Das Keyboard comes to Mac
updated 03:50 pm EST, Tue January 17, 2012
Input device offers retro mechanical "click" sound
German peripherals maker Das Keyboard has launched an Mac-specific mechanical keyboard. The Model S Professional for Mac incorporates mechanical key switches which produce a distinctive clicking sound when a key is successfully struck to give the feedback absent from the scissor-motion keys on notebooks and some desktop keyboards. The company claims that the retro noise emulates the keystroke sounds of a classic IBM Model M keyboard.
The new Model S Professional for Mac is a variant of the Model S the company introduced in 2009. As with that input device, the Das Keyboard for Mac offers a built-in 2-port USB hub. To use the hub, a connection to a second USB port on a computer is required.
With the original Model S, Mac users could swap the command/control/options keys to match a Mac OS X keyboard control layout. This Mac specific model offers set Option and Command keys. It also provides a sleep function key as well as media keys for volume control, mute, stop, pause, next and previous track and as well as brightness controls and eject.
The Model S Professional For Mac is priced at $133. Das Keyboard is offering it at a pre-release price of $113. The keyboard will begin shipping April 16.
Professional Poster
Joined: Sep 1999
A second USB port?
Seriously - they couldn't integrate the keyboard and hub into one?
Other than that, it's nice to see mechanical keyboards getting recognition these days. They're much nicer to type on than the scissor-switch variety.