Tikkabik

Chris Breen at Macworld was pimping these things a couple of weeks ago, and they're awesome, presuming you don't mind some noise.

The Tactile Pro's claim to fame is that it uses the same switch technology Apple used in its Extended Keyboard II. In my opinion, the EKII is one of the pinnacles of late 20th century technological development. It's the best-feeling keyboard I've ever used -- crisp response, satisfying click, and damn-near indestructable.

The Tactile Pro comes close, tho -- the satisfying key response is still there. The shape and design is more evocative of Apple's current crop of Pro Keyboards, though, and that better matches today's systems. I'm using it on Bonnie's iMac -- she dumped a cup of coffee in the keyboard that came with it, by accident, so this is the replacement.

The other nice thing that Matias has done is screened extended ASCII characters on the keyboard, so if you're looking for that obscure international currency symbol or you can't remember which key gets you an accent circonflex, this will help.

The downside is that it's noisy -- CLACKACLACKACLACKACLACK noisy. Noisier than the EKII's were, that's for sure. Much noisier than the Apple keyboards are now. That makes it unsuitable for me to use for telephone interviews, which I do frequently, because it has actually become a point of distraction to the people on the other end of the phone.

It's $99.95. That ain't cheap for a keyboard, even one as well made as this. But if you're still pining for an EKII like I am and don't mind the racket, it's worth it.