Matty Benedetto makes delightfully silly things, like a standing keyboard instead of a standing desk, under the branding Unnecessary Inventions. All are equally whacky, but most have one thing in common: they do actually work. Sadly, this is not true of the latest UI project …
Expand Expanding Close
If you prefer mice to trackpads, but don’t want the hassle of carrying one, an Apple patent for removable MacBook keys could be the answer …
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
Apple’s Magic Mouse is both beautiful and clever in its functionality. But there’s one Magic Mouse problem so obvious and annoying, it’s become universally mocked: you can’t use the mouse while charging it.
There are five possible solutions to this …
Elevation Lab, the company behind a handful of popular Apple accessories, is today announcing its latest product: MagicGrips. The company says that this accessory is designed to work with the Magic Mouse and makes it easier to grip.
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” /]
Update: YouTuber DetroitBORG has now shared a video of Apple’s new Magic Keyboard, as well. You can view his review, hands-on, and unboxing below.
Update 2: Grand finale — Magic Trackpad 2 gets the same DetroitBORG treatment below.
Expand
Expanding
Close
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
It appears plans for future Apple wireless accessories have (again) been spoiled by the FCC. According to a pair of filings that hit the organization’s website yesterday, Apple is preparing to soon debut new versions of its Bluetooth Magic Mouse and Wireless Keyboard. According to images indicating the FCC label location on the accessories, the new mouse will be called the “Magic Mouse 2.” As for the new wireless keyboard, there are no indications of a name change as of yet.
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…
Be sure to follow 9to5Toys to keep up with the best gear and deals on the web: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+.
Today’s can’t miss deals:
Other great deals from today:
The best deals that are still alive:
Mac software bundles:
New product announcements & reviews:
As per Mark’s scoop last week, Staples has indeed begun selling the iPad and is offering the full line with 5% back in Staples gift cards. Staples now also carries every iPod model including the iPod touch, Classic, Nano and shuffle. You can now order the iPad from its online stores (which will begin shipping next week), and if online sales go well, through its physical retail stores early next year. Staples will also begin putting up iPad kiosks in its stores next week.
You’ll recall from our iPad Product Page, we’d probably recommend holding off the purchase of any iPad because Apple will likely update its line in October. However, those companies with Staples purchasing accounts will now be able to scoop up an iPad on the corporate account.
Staples began carrying Apple products in the US earlier this year and would seem to be doing well at it as evidenced by the expanding line of products.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Logitech is announcing a line of new super slim, touch enabled Bluetooth mice today that might finally give Mac users a great alternative to Apple’s own multi-touch Magic Mouse. While both mouses feature the same specs and multi-touch enabled surface, Logitech is marketing the black version for Windows Ultrabook users, while the white version has been made specifically for OS X users to match the all-aluminum body of MacBooks.
“Whether it’s a computer, tablet, smartphone or touch-navigation device, people are looking for thin, modern design that works fluidly,” said Charlotte Johs, Logitech global vice president of brand development. “We created the Logitech Ultrathin Touch Mouse to give people an ultraportable mouse that complements today’s MacBook and Ultrabook computers.”
The Logitech Ultrathin Touch Mouse T631 for Mac (as well as the T630 for Ultrabooks) features a brushed metallic body, “feather-light” design at 70g, and comes in at 85 mm x 59mm x 18 mm. It also includes USB charging, Logitech’s Easy-Switch Bluetooth technology for switching between devices, and optimizations for OS X touch gestures. The company says you can expect to get around 1 hour of use from 1 minute of charge time. Logitech clarified that the mouse gets around 10 hours max battery life on a full charge:
the Logitech Ultrathin Touch Mouse is much longer than one hour — it can last up to 10 days on a full charge, based on typical user experiences. It charges very quickly, and just one minute of charge time will give you up to one hour of power.
The Logitech Ultrathin Touch Mouse T631 for Mac in white will be available in the US and Europe in November, while the Ultrathin Touch Mouse T630 in black will be available in both markets starting in next month. Both will sell for $69.99 and are available to preorder now through Logitech’s website starting today.
A company called AnoStyle offers a unique method of anodization that permanently alters the color of an iPhone 5 or iPad mini, and it just became available internationally last week, so I decided to give it a whirl and turn my black iPhone into gold.
There isn’t much to report besides everything turned out great and I love the result. It feels and looks like my iPhone, only in gold. The only con to AnoStyle, at least for the gold color option, is that the text below “iPhone” on the back is now extremely faint. Other than that, I feel like I own a limited edition iPhone (dusts shoulder off), and at least four people have asked me how I managed to snag a gold iPhone.
There is clearly a huge, untapped interest in colorful iPhones. Numerous reports in recent months suggested Apple could soon introduce a new iPhone in colors other than black and white. The news isn’t really that surprising, as Apple already offers a line of aluminum iPod touches in multiple colors. From my experience in the last 24 hours, varied color options would certainly be a standout and attractive feature (especially if the company were to launch an “S” iPhone instead of a full refresh this year).
In the meantime, however, there is AnoStyle: it costs $249 for the iPhone 5 and $299 for the iPad mini. The steep price is a bit of a hurdle for some, but it’s still perfectly worth the money and a great way to customize an iOS device.
More information about the AnoStyle process, as well as information about the resale value and which companies still offer top dollar for iOS devices despite modification, is below.
For a few years now PC manufacturers have been attempting to pack a touchscreen into their all-in-one iMac competitors. It’s a feature Steve Jobs made clear back in 2010 that Apple had spent significant time testing on Macs before determining touch was “ergonomically terrible” on a vertical display. Steve noted “you start to fatigue and after an extended period of time, your arm wants to fall off.” While that does not mean Apple will never do it (see iPad mini), for now Apple has made its bet on hand gestures staying horizontal on Macs– trackpads in its notebooks, and multi-touch gestures with Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad for desktops.
Third-party touchscreen solutions for Mac do exist: Troll Touch will install a resistive touch panel on your Mac for no less than $800 and up. However, with that price on top of the cost of the iMac itself… for obvious reasons it has not been an extremely popular solution. We’ve been playing with what appears to be the only affordable product on the market bringing touchscreen like gestures to iMac, the $199 Zorro Macsk from Shenzhen based TMDtouch.
Early reviews of the Zorro Macsk should perhaps be updated, as we’ve been playing with the product following an update at the end of October that the company said vastly improved performance and fixed many of the issues reviewers were experiencing.
Expand
Expanding
Close
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
Cult of Mac claims that a previously reliable source told them that Magic Mouse inventory is not being replenished at Apple Stores. From this, they say that the Magic Mouse will soon be discontinued.
The move would make sense given that OS X Lion is heavily gesture based, but it also does not make sense for a couple of reasons.
OS X Lion still supports the touch-capable Magic Mouse and it is the perfect option from Apple for those who are not a fan of many gestures…or for those desktop users that are learning gestures.
From what we have seen, stock of the Magic Mouse appears to be pretty normal at online retailers such as Amazon. We also haven’t heard anything out of our stock channels, so we are a bit skeptical. It still would not be completely surprising for the company who killed the optical drive to the kill the mouse.
Update: We’ve heard from one untested Central European source that Magic Mice supplies are constrained, but can’t draw any conclusions based on that.
Update 2: Cult of Mac says the Magic Mouse has been resurrected.
Update 3: The part number for the Magic Mouse is not discontinued. A refresh is certainly possible but it likely is not imminent.