Where Are the Third Party Ergonomic Peripherals?
In my quest to improve my overall Mac switching experience, I am trying to create the right office environment. One of the biggest annoyances is the lack of third party peripherals. What peripherals am I looking for that make this an issue? Well, how about:
1. An ergonomic keyboard.
2. A decent bluetooth mouse.
3. A dock.
An Ergonomic Keyboard
It amazes me that Apple, with all of its hubris in design, can’t seem to create a true ergonomic keyboard. Does everyone remember the Apple Ergonomic Keyboard from the early-to-mid 90s? Wow, that was a piece of junk. It never stayed together and the industrial design was weak. At the time, Microsoft owned the ergonomic keyboard market.
Today, Apple only offers a wired or wireless standard keyboard. If that was an acceptable option, I would use it. However, it isn’t. I struggle using my MB Pro keyboard on a day-to-day basis. Why would I want the same unnatural positioning on a larger scale? Further, why doesn’t Apple get off its lazy duff and design the right kind of ergonomic keyboard?
With the majority of Mac folks being either touchy-feely, hardcore geek, Unix gearhead, or, lest we forget, the elder demographic who still provides the majority of Apple sales, why not provide more choices in keyboard design from the preeminent industrial design team at Apple? When will Apple rise to the occasion here?
Okay, enough kvetching. Given that Apple is busy with the new iPhone and other potential new Macs, I have to suffer with only two choices if I want an ergonomic keyboard. I can purchase either the Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop for Mac or the Key Ovation Goldtouch for Mac.
Of course, neither of these are perfect. Both are USB (not bluetooth) and both are limited by their own designs (especially the Microsoft option whereby the keyboard has no adjustments). The Key Ovation is pricey too, at $150 MSRP. The Microsoft set comes with a Laser Mouse for roughly $100 MSRP. Granted, you can find them for less, but this article is not about shopping. It’s about choices. What stinks is that I have two choices.
The difficulty in deciding is that I have yet to find a place that will let me try the Key Ovation keyboard. I have used the Windows version of the Microsoft Keyboard and it is not bad. However, I want more flexibility (for a decent price, thus the Key Ovation issue at $150 MSRP).
Well, I’ll keep you all posted once I decide which model to purchase. And, if you have other suggestions, don’t hesitate to reply in the comments.
A Decent Bluetooth Mouse
I already own the Wireless Mighty Mouse. It’s pretty decent, other than the fact that the scroll ball is a little difficult to clean. And the right-click is a little sensitive. However, the mouse itself is not very ergo. I have seen two new mice that have come on the market recently that seem very interesting. These are the Microsoft Natural Wireless Laser Mouse 6000 and the Logitech MX Revolution.
Unfortunately, neither of these is bluetooth. I like the idea of using bluetooth as it is a Mac supported technology. Does it really matter if I use it for a keyboard or mouse? No, although if I am going to be on the Mac bandwagon, I might as well support the tech.
Whichever mouse I end up purchasing, I will write a review. In fact, I’ll cover both the mouse and keyboard, mostly from the perspective on how they work ergonomically. In this day and age, all mice have enough features to make our heads spin. The same applies to keyboards.
I would clown on Apple more for their Mighty Mouse, but it is pretty decent. It looks good, which is a bonus, and the industrial design (one effective button with left and right sensitivities) is clever. Integration with the OS is also better than the other offerings (especially with how MS creates their own drivers for everything).
And lastly….
A Dock
Now, this is not an ergonomic need as much as it would be convenient to have a dock at the office so that I could just plug in one item, rather than having to hook up my Apple Cinema Display (20”—don’t get excited), network cable, and power cable. With the additional peripherals I want to buy, having a dock makes sense.
Of course, Apple doesn’t get it here (this is because they don’t cater to the knowledge worker market). The last notebook they made (that I can think of) that supported a dock was the PowerBook Duo series. And that dock was huge. I’d even settle for a port replicator. Instead, there is one choice—the BookEndz.
I don’t know why BookEndz calls this a dock. It is a port replicator. Nevertheless, it is the only option I am aware of for the current line of MacBooks/MB Pros. I know that they make products for older PowerBooks as well. Nevertheless, I am trying to solve the MB Pro problem.
Conclusion
Yes, there are third party ergo solutions. And yes, they are acceptable. However, I just feel let down by Apple on this one. Knowing the capabilities they have within their industrial design team, I am amazed by the lack of ergo-focused peripherals. Oh well, this is just coming from the guy who doesn’t know what the usr folder is.
Until next week….
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Comments
I can’t remember where, but I wrote a comment in regards to the iPhone form factor that Apple seems to have an allergic aversion to ergonomic design.
Everything is straight lines and round edges. That’s good for overall product-line consistency, and even works for the iPod. But a mouse? Or a phone? Not so much.
I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but I did find this keyboard at a site that specializes in ergonomic accessories.
I write a lot, yet I despise “ergo” keyboards. It is hard enough to find a decent keyboard in the first place these days, so finding a good functional keyboard that is also ergonomic in the sense that you an adjust it is… unlikely. And they have to be adjustable, or at least I have zero idea how one would be supposed to use those static ergo-monstrosities for anything but endless typing without ever using shortcuts. If you want a good alround Mac keyboard, you buy a Tactile Pro or an old Apple Extended II + Adaptor.
Mice are a matter of taste.
Speaking of the dock, you did not write what you would actually want from it. A co-processor, as in the Duo Dock? *g* The BookEndz solution seems pretty fine, although for 300 bucks I would expect them to a) make the wretched thing a tad more attractive, and b) include a FireWire and USB hub, five ports each - which would also make it more of a dock. Does anyone know whether the audio ports on this thing support optical?
in regards to the iPhone form factor that Apple seems to have an allergic aversion to ergonomic design.
I’ll hold out until I’ve actually used one on that issue.
Ben, hold an iPod to your ear. That’s the form factor of the iPhone.
Apple is about style and like it’s been mentioned, their devices aren’t necessarily designed with ergo being a priority.
It must be a tough market for 3rd parties to deliver on peripherals. You want tried and true ergo and build quality. One vendor I really liked closed up shop in 05 or 06 - Fingerworks. They were the only (?) manufacturer of a trackpad that measured over 2 inches by 2 inches. It makes a great replacement for the mouse.
Ben, hold an iPod to your ear. That’s the form factor of the iPhone.
So the same as all other candybar phones?
Ergonomics isn’t about how it looks next to your ear. It’s about how it treats the human body in its usage. How does it feel to operate its many functions? Your self-image might perhaps be severely threatened by the idea of holding an iPod-shaped phone to your face, but it’s irrelevant to the ergonomics question, which is how using it affects your hands and arms.
I’m not talking about how it looks, dummy. I’m talking about how it feels in your hand to hold an iPod to your ear. Did you do it yet? How do you like it?
I like as much as I like holding any other candybar phone? Dummy?
Which is to say - a lot? Not at all?
I prefer a flip myself, but even among so-called candy-bar phones, the iPhone is much wider and much flatter and less comfortable in the hand. And that may be okay for some, but the point here is that ergonomic it ain’t.
And I’m certainly not inclined to shell out $5-600 for “it’s just like any other phone.” Isn’t the strength of Apple supposed to be its design?
This reminds me of the hockey puck mouse. Sure it’s nice to look at when it’s on stage with Steve Jobs at a keynote. But once you get it in your hands and try using it, it doesn’t feel so great.
I also prefer a flip phone. However, moving your fingers an inch further apart to hold a slightly wider thing to your face isn’t a problem. I mean, the candybar format is not in itself unergonomical and just as I find it a non-issue to hold an iPod. It is about palm-sized. It has rounded edges. Where is the problem?
I should say the reason I prefer a flip phone isn’t that I find it easier to hold it to my face. I pretty much have no problem holding anything approximately phone-sized to my face. I just prefer it, flip phones feel more like phones. And I like the act of closing it after a call. It’s satisfying and feels sort of definitive in a way that pressing a little button doesn’t. Anyhow, my current phone which I’ve had for 2 years now is a Sony Ericsson K750i, ie candybar form. And no, it has not presented me with ergonomical difficulties. Unlike the hockeypuck, which was of course an abomination.
I’d override my preference for flip for a phone with a decent UI though. That’s where ergonomics counts, in my opinion.
This reminds me of the hockey puck mouse. Sure it’s nice to look at when it’s on stage with Steve Jobs at a keynote. But once you get it in your hands and try using it, it doesn’t feel so great.
Don’t you agree that in order to make this comparison truthfully, you would actually have to “get it in your hands and try using it”?
My attitude to actually getting the iPhone is still in the “we’ll see” stages.
No I don’t think getting my hands on it is necessary unless the product is a LOT smaller or bigger than it looks in photos.
I’m just referring to the form factor, not the UI. Obviously the UI would require trying it out to know how it works and feels.
the candybar format is not in itself unergonomical
No kidding. But size and dimensions within that format do make a difference, yes? And a smaller, narrower form is easier to hold than a fatter, wider form, yes? After all, people screamed and shouted that the Zune was twenty microns thicker than the iPod and therefore it SUCKS!
And you just don’t hold it in your hand like an iPod and carry it around. You have to talk to it and listen to it by hold it to your face.
And that’s not to mention the case that one will inevitably have to get to protect the large surface of this thing, although I’d hope for an Invisi-shield like I have for my iPod.
Now, for the user who is mostly talking and listening via a headset, this is all moot. And it could be that the rich business types who can afford this phone are probably headset users. While the teenagers will just be texting anyway. In those cases, the form isn’t as big a deal.
size and dimensions within that format do make a difference, yes?
Over the past day I have picked up and held to my ear a variety of objects from ipods to cassette tapes to glasses cases, shoes, model cars, a jumbo pencil, two computer mouse and rubber ducks.
Not being handicapped and retaining the use of my opposable thumb, none of these posed any difficulty.
Am I speaking to a fellow primate?
Not being handicapped and retaining the use of my opposable thumb, none of these posed any difficulty.
How dense are you? (that’s a rhetorical question, btw).
So what you’re essentially arguing is that ANY object, no matter how big or small, as long as you can PICK IT UP WITH YOUR OPPOSABLE THUMB, is all a wash in terms of ergonomics and not one thing is ANY better than the other. That the mere suggestion that one object similarly shaped could be MORE ergonomic or easier on the hands is utterly preposterous.
Not only is that a stupid argument to make, it’s dishonest. Even you don’t buy what you’re shoveling. You’re just doing what you do with any Apple product and knee-jerk defending it from an infidel.
That is not in the least what I am saying, which would be perfectly obvious to any not systematically disingenuous primate.
I’m saying the specific issue of holding the bloody thing to your ear, which you keep going on about and calling an “ergonomic issue” simply isn’t one. You can hold anything to your ear.
This criticism that the iPhone is somehow difficult to hold to the side of your face is inane, reactionary and entirely to be expected from a peddler of biased froth such as yourself.
Ergonomics are of course important but there is nothing whatever wrong with something iPhone sized and shaped in the holding-to-the-face department. For any valid commentary about the iPhone’s ergonomics we will have to wait until we have actually used the thing. How is it to use? How is it to navigate? What it is like in the hand?
These are the valid questions I do not pretend to have the answers to. I am demonstrably not the one with the “knee-jerk” position. You are simply knee-jerk criticising it for things that are both trivial and ridiculous.