We just got a new “retina” iMac. Hot damn it’s a nice display.
On the keyboard front, we sprang for the Japanese layout 60% bluetooth board (though I don’t expect a little Apple chiclet board will see too much use in practice).
I think it’ll actually be possible to make a fairly effective keyboard layout if we properly take advantage of the physical key layout of the Japanese board, by shifting the whole right hand over to the right by one column, and finding some useful purpose for the middle column thus opened up, as well as the little extra keys Japanese keyboards have to the right and left of the spacebar (actually, I think Yao might use the one to the right for space, on a layout like that, since she types the spacebar with her right thumb, and as a Vim user I suspect she’d find the left one to be an attractive spot for an esc key).
3.5u is still a bit wider than necessary for a spacebar, but it’s pretty good compared to standard US/European keyboard layouts (even good compared to the 5u spacebar on US Apple laptops).
Anyway, I somewhat regret that I didn’t get the Japanese layout keyboard for my laptop. It has a lot more useful options than the US layout, if you put a bit of thought in.
