Apple Magic Keyboard, and new Magic Trackpad and Magic Mouse

Muirium · 14 Oct 2015, 16:52

Yesterday, Apple Finally!™ released a 4k Retina 21" iMac to go with its 5k 27" brother. And they used to the opportunity to give their desktop input peripherals their first redesign in several years. Here's the new trio:

: Apple Magic Trio.jpeg (86.88 KiB) Viewed 5969 times

http://www.apple.com/keyboard/

Naturally, they couldn't redo the keyboard or the trackpad alone, as they're meant to sit side by side. So the new look applies to both.

: Apple Magic Trio plan view.jpeg (220.99 KiB) Viewed 5969 times

No mention of "butterfly switches", as used on the slender Retina MacBook, which is a shame if true as I quite like those.

: Apple Magic Keyboard.jpeg (123.08 KiB) Viewed 5969 times

But I like the look of the new desktop keyboards, and I'll report once I see them in the local Apple Store. I wouldn't reckon on new wonders in key feel, but the MacBook impressed me more than I expected.

The Magic Trackpad is looking pretty boss now, with a larger surface, apparently. I use the old model every day and I'll be paying close attention to the new one when I see it. It's special sauce is Force Touch, Apple's haptic technology that gives you the impression there's several layers of click, depending on how hard you press. It's in all their laptops, and now the desktops get it too.

: Apple Magic Trackpad.jpeg (15.84 KiB) Viewed 5969 times

That wedge shaped case is actually quite similar to something I had in mind for a custom keyboard of my own. Damn not having a CNC machine out back!

The main upgrade all of these share is a built in, USB rechargeable battery. Thank goodness. I've never been impressed by the distinctly non-Apple experience of dropping ugly AA batteries into my trackpad every couple of months. And the Magic Mouse was much more frequent than that. Which I fixed with one of these.

But wait! These guys charge over USB… via a Lightning cable? Huh?? So much for going USB C on everything. In fact, the new iMacs don't even have USB C ports!? What the? Well, I never saw that coming. What a mistake!

You won't find mention of it in this fluff piece at Medium either, of course. Until the comments…

Lightning's a fine connector, but I'm surprised USB C (which Apple designed for the USB spec body) hasn't taken over completely, since Apple went with it as the exclusive port on the MacBook. And I'm bloody well furious there isn't a whole row of USB C ports anywhere to be seen on the new iMacs! There's not even Lightning ports. Just dumb old "nope, try again!" USB A, for years of cable flipping fun to come. Grr!

But other than that: looking pretty good. The proof will be in playing around with them up town.

Oh, now that the Magic Mouse has an integrated battery, I expect the Mobee Magic Charger isn't long for this world, so I'll add a few pictures here for posterity.

Spoiler:

Plasmodium · 14 Oct 2015, 17:18

Hm, not a Mac man myself, but I always like the sort of 'flat but with a round bit at the back' aesthetic of Apple's (previous gen) keyboards. Made me think of a high tech scroll. A plain wedge seems a step back, to me.

Muirium · 14 Oct 2015, 17:29

It always reminded me of those dirty old batteries, hiding just inside!

The new look is a better match to the stand design of the iMac and Thunderbolt Display. They have a single foot, tapered as a prism, which would be a convenient place to stash a bunch of USB C ports but I digress…

The new Magic Trackpad's price made me double take. I'm very unlikely to buy a new one! I mean, neither style exactly matches my keyboards.

Spoiler:

Khers · 14 Oct 2015, 17:37

I used to use a magic trackpad for quite a while but realized that I needed a bit more precision for work and went with a mouse. Recently tried the old magic trackpad again, this time after getting accustomed to the quite wonderful thing that is force touch on my macbook pro, and I didn't like it one bit. So consider me intrigued by the new one. Then again, there's the price of the thing. The new one is twice as expensive as the old one here. Say what?

Muirium · 14 Oct 2015, 17:53

Good point, I clean forgot to mention Force Touch! Fixed. That's the thing that could tempt me hard towards the new model. But then again that price. Guess those Taptic engines aren't cheap. But $129!??!

zslane · 14 Oct 2015, 19:28

The new Magic Trackpad looks pretty slick. The new keyboard also looks slick, but I would never want to type on one. It is the very antithesis of what I like, which is tall, sculpted spherical keycaps on linear switches with a good long 4mm throw.

andrewjoy · 14 Oct 2015, 20:13

Gah i literary this week just refitted the computer lab in our office and ordered a new magic trackpad and keyboard.

EDIT

I have a current gen MPB and i have not noticed the fancy harpic feedback.

Findecanor · 14 Oct 2015, 20:20

Muirium wrote: ↑It always reminded me of those dirty old batteries, hiding just inside!

Dirty old batteries that you could replace with fresh new batteries. Once the li-ion batteries in that overpriced trackpad dies, it is dead forever.

webwit · 14 Oct 2015, 20:31

FTFY

seebart · 14 Oct 2015, 20:37

webwit wrote: ↑FTFY

That's scottish time warp now...

Muirium · 14 Oct 2015, 20:47

Visual Seebarting! Enter the vortex…

Sharp eyes should be able to see the reason I reshot that scene. The version of the photo on my display had too much barrel distortion for my liking, so I stepped further back for the second one. Forgetting to close the window!

Findecanor wrote: ↑
Muirium wrote: ↑It always reminded me of those dirty old batteries, hiding just inside!
Dirty old batteries that you could replace with fresh new batteries. Once the li-ion batteries in that overpriced trackpad dies, it is dead forever.

True. But unlike this 24 year old SSK, no one's still going to be using those in the long haul. I don't like throwaway culture either, but it does make a lot of sense for electronics that's on the wrong side of Moore's Law. Original iPods from 2001 mostly still work now, way after their period of usefulness. I dare say Apple will have come up with something in that length of time in the future that makes today's trackpads a bit pointless.

And for those of us who might be weird enough, I bet iFixit figures out a way to get the battery out, and a fresh one in.

andrewjoy wrote: ↑I have a current gen MPB and i have not noticed the fancy harpic feedback.

Lemme guess: the shit one?

Spoiler:

andrewjoy · 14 Oct 2015, 20:51

Muirium wrote: ↑
andrewjoy wrote: ↑I have a current gen MPB and i have not noticed the fancy harpic feedback.
Lemme guess: the shit one?

nope 2015 retina

Muirium · 14 Oct 2015, 21:01

Funny. You got it disabled or something? Mactracker says both the 13 and 15 inch Retina MacBook Pros that came out this year have Force Touch trackpads, as you'd expect after the Retina MacBook.

By the way, here's what Mactracker looks like on my desktop:

: This Mac.png (156.55 KiB) Viewed 5846 times

: Mac Pro 1,1.png (146.32 KiB) Viewed 5846 times

So obsolete! But so Retina, and so current. I love a good hack! You can just imagine how it warms my penny pinching heart!

Muirium · 18 Oct 2015, 00:31

Here's iFixit:

At first glance this looks like the same mechanism found in the 2015 MacBook.

However, according to Apple, they've actually reengineered the scissor mechanism to increase stability and improve key travel. By our best measurements, the new design offers a whopping 1 mm travel distance and totally flat keypresses—or something.

Looks like desktop users will have to wait for the Magic Keyboard 2 for the butterfly effect key.

Bugger. But the battery is modular and replaceable.

Similar story in both the Magic Mouse:

And the Magic Trackpad:

Which includes a Taptic Engine for Force Touch:

gogusrl · 18 Oct 2015, 09:28

But you all forgot to mention the best part ... this is how you charge the mouse :

Muirium · 18 Oct 2015, 10:31

Either that or an ugly dent at the front. Or a complete redesign, which I think they should have done really, so they could fit Force Touch.

Apparently 1 minute charging gets you 6 hours of use. Couldn't say that for AAs. It takes me longer than 1 minute to prise the empty buggers out of the mouse in the first place! Tight in there.

andrewjoy · 20 Oct 2015, 15:12

gogusrl wrote: ↑But you all forgot to mention the best part ... this is how you charge the mouse :

That is fucking stupid.

Why not just ship it with one of them funky inductive chargers.

Oh on a similar apple pointing device note i found an old ProMouse M5769, the quality of that thing is incredible compared to both the mighty and the magic. The click button is loverly , and the quality of the plastic and the soft cable, mmmmm. Its the less common back one as well, also a fan of how you change the dpi with the little rotating thing around the optical sensor, even that is nice and precise and tactile when you are adjusting it. Shame the DPI is so low or i would use it. Fast forward to 2015 and a cabal UNDER the mouse lol, want to use when you charge ? NOPE! I know it will fast charge but still, stupid.

And yeh just checked MacTracker and my MBP has one of them funky touchpads but i have not noticed it. Sure most of the time i use it with my CST( well Universal Desktop Systems but still) Trackball but i was using it today and it just feels like the older 09 MBP i had, albeit with a much more precise click, i am a convert from the older 06 MB split pad.

EDIT and yeh it is enabled just checked it.