[kelesh]

I personally hate the keyboard on my 15" 1Ghz TiBook. I think the aluminum keyboards are 1000 times better. Since the keyboard is removable, somebody should market and sell a snazzy replacement keyboard. Perhaps aluminum colored, white, etc, or somebody could just sell replacement keys.


Does anybody do this?

Aren't all the keys removable? If I had an AlBook could I take those keys off and put them on my tibook? Has anybody tried this? I'd be willing to pay like $50 to get nice aluminum keys... They couldn't look worse then this black clear plastic crud.

What do you guys think?

[dgbatchelor]

kelesh --

I doubt if you can swap keys. After using both TiBook and AlBook, I must admit that the AlBook keys are indeed much better.

Not only would you get better keyboard, but you would extend the life of your TiBook...

Before I had the AlBook, I used the TiBook daily as my main computer -- sometimes 8+ hours per day of keyboard use. It worked, but now with the AlBook, it would be difficult to go back to the TiBook.

Have you considered an external keyboard? (That way you wouldn't alway be using the TiBook keyboard all the time?)

Something to think about.

[kelesh]

the keys look the same size to me. the laptops are practically the identical size and they have the same size keyboard it seems (slightly different layout on the top). Both kekboards have removable keys.

Do you have both an AlBook and a TiBook? Can you take a key off of the albook and see if it fits on the tibook?

[threestain]

But I love the TiBook keys, even compared to the Albooks ones. If you don't like them, ship them to me and I'll cover my room in them!

[kelesh]

PBparts.com offers the same keyboard scissors for both types of powerbooks and ibooks as well. this means the keys should fit on. the only possible problem i see is if they're higher than the tibook keys, and therefore they would hit the screen(though I never close my powerbook all the way because I HATE sleep mode).

does anybody with photoshop skillz wanna post a pic of what a tibook would look like with albook keys or with white ibook keys? i think both have the potential to be cool.

[kelesh]

In an email from PBParts.com:

Aluminum keyboards are not compatible with the Titanium models. The
cables are in a different location, the connectors are different, the wiring
is different and the keyboards are different in size.

The keycaps from the Dual USB iBook Keyboards and the Aluminum Keyboards
will fit, but the Dual USB iBook is a better match. The Aluminum has an
eject only keycap and a different torsion bar on the space bar keycap.

The Aluminum Keycaps sit slightly higher than the Dual USB Keycaps.

PBParts

[kelesh]

so which feels better: an ibook's keys or an aluminum powerbook's keys?

i want something that's solid. I think either might look okay with the powerbook, though the white would probably look better, since its probable that the aluminum painted keys would look a little different than the color of the TiBook.

Could an apt photoshop'er please post images of what the tibook would look like with the ibook keyboard and with the albook keyboard?