56AM]

i was unaware that number pads were a bag of hurt...



EXCEL no longer FTW on standard mac's

[PCIV @ Mar 3rd 2009 10:01AM]

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.

[JakePT @ Mar 3rd 2009 10:37AM]

and Quinn!

[tcc3 @ Mar 3rd 2009 10:06AM]

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.

[tcc3 @ Mar 3rd 2009 10:08AM]

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.

[Wwhat @ Mar 3rd 2009 10:24AM]

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.

[phoomp @ Mar 3rd 2009 10:39AM]

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.

[IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII (BarCODE) @ Mar 3rd 2009 11:11AM]

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.

[required @ Mar 3rd 2009 1:09PM]

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.

[elfneedsfoodbadly @ Mar 3rd 2009 3:49PM]

@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.

[Benson @ Mar 3rd 2009 5:22PM]

@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.

[Patrick @ Mar 4th 2009 2:06PM]

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.

[ImaYam @ Mar 3rd 2009 9:58AM]

This just goes to show that Mac users dont have a need to put 2 and 2 together.

[superhobo @ Mar 3rd 2009 10:02AM]

Don't have the brains*

[eggothewaffle @ Mar 3rd 2009 9:58AM]

Oh man, I could just smell the putrid bile if this news was coming from Dell or HP.

[adrian @ Mar 3rd 2009 11:31AM]

Seems like a cost cutting method.

[Kizorblade @ Mar 3rd 2009 1:28PM]

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?

[VanillaSpice @ Mar 3rd 2009 8:10PM]

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?

[Le Big Mac @ Mar 3rd 2009 9:59AM]

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.

[Josh @ Mar 3rd 2009 9:59AM]

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.

[joe23521 @ Mar 3rd 2009 1:28PM]

Pretty soon, Apple will be selling all keys individually for $1.99 each.

[mike @ Mar 3rd 2009 1:34PM]

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.

[anotherevilelf @ Mar 3rd 2009 6:12PM]

Gestures are around the bend maybe.

[horizontaleight @ Mar 3rd 2009 9:59AM]

Apple tends to forget that functionality is the most important aspect of a device.

[peestandingup @ Mar 3rd 2009 10:00AM]

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.

[absinthe party @ Mar 3rd 2009 10:06AM]

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.

[htd @ Mar 3rd 2009 10:07AM]

the iDesk is designed to be short so it can only host the one button mouse plus a numericless keyboard?

[Nomi @ Mar 3rd 2009 11:06AM]

Really?

[ant @ Mar 3rd 2009 2:21PM]

"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.

[Jorvay @ Mar 3rd 2009 10:00AM]

Apple giving the user a choice? For free? What's next, dogs and cats getting married?

[Game_playa @ Mar 3rd 2009 10:56AM]

Whats next ANIMALS getting married?