Macenstein

Posted by iGor

While information surrounding Apple’s WWDC product announcements has been pretty hard to come by, Macenstein was able to obtain an exclusive bit of information on at least ONE new piece of hardware coming out of Cupertino. According to one source, Apple plans to release a new version of its wireless keyboard with 98 function keys. These keys will each be assigned to a specific new feature of Leopard. For instance, pressing “F67� will open a new Tab in the Finder, while hitting “F30� will switch between multiple desktops.

In order to keep the form factor small, Apple made the tough choice of removing all other alphanumeric keys to accommodate the new Function Keys, F17-F98. Making the cut, however, are the existing volume, eject, and modifier keys. These last keys are especially important, as Leopard has so many new features, you will often find the need to hold down “Shift+Option+Command� to access some of the more powerful features, such as inserting a roller-coaster background in a video chat (Shift+Option+Command+F81).

For those of you worried that you will no longer be able to write an e-mail using the new Apple Keyboard, fear not. Simply hold down Command+Control+Function Key to get a letter. For example, typing Command+Control+F39 will give you an “a�, while Command+Control+Shift+F39 will give you an “A�. But you probably won’t even need these, as Apple has a whole new line of Alpha-Widgets you can assign to the various function keys that will generate text characters for you.