Japanese MacBook

[bogboar]

Hello, I wonder what you people think of Apple's Japanese keyboard. The MacBook – being a laptop – couldn't possibly have a very ergonomic keyboard, but perhaps the Japanese thumb-keys would yield a good middle-ground.

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[Icarium]

hm... yeah why not... The 7bit Phantom layout goes in the same direction, just further.
I've actually looked at macbook tops on Ebay recently, does anybody know if those can be hooked up to a with some soldering (no active adapter)?

[dorkvader]

On the unibody macbook pro's, you have to replace the entire top case (not fun). On non-unibody macbook pro's, you should just be able to swap the keyboard (The keyboard controller appears to be in the trackpad). I have done this before with two revisions of MBP ANSI layouts, and it worked. No soldering was required in either case.

[Icarium]

Damn I left out important words.
I want to hook it up to a normal PC.

[Findecanor]

Apple's portable keyboards have a shorter throw than their desktop keyboards. The MacBook Air is the worst -- I don't know if it is even a millimetre.
Notice also that the keys on the back-lit keyboards are made of translucent plastic that has been painted black and then lasered. This means that as the keys wear, you will get bright spots in the middle of the keys.

Inside laptops, the keyboard controller is often on the motherboard. You would have to reverse-engineer the keyboard matrix and program your own micro-controller. Then there are issued with the connector/adapter and the case.

[boli]

Hmm, they made some interesting decisions regarding extra keys compared to an ISO version such as this british one:


The japanese keyboard has

• one extra thumb key (smaller space bar)
• no extra key next to left shift (larger left shift)
• an extra key next to right shift (smaller right shift)
• no extra key next to 1 (larger 1 key)
• an extra key next to backspace (smaller backspace key)

In other words, it has one extra thumb key, and the other extra keys are on the right hand side rather than the left.

[fossala]

Apple's portable keyboards have a shorter throw than their desktop keyboards. The MacBook Air is the worst -- I don't know if it is even a millimetre.

I used my Mum's mac book air and it was a horrible keyboard.

[dorkvader]

On the macbook pro unibody, the controller is on the motherboard. On the non-unibody, the keybord controller is on the trackpad.

Also, the cable is really tiny on the MBP:U.

[bogboar]

In other words, it has one extra thumb key, and the other extra keys are on the right hand side rather than the left.

More interestingly, both of the closest thumb-keys are closer to the centre than on normal keyboards. Thank Odin for shortened spacebars! Now if only they'd cut that spacebar in two halves too…

Apple's portable keyboards have a shorter throw than their desktop keyboards. The MacBook Air is the worst -- I don't know if it is even a millimetre.

This is very intentional: they must make the laptop as thin as possible. That's why Apple even adopted the chiclet keytops, isn't it? I may be wrong on that count. But on the MacBook Air it surely must matter.

I'd be fine with zero key travel if it made the laptop thinner.

Notice also that the keys on the back-lit keyboards are made of translucent plastic that has been painted black and then lasered. This means that as the keys wear, you will get bright spots in the middle of the keys.

Bad design decisions aside, I wouldn't worry because backlit keyboards are useless to begin with. One does not look at the keyboard! Blank keys would be preferable if anything.