Using an Apple wireless keyboard with a Vista UMPC
I still love using my ThinkOutside Stowaway Sierra Bluetooth keyboard with my mobile devices, but I had to get a new keyboard for my home office over the weekend. When using the keyboard of the MacBook Pro directly on my desk, I’m finding that it’s not the best ergonomic solution for me. I have two wireless keyboards in the house, but they take up the full width of my slideout keyboard tray, which leaves me no room for a mouse.After some thought, I purchased Apple’s wireless keyboard and mouse (affiliate links) over the weekend, both of which fit nicely on my keyboard tray with room to spare. Since both devices are Bluetooth enabled, I paired the keyboard with my Samsung Q1P which runs Vista Ultimate. It took some basic trial and error to get them paired, but the keyboard works just fine. I suspect the mouse would as well, but I tend to navigate via the Q1P’s touchscreen, so I didn’t pair the mouse. The new Apple keyboard provides a good choice for a mobile keyboard due to its thin nature and small size… worth a look if you need to add a new wireless keyboard to your mobile office!
Hi Kevin, good minds think alike i was in my local Apple store back here in the UK and i was stunned with the design of this wireless keyboard and i too was very interested to see if this would run on Vista, i asked in store if this would be compatible Vista and i was looked at as if i was the devil “what should i have expected though” and i was told it would not be recognised by Vista, i in turn purchased the keyboard and quickly hot footed it home to get this baby loaded up and to my surprise my experience of getting the two paired was simple and i am very happy with result.
Regards,
David….
UK
Nice little review there, I’ve been considering getting one of these for a while, but I’ll probably wait for the price to come down a bit, or maybe pick one up on ebay. I’m assuming it’d work with XP with no problem.
I just bought the apple wireless keyboard. Will it work on my dell running vista?
Thanks for the Vista How-to. I’m looking to do the same thing with my Dell Axim 30, if possible. I’ve tried a number of things but have not been able to pair the two, even though the Axim recognizes the keyboard when I plug it in. I’ve tried entering every passkey i can think of in the Axim utility.
Any ideas?
I saw this post, and bought this Apple keyboard today. I have thinkpad x60 tablet with built-in bluetooth running Vista. Works like a charm. Two minor issues I noticed so far:
1) option key is mapped to alt key. Command key is mapped to windows key. So the two keys are in reverse order. So I keep hitting the windows key when I wanted alt.
2) windows key seems working fine with all other keys except for with “tab” So this means, I won’t be able to do that fancy switching of application using 3D flip thingy.
Other than that, it’s great. I wonder why Apple doesn’t market it also for PC? I would think it will increase the sale dramaticall…
David, I’m using the Apple keyboard with my Samsung Q1UP right now; the “Windows” key works fine with my Tab key, so I’m not sure what the issue is. I can help you with the two keys that are “backwards”. See our post on how to remap or customize your keyboard layout: http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkontherun/2008/01/re-map-keys-in.html
That should help so you don’t hit the wrong key.
thanks for the tip. Actually, the windows-tab works now. I don’t know why it didn’t before. Key re-mapping would have been a great idea if it doesn’t mess up my tablet’s own keyboard. (i guess you don’t have that problem bec. yours doesnt have come with built-in keyboard?) I think it’s a minor inconvenience that i can live with. BTW, I never thought i could use other keyboard than that of thinkpad, but this apple keyboard is actually very comfortable…