Apple Aluminum Wired Keyboard: Space Bar Issues

Question

Depending on your typing style, you may need to change how you type for this keyboard to work properly. For example, many people type quickly and simply press keys on the edge rather than in the middle or top. For this reason, some keyboards have a larger spacebar, for example, so the wrist doesn’t need to turn in for the thumbs to reach the spacebar. Dell offers a keyboard for about $12 that has excellent ergonomic design:
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&sku= 310-8038
The only problem with the Dell keyboard above is that eventually (after about 6 months to a year) the key travel may become a little sticky. On the Apple keyboard, the spacebar does not descend to where the thumbs are naturally positioned, so the thumbs must move up to hit the spacebar squarely in the middle. This usually results on tapping on the bottom of the spacebar. With the new Apple keyboard, tapping on the bottom area of the spacebar produces erratic results. Just now, I pressed the space bar about 20 times on the bottom of the spacebar and that generated about 5 spaces (about 25% functional). So, it will be necessary to press the spacebar squarely in the (vertical) center or toward the top. Horizontally, the spacebar seems to work just fine as long as you are pressing it in the vertical middle or top.
The caps lock key has similar issues as those with the spacebar mentioned above. Perhaps this is because it is a longer key than the other keys. If you are accustom to pressing the caps lock key with your little finger, you may try to engage caps lock by pressing the bottom portion of the caps lock key. This will work about 70% of the time, but not 100% of the time.
I've posted more about this and other related keyboard issues here:
http://web.mac.com/resourcesforlife/journal/writings/Entries/2007/8/21Apple_Aluminum_WiredKeyboard.html

Answer 1

Thanks for the great description of the spacebar problem. I've been trying to figure out a good way to describe it. Here's my take:
As you point out, the front edge of the spacebar sits too far up our thumbs, so it's located too close to the thumbnails, instead of having some portion sitting under our thumb knuckles, so less of our thumb is touching the spacebar along its lower half than would be desirable for a good hit. But this is a problem mostly caused by the short travel of the Aluminum keytops--I held a previous-generation Apple white keyboard up to the Aluminum keyboard, and there's very little difference in spacing of the keytops between the two keyboards--the bottom edge of the spacebar on the Aluminum keyboard sits only a tiny bit higher on my thumbs. What little difference there is, contributes to the spacebar problem, but it's the shorter travel of the Aluminum keytops that causes of most of the trouble for the spacebar. Hitting just the bottom edge of the earlier keyboard's spacebar is compensated for, because the earlier keyswitch design allows the keytops to travel further down than the Aluminum's, and it's this longer travel that allows the older keyboard's spacebar to actuate every time. With the Aluminum, your thumbs get stopped too early by the strip of aluminum below the spacebar, which sits at almost the same height as the top of the spacebar. At least Apple got the spacebar's cantelievering right, so you can hit either end of the spacebar and still register a keypress, even though there's only a single keyswitch in the middle.
Possibly owners could make some modification to the spacebar to reduce this problem--maybe applying some kind of adhesive layer to the top of the spacebar to make it taller, but that would probably wear down too fast. More advanced modifications would include cutting away the strip of aluminum that our thumbs hit, but I doubt too many people would want to do that. Maybe someone could manufacture a taller replacement spacebar, or one that's slightly taller just along its lower edge, so the letter keys just above the spacebar wouldn't get overhung by the spacebar, causing you to hit the top edge of the spacebar when you want to hit one of those keys.
I tried this theory, by cutting out some strips of Post-It notes, about a quarter-inch wide, and five sheets thick, along the whole length of the lower half of the spacebar, and it worked pretty well, but felt a little odd. A properly custom-designed spacebar would probably feel more natural.
I'm still trying to get used to the aluminum's shorter key travel, after typing on regular desktop keyboards for about 27 years. One nice thing about the shorter key travel is that it's quieter, and so it's less distracting to other people in the room--maybe Apple did this so their laptops would make less noise in a classroom or office meeting? It also makes it less likely to wake up someone sleeping in the same room. Also, the shorter key travel has been a lot less stressful on my fingertips--even halfway through the day typing on the previous keyboards, my fingers would sometimes start to hurt a little.