I was wondering if anyone knew when the new mouse & keyboard start shipping as stand-alone items? Will they only be available from the Apple Store? I thought I heard something about September...

[scottiB]

I ordered a Pro Mouse today from the Apple Store (an utter impulse buy, but I was hooked by the Steppenwolf commerical...sue me).

It said that it would ship in 14 days, but I've heard that it might be sooner...

[Zwilnik]

Supposed to be the start of September sometime (same as the Gigabit Cube options)

[bradvan]

I've heard that some people have already received their Pro Mouse even though they weren't supposed to ship yet. In a recent email from Apple, they said the Pro Keyboard should be shipped by the end of the month (September, I assume).

[Cipher13]

As for the keyboard:

Dozens of readers report receiving an email from Apple regarding the new Apple Pro Keyboards, some of which Apple is saying do not work properly with the Mac OS. Apple is giving customers the choice of canceling their orders:

"...we have found in testing the keyboard with Macintosh systems shipped prior to the MacWorld Convention on July 19th, that four keys are not functional on these older systems. Specifically, the affected new keys are the volume up, volume down, mute, and media eject keys. Support in the Mac OS for these new keys for use on older systems is not expected until early 2001."

From MacNN's front page.

Cipher13

[bradvan]

I wonder if the "early 2001" date means that the functionality for the new keyboard on older machines will only be written into OS X rather than adding it to OS 9. If that is the case, OS X public beta on an older machine may allow the use of those four keys. Any thoughts?

[roders]

I was thinking the same thing bradvan.

[Zwilnik]

As per other posts, according to the UK Apple Store, the "4 keys not working" stuff is rubbish, it works on *ALL* machines that run 9.0.4

[P]

The only thing needed to make the new keyboard work completely on an old machine is the file "USB Device Extension" in its latest version. There have be suggestions that the ROM file ought to be updated as well (because it's nice to have an keyboard Interrupt key if you're a programmer, and that will require a ROM update) but basic functionality is achieved through this little file.

Since the rumor sites suggest that a MacOS 9.1 is forthcoming, I guess that's what we're all waiting for. Or maybe some nice person could post that little file on the web and we could have this discussion over and done with?

[Jim Retzner]

Check today's (9/4) MacFixIt for a solution to three of the keys. The only one not able to worked around in the disk-eject key.

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[TheGuru]

I just got off the phone with an Apple Rep here in Australia. THEY CALLED ME! That's impressive, to take the effort to call people personally.

As per other countries, Apple Australia is cancelling orders for the Pro keyboard. I have two on order.

They are citing the fact that the keyboard will not be fully supported for Pre-July 2000 computers until "early 2001". When I asked if that meant OS X, she said "yes".

Apparently the issue goes beyond non-functioning audio/cd eject keys, but I didn't push it.

I actually don't mind this. Can you imagine the war cry if people got their keyboards and found they wouldn't work properly.

Now here is the thing that just made my day:

The pro Keyboard in Australia sells for $AU99, including Goods and Services Tax.

Not only was I telephoned by Apple personally, they are refunding me $AU110 per keyboard for my inconvenience.

Thanks, Apple, I really do appreciate the honesty and the cost.

Daniel.

I ordered my Apple Pro Mouse from the Apple Store yesterday and I got an e-mail stating that it shipped today (although the order site had said 14 days, it only took one...)

I also ordered the Apple Pro Keyboard, but nothing on that yet. I think that it is actually expected to ship in about 14 days (but don't count on it...)

Hope this helps!!