Apple keyboard USB extension lead

I bought a new Apple keyboard (one of the aluminium ones with the chiclet keys) - it's fantastic; however one problem is the recessed USB ports - fine for anything with a cable but not so good for USB flash drives as they are too "fat".
The keyboard came with what looks like a USB extension lead (so did my last Apple keyboard) but it has a strange "lug" in the female end, meaning that I can't insert any other USB devices.
Does anybody know what this is for/why it's not a standard USB connection?

The 'lug' in the USB extension cable Apple supply with keyboards is to ensure that it is only usable with Apple keyboards, since they are also 'notched' in the USB plug to fit. Quite why Apple use this non-standard connector is not at all clear. The female notch in the keyboard's USB connector means it will fit any standard USB socket, but the male lug in the extension cable means it will only accept an Apple keyboard. To me, it seems unreasonably restrictive engineering, though Apple have been doing this for years.

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well, im an idiot. disregard almost everything i just said.
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I have done that. I also have tried plugging it in to a PCI USB 2.0 4-port card that according to system profiler should have 500mA available. I also have plugged it into a 7-port USB powered hub, again with 500mA/port available, with the same result, a "low power" message. It's definitely a software issue with MacOS since the keyboard works fine plugged into the kvm switch with the kvm switch getting its power from a usb port on the back of the HP computer. What I think is happening is that the embedded sofware in the kvm and the keyboard are being read by MacOS and since the kvm says it can only deliver 100mA and the hub in the keyboard says it can deliver 500mA, and the keyboard says it requires 250mA, MacOS won't let it operate. My workaround is simple, plug the keyboard directly into the built in USB port on the G4 when I'm using the Mac, but it sure would be nice to just toggle the computers using the kvm switch only.

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I found a fix to a problem synching to my itunes Library on my early 2008 MAC PRO. The Apple supplied USB extension cable for the keyboard was defective.
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I think you may be onto something there. I'm just a few weeks into my second Mac Pro and again it's having the same USB problems which led Apple to give me a replacement machine previously. I went through several weeks of considerable testing with Apple Engineers prior to that - an Apple Care application to collect data from my machine, Apple Developer USB prober and two clean installs. The latest machine initially showed no sign of the problem then it started again - 2 iPods "can not be read or written to" part way through sync, Aperture quitting importing from USB SD card reader, USB drives dismounting etc. So I pulled out the Aluminium keyboard and, lo and behold, the iPods managed to get all the way through synching without errors. I really like the alu keyboard so it's a huge shame that it might be the cause of all my problems so far - and the Mac Pro is otherwise a beautiful computer.
But is this really a hardware problem of the internal USB cards and power management or supply?

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Computer boots normally and upon complete boot the number 5 presses automatically without me pressing any keys. its stops only when I press any key on the key board.
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I did more research and as it turns out I have been Microsofted by Apple. Yes the reason I hated Microsoft has happened to me by apple. My Keyboard problems happened with the newest update of 10.6.8 and update of firmware 1.1
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Hello,
I use an Apple Keyboard (USB-connection, aluminium, Model No.: A1243, 2007) for typing longer texts when my MacBook is connected to an external monitor.
Since I have re-installed the OS X software on my MacBook because I had to replace the hard drive, the Keyboard doesn't work successful. Some keys just don't work; The letters cannot be typed. (Affected keys: "8", "I", "K", "," and number pad keys "7", "4", "1")
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Message was edited by: fritzmartini

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A normal USB extension cable will work. Look for one with thick wires. Apple was concerned about their keyboard extension cable overheating if used with high power USB devices, so they use a special connector that will only work with Apple keyboards.

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I Have an apple wired keyboard which suddenly won't work unless I use the apple ext cable supplied with the keyboard...used with the wire fixed into the keyboard it just won't respond. Do u think the keyboard is faulty. ? I want to use it with my MacBook Air and a big screen.

My best guess is that either there's a small deformation of the USB plug of your keyboard or some foreign matter (like lint) inside the keyboard plug. When I was setting up my new lab last year I had to use the extension cables and I found that the female end of the extension cable was considerably tighter than the computer's USB port. If an Apple store is nearby it would be worth taking the computer, keyboard, and extension just for piece of mind.

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I posted this question over at Developer Discussions also, just to get more eyes on it, not to be disruptive.
So, I would like to utilize a maximum-length Admin. password (255 characters?) without having to manually type it in each time I login, install/update software, or for any other reason. The perfect situation would be some type of script or software installation onto a USB pen drive (2 gig sony)which is inserted into the macbook (via usb) when the Leopard Login screen appears. It logs me in, then, afterwards, it creates a clickable icon on the desktop that achieves the same goal (entering a long admin password securely). And all of the above is achieved using the built-in security of Keychain access, without having to continuously mount and unmount the drive.
Searching google produces many expensive products that do not fit: Securikey, omnikey, smart cards, tokends, and on and on. They seem to have figured this out at microsoft - not that it matters much, except that it appears to be possible.
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I don't know how to write daemons yet, but I can stumble around a bit with bash and applescripts, and I can copy any Xcode project out of a book and make it run properly. I'm a beginner.
This project might create security issues for my operating system, but I'm really not concerned about that because this is a computer I don't rely on and can safely perform experiments on. And I would like to use this as an opportunity to learn - so I'm going to give it a whirl anyway - unless someone has already accomplished something similar. In that case, why reinvent the wheel and plug it into the wall, eh?
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You don't need to get deep into programming to do much of this.
launchd, the background process that's responsible for launching most of the background processes on your machine, has the ability to launch a script based on disk mount events.
StartOnMount <boolean>
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Easy, no need to be harsh. I might not be a Level 9  Discussions user, but I’ve been an Apple Technician for more than a decade now. So believe me, I know what I’m talking about. Be it OS X Server or emptying the Trash. But even I come here from time to time to learn from others. Well, back to topic and being a little more specific:
The 'My Info' setting always belongs to the first iCloud account you add to an iOS device. In this account you create at least 1 contact, the one you will be using for 'My Info'. You then do the same on your other iOS device using NOT the same iCloud account, of course. You only need to enable contacts syncing in iCloud preferences for these primary accounts. From here on you can use differing 'My Info' on your 2 iOS devices without a problem.
But you may know that you can use more than one iCloud account at a time. Only the primary one will offer all iCloud options like Photostream. But what they all offer is contacts, calendars, etc. So if you intend (and I did) to share these 2 between your devices you can add them using a second iCloud account to both of your iOS devices. This makes it 3 accounts all in all. You could even go further and add another one just for 'Find my iPhone' if you like.
I would’ve used the built-in sharing of Calendar.app instead, but Contacts.app does not (yet) offer sharing contacts with others. That’s why I went with the third iCloud account as a secondary account to both iOS devices.
Apple of course recommends using just one Apple ID for everything to make it easier. But in some scenarios this just won’t cut it, which is even described in one of their support documents.
I hope that now you have an idea what I’ve done…
Good night
Björn
PS: It would be nice if people did not insist on being right. They too can sometimes learn something!

USB 3 hard drive undetected (anywhere) only works if plugged into USB port on apple Keyboard

I have the 2013 Mac Pro: OSX 10.10.2, 512GB SSD, Quad Xeon, Dual D500's.
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Until last week the hard drive worked fine under OSX, however since then it is completely undetected if plugged into and of the 4 USB ports on the Mac Pro
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Apple keyboard USB extension lead

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