My new keyboard is the ThinkPlus with UltraNav (TrackPoint) as it is called in Japan.  In other countries is just called ThinkPad Full-Size UltraNav USB Keyboard.

I bought this keyboard new on Yahoo Auctions and am using it with OSX.  I’ve been eyeing a ThinkPlus/UltraNav keyboard for a long time but they have been a little pricey at around 9500 Yen (~95USD)  I managed to get this one for 4980 Yen, possibly because most Japanese people were put off by it being a US English layout keyboard.

The reason is that I love my ThinkPad keyboards is the TrackPoint.  The trackpoint is just so handy as unlike a touchpad you never have to move your hands off the keyboard.  And the middle button works for scrolling.

So basically the ThinkPlus is the ThinkPad keyboard moved into a external format.

Let me share some of my thoughts and hacks so far .  I’ve been using a compact mechanical switch keyboard for a while now and the key feel of the ThinkPlus is not as satisfying.  But the feel is probably better than 80% of the keyboards out there.  More of a problem is it is a much larger keyboard so I am having to adapt and stretch a bit more.  It is something that maybe worries me the most.  The backspace being the biggest and most frequent stretch.

Under OSX, the volume keys work.  The blue ThinkVantage or whatever the blue button is now called does nothing, but maybe it can be remapped.  Interestingly enough the Fn-F4 combination will bring up the Restart/Sleep/Shutdown dialog.  The page forward and page back keys are read as Shift Left and Right arrow so I have used them as the keys to switch between Spaces.  I have 4 Spaces in a single row for this set-up.

The keyboard doesn’t have a Windows key so the usual remapping to the Command key can’t be used.  What I did was remap the Caps Lock to Control and Control to Command, using the Keyboard preferences.  As with my previous keyboard I am using “Command .” to switch between the Romaji and Hiragana input types.

The trackpoint works as a mouse without extra drivers or software.  Scrolling with the middle button works in some apps like Firefox.  I’m trying out the SmartScroll program which enables the scrolling with most apps (but not Air apps it seems).  I rarely touch the mouse now for general computer use, only if I am using graphics apps like Photoshop.

The keyboard has a couple of USB ports but they are recessed so it can be hard to plug in fat or odd shaped devices.  A tiny extender cable would solve most problems.

Lastly the trackpad also works but I’ve disabled it as I didn’t want to move the pointer when I accidentally brushed it with my palms.  I couldn’t find any way of doing so with software settings (I searched the googleverse with “disable trackpad on ThinkPlus keyboard OSX” and similar combinations resulting in no useful results) so my solution was to open up the keyboard and disconnected the tiny ribbon cable.  No need for a “how-to”.  It was a simple 2 minute operation by removing the screws but be warned that there are 2 screws that are smaller.  I didn’t notice until I had them all out..

For around 5000 Yen it is as close to a perfect keyboard for my personal tastes.  If you love the keyboard on the ThinkPads you’ll love this one too.  Having used it I would say that I would probably pay the full price for it if I had too.

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Tags: hack, keyboard, osx, remapping, review, thinkpad, thinkplus, usb
This entry was posted on July 23rd, 2009 at 2:54 pm and is filed under review, tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.