Hi Reinhard and Tom, I was going to reply to Tom's directly, but I'll answer your questions, since I wrote about the "Matias Tactile Pro 3 Keyboard" in response to his post wanting to find "the best extended keyboard out there, either wireless or usb, for the blind mac user." (As I pointed out, "best" is subjective, but I tried to reply with what I thought Tom would consider to be "best" based on his comments, and also find a product he could check first-hand from his location in Vermont.)
Here's the link to the product description at the web site: <http://matias.ca/tactilepro3/index.php> My full post is at the Mail Archive for this list: • Re: Recommendation for extended keyboard. <http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries%40googlegroups.com/msg60768.html> This is a full sized keyboard that connects via USB 2, uses the ALPS key switches of the best tactilely responsive keyboards, and has the larger key travel of the older style Mac and PC keyboards in contrast to the flat, chiclet style keyboards currently used by Apple. The keyboard also has three, non-powered USB ports. The F-keys are arranged in separate groups of four at the top of the keyboard, and are vertically separated with a gap from the top row of number keys. You can put "Matias Tactile Pro 3" into a YouTube search, and listen to samples of people typing on these devices. Younger users will probably find the key click sound level very loud. I don't think this keyboard is being generally discounted as part of a President's Day sale -- the price on the Small Dog Electronics web site is still $139.95. The best price I've seen online is from OWC (Other World Computing) for $117.99: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Matias/FK302/ Matias makes a folding Bluetooth keyboard, which is not really more portable than the Apple Wireless Keyboard. (Closed to a size of 10.08 x 5 x 1.38 inches, the folded keyboard is almost as long as the Apple Wireless Keyboard's 11 inch length, and it is 18 inches long when opened.) There's a new Matias keyboard for Mac or PC and iPhone that was announced in January just before MacWorld. It's called the Matias One Keyboard, and is a USB keyboard that will be available in three models. Two of these will be full sized keyboards: the Standard Matias One Keyboard for iPhone and PC or iPhone and Mac ($99.95), and the the Tactile Matias One Keyboard for iPhone and PC or iPhone and Mac ($199.95, all prices in US dollars). The Tactile version uses the clicky ALPS keyboard keys similar to the Matias Tactile Pro 3 keyboard. There will also be a Slim Matias One Keyboard for iPhone and PC or iPhone and Mac, that drops the extended keyboard portion. What's common in the design of all three models of the Matias "One Keyboard" is that the keyboards are powered by the USB2 connection, but will also support BlueTooth pairing to an iPhone or other iOS device via a switch. So the idea is that you can use the same keyboard for typing either on your computer (through the USB connection) or on your iPhone (through BlueTooth), and have access to the full keyboard with numeric keypad, depending on which of the three One Keyboard models you get. Other World Computer is taking pre-orders on the Slim ($74.95) and Standard ($94.95) versions of the Matias One Keyboard, to ship in 20 days. I haven't found any references to current sales of this keyboard on the internet yet, although you can place an order at the Matias web site. I'm glad that Tom was able to get the Matias Tactile Pro 3 keyboard. His original post was about trying to get a current model Apple Extended Keyboard working for a friend -- and that turned out to be easily solved by going into the System Preferences settings for Keyboard. So I wasn't sure whether I'd written a very long post about keyboards that would never be used by anyone. HTH. Cheers, Esther On Feb 18, 2012, at 4:33 PM, Reinhard Stebner wrote: > Hi tom, I was wondering is this a portable keyboard or is it a full sized > keyboard? Also, when I looked for "Matais" Google changed the word to > "Matias" what is the correct spelling. Finally, do you have the mottle > number of the keyboard you are using? > > -----Original Message----- > From: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com > [mailto:macvisionaries@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Frank Tom > Sent: Saturday, February 18, 2012 8:04 PM > To: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com > Subject: Matais keyboard on sale > > Hello Esther , et. al., > I went to Small Dog in Burlington VT this morning to buy the Matais > keyboard. When I went to pay for it, it was on sale from $139.95 down to > $109.00 I don't know if this is a Presidents' day sale or not, but if anyone > is thinking about buying this keyboard, it may be on sale at other venders > as well. It is a bit noisy, but the keys are very tactile and I have no > problems finding my way around. For us older folks who learned to type on > a, what do you call those things; oh yes, a typewriter, the feel is like the > old days. > > Tom > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
