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Apple Announces Redesigned Magic Keyboard for iPad Air

Johnny907 said:
So the circle isn’t weird, it’s the behavior of the circle that will drive you up the bleeping wall. It acts like a tablet, not a computer, in that the stupid circle likes to jump around to what it THINKS you’re trying to do instead of what you’re actually trying to do. Half the time I end up just touching the screen anyway because it’s faster.
I’ve sent bug reports for two years but it still hasn’t been addressed.
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That's good to know. I thought it felt weird, but didn't spend enough time using it to really know how it behaved. Thanks for the response!
 
snipr125 said:
Its got to have backlit keys, there is no way they would remove it, because you need it in dark areas obviously. It will have fixed backlit keys for sure, just not adaptive.
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I hope you're correct, it's just odd it's not mentioned. I'll look for reactions once people get them
 
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I hate these new keyboards that force the trackpad on us...WHY DO I NEED A TRACKPAD ON A TOUCH DEVICE?! What I want is an updated version of the much more elegant SMART Keyboard Folio!!!! Ugh. At least this isn't as cumbersome and egregiously heavy as the Apple Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro (which weighs MORE than the iPad!)...and to add insult to injury, why is this only available in white?
 
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Very costly but expected pricing for iPad keyboard. Surprised to see only one color for the keyboard. Lack of backlight is disappointing.
 
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tomtad said:
View attachment 2488241

Finally the camera cut out fits properly! The previous one which had the larger cut out clearly meant for the Pro annoyed the hell out of me and was clearly just trying to get rid of old stock while charging full price. Tim, you have to love him.

View attachment 2488242

This is looking potentially a bit rock-tastic with the metal hinge not sitting flush with the table. There's a similar design flaw with the Pro Magic Keyboard and with the Air being thicker/heavier than the Pro I can only imagine this issue will be exacerbated. I really hope this isn't the case.
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I have the current pro with the new hinge and had the old version before it. Honestly it’s not a huge issue for me. Touching the iPad in the keyboard mode is quite rare anyways and when you do need to touch it more often than not there’s already another hand on the keyboard.
 
I know the newly released magic keyboard works with older versions, but wasn't sure if the older M2 Air Keyboard works with the new iPad Air M3....would assume so but double checking.

Reason I ask is because the new one is white and doesn't have backlighting, whereas the older M2 keyboard come in black and has backlighting
 
hpnas said:
So will the M2 Air Magic Keyboard with backlighting not work at all with the new M3 iPad Air? I need a magic keyboard with backlighting (and prefer black) so thinking I may need to just go for the iPad Air M2 13" instead of the new M3 for the sake of the keyboard
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Smells like planned obsolescence. It’s not only their pricing which is offensive, but this kind of endless gouging 🤬
 
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anshuvorty said:
Just freakin get a mac mini entry model at this point - by the time you add the keyboard to the entry model of this iPad, you are already paying more than the mac mini and you can do way more with the mac mini than with the iPad + keyboard accessory. I still don't understand who is even buying this combination...
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How's the battery life on that Mac Mini? Can you balance the Mini, keyboard, mouse, and display on your lap?
 
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Schrödinger’s said:
Smells like planned obsolescence. It’s not only their pricing which is offensive, but this kind of endless gouging 🤬
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Right but do we have any confirmation that it will NOT work? I think it's available for $270 which is less than the new one and comes in black with backlighting. Thinking this + the M2 for $100 off is the solution
 
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Squidiey said:
Lesson of Life: iPads are iPads, and will remain iPads forever, so please, don’t treat it as a Macintosh
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Then, why add these desktop-cenric features to it?
  • split view
  • slide over
  • desktop mode on Safari
  • Files app
  • Erasing an external drive
  • expanded external drive file format support
  • Stage Manager
  • Cursor support
 
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Johnny907 said:
So the circle isn’t weird, it’s the behavior of the circle that will drive you up the bleeping wall. It acts like a tablet, not a computer, in that the stupid circle likes to jump around to what it THINKS you’re trying to do instead of what you’re actually trying to do. Half the time I end up just touching the screen anyway because it’s faster.
I’ve sent bug reports for two years but it still hasn’t been addressed.
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It's not a bug it's a feature. It intentionally snaps to buttons and actionable things.
 
My 'old' Magic KB for my 5-th gen iPad Air is, hands down, the best keyboard I have ever used. Friends, I have used a ****load of keybords. If I can still use that with the new Airs, I am not upgrading. This white thingie does not look better, but I may go in to the store and give it a shot. That's the thing about evaluating keyboards, it is a very hands-on experience!🍸😹🍸🙀
 
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Adelphos33 said:
Any of the recent iPad Airs or Pros are much better machines than MacBooks for things like content watching, monitoring your finances, and other such tasks. Why? Because app developers actually make and optimize many of these apps for the iPad. The iPad Pro with these Magic Keyboards have been around for several years and are very popular machines. Also remember - many people own iPad Pros and iPhones, and have Windows laptops/PCs. The iPad is their preferred large format Apple machine, and they get their computing power outside of the Apple ecosystem.
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I guess it depends on one's priorities. I do use an iPad for content watching and it's nice. But the price is still kind of eye watering just for that use case, especially with the Magic Keyboard.

We'll have to agree to disagree on whether iPad apps are better. And what ever happened to seamlessly running iPad apps on the Mac, anyway? That was touted as one of the major benefits of Apple Silicon, and they even briefly opted all the apps in. And then they let developers opt out, and basically every one of them did.

It's just weird to me that for the same price you can choose MacBook Air or iPad Air, MacBook Pro or iPad Pro. To me the iPads are lesser devices, but apparently there is enough of a market for that.
 
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