iMate is my mate

Reader Sam Russell was pleased with my recent recommendation of the Matias TactilePro keyboard, but he wondered if it was possible to use the real thing -- his old "Saratoga" Apple Extended Keyboard II -- with his recent-vintage iBook and PowerBook.

As a matter of fact, yes. Griffin Technology provides the link with its $39 iMate universal ADB to USB adapter. Before I purchased the Matias keyboards, I used an iMate to make the connection between an old Saratoga keyboard and my Power Mac G4.

It worked nearly flawlessly. I say nearly because with my setup, if the Caps Lock key was down when I restarted my Mac, the Mac thought Caps Lock Down = Caps Lock Up, meaning that if I wanted to engage the Caps Lock key, I had to disengage it. Most of the time, disengaging the Caps Lock and restarting the Mac put things right.