It is perfectly reasonable to have shares that vest conditionally based on future performance. Obviously this needs to be clear up front though (and the definition of "future performance" also needs to be clear).
UK keyboards on PCs have a dedicated key for #/~, " is shift-2 and @ is shift-'. £ (currency symbol) is shift-3.
On a Mac the " and @ are the wrong way round (shift-' and shift-2 respectively), and the key that should produce # instead generates \. The only way to get a # is option-3, which is not marked on the keys. The Mac "UK" layout is basically the US layout with £/# reversed.
If the author doesn't make it abundantly clear why he is rejecting the Apple product he will get 290845243 comments saying "just buy an Air".
And he's right about the keyboard. Personally I'm screwed because I use dvorak - I'll never have a decent UK map (except on Linux). On the bright side, having the wrong symbols on them makes the keys in question blend in with all the others.