Spoiler alert: Apple will release new wireless and wired keyboards, optimized for OS X Lion. The new keyboards, or mid-2011 keyboard refresh as we’re calling them, have been confirmed by our friends from iSpazio. In the image, leaked on their site, you can clearly see the F3 and F4 keys have been updated.
Mission Control and Launchpad are the bread and butter of OS X Lion. For those that only sparingly took advantage of Spaces and Expose, Mission Control will unlock a new level of productivity. To make the jump to Lion as seamless as possible, Apple will update the F3 and F4 keys, replacing Expose and the Dashboard Widget keys with Mission Control and LaunchPad.
It should be noted that within System Preferences in the Keyboard Shortcut section, one can easily assign a dedicated key for Launchpad. The downside, of course, is that assigning Lauchpad to F4 is not possible since that key was previously used by the Dashboard Widgets. So for now you’re stuck using the next best key, F5.
Now that the MacBook Air has been treated to backlit keys, how much longer until the Mac desktop line sees the same love? If the impact on battery life was minor, I’d pick one up in a heartbeat, how about you?
Coming Soon | Apple | TBD
