Saturday 21 November 2015

A Little Triumph for Microsoft (at Apple's expense)

Once the rage and frustration of discovering Apple's complete disregard for non-American customers in providing only a US layout keyboard had died down, I took another look at my Microsoft Universal Keyboard thinking that as I was going to be stuck with it for an indefinite period I might as well properly understand how it works.
So I RTFM. It's only a short leaflet really, but I learned a few really nice things.
Firstly, the lid, which is also a support for the tablet, detaches so you can put it in a more comfortable position. It snaps back on magnetically. Why had I not realised that before? What a dimwit.
Next, I discovered you can remove or reinstate the onscreen keyboard with Fn+Alt. As the iPad has a horrid propensity to bring up the onscreen keyboard even when the physical keyboard is connected, this is very handy. Also, when I pick the tablet out of the stand to hold it in my hands when reading stuff, I can easily bring up the onscreen keyboard to enter search terms and stuff.
And I also discovered (finally!) that the MS keyboard flashes red when the battery is low, removing the charging anxiety I was prone to.
Who knew all this valuable info would be hidden in a simple manual? Well I never.
Anyhoo, the outcomes are:
1)  I now have an excellent keyboard with British keys that works perfectly.
2)  My considerable admiration for Microsoft's hardware designers has gone up a notch.
3)  I have saved 130 sovs and Apple has lost a sale.

2 comments:

  1. My Ipad mini has an english virtual keyboard Pound sign etc

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  2. The iPad Pro has a UK virtual keyboard but I need a UK physical keyboard. Touch typing on the virtual keyboard is almost impossible.

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