The ball joint between the two halves allows for precise adjustment, and the metal bar provides stability.

Your time with your Mac should be pleasant, not interrupted by aching wrists from using a keyboard that forces you to twist and contort your hands in unnatural ways. The Goldtouch is a compact keyboard that splits up to 30 degrees in the horizontal and vertical planes to alleviate ulnar deviation and pronation. That is, you can adjust the Goldtouch so that your hands are in a natural and much more comfortable position when typing on the split sides of the keyboard.

The adjustment mechanism is a proprietary locking ball joint. We found it to be flexible, though a bit touchy - and tricky to fine-tune. And we found the cheap, noisy keys on the numeric keypad puzzling, since the main keyboard was much quieter and more comfortable to type on.

Layout trade-offs are inevitable when making a keyboard that splays in two axes. The Goldtouch sports the Command, Option, and Control keys we know and love, but Key Ovation made some frustrating choices when it came to key placement. The Help key sits between Control and Option - huh? Even worse, the Home key is adjacent to the Delete key. We found ourselves at the start of many lines when trying to delete.

The bottom line. The Goldtouch has quirks, but it's Mac friendly and much cheaper than physical therapy.

COMPANY: Key Ovation
CONTACT: www.keyovation.com
PRICE: $179.95
REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS 10.4 or later, USB
Good documentation. Mac-specific keys.
Cheap switches on the numeric keypad. Tricky to adjust.