The Apple Wireless Keyboard is a wireless

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Mus ...

built for

Macintosh Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...

computers and compatible with

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

devices. It interacts over

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is li ...

wireless technology and unlike its wired version, it has no

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard, developed by USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), for digital data transmission and power delivery between many types of electronics. It specifies the architecture, in particular the physical ...

connectors or ports. Both generations have low-power features when not in use. It was discontinued on October 13, 2015, and was succeeded by the new Magic Keyboard.

History

First generation (A1016) M9270LL/A (4 batteries)

The first generation Apple Wireless Keyboard was released at the

Apple Expo The Apple Expo was a European annual sales conference and technology exposition held by Apple Inc. The conference featured over 250 exhibitors annually, with Apple being its main exhibitor. This conference was most often viewed as the European c ...

on September 16, 2003. It was based on the updated wired

Apple Keyboard Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 ...

(codenamed A1048), and featured white plastic keys housed in a clear plastic shell. Unlike the wired keyboard, there are no USB ports to connect external devices. The bottom of the keyboard features space for four

AA batteries The AA battery (or double-A battery) is a standard size single cell cylindrical dry battery. ANSI and IEC battery nomenclature gives several designations for cells in this size, depending on cell features and chemistry. The IEC 60086 system c ...

and has an on/off switch.

Second generation (A1255) MB167LL/A (3 batteries)

Apple-wireless-keyboard-aluminum-2007-side-view

On August 7, 2007, Apple released a redesigned model of the Apple Wireless Keyboard. Like the wired

, the new model is thinner than its predecessors and has an aluminum enclosure. Another addition was the new functions added to the

function key A function key is a key on a computer or computer terminal, terminal computer keyboard, keyboard that can be programmed to cause the operating system or an application program to perform certain actions, a form of soft key. On some keyboards/com ...

s, such as media controls and

Dashboard A dashboard (also called dash, instrument panel or IP, or fascia) is a control panel (engineering), control panel set within the central console of a vehicle, boat, or cockpit of an aircraft or spacecraft. Usually located directly ahead of the ...

control. Unlike the previous version, the Wireless Keyboard now has a layout similar to the

MacBook MacBook is a type of Mac laptop computer that is developed and marketed by Apple that use Apple's macOS operating system since 2006. The MacBook brand replaced the PowerBook and iBook brands during the Mac transition to Intel processors, ann ...

. The power button has been relocated to the right side of the keyboard, and the layout does not include a numeric keypad. This model added accidental caps lock prevention: the key has to be held down for a moment for the caps lock to engage. This keyboard required only three AA batteries, one fewer than its predecessor.

Third generation (A1314) MC184LL/A (2 batteries)

In October 2009, a slightly revised third model was released. New model number A1314 replaced the A1255, two years and two months after the initial release. The new model now uses only two

instead of three originally. Additionally, Mac OS X 10.5.8 is now the minimum OS over the original Mac OS X 10.4.10. This model of keyboard became standard with new generation of

iMac The iMac is a series of all-in-one computers from Apple Inc., sold as part of the company's Mac (computer), Mac family of computers. First introduced in 1998, it has remained a primary part of Apple's consumer desktop offerings since and evol ...

s introduced on the same day.

Fourth generation (A1314) MC184LL/B (chargeable/2 batteries)

On July 20, 2011, following the release of Mac OS X 10.7/OS X Lion, Apple updated the keyboard slightly, updating the label on the Exposé key to Mission Control and changing the Dashboard key to a Launchpad key.

Languages and layouts

Keyboard layouts with a rectangular Enter key are available in American English and Korean. Keyboard layouts with L-shaped Enter keys are available in: * Arabic * Belgian * Croatian * Czech * Danish * Dutch * English (International) * English (British) * French * German * Greek * Hebrew * Hungarian * Italian * Norwegian * Polish * Portuguese * Romanian * Russian * Slovak * Slovenian * Spanish * Swedish * Swiss * Turkish F/Q

Boot Camp keyboard mapping in Windows

Due to the missing keys for Windows PCs (such as the PrintScreen Key), Apple has made

keyboard mapping A keyboard layout is any specific physical, visual, or functional arrangement of the keys, legends, or key-meaning associations (respectively) of a computer keyboard, mobile phone, or other computer-controlled typographic keyboard. Standard keybo ...

s.Apple.com �
Boot Camp: Apple Wireless Keyboard keyboard mapping in Windows
/ref> Note. These keyboard mappings will work on a Mac operating under

Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, ...

when running Boot Camp, but may not work if the user selects the Boot Camp option of "Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys"

Non-Apple support

Although Apple includes support solely for Macintosh computers, it can also be used on a

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

PC providing that a Bluetooth receiver and appropriate Bluetooth stack is installed and properly configured. The

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

kernel Kernel may refer to: Computing * Kernel (operating system), the central component of most operating systems * Kernel (image processing), a matrix used for image convolution * Compute kernel, in GPGPU programming * Kernel method, in machine learnin ...

supports Apple Wireless Keyboards via the hid-apple module, which is present in 2.6.x+ kernels.

References

External links

Apple Wireless Keyboard
at Apple.com (archived 2003-10-08
2007-08-082009-11-042011-07-23

Aluminum Keyboard Firmware Update 1.0
(archived 2009-02-12) {{Apple hardware Macintosh keyboards Foxconn Computer-related introductions in 2005 Products and services discontinued in 2015