2 questions on wireless keyboards...

[icanhazmac]

All,

Wondering if anyone has suggestions for the following:

1) Your favorite wireless keyboard for straight macbook pro use, regular work, no coding or heavy writing, just normal emails, web etc., must have the number pad

2) Wireless keyboard that can be shared between a macbook pro and a pc that can handle being paired to multiple devices and easily switchable. For the mouse I am using a logi mx master 2s. If I choose to share the keyboard it needs to be light gaming friendly on the PC side and also be backlit.

Thank in advance

 

[theluggage]

All,

Wondering if anyone has suggestions for the following:

1) Your favorite wireless keyboard for straight macbook pro use, regular work, no coding or heavy writing, just normal emails, web etc., must have the number pad

2) Wireless keyboard that can be shared between a macbook pro and a pc that can handle being paired to multiple devices and easily switchable. For the mouse I am using a logi mx master 2s. If I choose to share the keyboard it needs to be light gaming friendly on the PC side and also be backlit.

Thank in advance

I have one of these: https://www.logitech.com/en-gb/product/k375s-multidevice-keyboard?crid=27 (and dealing with PC and Mac layouts). Its instantly switchable between 3 devices with either bluetooth or the Logitech unifying dongle, and copes with both PC and Mac key layouts. Killer feature for you is that it will share Logitech wireless dongles with your mouse (most things have bluetooth these days but give me a spare USB port and I'll take the dongle).

That said I don't use it as my main keyboard and I wouldn't rave about the typing qualities - but keyboard feel is subjective and I'm hooked on my Apple "Wired aluminium keyboard w/number pad" (not the new version). and its not as if it was a £150 keyboard with individually named keys... Logitech do a similar model for about twice the price with love-it-or-hate-it round keys that you may or may not prefer.

The think-out-of-the-box solution is to get Synergy which lets (say) your Mac share its keyboard and mouse with a PC or Linux box - just move the mouse pointer off your Mac screen and it appears on the PC screen, and the keyboard input "follows it" (it can also let you copy and paste between machines).

Here in the UK its a pain because, whereas the Apple "UK" layout is little more than US with the "#" changed to a "£", the standard "PC" UK layout has a number of differences in the placement of keys like '"', '@', '#' and "|" - which drives you insane if you want to do programming or use Linux where those characters are disproportionately important (many main Linux distributions just plain don't work with a UK Apple keyboard without major hackery) the Logitech I mentioned does have dual markings and a mode switch to combat that, which makes it virtually unique.

Personally, I've stuck with my Apple alu keyboard (and have a spare for when that wears out - I don't like the feel of the new wireless version) and either use separate keyboards or Synergy to operate other machines.

 

[Ulenspiegel]

I've been using two wireless keyboards (Microsoft Wedge Mobile Keyboard, Apple Wireless Keyboard) for the past few years. Both work flawlessly, but none of them are backlit.

 

[S. Richard]

Any experience with Logitechs “Flow” software? Is it save and stable? Mojave issues? Thanks in advance

 

[icanhazmac]

Unfortunately the logitech offerings seem limited to:

https://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/k780-multi-device-wireless-keyboard?crid=27 which seems a little light use and toy like for switching to ios devices versus serious desktop swapping use

And the:

https://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/craft which seems a better build but at $200 US it ain't cheap. It is backlit though which is nice. The ~25% 1 star reviews on amazon aren't encouraging, logitech really seems to be screwing up their software lately. Best Buy stocks them so off to the store to get a feel I guess.

 

[tm1050]

All,

Wondering if anyone has suggestions for the following:

1) Your favorite wireless keyboard for straight macbook pro use, regular work, no coding or heavy writing, just normal emails, web etc., must have the number pad

2) Wireless keyboard that can be shared between a macbook pro and a pc that can handle being paired to multiple devices and easily switchable. For the mouse I am using a logi mx master 2s. If I choose to share the keyboard it needs to be light gaming friendly on the PC side and also be backlit.

Thank in advance

I highly recommend the Logitech k811 wireless keyboard
https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Easy‑Switch-Wireless-Bluetooth-Keyboard/dp/B0099SMFP2

I have been using this for 1+ years with my 13-inch 2015 Macbook Pro & iPad Air 2 tablet and it has worked flawlessly. It can also be paired with an iPhone or an Apple TV. I am a big guy (6'-3"/ wear XL gloves) and have no problems using this keyboard. It is the best backlite keyboard I have ever used. Also recommend pairing it with the Logitech Ultrathin Touch Mouse T630 (Windows version). Download the Mac drivers from the Logitech website and the mouse works perfectly with your Apple products.

 

[smirking]

Wireless keyboard that can be shared between a macbook pro and a pc

There really aren't any keyboards that only work on a Mac or only work on a PC. There may be some that have special firmware in it that allows it to do some special macros on a PC, but other than that all typical keyboard functions are universal. The only appreciable difference between most Mac vs PC keyboards is a few of the keys are labeled differently (Apple CMD key instead of the Alt and Windows keys).

 

[HrSteve]

Off the topic. Any logitech k375s owner know where the battery indicator led is ? Its on the website description but i cant find it on my device . Sorry

 

[KaliYoni]

The only appreciable difference between most Mac vs PC keyboards is a few of the keys are labeled differently

And a Mac number pad has a "=" key in the top row (key order: clear = / *).

 

[Toutou]

1) I like the Magic Keyboard. It has exactly the same layout and a very similar feel to the MacBook, which helps muscle memory. There's a numpad version available, but it's even more expensive than the short one.

 

[Dozer_Zaibatsu]

FWiW, I always just prefer PC layout keyboards. Plugging it into the Mac, I just change the System Preferences Keyboard Input for that particular keyboard.
⌥ option becomes ⌘ cmd
⌘ cmd becomes ⌥ option

And now the PC keyboard matches my muscle memory for MacOS. As long as it has an fn key, I should have my fn and media keys as usual.