[this article is excerpted from TidBITS, a digest of information generally relating to Apple. See below for copyright and other info -- Dan] From: ace@tidbits.com (Adam C. Engst) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.digest Subject: TidBITS#166/01-Mar-93 Date: 2 Mar 93 04:37:44 GMT Reply-To: ace@tidbits.com (Adam C. Engst) Organization: TidBITS TidBITS#166/01-Mar-93 ===================== Copyright 1990-1993 Adam & Tonya Engst. Non-profit, non-commercial publications may reprint articles if full credit is given. Other publications please contact us. We do not guarantee the accuracy of articles. Caveat lector. Publication, product, and company names may be registered trademarks of their companies. Disk subscriptions and back issues are available - email for details. For information send email to info@tidbits.com or ace@tidbits.com CIS: 72511,306 -- AppleLink: ace@tidbits.com@internet# AOL: Adam Engst -- Delphi: Adam_Engst -- BIX: TidBITS TidBITS -- 9301 Avondale Rd. NE Q1096 -- Redmond, WA 98052 USA ----------------------------------------------------------------- Apple Adjustable Keyboard ------------------------- by Joe Clark -- joeclark@scilink.org Let's not get all excited about the new Apple Adjustable Keyboard. Don't get me wrong: I think the keyboard's signature feature - the fact that it opens up to 30 degrees to keep your hands from bending sideways at the wrist - is a knee-smackingly right-on idea. It's significant that a $7-billion company has produced such a keyboard; doing so gives the idea legitimacy. I predict articulated keyboards will be commonplace in under five years - yes, you closet DOS/NeXT/Vax/Amiga/Atari users, even on your machines! This _may_ translate into a reduction in overuse injuries, particularly tenosynovitis (an inflammation of the sheaths surrounding tendons). But there's a big problem, and it's the function-key module offboard of the main body of the keyboard. It contains all 15 function keys, a numeric keypad, and all the arrow and extended- arrow keys on the Extended Keyboard II (Up/Down/Left/Right, Help, Del, Home, End, Page Up/Down). Sure, you can put the module more or less wherever you want, but if you want to use the delete key (not backspace, the delete forward key) you have to reach all the way over and press it. Or **click** it, I should say: Like all the keys except the numbers and the basic arrows, that key is actually a little semi-recessed Chiclet key that clicks when you push it. It looks like a Tylenol gelcap and feels like the Pop-a-Matic dice-roller in the 1970s board game Trouble. And if you're like me, a heavy user of function keys (or the escape key, as many users of terminal emulation programs are), you'll find every possible obstacle in your way to efficient computing. Most function-key users don't even think of them by number; it's just "press that key over there." I have to look on my template now and then to sort out shift vs. option vs. command, but beyond that I just hit the damn things. Not on the new keyboard: Instead of groups of keys in a single row, you get five rows of three. So forget about a template with enough room to document all the various modes, and forget about using your built- in sense of proprioception (spatial awareness of body parts) to hit the right key almost without looking. If you want to press command-option-F8, you have to hold down two keys on one board and hunt for another on a second board, press it (click!), and return your hands to home position. And if you're a right-hander, you probably have the module on the left but press command and option with your left hand, meaning your right hand crosses over the left to push the function key. This is progress? I interviewed the product manager for the keyboard at Apple, Paul Prebin, and he claimed their tests showed almost no one used function keys or even the delete forward key. Huh? He admitted, though, that many journalists who'd interviewed him voiced complaints similar to mine. He's very open to suggestions on future keyboard designs; he doesn't even rule out a fully- articulated keyboard that pops up from the desk, supinating the hands into an even more nearly-neutral position. As for the Chiclet keys (which Apple coyly calls "buttons"), they already are found on the Duos and likely will reappear on new machines, too. Oh, great. Look for my other stories on the keyboard in the "Village Voice" (19-Jan-93), "Toronto Computes" (April-ish), and "Toronto Globe and Mail" (who knows when). Information from: Paul Prebin -- PREBIN1@applelink.apple.com; 408/862-3185 (fax) Apple Sued For Ergonomic Keyboard --------------------------------- by Scott Mandell -- gggj@cornella.cit.cornell.edu [This article reprinted with permission from CLiCKS, the newsletter of MUGWUMP, the Ithaca Macintosh Users Group.] According to the developer of Apple's Ergonomic Keyboard, Sandy Williamson, Apple is currently being sued for patent infringement by the makers of The Tony keyboard. When asked more about the keyboard and the suit, Mr. Williamson had "no comment." A second suit is pending from Lee Volman, a noted keyboard designer, and a third from a hand surgeon with whom Mr. Williamson consulted. The hand surgeon suing Apple says Mr. Williamson contacted him for help with a personal problem with his keyboard. The surgeon spent at least six hours telling Mr. Williamson what he should do to lessen his pain while typing, never told that this information would be put into product development. The surgeon also says that Apple's keyboard is not designed correctly. Dale Redder of Industrial Innovations (makers of the DataHand keyboard) in Phoenix, Arizona, says Apple could have avoided these suits and the general disrespect from the keyboard industry by paying some of their approximately $2 million per day R&D budget to the rightful patent holders. Mr. Redder said Apple thinks they are so big they can push the little guys aside without penalty, but he thinks Apple will lose these lawsuits if they don't settle out of court. [I've heard dissenting opinions as to Apple's legal stand from sources at Apple, and Apple may settle out of court even if they have not infringed on patents. I have also heard that Apple settled the suit with Tony Hodges, although I have been unable to confirm this. -Adam] Mr. Redder's opinion of the new Apple keyboard? "Of the fifteen ergonomic issues that our DataHand addresses, Apple's keyboard addresses only one. Not to say it isn't an improvement... it's like a sailboat whereas a conventional keyboard is a rowboat. But we like to think of the DataHand as a steamship." Jeff Fzmanda, Vice President of HealthCare Keyboard, Inc., says that all of the keyboard designers and manufacturers should stop suing each other and should share some of their information in order to make healthier keyboards for the consumer. HealthCare, Inc. makes the Comfort Keyboard, which was recently named a Finalist for the National Merit Award. [Speaking as someone who suffers from some of these problems, I second Jeff Fzmanda. If these keyboards can reduce the incidence of repetitive stress injuries (which only thorough and extensive testing can verify), these companies should all shut up, curb their lawyers, and work together to prevent the pain and suffering that many keyboard users endure. Think of the extent to which the market will shrink when millions of people cannot type on even one of these keyboards. Time's a-wasting! -Adam]