Just thought I’d post a quick little help for any of those out there that want to take advantage of a good keyboard deal but wondering if it will work on your Mac system. One little caveat before I go further, this tip is for OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and earlier and I haven’t seen how this works on OS X 10.7 Lion yet. Personally, I’m waiting a little longer to upgrade my main workstation, but that’s another story.

While OS X does a pretty decent job of supporting the basic typing ability of almost any keyboard or mouse out there, there is the one nagging reality that if you have gotten into the habit of keyboard combo shortcuts, that the Command and Option key functions are basically switched and can drive you batty when you get an unexpected result from key command. To solve that, the utility that I use is a kernel extension that you can set from your System Preferences called DoubleCommand which allows you to easily and quickly remap your basic system keys that make up the main difference between Macs and Windows operating systems–notably the Command and Option keys. Basically, I only use it to swap those two keys, as you can see in the screen grab below, but you can use it set many other possible key remapping combinations as needed.

While OS X won’t support all the extra bells and whistles that may have been designed into your Windows keyboard like opening up Office apps or Mail or pretty much anything else that is extra whizbang–but surprisingly, the only extra-curricular activity that I really care for my keyboard to perform besides basic typing and F key operations, are iTunes controls. Starting a song; volume control; skipping; pausing–all those functions are supported. So, if you don’t mind missing all the additional functionality, than this is the tool for you. For those that want more control and need better Lion support, there is also a link to another utility, which I have NOT tried myself, called KeyRemap4MacBook that you may find more useful.

What I find ironic in all this, is actually how well Microsoft supports OS X with ALL of their keyboards and mice but Logitech seems to be dragging their feet as slowly and half-heartedly as possible in supporting Macs. This is a great tool to be able to use some of the cooler Logitech keyboards that don’t support Macs with your Mac and not drive you crazy with the Command and Option keys in the wrong place.

On last thing to remember is if you are using this for a laptop environment, when you disconnect your keyboard and go to use your built-in keyboard, your keys remain remapped and now they are swapped again. You will need to launch your System Preferences and turn off the the changes you made. The good news is that the DoubleCommand allows you to save it as a preferred setting in User Preferences so that when you reboot, it will default to whichever setting you prefer. Enjoy.

Some points to note: it now only takes me about 15 minutes to tear apart the machine (disassemble is probably a gentler way of saying that). It takes a little longer putting it back together because after spending a great deal of time trying to reconnect the only connector that connects to the underside of the board (connecting with me on this?) and then position the board at an angle so that I can get the port side (the other side) to fit through the openings in the case and allow the board to seat properly. I invariably fail to remember that I didn’t connect the battery unit before I went through the convolutions necessary to seat the board. I then remove the board, affix the battery and then go through said convolutional placement of board once more. So, in all, the reassembly takes at least 10 minutes longer for me. However, I’m getting real good at it. Maybe next time, I will remember to affix the battery beforehand.

For those coming to this article for the first time, I have three other posts of the whole MacBook Pro logic board baking ordeals:

Cooking the Books (or Baking my MacBook Pro Logic Board)

Twice-Baked Mother Board (or Refried Logic of my MacBook Pro)

Ooops! I Baked It Again (3rd Time!)

Just a few days ago I wrote an earlier post about my Wait for Obsolescence regarding Apple’s impending (at the time) announcement of new MacBooks and MacBook Pros. I knew it was inevitable that the machine I am currently typing on, would one day (all too soon I might add) be consigned to a growing pile of aging machines that once sat atop another heap with a much prouder, King of the Hill stance. The only thing I didn’t count on was that after Apple’s announcement last Tuesday, I found myself (or my MBP) still atop that hill as my current configuration matches the “refreshed” 17″. The situation is obviously tenuous, because Apple also announced that they were still planning on adding the same updates that graced the new 13″ and 15″ MacBook and MacBook Pro to the 17″. Then any remaining bragging rights will finally come to an end–with one exception: my MBP has a MATTE screen. We’ll see, but I believe that will allow my MBP to retain at least a bit of a premium for awhile as it will become harder and harder to get your hands on a matte screen MacBook Pro–specially with a 17″ HD screen.

I will grant that nine times out of ten, when you sit someone down, especially in a nice retail environment, and have them compare a glossy screen next to a matte screen, they will naturally gravitate to the rich blacks and saturated colors and declare the contest a no-brainer. Almost every time, glossy will win that contest hands-down. I know that. I myself like glossy screens better than matte for the pure pleasure of viewing photos and movies and all the iLife-goodness that make people want to put their old Dells and HPs out on the driveway for next week’s garage sale items (a week before the sale even starts) and enter into the Mac good life. But those people are not the ones who use their Macs to choose accurate colors for their print or video projects, nor work in environments with glare issues. We simply will have no choice other than to buy third-party monitors or keep our older Cinema Displays and MB and MBPs.

I’m ranting and raving, but this really isn’t quite a hill to die on, even for me, because as I pointed out above, those of us who need the matte option, will just go the third-party route, or hope that our existing matte-equipped rigs won’t look too out-of-date (like the original plexi Cinema Displays) next to the newer gear. And I know very well the human capacity to “just get used to these things”. But it was one of those things where I felt that I had to get my curmudgeon on and let loose if nothing other than to jack up the potential resale value of my MATTE MBP when and if the time finally comes to succumb to Teh Glossy. But for now, I am still enjoying the King of the Hill status while I can.

My MBP is the first laptop that I’ve owned. I don’t do a lot of travel and I’ve always been a desktop workstation, power-user kinda guy, so my need to be mobile never outweighed my need for speed. That was, until the last iteration of the MBP came out. While not a Quad Dual 3.2GHZ Xeon, at 2.5GHz, (I opted not to get the extra 100MHz) the Intel Core2Duo chip seemed plenty fast for normal, everyday work and loaded up with 4GB of RAM and with a 512MB Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT card pushing around 2,304,000 pixels (1920×1200) on an HD, matte-finish 17″ screen with a DVI out to power my 24″ external monitor with ease. I finally felt the speed had caught up with my “power-user” needs and haven’t regretted taking the plunge into the mobile world.

But alas, as with all new purchases, time marches on, and while those specs mentioned above at this writing still have bragging rights, within 10 years, they will be a laughingstock. Ten years ago, I was blazing away on a “blistering” 266MHz Beige G3 Tower, loaded with a “mind-boggling” 128MB of RAM and a “huge” 6GB HD with an 8MB ATI Rage video card powering a 21″ Radius PressView monitor (CRT for you kiddies). Hah! But I will have you know, that the above-mentioned system is still running OS X 10.4 (albeit hacked to the max with processor, video, RAM and HD upgrades to be able to run–but it still runs!)

All that is to say, that my bragging rights days are numbered, and Jonathan Ives and the rest of the Apple development team have been diligently at work getting ready to make my current configuration, hopelessly obsolete. Not that I will give in to the temptation to upgrade right away (after all, I’m now over $700BN in debt and my days of bleeding-edge are over), but I know, I’m going to be looking at a new shiny “work of art” and won’t be able to help but notice that my keys don’t “glow” quite as well, or its ability to read my mind and perform work for me doesn’t work quite as fast as this yet-to-be-revealed beauty will undoubtedly be. Yeah, it’s a bummer being Mark Spitz.