Matias Corp. is getting an early start on new product announcements from next week’s Apple Expo in Paris, France by announcing its USB 2.0 Keyboard, which features a built in USB 2.0 dock for connecting high-speed peripherals. It costs US$39.95.
The keyboard features a two-port USB 2.0 hub on its back for easy connectivity of peripherals like digital cameras, PDAs and other devices. What’s more, the keyboard sports a USB 2.0 dock port on the top for additional connectivity — Matias shows the port occupied by an iPod shuffle, for example.
Available in U.S. key layouts now, French, U.K. and German keyboards will be available in October. Matias is making the keyboard available in two versions: A white-clad version that works with Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X, which, like Matias’ Tactile Pro keyboard, sports all of the alternate key characters printed right on the keys, so you can see what would happen if you hold down the option and shift keys.
A black-clad version is also compatible with both Macs and PCs — that version doesn’t have quite the same detail, but it does show the command and option keys properly marked. It’s compatible with Mac OS X v10.4 and higher.
Matias is offering an optical mouse for $10 more, bundled with the keyboard. The mouse, which matches the black keyboard. The mouse features two buttons and a scrollwheel.