USB-C Magic Keyboard, Mouse, and Trackpad Could Arrive in Spring 2024

[dcny]

I can’t agree more. The placement I feel was on purpose. You’re not suppose to use it while charging. Most people would probably leave it plugged in constantly, which would defeat the purpose of the mouse being wireless… and pretty much kill the battery.

Do you believe your behavior is representative of the majority? Just because a device can be used while charging doesn't necessarily mean people continuously keep it plugged in. For instance, with your phone, do you leave it connected to the charger all the time? Have you noticed any adverse effects on the battery life due to constant charging?

 

[flybass]

For the ridiculous price charged the Apple keyboard really needs backlighting. Who cares about the cable connection?

 

[StudioMacs]

Oh, so these keyboards use the cable for the connection, not just charging, when plugged in? I didn’t know that.

Yep. It becomes a usb keyboard when plugged in, so there is no need to wait for the Bluetooth pairing at startup. When the keyboard isn’t plugged in, I‘m halfway through my password before it actually connects wirelessly.

 

[roadkill401]

I would agree with the side of the plug being at this point irrelevant. It can even be more waste to some as if you consider that what mac ships with a keyboard now? it comes attached to a laptop, but the mini and the studio sure do not. So it's pretty much assumed that you'd already own a keyboard and a mouse or touch device. Now if you are needing to upgrade one of the devices because it's now defective, as everything that you currently own is lightning, then getting a new keyboard that is usb-c means now you need another cable.

I guess from my side that I own an iPad and and iPhone along with my mini, I already have to have two cables as the iPad needs usb-c and the phone with the keyboard/mouse/touchpad all running off of lightning, there is a waste of a port that I could be using for something else. I personally have a 5+1 usb hub with the +1 being a charge port with no data. I can plug the K/M/T into that when they need charge and still have them run off bluetooth so the battery icon is shown on the screen.

I likely would only upgrade my keyboard if they release one with a good backlight.

 

[t0rqx]

Typing with a keyboard with Vision Pro is only possible on the new USB-C keyboard with M2, cause the lightning version is not powerful enough to send the wireless characters to the Vision Pro headset.

 

[SanderEvers]

Apple should make a keyboard with a built in M3 cpu (+ ram and storage) and trackpad, 2 USB-C ports (one to a monitor + power, one for something else). They should call it the Mac Portable. Basically a MacBook without a screen or battery.

 

[Phoneless]

I couldn't wait any longer, so I just used the gift card I earned for buying Airpod Pros on Black Friday to get a TouchID Extended Keyboard and Trackpad (both in Black, nice!)

 

[goobot]

Gotta space it out a bit to make all the new iMac owners upgrade their keyboard and mouse

 

[JDHiro]

I'm kinda hoping they have a bigger design update in store, especially for the mouse (but I doubt it).

As a 'pro' user that uses my Mac all day, the Logitech MX S3 blows away the Magic Mouse, even though the OS integration is WAY worse.

Apple can, and should, make a better pro mouse that's up with the times and doesn't have the weird charging flaws. The Magic Mouse is FIFTEEN YEARS OLD at this point. Previous Apple mice were updated within 2-5 years. WTF has this weird design stuck around for so long?

 

[svish]

Not sure whether Apple will launch the Magic accessories separately without a new iMac launch. Spring 2024 seems too early for an iMac release

 

[Tagbert]

Never mind …

 

[auramac]

What to do with all the Lightning cables that I have collected

Like others, just whine.

 

[n-evo]

Not sure whether Apple will launch the Magic accessories separately without a new iMac launch. Spring 2024 seems too early for an iMac release

It’s not like the iMac is the only use case.

 

[ipaqrat]

I can’t agree more. The placement I feel was on purpose. You’re not suppose to use it while charging. Most people would probably leave it plugged in constantly, which would defeat the purpose of the mouse being wireless… and pretty much kill the battery.

Do you believe your behavior is representative of the majority? Just because a device can be used while charging doesn't necessarily mean people continuously keep it plugged in. For instance, with your phone, do you leave it connected to the charger all the time? Have you noticed any adverse effects on the battery life due to constant charging?

👍 DCNY. As I understand the behavior of Lithium Ion batteries operating on controllers, the battery cells aren't impacted by charge time, but by charge cycles and the speed/voltage of charging. Leaving it connected wouldn't be a problem - other than the cable. And assuming the controller is well built and programmed, which can be a risky assumption, like, "I swear, Fire Marshall Bill! A dang mouse burn down my house!" (calling out runaway battery fires from scooters and skateboards. And cars. And buses. And airplanes. And boats. And cars on boats.

That said, I typically keep right on working with my Logitech MX3 Anywhere mouse, connected with a cable, for the hours it takes to slow-charge. No big deal for grownups, who remember cabled meeces. Apparently, modern generations are horrified by monumental effort it takes to push a mouse with a cable. Maybe there should be a finger-wrist machine at the LA Fitness so they could buff up to take the punishment of occasional cabling. I used to hike to school through snowy woods and all I had to fight off the bears was a mouse with a cable!

In my government agencies, over the years, we have disabled BT on all Government Furnished Equipment (GFE). BT methods and encryption have always been weak; matter of fact, BT has been hard-compromised recently. CVE-2022-45866, CVE-2023-24023.

 

[Tyler O'Bannon]

Will the M3 iMac switch to these mid-cycle? Or will they continue to ship with lightning until M4 (or if it skips a generation again, M5)?

 

[Chuckeee]

Will the M3 iMac switch to these mid-cycle? Or will they continue to ship with lightning until M4 (or if it skips a generation again, M5)?

Make it a BTO paid upgrade?

 

[iSandrotto]

Will the M3 iMac switch to these mid-cycle? Or will they continue to ship with lightning until M4 (or if it skips a generation again, M5)?

I'd guess they would simply switch to the USB-C peripherals. It's a minor update if only the connector changes. And even if they redesigned the hardware beyond the connector, I assume they would simply offer it with the iMac automatically once they are announced.
Maybe they had plans to announce this together with the iMac this year but due to some supply chain issues they weren't able to. Also, it might be a sign that the M3 Mac Studio and potentially Mac Pro will also be announced in spring alongside the peripherals? Otherwise, it would be a bit awkward to only announce the Magic accessories without any desktop hardware to go along with it.
We'll soon find out...

 

[Tagbert]

👍 DCNY. As I understand the behavior of Lithium Ion batteries operating on controllers, the battery cells aren't impacted by charge time, but by charge cycles and the speed/voltage of charging. Leaving it connected wouldn't be a problem - other than the cable. And assuming the controller is well built and programmed, which can be a risky assumption, like, "I swear, Fire Marshall Bill! A dang mouse burn down my house!" (calling out runaway battery fires from scooters and skateboards. And cars. And buses. And airplanes. And boats. And cars on boats.

That said, I typically keep right on working with my Logitech MX3 Anywhere mouse, connected with a cable, for the hours it takes to slow-charge. No big deal for grownups, who remember cabled meeces. Apparently, modern generations are horrified by monumental effort it takes to push a mouse with a cable. Maybe there should be a finger-wrist machine at the LA Fitness so they could buff up to take the punishment of occasional cabling. I used to hike to school through snowy woods and all I had to fight off the bears was a mouse with a cable!

In my government agencies, over the years, we have disabled BT on all Government Furnished Equipment (GFE). BT methods and encryption have always been weak; matter of fact, BT has been hard-compromised recently. CVE-2022-45866, CVE-2023-24023.

All lithium ion batteries degrade spontaneously over time at a slow rate. When a battery sits at 100% charge it will degrade more quickly than at a lower charge state. That is why Apple recently introduced an option to limit your iPhone charge to 80%. They also have also have “optimized charging” schemes for the iPhone and similar for the Mac and Watch.

A battery powered mouse would probably need a way to limit the charge levels if it was plugged in all the time to reduce the aging rate of the battery.

 

[thays133]

I can’t agree more. The placement I feel was on purpose. You’re not suppose to use it while charging. Most people would probably leave it plugged in constantly, which would defeat the purpose of the mouse being wireless… and pretty much kill the battery.

I doubt that. I don't just doubt that but know you are wrong. Most would not. We have plenty of mice out there that can be used while charging and what you will find is most of them will NOT be charging while in use. The plug in when it gets low and move on. Big time if you own and use a laptop.

Let's look at magic keyboard and track pad under your logic those should not be able to be used while plugged in but they can be and they are not left plugged in all the time by people either and mice are even less likely.

 

[Lioness~]

For the ridiculous price charged the Apple keyboard really needs backlighting. Who cares about the cable connection?

Too late for me, I bought a Benq ScreenBar Halo, it serves my desk a lot better actually.

So if Apple comes out with KB with back-lightning now, not a chance I'll upgrade.
I bought the new keyboard before touch-id, and then not long after the one with touch-id.
But it wouldn't surprise me that Apple comes out a new version, with minimal upgrade, just for the $ but no interest for me.

 

[Mitochris]

A lot of people. It not always an option when your mouse dies when you are in the middle of using it. My have had my MX mouse die on me while I was using it. Guess what I was able to quickly plug it in and keep using it while it charged. A lot of people like me will see oh low charge and that is a later problem or just slips my mind. I rather just plug it in and keep using it.
Also if you think a charging cable is 2 thick then I think you have some other issue as most cables are pretty light and not even noticable. Just annoying and might get in the way.

I just don’t understand the complaint about the mouse charging. It tells you days if not weeks before that you should charge it. If you didn’t manage to charge it it’s on you.
The first time the message comes up you take the cable out of the drawer and put it on your desk so you won’t forget to plug it in when you leave.

 

[Adelphos33]

I'd guess they would simply switch to the USB-C peripherals. It's a minor update if only the connector changes. And even if they redesigned the hardware beyond the connector, I assume they would simply offer it with the iMac automatically once they are announced.
Maybe they had plans to announce this together with the iMac this year but due to some supply chain issues they weren't able to. Also, it might be a sign that the M3 Mac Studio and potentially Mac Pro will also be announced in spring alongside the peripherals? Otherwise, it would be a bit awkward to only announce the Magic accessories without any desktop hardware to go along with it.
We'll soon find out...

I'm not sure... you would have to change things for several colors and styles (numeric keyboard). Each iMac comes with a color matched lightning cable. What benefit does adding USB-C add to the iMac peripherals bring?

 

[thays133]

I just don’t understand the complaint about the mouse charging. It tells you days if not weeks before that you should charge it. If you didn’t manage to charge it it’s on you.
The first time the message comes up you take the cable out of the drawer and put it on your desk so you won’t forget to plug it in when you leave.

Well tells you for a long time. Also if some has a work laptop how are they going to charge it over night. Laptop goes with them home.

Also in my case the magic mouse is honestly relegated to a travel mouse so it can often times get completely drained before I even know. Mouse is useless until it is charged so how to charge it when I needed it.

I find it laughable at the blind defense of Apple for putting that critical port on the bottom. What is one good reason for putting the charging port on the underside of the mouse? It is a classical form before function. The magic mouse is a poor pretty looking mouse.

 

[boston04and07]

MagSafe battery with usb c for iPhone too ? Or that rumor never turned out to be be true ?

Yes, this. This was rumored to be coming when the iPhone 15 launched but it never did. I’d love an updated version with usb-c, a larger capacity, and the ability to work with the iPad (by either plugging the iPad into the usb-c port or bringing wireless charging to the iPad itself).

 

[iSandrotto]

I'm not sure... you would have to change things for several colors and styles (numeric keyboard). Each iMac comes with a color matched lightning cable. What benefit does adding USB-C add to the iMac peripherals bring?

Wasn't the reason Apple made the switch to USB-C new regulation from the EU that will become active by the end of 2024? If so, I would assume that Apple is even forced to change to USB-C for their peripherals. Even if that is not the case, they would have to make the switch at some point and it would be weird if you could buy USB-C peripherals for say a Mac Studio while at the same time they would still ship the old versions with the iMac and Mac Pro.