Apple this week launched the new USB-C Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad, and Magic Keyboard along with the M4 Macs. While the new Macs won’t arrive until November 8, customers can already buy the new Magic accessories in stores. However, you may need to update macOS before you can pair them with your Mac.
Expand Expanding Close
Apple today announced a brand new M4 iMac, and with it the news we’ve all been waiting for: USB-C has finally been added to the Mac’s key accessories. The Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpad, and Magic Mouse are now fully USB-C, and can be ordered now in both white and black.
Expand Expanding Close
We’ve been hearing rumors about Apple gearing up to announce new M4 Macs as soon as next week, but it looks like the company also has some updates for its accessories. More specifically, the company is reportedly working on new versions of the Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad and Magic Keyboard – but you probably shouldn’t get too excited about that.
Expand Expanding Close
You may already be familiar with accessories such as AirPods and AirTag getting firmware updates with improvements. However, there are other accessories such as mouse and keyboards that also get such updates. Apple has just released new firmware for its Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad accessories – however, you probably won’t get this update for your devices.
Expand Expanding Close
While announcing the new Studio Display, Apple said it’s launching a standalone optional silver-and-black Magic Trackpad, Magic Keyboard, and Magic Mouse.
Expand Expanding Close
An Apple patent application seemingly shows a single device comprising a Mac Magic Keyboard and Trackpad, with Apple Pencil support across the entire surface of the device.
The combination could be an appealing one for a couple of reasons …
Expand Expanding Close
A patent published today suggests that Apple may have plans to allow the Apple Pencil to be used with Mac trackpads as well as the two iPad Pro models.
The patent was originally filed in 2014, when Apple referred to the Apple Pencil as ‘the stylus.’ Much of the text focuses on use of the stylus with a ‘touch screen display’ (aka an iPad), but several of the drawings show what appear to be a trackpad and iMac …
An intriguing Apple patent application published today describes how the Touch ID home button could gain additional functionality, allowing it to perform different actions in response to different fingerprints, as well as adding pressure sensors to provide it with 3D Touch type functionality.
The patent goes into a great deal of detail about the technology, with little information as to what it might be used for, but Apple does give a couple of clues. One use of different fingerprints described is to allow someone else to use your iPhone or iPad, but restrict their access to particular apps and for a limited time. The obvious application here would be allowing a child to use only specific apps and/or limit the time they are allowed to use a device …
Apple was today granted a patent for detecting touch-free gestures at close range, the patent language suggesting that the approach could build on the capabilities of multi-touch and 3D touch to respond to fingers hovering close to an iPhone or iPad display, as well as use on keyboards and trackpads.
The patent describes using sensors similar to the proximity detectors used to disable accidental touch input on the iPhone screen when you’re holding the phone to your face during a call. Unlike longer-range gesture technologies like Kinect, the system would detect ‘hover events’ just above the surface of the screen …
Apple’s recent release of the new Magic accessories … left us all a bit disappointed. Is the new Magic Keyboard, Trackpad 2, or Mouse 2 worth buying? Let’s find out. Along with that, we get into some new information regarding an official Apple TV release date and Apple Music by the numbers. Big thanks to Jamf Now (formerly Bushel) for sponsoring this week’s episode. To find out what awesome cloud-based mobile device management can do for you, check out https://www.jamf.com/happyhour.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/229373631″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”150″ iframe=”true” /]
The revamped Apple TV set top box and iPad Pro will both begin showing up in Apple Retail Stores for sale during the first week of November after going on sale via Apple’s website in late October, according to reliable sources. It is also likely that the first online orders of both products will reach customers in early November.
Apple looks to be preparing updated versions of its keyboard, trackpad, and mouse accessories for near-term release. Code freshly discovered in the latest OS X 10.11.1 beta references next-generation versions of the products, as first spotted by Consomac. We’ve confirmed the references to new Apple peripherals are not present on the current OS X release, version 10.11.0, and first appear in OS X 10.11.1, currently in beta.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Apple’s existing Force Touch mechanism
Update: Patently Apple notes that this patent has now been granted (19th April 2016).
Apple patent application published today shows that the Force Touch trackpad used in the 12-inch MacBook and latest 13-inch MacBook Pro could get more sophisticated in future versions. The patent describes how a mix of vibration and temperature could fool your finger into ‘feeling’ different surfaces, such as metal and wood.
For example, a glass surface may be controlled to have the temperature of a relatively cooler metal material and/or a relatively warmer wood material […]
In some cases, the temperature may be varied over time, such as in response to one or more touches detected using one or more touch sensors. For example, a metal material may increase in temperature while touched in response to heat from a user’s finger.
The patent describes how vibrations could be used to simulate a textured surface, such as the grain of a wooden surface …
Expand
Expanding
Close
When Apple develops a new technology or feature for its hardware, it typically rolls it out on one product then expands it to the rest of the line. For example, Touch ID launched for the iPhone in 2013 and made its way to the iPad with the iPad Air 2 in 2014. For 2015, Touch ID may make its debut on the Mac, according to a rumor from website apple.club.tw. According to the blog, which published legitimate photos of iPad Air 2 Touch ID and A8X chip components last fall, Touch ID will come to Macs this year to enable Apple Pay functionality…
I love my Apple products. I’ve used Macs since day one. My desk right now has on it my MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iPad Air, Thunderbolt Display and iPhone. Oh, and an Apple Bluetooth keyboard and Magic Trackpad, of course.
My friends are convinced that I’m incapable of leaving the house without my iPad, and I have to confess that the evidence is on their side. My car has an iPhone dock so I can listen to music and podcasts. If I’m on a plane, train or tube, it’s a near-certainty that I’ll be using my iPad or listening to music on my iPhone – or both.
I love Apple hardware design. Sleek, minimalistic, beautiful. There aren’t that many other really attractive laptops out there, and most of the ones that are have essentially copied Apple’s designs …
Expand
Expanding
Close
OS X Mavericks has numerous features and settings that make text and images more visible. In this article, I will discuss many options and methods to take advantage of those features in different ways. In pointing out many different ways, I hope to help you find a method that will be a good fit for you.
Use System Preferences, Displays Settings:
Access System Preferences from the dock or the Apple on the menu bar, and click on Displays. Then click on the Display tab. Choose Scaled, and the different resolution settings available are displayed. The options available vary, depending upon what resolution your model of the computer is capable of displaying. Adjust the settings by choosing different options—the lower the numbers are in the setting, the larger objects will be displayed. Below are examples of the display setting options you will see on a white MacBook, an older iMac, and a MacBook Pro with Retina display …
Expand
Expanding
Close
Belkin has just introduced a new YourType Wireless Keypad made to match your Mac that adds 28 keys to your setup and connects over Bluetooth. There are other options around, like turning your iPhone into a numpad using an app or using Mobee’s $23 overlay for Apple Magic Pad. But for physical keys and a design clearly made to look a lot like Apple’s own Magic Trackpad and fit in with your aluminum Mac, you can pick up the YourType Wireless Keypad for Mac from Belkin’s website now for $59.
The Wall Street Journal has a story today on HP CEO Meg Whitman “taking a cue from Apple” and planning to release a redesigned line of PCs that could one day rival Apple. While mentioning the “brick” of a company laptop she received when taking over as CEO in September 2011, Whitman discussed the company’s struggle to keep up with Apple’s product design:
As part of her plan, Ms. Whitman is counting on better-looking PCs, hoping her company might one day rival Apple Inc. as the industry’s standard bearer for sleek design…”I don’t think we kept up with the innovation,” said the 56-year-old CEO. “The whole market has moved to something that is more beautiful… Apple taught us that design really matters,” she said. “I think we’ve made a lot of progress.”
HP executive Stacy Wolff is behind the new look, which he explained uses a common color palette, standard logo size, and reduced components “so that a computer’s chassis, for example, was a single piece of metal or plastic, instead of multiple pieces.”
Not only did the change make the products look better-built, but it sometimes made them cheaper or lighter…”We’re working on a cleaner, more minimalistic look,” he said.
We already got a look at HP’s sleeker [MacBook Air] look with its new Windows 8 notebooks at IFA (pictured above) and recently announced iMac with Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad (pictured right)…
Expand
Expanding
Close
It feels like consumer PC hardware can now be defined thusly: “Make something as close as possible to an Apple product without getting sued.”
HP’s Spectre One comes with accessories that look and act almost identical to Apple counterparts including the wireless keyboard, trackpad and mouse. The screen looks like a Cinema Display with HP pasted over the Apple. The only difference is the back (which few will see).
Perhaps manufacturers are learning the wrong lesson from Samsung. Although Engadget did not notice (or mention) any resemblance beyond the “Magic Trackpad style,” just about every commenter did. Update: Engadget Editor Tim Stevens says it was too obvious to mention:
[tweet https://twitter.com/tim_stevens/status/245136336883965952]
[tweet https://twitter.com/stroughtonsmith/status/245118820098920448]
What say you? Homage or Rip-off? (Also: What is Kirf?)
Expand
Expanding
Close
