Yesterday I got the new Apple aluminum keyboard and I was raving how cool it is, even for Windows XP. My main complaint was that the Windows and ALT keys were swapped, which was causing me much havoc since my brain has been programmed for so many years to find the ALT key to the left of the space bar.

My initial hunt returned nothing, but after some more Googling today I found the answer in a Freeware product called KeyTweak. This program modifies the Windows registry in order to re-map keys. I was able to swap my Windows/ALT keys (or ALT/Command keys on the Apple keyboard), map the F7-F12 media keys for Previous Track, Pause/Play, Next Track, Mute, Volume Down, Volume Up, and a few other keys. My only complaint is that any changes requires you to reboot your PC. Big whoop!

It works great! I also found another product called AppleKPro (shareware) that does some other fun keyboard mapping action, but I haven’t tried it yet.

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This is kind of an odd discovery. I used part of my $100 Apple iPhone rebate to purchase the new Apple aluminum flat keyboard, with the expectation that I would be using it for my Mac. It arrived this morning and since my primary computer of choice is a DELL Windows XP desktop, I figured ah what the hell, I’ll plug it into my DELL monitor to see what happens.

Much to my surprise, it detected it just fine and not only that, it functions perfectly with Windows XP as well. The Command/Apple key doubles as the Windows key, and the Option key doubles as the ALT key. There are only two drawbacks, both of which are minor. First, the Windows key is swapped with the ALT key, so that will take some getting used to. Second, the multimedia controls to change the sound settings and pause/play movies do not work on XP. Perhaps there’s a driver out there somewhere that will allow this but I cannot seem to find one.

As far as the keyboard is concerned, it is similar to typing on a notebook keyboard (like my DELL) but better. I can typically type about 75 WPM, and it seems a heckuva lot easier on this keyboard. Plus it is low profile, so it is easier and a more natural way to type which should help with my tendinitis. Time will tell, but I think this is a keeper.

So in case you are curious, that is my current desktop setup above for Windows XP, and yes, that is Windows XP (not a Mac). I replaced the Windows taskbar with ObjectDock which I have been using for several years now and is very stable. It is very configurable, but as you can see I have it set to mimic the Apple OS taskbar. As for the big screen, that’s my beautiful 27″ DELL widescreen monitor running at 1920×1200 resolution. I absolutely love that thing… which for me is necessary since I spend so much time in front of the computer.

I first read about this tip from waitingforiphone.com which leads you a page at O’Reilly’s website. Here’s the skinny. The keyboard layout on the iPhone is great for the most part, unless you want to get to the numbers and punctuation marks via the “.?123″ key in the lower left-hand corner. Normally this would take 3 taps to get to a period.

Here’s how to do it in one single motion.

Tap the “.?123″ key but keep your finger pressed down. As soon as you do this, the punctuation keyboard layout will appear. Now (with your finger still pressed down!) slide your finger to the desired key and then release. Upon release, the desired character will be inserted into your text and the normal alpha keyboard layout will re-appear so you can continue typing alpha characters.

This is an excellent tip and will definitely speed up typing and texting for everyone.