Microsoft Natural Multimedia Keyboard (K50-00008)

Manufacturer:	Microsoft Input
List price:	~~$49.99~~
Our price:	that is 100% off!

Microsoft Natural Multimedia Keyboard (K50-00008)

Average rating: Stars

pros and cons

pros:
1. has some useful direct keys to start frequently used programs. I wish those keys were programmable, though.
2. I love the volume control on the key board
3. the sleep key is very useful, and I'm glad there's NO power off key so I don't have to worry that I might turn off the computer by accident.

cons:
1. weird "home, end, pageup, pagedown, delete" keys layout. need some time to get used to it, and then you need more time to get used to switching between this one and other keyboards in other places you work
2. key "6" is located for left hand, not right hand.
3. have to press F-lock to activate function keys. for programmers function keys are more useful than those email keys.

overall, it's a good one for general document processing, but not for programming.

Microsoft Natural Multimedia Keyboard (K50-00008) - Microsoft Input

What he said ... PS/2 ONLY; don't even try with USB notebook

I wish I'd read the review below re: "PS/2 ONLY" before I ordered this keyboard, but unfortunately he hadn't posted it yet. :-)

I tried to use this with a Toshiba notebook that only has USB ports, using a PS/2 to USB adapter. No dice. I've tried various troubleshooting tactics, and still it won't work, giving me "USB Device Not Recognized" and "Unknown USB Device" messages. Internet and USENET message boards indicate that other people are having similar problems, but I haven't seen any solutions posted to them.

So I think I need to order a USB keyboard instead. I'm sure this keyboard is probably fine for PS/2 computers -- if anyone wants an unused one, I've got one for sale cheap.

UPDATE: I tried using it with a Targus USB Port Replicator with a PS/2 port (Targus model PA075), but without success. I was able to get the computer to recognize the keyboard, but shortly after beginning to use it, it would start acting up -- somehow it was sending a repeating key signal, which would lock up my applications until I unplugged the keyboard from the port replicator and restarted the laptop after a hard shutdown. So now I seem to have a barely-used keyboard AND a barely-used port replicator for sale cheap.

Microsoft Input - Microsoft Natural Multimedia Keyboard (K50-00008)

Works on Fedora

I ordered this keyboard because I wanted an ergonomic style with a split keyboard. I had been looking for a while, and found that this one (...) so I ordered one for home and had work order me another. I'm running Fedora Core 2 at home, so I had expected to have problems with a Microsoft keyboard. I plugged it in, and the keyboard worked great! The task buttons at the top don't work, but I wasn't interested in those, anyway. All of the keys that you normally see on a keyboard work as expected. The one at work works fine too, but I have that on a Win 2000 machine, so that is to be expected.

I, too must voice a complaint about the F Lock key. You have to toggle it to use the function keys or the task keys, and also to use the insert or print screen button. Since the task keys don't work (until I get my hands on a good key map program), the F Lock key has to be pressed in order to use the function keys. The F Lock defaults to off, so it has to be turned on each time the computer boots up in order to use the function keys. I plan on mapping the task keys to their respective function. (Yes, I have multiple boot ups, I'm using a laptop!) It's really no more inconvenient than using the number lock button, but that can be set in the BIOS.

I'm also slightly irritated by the 6 being on the left. It's really not that big of a deal, but I don't understand why they couldn't have made it big enough to go across so that it could be accessed by either hand.

The block of keys that holds the home, end, delete, insert, and page up and down buttons has been re-designed on this keyboard. After using it for a week, I have found that I actually prefer this new design. (That's right, I like something Microsoft did.) The insert key is well out of the way so you don't accidentally press it when going for the delete key, which has been made huge. The home and end buttons are on a horizontal plane, which makes sense since that's how they work in most text/word processing programs; the page up is above the page down, which also makes sense.

All in all, not a bad keyboard. A few slight irritations, (...) I feel like I got a great deal.

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