I was plenty excited when I saw Microsoft was releasing a new non-mangled ergonomic keyboard - the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000.
Well, I guess it could be a little more black: http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/input/7727/ [but that one isnāt ergo, sadly].
Since you didnāt mention price, it seems that Buy.com has it for fifty bucks; presumably, eBay would have it for a bit less. Pretty reasonable.
This post typed on a worn-smooth Natural Pro.
I definitely defer to the none more blackness of the Das Keyboard!
When are you people going to learn?
Maltron.
Feh. The 6 is still on the wrong side [/touch typist stickler]. 
Oh thank god!!! I, too, have been waiting and actually still have three natural keyboard pros for use on various computers. Finally I can upgrade 
well. we donāt need no stinkin mouses. but we equally donāt need no stinkin rubber domes, either. i had a NorthGate for years, but it died, and i found the company had too. however, it is still available (i think, hope) as Avant Prime.
for a touch typist, real switches make a bigger difference than the Bend. try it. youāll like it.
Good show! I personally own a Microsoft Natural Multimedia Keyboard (MNMK) (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000AOWVN/104-8953515-7008708?v=glancen=172282%5Fencoding=UTF8v=glance) and I love it. The MNEK4000 seems to be a sleeker version but I will have to wait on getting my hands on it until I get a job (iām living in a van down by the river this semester).
Iād definately be interested in hearing more on this once you get a good feel and use into it.
If only they released it a few months ago, I just bought the MS Natural Multimedia keyboard (http://www.clubic.com/photo/00032002.jpg)
Which sadly suffers from the standard sub-standard page up/down cluster layout.
Thankfully at home my organomic keyboard is a classic MS one, with a normal page up/down layout
I just got one for work, I just ordered another for āmyā computer at home. Great keyboard. I LOVE the fact that the Sleep is no longer on top of the num pad. My current keyboard (a Belkin Ergo [a viable substitute in the quest for MS Ergos, btw] has it there and it kept getting pressed when I adjusted the cheap keyboard drawer I have here at work. Had to rip the keytops off all the keys above the numpad and rig up a scotch tape and plastic spoon MacGiver style cover. The new MS one isnāt as affected so Iām hopeful that I wonāt have to mod my pretty new toy. Now if theyād only let me have back my wireless mouseā¦Iād be happy (they were concerned about it being a security riskā¦donāt get me started)
Yes! I have been searching everywhere for a black split ergonomic keyboard that didnāt suck and had a standard page-up/page-down cluster. I was extremely excited when I heard about this and now I really want one.
The only ābadā thing about this new and I think the other new MS keyboard offerings is that they are USB only. No PS2 adapters. Since I have multiple systems and use a KVM, my experiences with USB KVMs havenāt always been pleasing. However, outside of having to find a KVM that has a switched hub so that the extra/new keys would work, the Ergonomic 4000 is a keeper and I can sleep better at night knowing that I no longer have to treat my MS Natural Keyboard Pro (and 2 spares) as āThe One Keyboardā.
Props to Microsoft to returning some keyboard bliss!
Gotta admit: I adapted to the new missing-insert layout above the cursor keys on the last-generation keyboards.
At first, I couldnāt understand it, but now if Iām less coordinated when trying to Home or End or Delete something, Iām not liable to push Insert, then realize several words later that Iām in Overtype mode. Sigh.
And just when you get used to itā¦ itās gone.
Please tell me FLock is gone or on by default now, though.
Yes I too would like to hear about the F-Lock. Is this infernal key of doom still in existance?
Itās an excellent keyboard. I posted something similar to what you said a while after receiving mine: a href="http://briandela.com/blog/archive/2005/09/26/781.aspx"http://briandela.com/blog/archive/2005/09/26/781.aspx/a
Thanks for all the infoā¦I found this thread by searching for āMicrosoft keyboard caps reverseā and now Iām forced to ask, since the answer wasnāt here (though lotsa great info was!):
Occasionally as Iām typing at Autobahn speed, I have a crash-and-burn when hitting Shift for a capital letter, and then find that my caps are locked though the Caps lock is offā¦when I hit Caps lock, lower case letters appear. I must be hitting a sequence to reverse the default, but I canāt figure out what it is. Usually I manage to resolve the situation by randomly turbo-hitting all the Southwest and Southeast keys for awhile, but Iād rather know the precise fixā¦this has GOT to be common knowledge among you Microsoft keyboard elite. Please enlighten me!
Thanks.
Please tell me FLock is gone or on by default now, though.
Flock is still present*, but itās better behaved. I just powered my system off, then back on again, and Flock stayed set. I remember reading about this before I bought the keyboard, and I can personally verify that itās true.
Just got this keyboard earlier today. Happy to report that F-Lock is always on by default now! That means us programmers can actually use them as they were meant to be without any hassle.
Also, one terrible thing about previous Microsoft keyboards was that āprint screenā was only on when f-lock was off! That meant if you needed to take screenshots while programming, you had to constantly toggle between f-lock. No more!! This keyboard is amazing.
I posted a response on Maltron, Jeff, but your software ate it in the name of fighting abuse. Not gonna retype.
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