There are no text labels, but if you’ve ever used a VCR, MP3 player, or relatively recent car stereo, you should be familiar with these symbols. In the middle are the A/V keys for audio-visual controls like Stop (top center), Play/Pause (bottom center), Skip Back to start of track (left), and Skip Forward to end of track (right). On the left side are keys marked Back, Forward, Skip, Refresh, Search, Favorites, and Web/Home. I can see those being useful in some apps, especially browsers. For instance, in addition to Command and Option keys, it has some Mac-only keys in the top row. This is a legitimate Macintosh keyboard, not a Windows ‘board that also has Mac markings. That would make it a contemporary to the Power Mac G5 it came with, although other indicators point to it being a bit older than that.

I don’t know when Adesso first introduced this keyboard, but the Version 2.0 manual is dated 2003. Its full name is Adesso Intellimedia Pro Mac Ergonomic Keyboard – maybe that’s part of the reason it’s so big, to suit such a long name. Here’s the whole keyboard now that it’s clean. I gave the keyboard a good cleaning and took some more photographs. The Adesso keyboard covered here is the opposite, a white keyboard with a light typeface and medium gray (not black or dark gray) markings. Its markings are in crisp white using a medium weight font. Most dark keyboards have anemic markings, one exception being the keyboard included with the Logitech Elite Duo wireless keyboard/mouse combo. The Adesso? 10″ from the front curve to the back edge!īefore we go any further, let me state my preference for a white or light colored keyboard with dark markings over one with dark keys and light markings.

Apple’s aluminum keyboard (on top of the Addesso in this photo) is 4.5″ deep, my Macally iKeySlim, 7″. It’s the depth of this beasty that’s simply excessive. It’s just over 19.5″ wide, while standard extended keyboards are 17-18.5″ wide (based on a representative sampling in my office). And, as you can see in the photo (shot in my car’s trunk), it is wider than the Power Mac G5 is deep. The keyboard had a layer of dust and lots of wear marks from use. Remember when ergonomic keyboards were all the rage in fighting carpal tunnel syndrome and repetitive stress injuries? Remember how incredibly huge most of those keyboards were? Well, I’d forgotten about them until I received this monstrosity with a recently acquired Power Mac G5.

Macbook ergonomic keyboard