• User Manual For Ihome Wireless Full Size Mac Keyboard Windows 7
• User Manual For Ihome Wireless Full Size Mac Keyboard Screen

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Keyboards are important — so important that many people won’t “work” on their iPads without real keys to type on. No one complained when desktop mice gave way to laptop trackpads, or when trackpads evolved into tablet touchscreens, but the switch from physical to virtual keyboards has been met with plenty of resistance… specifically because virtual keyboards offer no resistance. There’s something about the responsive, up and down movement of actual keys, known as “travel,” that people clearly prefer over tapping on completely flat glass.

I’ve tested a lot of keyboards, and since I rely upon them professionally every day, I have some strong opinions as to the best options for different types of Mac and iPad users. You might be surprised by my advice, as it bucks a couple of Apple’s trends (“smaller!” “thinner!”), but if you’re like me, you’ll be a much happier typist if you “think different” on this topic than the folks in Cupertino…

Are You Better Off With A Wired Or Wireless Keyboard?

Over the past five years, wireless keyboards have become the default choice for both Mac and iPad users. Apple’s 2010-vintage iPad Keyboard Dock never took off, while third-party iPad Bluetooth keyboards flourished. On the Mac side, Apple made its $69 Bluetooth-based Apple Wireless Keyboard the standard pack-in for iMacs in late 2009, bringing its desktop computers and MacBook laptops into harmony with nearly identical designs. As you can see above, the Wireless and MacBook keyboards are so similar (except for key color) that you can move from one to the other without any effort. Whether you’re using an iPad or a Mac, the Apple Wireless Keyboard is a great keyboard. But it does have one major issue, which is particularly annoying if you’re using it all day long with your work computer.

That’s battery life. The current version of the Wireless Keyboard requires two AA batteries, down from three in the original model. But even if you’re using the official Apple Battery Charger with Apple-branded rechargeable batteries, you can expect to see the “Keyboard Batteries Low” warning pop up on your screen often, becoming even more frequent as the batteries age. No third-party solution (including Mobee’s well-intentioned Magic Bar and Battery Pack) truly fixes this problem; the best workaround I’ve found is Mobee’s Power Bar (shown below), which lets you permanently connect a micro-USB cable to the Wireless Keyboard for power. It’s not ideal, but it worked for me for a while.

My first piece of advice is to seriously consider how you plan to use your Mac’s or iPad’s keyboard. If it’s going to be sitting on the same desk all the time, and used with the same Apple device — particularly a Mac — you may well be better off with a wired keyboard that doesn’t require batteries and doesn’t compromise your typing comfort in any way. But if you plan to move your keyboard around a lot, or really hate having a wire connected to your Mac or iPad, a portable wireless keyboard will probably be a better option for you. Both types of keyboards are discussed below.

Wired Mac Keyboards

The Mac keyboard I personally use is something different: Apple’s Wired Keyboard with Numeric Keypad(above), which can currently be had for around $49. Made from a solid piece of aluminum with plastic keys, it’s obviously wider than the Wireless Keyboard, but not as deep, and uses USB 2.0 rather than Bluetooth to connect to your Mac. The main keys are in the same places as the Wireless Keyboard’s, but the wired version gives the arrow keys more breathing room while adding dedicated page up, page down, and other buttons, most notably a full numeric keypad. While I personally don’t use the extra keys all that often, the keypad is handy during tax season and for using the Mac’s Calculator app.

The Wired Keyboard with Numeric Keypad is the only USB keyboard Apple currently makes. In 2009, it briefly introduced a version without the numeric keypad that was alternately called the Apple Keyboard or the Wired Compact Keyboard (shown above). But it was oddly discontinued very quickly, disappearing from Apple’s lineup in late 2010, and is now only available online at a fairly steep premium.

Apple’s Wired Keyboards hide a useful feature underneath their keys: twin USB ports. There’s one on each side, and they can be used to connect certain USB accessories as needed. Unfortunately, the ports don’t work properly with iPhones or iPads, which really should be plugged directly into your Mac for charging. It’s been years since I’ve relied upon keyboard-mounted USB ports for anything, but Apple’s wired keyboards have included them for wired mice, flash drives, and other low-power peripherals.

This is how Apple previously implemented USB ports in its 2003-vintage (and long-discontinued) Apple Keyboard, which weighed around 2 pounds on its own. The company hasn’t sold a typing surface anywhere near as large or as heavy as this in many years, and is currently testing an even thinner keyboard with noticeably less key travel in the 12″ Retina MacBook. Notice how tall the old keys used to be compared with the current ones. They used to be noisier and extremely tactile, responding with audible “plunk” sounds as you pressed them.

There are options for users who still prefer big keybards with the deep, clicky keys of yesteryear. Seriously hard-core typists rave about Das Keyboards for Macs, which use keys designed to survive 50 million key strokes. The Das Keyboard Professional Model S ($123-$137) includes German-engineered mechanical key switches in your choice of colors (yes, seriously), with laser key etching so the letters resist fading, and a two-port USB 2.0 hub is built in. An even-more premium version called Das Keyboard 4 Professional ($170-$173) also uses the fancy mechanical key switches, upping the ante with a two-port USB 3.0 hub, a large volume knob, and dedicated media control buttons. “Clicky” and “soft tactile” typing experiences are options.

Add-On Numeric Keypads

If you want a part-time numeric keyboard, Newer Technology now sells a $55 Bluetooth Aluminum Keypad (left) that perfectly matches the look of Apple’s Wireless Keyboard in white, with a black version (center) that matches MacBook keyboards instead. Alternately, Satechi has an Aluminum Finish USB Numeric Keypad for $20 (right) if you want a wired solution that is a pretty close but not quite perfect match for Apple’s keyboards, at a lower price.

Wireless Keyboards for Mac and iPad

Although the aforementioned Apple Wireless Keyboard is the easiest Bluetooth option to recommend to Mac and iPad users, it’s not the best. That honor belongs to Logitech’s Bluetooth Easy-Switch Keyboard K811, which addresses every one of the Apple keyboard’s issues. Battery drain isn’t a problem, because it has a rechargeable battery inside, and can be refueled while you type using an included micro-USB cable. The keys are backlit like the ones in MacBook laptops, so you can see them in the dark. They’re also extremely comfortable to type on, despite the fact that K811 is thinner and easier to pack up for portable use than the Apple Wireless Keyboard.

The killer feature can be seen above on the F1/F2/F3 keys. K811 can be paired with three separate devices, such as your Mac, iPad, and Apple TV, with buttons that let you switch between them in one or two seconds. This feature works incredibly well, and the keyboard’s function keys have features that are useful across multiple Apple devices. While K811 isn’t cheap — it has a $100 MSRP — its aluminum top makes it feel like an Apple product, and its great collection of features makes it worth serious consideration for Mac and iPad users alike.

Contrast the K811 against the iPad mini-specific and iPad Air-specific keyboards shown to the left in this picture; you can get a sense of how cramped wireless keyboards become when developers narrow them to match the width of Apple’s tablets. I have never tested an iPad mini-sized keyboard that feels good enough to recommend over an Apple Wireless Keyboard, so my recommendation for mini users is simple: get a separate wireless keyboard such as one of the options mentioned above. Similarly, only the very best of the iPad Air-sized keyboards are just wide enough to provide a typing experience on par with Apple’s keyboards. Anker’s Bluetooth Folio Keyboard Case for iPad Air 2 (shown at left above, reviewed here) is a great budget-priced option for only $40, primarily because it is actually a little wider than the iPad it holds, and doesn’t cramp its keyboard to achieve unnecessary thinness.

There are many other options for iPads, such as the boxy jet black keyboard above, which is found inside the $50 Kensington KeyFolio Pro for iPad Air. But the compromise is almost always the same: finger comfort — sometimes also missing keys — in order to achieve a smaller size. A conspicuous recent lull in new third-party keyboards for iPads suggests that Apple and third-party developers are working on something new for release later this year. For now, the safest iPad model-agnostic alternative is to pair a ZeroChroma stand-equipped case with either Apple’s or Logitech’s keyboard, giving you the benefit of an excellent keyboard whenever you need it, and a thin, well-protected iPad the rest of the time.

Wired Keyboards for iPad

The most obscure of all keyboards is the iPad wired keyboard, a near-mythological beast that shuns Bluetooth and USB in favor of Apple’s proprietary Lightning connector. Apple gave up on making wired keyboards for the iPad after releasing the iPad Keyboard Dock (above) in 2010. It wasn’t popular, perhaps because the rigid plastic dock in the back made it awkward to carry around; subsequent wired keyboards haven’t attempted to include integrated docks.

Today, Belkin sells a sub-$60 option (above) called the Secure Wired Keyboard with Lightning Connector for iPad, which is very similar in price and features to not particularly popular Lightning keyboards from Logitech and Macally. All of these keyboards are plasticky, not particularly compact, and no bargain compared with even well-made wireless alternatives. But if you can’t use Bluetooth for some reason, need a keyboard that doesn’t transmit whatever you’re typing wirelessly, and don’t want to worry about swapping or recharging keyboard batteries, these are options. I’ve never actually seen anyone else using one of them, but having tested a bunch, I can confirm that they do exist and work as expected.

Even More Great Options

Read more of my How-To guides and reviews for 9to5Mac here (and don’t forget to click on Older Posts at the bottom of the page to see everything)!

iHome iDM5 Wireless Keyboard
Manufacturer: iHome
Model: iDM5 Wireless Keyboard
MSRP: $149.95

iHome iDM5 Wireless Keyboard

Well, I really stuck my foot in it this time. I got this really interesting keyboard from the fine folks at iHome to review. I saw from the included documentation and the notes on the outside that it was a Bluetooth keyboard (among other real neat things — more later). It was there that I put on my assumption (dunce) cap. I just assumed that if it was a Bluetooth keyboard, it was most likely battery operated. I even showed it at a local Mac user group meeting after “charging” it overnight. I threw it in my bag and brought it to the meeting. I set it up on the table and it didn’t work! I had to plug the external “wall wart” into the AC power socket to fire it up. I thought, gee, it was a dud and I should contact iHome to see about a replacement, which I did later that afternoon. Imagine my surprise when I got a quick reply from the marketing rep at iHome that it WASN’T a cordless keyboard! It had Bluetooth capability, but most likely because of the power required by the amplifier for its speakers (more later), it really wasn’t practical to put a large battery in the thing. It would have priced the keyboard totally out of the market, and would have made a substantial keyboard downright heavy. Boy, was my face red!

But this isn’t about my stupidity and embarrassment! I could fill volumes about that! No, it’s about a really neat Bluetooth keyboard with USB ports (for charging USB-chargeable devices), an audio amplifier and decent quality speakers, and Bluetooth connectivity of not only the audio functions (you can play music from a Bluetooth-equipped iDevice through the keyboard’s speakers), you can use it as a speakerphone, AND you can use it as a Bluetooth keyboard to enhance your typing (and maybe even your dancing and dining) pleasure with the aforementioned Bluetooth-equipped iDevices. In fact, due to what some might call a design quirk (more later), it’s really not suitable for desktop computer use.

Executive Space-Saver Station

iHome calls this an Executive Space-Saver Station. With more and more executives tossing aside their desktop and laptop computers for the convenient and stylish form factor of a tablet device, the classy industrial design of the iHomeiDM5 Wireless Keyboard would look great on executive row, and would make a tablet device far more practical for everyday use.

The Keyboard

It’s a chiclet-style keyboard, much like what you’ve been used to on MacBooks and MacBook Pros (as well as the current Apple wireless keyboards). The action is satisfactory, the feel and response are good, and other than missing a numeric keypad, it’s a really nice keyboard. A smoked plastic lid covers the keys when not in use. When the lid is open, it’s perfect for supporting your iPad, or other wireless devices. There are special details molded into the plastic that hold your tablet/iDevice in place.

The Amplified Speakers

For smallish speakers, they do a remarkable job with acceptable bass response, thanks to the SRS TruBass® technology, and they deliver clean highs, too. They are also capable of playing quite loudly, yet cleanly. There is a switch on the front panel to select between the analog audio input (non-Bluetooth devices like the iPod Classic, for example), which requires a 3.5 mm subminiature stereo patch cord (not provided), or Bluetooth audio. Most iDevices and their competitors, including most smartphones, can use their Bluetooth functionality to transmit music to a Bluetooth receiver, permitting audio playback on an external device. You can either go to your iDevice and locate a tune, or when you hit the Play button, as long as your iDevice is properly connected to the external Bluetooth device, the music seamlessly plays from that external device. If you hit the Play button on the keyboard, it normally plays the first song (organized alphabetically) stored in your device.

The USB Ports

There are two USB ports on the keyboard, though they are not used for the usual USB things. Instead, they are used for a single purpose: charging devices that can be charged through their USB port, such as iDevices, other smartphones, other audio players, and so on. One of the ports is also configured, through a switch, for firmware upgrades.

Bluetooth Features

There are several Bluetooth features, starting with:

1. Audio playback from other Bluetooth-equipped devices (play your music through your iHome wireless keyboard.
2. With the answer/end buttons and an integrated microphone, you can use your keyboard as a hands-free speakerphone.

Bluetooth pairing was a breeze. There’s a button on the function key row that, when paired with an iDevice, lets you enter text using the iHomeiDM5 Wireless Keyboard.

Good, But Not Perfect (But What Is?)

User Manual For Ihome Wireless Full Size Mac Keyboard Windows 7

These are all the pluses. As with all devices, there are a few minuses, too.

1. First, the cord on the “wall wart” power supply is too short. If your keyboard has to be tethered to an AC outlet, a longer cord would go a long way toward being able to conceal it.
2. I know the USB ports are supposed to only be for charging other devices, but it sure would be nice if you could plug a mouse into one of them, freeing up the USB ports on your desktop Mac for other things (for those Luddites among us who still use corded rodents).
3. This is only a very minor quibble, but when the keyboard tray is opened, it opens to a fixed angle. Hopefully that angle is acceptable for viewing your iDevice’s screen while you’re typing.
4. This is perhaps the only deal-breaker of the bunch, but when the keyboard cover is open, its hinged lid may interfere with your monitor, as it sits fairly high (maybe 6-8 inches). There are three small screws in the hinge area, which you could remove, allowing you to detach the cover from the keyboard. Of course, this might do bad things to an otherwise surprisingly good one-year warranty, and probably won’t look very good. Maybe you could elevate your monitor a few inches? But this was supposed to be a keyboard for your iDevices, right?

A Nice Experience

In regular use, the iHome iDM5 Wireless Keyboard was a valued companion in my computer room. The speakers were really nice, and didn’t take up any additional space. Once initial Bluetooth pairing was accomplished, no additional problems were noted. When I powered up my desktop Mac, I pressed the power button on the right side of the keyboard to bring it up. That space, by the way, is shared with the Bluetooth pairing button, and the hands-free speakerphone controls. The same goes for my iPhone 4. Setup was a piece of cake. The rest just worked.

The enclosed documentation was short and sweet, though I did find it odd that the quick start guide for the Bluetooth functions was much more detailed than the similar descriptions in the main product manual. It’s usually the other way around. I’m a technical writer by profession, and notice these things.

Summary

This could be a great addition to your home computing environment, especially if your intent is to dedicate this keyboard for use with your iPad or similar tablet, or even an iPhone, smartphone, or an iPod Touch. As a keyboard for your main desktop computer, consider the height of the keyboard cover before you plop down your $149.95. If you can live with these limitations, you may just fall in love with this Swiss Army Knife of wireless keyboards.

User Manual For Ihome Wireless Full Size Mac Keyboard Screen

I’ve had iHome products in my home for years. I bought one of their first iPod/clock radio combos a long time ago. It was one of the better-sounding clock radios on the market at the time. It’s still working great, though it does lose about a minute a week (and has from day one). iHome has found that sweet spot of interesting upscale (not cheap) and well-designed iDevice accessories, and based on their extensive product portfolio, they’ve done pretty well.

Rating

I give the iHome iDM5 Wireless Keyboard a conditional MyMac.com rating of 8 out of 10, the condition being that this keyboard must only be used with portable wireless devices and not a conventional desktop computer with monitor. Used with a desktop computer and monitor, I would rate it much, much lower.

MyMac Review Rating: 8 out of 10