While you likely haven’t thought much about how Apple gets those green lights to shine through its metal products, like its webcam indicators on the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, doing so was a significant problem for Apple’s design mastermind Jony Ive.
The big issue, as Businessweek explains, is that it’s impossible to shine light through metal. The eventual solution: lots of lasers.
Sources tell BusinessWeek that Ive assembled a team of manufacturing experts to figure out the problem. They eventually found that they could use a laser to create tiny holes in metal that, while virtually undetectable by human eyes, could allow light to come through.
The group also discovered a US company whose laser equipment could be modified to create the tiny holes. The unnamed company’s machines typically sold for around $250,000, but Apple ended up forming an exclusivity agreement with it to purchase hundreds of machines. Now Apple uses the laser to create green indicator lights on a slew of aluminum products, including the Apple Trackpad and wireless keyboard.
IPad Keyboard Case for 9.7 iPad 2018 (6th Gen), iPad 2017 (5th Gen), iPad Pro 9.7, iPad Air 2 Air 1,360 Rotatable Ultrathin Smart Keyboard Cover,Auto Wake Sleep,7 Color Backlit (Metal Style-Silver) 4.3 out of 5. Owners of the ultralight, ultrathin, Apple MacBook can now have a Bluetooth wireless keyboard that matches its look and colour, and feels great to type on. Wireless with a number pad If you like Apple’s wired keyboard with numeric keypad but wish it were wireless, this is the one to get. It’s just as nice. Mac-friendly function keys. Top 10 free music recording software.
The laser solution is indicative of Apple’s design creativity, but it’s also a fitting example of the operational extremes the company will go to for its products. As BusinessWeek points out, Apple also went to great lengths to create its unibody aluminum MacBook cases, helping to create new tooling equipment for manufacturers. Apple now plans to double its supply chain spending to $7.1 billion, Businessweek reports, which means we’ll likely see plenty more interesting manufacturing decisions from the company.
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Beautiful aluminum design & colours.
Taking design cues from Apple’s iconic aluminum keyboards, the Matias Wireless Aluminum Keyboard fills a few gaps that Apple chose not to pursue..
For starters, we offer it in 4 gorgeous colours — Silver, Gold, Space Gray, and Rose Gold. Owners of the ultralight, ultrathin, Apple MacBook can now have a Bluetooth wireless keyboard that matches its look and colour, and feels great to type on.
Wireless with a number pad.
If you like Apple’s wired keyboard with numeric keypad but wish it were wireless, this is the one to get. It’s just as nice.
Mac-friendly function keys.
Just like an Apple keyboard, the function keys let you control screen brightness, volume, iTunes, and more.
There’s even an Fn key, that lets you momentarily change the function keys back to their traditional duties, when you need them.
Pairs up to 4 Bluetooth devices
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In the box: |
2.0 mm |
Silver
• US Layout: FK418BTS • German: FK418BTS-DE • UK: FK418BTS-UK • French: FK418BTS-FR • Italian: FK418BTS-IT • Spanish: FK418BTS-ES • Portuguese: FK418BTS-PT • Swiss: FK418BTS-CH • Nordic: FK418BTS-ND • Japanese: FK418BTS-JP
Gold
• US Layout: FK418BTG • Japanese: FK418BTG-JP
Space Gray
• US Layout: FK418BTB • UK: FK418BTB-UK • Italian: FK418BTB-IT • Japanese: FK418BTB-JP
Rose Gold
• US Layout: FK418BTRG • Japanese: FK418BTRG-JP |
Copyright © 2016 Matias Corporation. All rights reserved. Matias Wireless Aluminum Keyboard, Matias, and the Matias logo are trademarks of the Matias Corporation. Mac, iOS, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, and Apple are trademarks of Apple, Inc. Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Android is a trademark of Google Inc. Bluetooth is a registered trademark of Bluetooth SIG, Inc.
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