Apple natural keyboard

There is one thing that bothers me with the idea of "upgrading" to a Mac instead of the PCs I've used since Commodore went down the drain. It's the keyboard. I've been using the natural keyboard series from Microsoft for a long time now, and it works really great for my hands. I start feeling pain in my wrists very quickly when using traditional keyboards (for example when I hijack the keyboard of anyone who asks me questions at work:)). I can't explain exactly why, either they are actually better [tm] or it's just that my body has gotten used to these types of keyboards. One way or another, if I can avoid pain in my wrists I will go with a natural keyboard in the future as well.

Here is where the problems start. A PC keyboard doesn't go that well together with a Mac in several different ways. First of all it doesn't have that Apple look. Not the new white one, nor the old "yum" colors. So aesthetically it's a no go. I did try the natural keyboard (this very one that I am typing on now) with Lerin's iBook and I found out that the windows keys (never tried that weird "menu" key I never found a real use for...) doesn't match the special Mac "rune" keys. The layout is entirely wrong. I got the short cuts wrong all the time. How much fun is that, I ask of ye, my fellow nerds?

So we are down to three problems, "naturalness", look, and feel. Which brings me to the point of my little microthesis. Apple should release a Pro keyboard. Let them call it the Apple Mighty Keyboard, or the Apple Keyboard Pro, just please consider making this hardware. Your industrial design department should be able to draft such a keyboard in a mere coffee break, and as an encore you could do the mighty mouse pro (more ergonomic!).

Not only would this keyboard make me happy, it should work as another piece of the halo effect puzzle. Surely a keyboard won't a Mac buyer make, but it could help tip the scales. Seeing that sleek beautiful (and wrist sparing) keyboard next to a generic PC (or worst yet, a DELL!) might just make people think again, if they can make this beautiful keyboard, shouldn't the computers also be the same? And, whoa, what if their software would be the same? Mr. Jobs, you can thank me buy sending me a Mac Pro, because this advice is for free.

Mac envy

I don't own a Mac. I never cared for them until I got the chance to use OS X, which has changed my mind. Recently I started to look into Cocoa and Objective C as well, and now I am coveting the mighty Mac Pro. The problem with this scenario is that a Mac Pro is quite expensive, so I started to look into getting a hold of a PowerMac G4. Something with 800+Mhz should be enough to be useful, and with a new 3.5" disk it surely should be fast enough to run OS X and XCode.

But alas, the prices for such an old machine is astronomical in Sweden. People do for some reason believe that they can charge 4-5 times the price here than what it costs to get a used one on ebay (England, the US, Austria, Germany, I looked all over the place, all much cheaper than here). I for example found a great machine in England. Dual 1.42Ghz G4s, 1.25 GB of memory, and for around 120 sterling pounds. Smack in a reasonable 7200 rpm modern disk and I would be in business.

I could buy it, but then I would have to have it shipped to a friend in London, and well, it would cost me both an arm AND a leg to have it shipped over here, which really is a drag. Something tells me that I will have to get a gig on the side to make some money to be able to buy a real proper Mac Pro, but before that happens I guess they have already released a new Mac:)

Which brings me to another thing, webcams for the Mac. How come the only webcam that says "Made for OSX" on is the iSight? It is horribly expensive for a webcam, we really don't need that kind of quality. And again, where does people get off thinking that you can charge that kind of money for used things...

But where does that leave me with me wanting to code for OS X? Well, luckily for me my wonderful little girlfriend/fiancé/sambo/cutie of a laundry fairy does own an iBook. So the next best thing after that nice dual G4 would be to get an external firewire/USB disk and install OS X on that one plus XCode and all that glory. Then I could finally be in business and be able to finally code some Cocoa. See what all the fuzz is about:) And I could post some more interesting posts about my struggles with Objective C instead of whining about not being able to get a Mac myself:)

(Anyone who would want to donate a decent G4 Mac to me, email me:))

First post :)

This is the first post to my brand new blog. Isn't it exciting? Well, not really. But hopefully it will turn into something exciting and interesting. Inspiring posts about development, insightful posts about programming, interesting posts about ideas, and flaming hot posts about things in the computer world I care for very little, which hence will upset people:) Now, stay tuned, for the next post...