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Apple Makes Magic Keyboard with Touch ID Available for Purchase
- otterley 5y agoCompatibility: Mac Models: MacBook Air (M1, 2020) MacBook Pro (13-inch, M1, 2020) iMac (24-inch, M1, 2021) Mac mini (M1, 2020)
- throwanem 5y agoNot really on point, but perhaps worth noting that having had some wrist stiffness and pain lately, I tried a Magic Keyboard (not this one, the one with the numpad) as an intermediate step between my previous Majestouch 2 and Ergodox/Moonlander/Kinesis esoterica, and over the last few weeks it's actually been pretty good. I don't know if I'll stick with it indefinitely, but I'm glad I decided to give it a try; the low profile and short throw really do seem to make eight- and ten- and twelve-hour workdays significantly easier on my wrists.
- kpsuperplane 5y agoCheck out the K3 or K1 from Keychron; you get benefits of low profile with the tactility of a mechanical keyboard
- wodenokoto 5y agoThey're twice as thick as a magic keyboard
- mikecarlton 5y ago+1 for the K1, I’ve been very happy with it
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- Ancalagon 5y agoFunny I switched from a Mac keyboard to an ergodox and it’s done wonders for my wrists. Have you tried elevating your wrists and adjusting the keyboards on stilts to make them more ergonomic? That helped me a lot too
- bluejekyll 5y agoI concur with this. My experience with Apple’s short-throw low profile keyboards has been great. It reduces the angle of my wrist at the the keyboard. Yes, I’m sure it could be typing differently, but I find these to be the most comfortable for my typing style. I’ve tried to find non-Apple brand with similar feel, but nothing has matched the quality or comfort.
- Oddskar 5y agoA custom mechanical keyboard with low profile switches is probably what you're looking for. Although they are a lot less spongey feeling than the mac keyboards. E.g. https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMechKeyboards/comments/j1877x/kyria_at_his_minimum/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMechKeyboards/comments/j1877x/k...
- paxys 5y agoMaybe slightly better but still no substitute for an actual ergonomic keyboard. For developers and others spending hours a day with their hands on a keyboard, it's a no brainer to have proper wrist support, better spacing between hands and more natural elbow/wrist angles. Have lost count of the number of 20-somethings I know with carpal tunnel syndrome.
- kstrauser 5y agoAs a side note, I had a much bigger improvement from ditching my Magic Mouse for a vertical mouse: https://honeypot.net/post/pain-free-with-logitech-mx-vertical-mouse/ https://honeypot.net/post/pain-free-with-logitech-mx-vertica... My right wrist was starting to seriously hurt at the end of each day, and now it's completely painless.
- carl_dr 5y agoOnly for Apple silicon Macs. Shame.
- smoldesu 5y agoOf course, it's not like older Macs had access to some kind of security coprocessor to secure this... oh wait
- carl_dr 5y agoYeah, indeed. My 2019 MacBook Pro has a touchbar, but 90% of the time, I use it in clamshell mode with two external monitors. I can use my Apple Watch to authenticate things like passwords in Safari, but I would MUCH prefer to not have to lift my hands off the keyboard. A lot of the time I just type my password. A million times a day. This would be a quality of life improvement.
- philistine 5y agoJury’s still out but I’m not convinced this is a software limitation. It is possible that Apple’s previous implementation of a Secure Enclave couldn’t electrically work with any external handshake.
- smoldesu 5y agoApple should have designed the keyboard with older devices in mind, then. It's a little bit frustrating from a developer standpoint, knowing that the entire purpose of the T2 chip is to facilitate this exact type of "next generation" hardware, yet it's being laid to waste since the engineers didn't want to factor in back-compat.
- threatofrain 5y agoDoes this not include the new M1 Mac Mini's?
- 5y ago
- layoutIfNeeded 5y agoMeh… no touch bar.
- chaos_emergent 5y agoYou're the first person that I know that is disappointed in not seeing a touchbar...why?
- ravenstine 5y agoI wonder if people have come around to the touchbar. It was almost universally derided on HN when it became a thing. Personally, I haven't, which is one of the reasons I'm glad I switched to the M1 Macbook Air which doesn't have the touchbar. Now I can change the volume and the brightness without having to look down!
- geerlingguy 5y agoJudging by the fact the thing never made it into any other devices, I'd posit it's no runaway success.
- tailspin2019 5y agoI cannot wait to see if the new MacBook Pros have options without the touchbar. If not I’ll be specifically choosing an Air over a Pro just to keep my function keys.
- skohan 5y agoIt's a bad product. Touch controls are always a bad fit when they're not someplace you should be looking at directly.
- jacobwilliamroy 5y agoI think the touchbar is terrible because I'm constantly fat-fingering it causing the computer to randomly switch fonts or change directories.
- vbezhenar 5y agoI never used it, but I'd love to try. I think that it's a great concept, because I rarely use Fx buttons, I can't memorize them. They're useful for debuggers, but every IDE defines them differently, so I just gave up. I think that I'd love this feature and it's sad to see it gone, I'm considering buying M1 Macbook 16" and according to rumors it'll have ordinary keyboard. Of course Esc must be a separate physical key, but they did it right in the latest revisions.
- alfonsodev 5y agoThere is also a larger version with numeric keypad. https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MK2C3LL/A/magic-keyboard-with-touch-id-and-numeric-keypad-for-mac-models-with-apple-silicon-us-english https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MK2C3LL/A/magic-keyboard-...
- SmellTheGlove 5y agoBut why the hell is the Touch ID sensor _not_ in the top right corner there? I agree with the other poster that said apple design is in the tank right now. Man that is awful.
- DeusExMachina 5y agoWhat's the difference? You can register the fingerprint of any finger, not just the thumb.
- NikolaNovak 5y agoFor me (not the op), the difference is between going to a corner of a physical device (mindless, immediate); vs having to hunt for specific position in the middle of device (more conscious, intent). Put it differently, "one of these things is not like the other", so it makes intuitive sense -- for me :) -- for it to be in a corner and "isolated" from typing keys. 20 years ago I read in a very basic "Intro to UI" that 1-pixel in the corner of your screen is effectively the biggest button on the screen (this was for mouse and desktop monitor, of course), as you can just push your mouse there without aiming or stopping. The wisdom of being able to use motion to go to an extreme of device intuitively stuck with me ever since.
- acdha 5y agoI'm betting it was a minimal change: they replaced the Eject key on the previous model, which makes sense given that no Apple Silicon devices have a drive with removable media.
- Jtsummers 5y agoBecause someone would whine about it either way. If it's not in the upper right corner, it's wrong. If it's not within easy reach of the more typical position of the right hand (for people who touch type at least) then it's in the wrong position. It's a lose-lose, doesn't matter what they do some people will be unhappy. And whatever they do, some people will be content or happy. So they picked one that made sense for people who don't rest their hand on the number pad all day long.
- abhinav22 5y agoThis is awesome! Touch ID is a great feature, especially for computers (I am not sure how Face ID can ergonomically work for approving purchases as one is always staring at the screen - ie some sort of button press must be required, hence Touch ID is better as it avoids the Face ID step :) Note that it appears for only Apple Silicon Macs (probably due to the security chip)
- MikeKusold 5y agoI would love a Bluetooth or usb TouchID only accessory. I mainly use my work laptop with an external monitor and keyboard, but I have to keep the laptop open to quickly access my password vault.
- krono 5y agoYou can set this up with some hardware tokens. I've done it in the past with a Yubikey.
- SparkyMcUnicorn 5y ago1Password allows unlocking with touch id, but not hardware keys like yubikey.
- germ 5y agoSame, I have the keyboard sitting on a nearby shelf to my iMac for the TouchID feature. For anyone that uses some kind of keyboard a standalone TouchID device would be a godsend. :/
- buildbot 5y agoI wonder how beefy the processor in this keyboard is - could be interesting to hack into.
- adolph 5y agoBy the numbers, the secure enclave implementation is $50. I wonder if Logitech will get a shot at TouchID like the Crayon did for the Apple Pencil? I'd pay $50 to add it to my K380. $99.00 Magic Keyboard - US English $149.00 Magic Keyboard with Touch ID for Mac models with Apple silicon - US English $129.00 Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad - US English $179.00 Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and Numeric Keypad for Mac models with Apple silicon - US English
- codetrotter 5y agoI’m honestly almost a little bit appalled by myself when I realize that I probably would be willing to pay an extra $50 to have a TouchID interface on my ErgoDox EZ Shine, just to save myself from having to reach over and extend my arm an extra half of a meter several times a day when I am stationed with my keyboard and external monitor, and my MacBook Pro that is connected to them sits out of reach over there where I keep it.
- bartvk 5y agoI'm also spoiled by (what I consider) a great keyboard, the Kinesis FreeStyle 2. I don't think I'm going back to this Apple keyboard, but boy would Touch ID be useful.
- jmondi 5y agoMoonlander user who also would definitely pay money to not have to reach over to my laptop several times a day.
- sylens 5y agoI continue to hope they bring FaceID to the Mac in a manner similar to Windows Hello, where you can buy a webcam certified for it
- adwww 5y agoThat would mean updating the "isight" webcam for the first time in a decade or so.
- rafaelturk 5y agoThis looks nice as long you don't bundle with Magic Mouse.
- backprop1993 5y agoJust ordered one. Was hoping this would happen!
- jsjohnst 5y agoReally sucks that Apple doesn't offer this in Space Gray and discontinued all the Space Gray Magic accessories (keyboard/trackpad/mouse)...
- xuki 5y agoDon't worry they'll be back with the "pro" line for an additional $50.
- jsjohnst 5y agoIt already was a "pro" line and cost more than the silver ones. ;)
- outworlder 5y agoWait, those are already discontinued? At this rate we'll need a killedbyapple.com page
- jsjohnst 5y agoyeah, apparently Apple only "intended" them to be used with the iMac Pro line to align it with that Mac's color scheme. Since the line was discontinued, they killed the matching accessories, or so the theory goes.
- tomjen3 5y agoThat sucks. Though I don't know how much I give for their space grey - my M1 and iPad are both supposed to be space grey but they are not ever close to each other in color.
- jsjohnst 5y agoFor me it wasn't about the matching the machine (although I do expect the trackpad and keyboard to match), it was about having the black keys and the non-shiny surface. Thankfully I have ~3 sets of the keyboard/trackpad, but I might have bought a spare had I known it was being discontinued.
- therealmarv 5y agoAh, the new "more round corners" Magic Trackpad is also available: https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MK2D3AM/A/magic-trackpad https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MK2D3AM/A/magic-trackpad If you don't know: The new (iMac) keyboard is more round on the corners and so is the trackpad.
- adolph 5y agoAlso for all the perifs: "And it includes a woven USB-C to Lightning Cable that lets you pair and charge by connecting to a USB-C port on your Mac." Even the venerable Magic Mouse gets a "new" badge when it gets a woven cable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Mouse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Mouse https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MK2E3AM/A/magic-mouse https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MK2E3AM/A/magic-mouse
- ylhert 5y agoI wonder if we'll ever see 3rd party support for Touch ID - it'd be amazing to have touch ID in a mechanical keyboard!
- supperburg 5y agoThis keyboard is extremely ugly. I’ve noticed for a long time now a weakening in the design of Apple products. This is certainly the most disgusted I’ve been at an Apple product since 2011.
- bartvk 5y agoIsn't the design just the normal keyboard, except with rounded corners? You can quickly see the differences by opening these two images in separate tabs and flipping between the tabs: https://store.storeimages.cdn-apple.com/4982/as-images.apple.com/is/MK2C3?wid=2000&hei=2000 https://store.storeimages.cdn-apple.com/4982/as-images.apple... https://store.storeimages.cdn-apple.com/4982/as-images.apple.com/is/MQ052?wid=2000&hei=2000 https://store.storeimages.cdn-apple.com/4982/as-images.apple...
- supperburg 5y agoIt’s amazing how such a small difference can completely change the identity of the object. That rounding of the corners transformed it from sleek and sophisticated to Fischer price. It’s utterly revolting. Especially because it keeps the same materials so it looks like a pig with a dress and lipstick on.
- skohan 5y agoDisgusted? This seems like an extreme reaction to have to a keyboard.
- supperburg 5y agoExtreme reaction is usually used to describe a persons actions, the action they took in response to something. Acute reaction is more appropriate for involuntary things like a person fainting from the sight of blood, gagging at a bad smell or mentally gagging at a bad design.
- tims33 5y agoThat keyboard with the ability to pair with multiple computers seamlessly would be the MX Keys killer for me.
- wlesieutre 5y agoIf they're both Macs you could use AirBuddy's "Magic Handoff" to transfer the connection between them with one click, but that's still less powerful than just having buttons on the keyboard (for iPad and Windows support). I have a K380 and the 3-device pairing works great. https://support.airbuddy.app/articles/how-to-use-magic-handoff/ https://support.airbuddy.app/articles/how-to-use-magic-hando...
- wintermutestwin 5y agoWhy isn't there a version with the touchpad??
- sayhar 5y agoI also wonder about this.
- mrweasel 5y agoYou can buy the touchpad seperately. Which makes sense, because you don’t know where it’s ergonomically correct to put it for individual users. I place mine rather far to the left. Most right handed people won’t like that setup.
- Terretta 5y agoTwelve South and other firms used to make gizmos to pair the then no-numpad version and trackpad so they'd work on your lap or as a Mac Mini living room media center accessory etc. Was fantastic. Apple should MagSafe that jazz.
- codysoyland 5y agoI was hoping they would return to the old-style (upside-down T shaped) arrow keys with smaller left/right keys.
- pbreit 5y agoAgree. Easier to feel. I wonder how they determine which to use? Seems like they switch back and forth.
- ArchOversight 5y agoI would love just a TouchID button. I have an mechanical split keyboard (Ultimate Hacking Keyboard, I love it) and I reach over to my MacBook Pro to use TouchID, but having a button I could put on my desk would be great and would solve that problem. I don't see Apple making it to be honest, but I would love it.
- kortilla 5y agoThey do make it, it just comes with a keyboard attached :)
- ArchOversight 5y agoThat's a solution that takes up an awful lot of desk space.
- gumby 5y agoMost of the time I’m able to use my watch instead of reaching over to the fingerprint sensor.
- outworlder 5y agoThere you go. I haven't missed the fingerprint sensor after the Apple Watch, since the laptop sits most of the time in clamshell configuration. Pricey button, but it has other uses.
- benatkin 5y agoPart of me really wants one of these, but I don't want to support Apple because they're holding the web back. https://www.safari-is-the-new-ie.com/ https://www.safari-is-the-new-ie.com/
- ArchOversight 5y agoIf Safari is the new IE what should I use instead that doesn't suck down battery like it's going out of style, works with iCloud Keychain, and is fast? I'm not going to spend time moving to Edge, or Firefox (Chrome is not even an option, see https://chromeisbad.com https://chromeisbad.com) if I have to reset passwords across hundreds of websites and those passwords don't automatically sync across all of my devices. These other browsers also don't integrate well with the system, have a different look/feel, don't behave the same when managed using Moom for resizing because they have their own layout engines, and don't hook into the system dictionary or editing features. I want a single cohesive whole that works well together.
- vbezhenar 5y agoThey have a financial incentive to hold the web back, because it threatens their AppStore monopoly. You can't blame a company trying to extract more profit in a lawful way. If you think that Apple must improve web support, build awesome web apps which will not work in Safari, that's the only thing that makes them worry IMO.
- feanaro 5y agoYou can absolutely blame a company for this, because some things are legal but you're still an ass if you do them.
- greyman 5y agoDo you know if the key switches are the same as before, or if they were improved?
- rvanmil 5y agoI was wondering about this too and so far haven’t found any reviews addressing this question. The only thing I found was this forum post[0] which implies the old and new magic keyboards feel the same (though the author thinks they feel like the butterfly keyboards, which I do not agree with having used all types of Apple keyboards except for this new one). [0] https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/imac-magic-keyboard-feels-like-butterfly-keyboard-of-older-macbooks.2304054/ https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/imac-magic-keyboard-fee...
- jordache 5y agoBuwhahah $150.
- Andrew_nenakhov 5y agoI wonder if keys in this keyboard can be rearranged to Dvorak layout? I once bought to their keyboard with numpad only to discover that for some silly reason they rotated the keypress mechanism letters F and J by 90degrees. This, of course, made key rearrangement impossible.
- neurostimulant 5y agoI also used dvorak and rearranged my keyboards whenever I can, but some keyboards simply has several keys that can't be rearranged (e.g. the keys near the pointing stick on a thinkpad). In that case, I would rearrange whatever keys I can, and for those keys that can't be arranged I'll just slap some keyboard sticker (ideally one that matches the keyboard model so it's not noticeable).
- mvanbaak 5y agoThis is why I learned to type without looking at my keyboard. I'm also a dvorak user, and since it's almost impossible to get a macbook with dvorak layout, I invested the time to learn to touchtype. It will pay off, I promise you. Also, the look on the face of some coworker/familymember/whoever that takes over your keyboard and they type gibberish is worth more then the two weeks of training. My external keyboards now all have blank keycaps.
- Andrew_nenakhov 5y agoThanks, of course, but I've been using Dvorak since 2007 and of course I touchtype. Still, I prefer keys to be in their proper positions. Also, I did rearrange keys on MacBook (2009) and MacBook Pro (late 2013) without issues. The problem was with their wired keyboard (MB110).
- jacobwilliamroy 5y agoI would prefer to have a touch ID peripheral be separate from the keyboard.
- zaphoyd 5y agoCan anyone think of a reason why this peripheral still has a lightning port and a USB-C to lightning cable rather than a USB-C port and USB-C to USB-C cable?
- gumby 5y agoThis is indeed inexplicable
- floatingatoll 5y agoYes, because there’s no benefit to their business to invest time switching it to USB-C, and significant upsides to existing customers if they continue using Lightning. What use case do you envision should be higher priority to Apple’s customers than being able to recharge their keyboard, trackpad, and phone from a single Lightning cable left plugged into their desktop computer’s USB port?
- Oddskar 5y agoMaybe getting rid of all the e-waste generated by having a proprietary standard that is not used anywhere outside the apple ecosystem? I think that's quite a compelling reason.
- floatingatoll 5y agoChanging the charging cables for a billion phones to reduce E-waste would be an effective way to turns billions of perfectly good cables into E-waste. Do you feel it would break-even within ten years?
- Oddskar 5y agoI don't think you're factoring in that many of those cables would need replacements during the lifetime of the device they're used with. So yes, I think that it would "break-even" quite fast.
- rnjesus 5y ago
- S_A_P 5y agoNote- From what I can tell this is only for M1 powered apple computers. Ive an iMac Pro that I would be keen to use with this, but no space grey and intel chips mean I cant use this.
- heavymark 5y agoThe original title mentions with Apple silicon. Wish that was here, since many only read the titles and easy to miss that this only works with new M1 Macs.
- wdb 5y agoBut not available in the lovely iMac colours? That's a bummer.
- sativallday 5y agoI just need the Touch ID button from this, not the other aspects of the subpar typing experience.