I picked up an Apple Bluetooth keyboard tonight to try out with the TR’s internal Bluetooth. I learned a lot of interesting things.
The Good News: It works.
First of all, you have to authenticate it to get it to work. This isn’t that straightforward since there’s no apparent way to do it. Basically, you have to turn on the keyboard and immediately do a search for the device. You can use BSNE or built-in Windows Wireless Link control panel applet (which I used). You need to tell Windows to authenticate the keyboard. When it asks for the passkey, type in something short (like 4 digits). Now, type in those same digits on the Bluetooth keyboard and hit enter. You’ll have to do this blind. Upon hitting enter, the keyboard will be authenticated and start working.
The Bad News: No fix for non-working keys.
Unfortunately, TrinityWorks’ excellent Apple Keyboard Driver doesn’t work with the Bluetooth keyboard. So, that means no volume control keys, no pause/break, no scroll lock, no printscreen, and no eject CD keys. Other than that, the keyboard does work but not to its full potential. TrinityWorks is working on getting their driver to work with the Bluetooth keyboard but it’s going to take some time and more investigation.
So, if you’re thinking about this keyboard you should know that there are some limitations. Overall, it’s fairly nice keyboard with a slight redesign over the Pro Keyboard. It some ways, it’s a lot easier to clean because it no longer has the plastic covering on the top of the keyboard. You’ll need a palm rest as it doesn’t come with one. It’s powered by 4 AA batteries and Apple is nice enough to throw in 4 Titantium e2 Energizer batteries. It does also have an on/off switch on the bottom which can help save the batteries.
I’ll probably return it since I can’t use it how I want to use it. At least I now know that it does work for the most part.
