What did he use?

Also, me not being a Mac user at all, it confuses me why people keep using the inferior external keyboards. I get that in the Macs or the MacBooks you make tradeoffs with things you do like, but if the external Apple keyboard stinks at being a keyboard, why not a sleek, functional Logitech device instead?

Suppose I'm saying, there's some shared responsibility, not just John Ive being responsible.

> What did he use?

That is actually an interesting question worth thinking about.

I think that top Apple management (at least Tim Cook and Jony Ive) does not use computers that much. If they do, they connect exactly zero external devices. And they are definitely not "power users" who would appreciate function keys (or even the Esc key for that matter). Tim doesn't mind the annoying delay from Spotlight when pressing Cmd-space to search on an iPad (the system loses several keystrokes because of a silly pause), Jony doesn't mind the half-second animation when switching spaces on a Mac, which you can't turn off. They don't do these things often enough to matter, and they do things slowly.

Also, if Tim's keyboard starts failing, how quickly do you think he gets a replacement? I'd bet it isn't two weeks.

This is different from Steve Jobs, whatever you might think about him, he did love computers and he at least felt the needs of more experienced users.

I think the design failures of the recent Macbooks (and the trashcan Mac Pro) are a reflection of how top management at the company uses and thinks of computers.

Whet people talk about Apple's keyboards being bad, they're almost always referring to the internal ones not external ones.

The external keyboards, by virtue of having an additional millimeter or so of key travel, are devoid of all the issues that plague the laptop iteration of the keyboards. A lot of people actually love this keyboard style, they just don’t love being deprived the normal use of their machine because the keyboard could not stand up to normal use and abuse for even a short period of time.

I use a Logitech at the office — I don’t know exactly which model, but it was in the $80-90 range. While I think their mice are genuinely brilliant, the keyboard is awful, mushy garbage. While my preference is for a heavy mechanical keyboard, they tend to be loud and tiring to work on for extended periods of time, and Apple’s keyboards are a genuinely good balance between design, tactility, loudness and overall layout.

They are, however, far too expensive. Even on sale, my Magic Keyboard with the numpad was more expensive than any sensibly-priced mechanical keyboard, and that’s beyond silly to think about.

You sound like one that have never used external apple keyboard. They are excellent, and I love how small and unobtrusive they are.

That's part of why I use a 60% mechanical keyboard. Smaller than any apple keyboard too.

Which one are you using? Smaller than Apple’s magic keyboard without the numpad?

Ah, looks like they shrunk that keyboard by an inch or so since I bought my old apple keyboard - the newer one is about the same as my current keyboard. I use a vortex pok3r - I got it for the mechanical switches and programmability in addition to the size.

Thank you for the reference - good to know for my Windows development machines!

> it confuses me why people keep using the inferior external keyboards.

Because many people actually like the keyboards, and they don't stink at being a keyboard.

I absolutely love my wired apple keyboard and wouldn’t change it.