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Apple Stops Selling Magic Accessories in Space Gray

seadragon said:
To be honest, I haven't tried the Bluetooth connection. I have mine connected with the USB Unifying dongle. I really like the ergonomics of the mouse in particular.
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I use the dongle also, and the experience is fantastic. No lag or anything.
I highly recommend the Logitech MX to everyone - best keyboard and mouse combo I have ever used [by quite a margin].
Doesn’t look as good as the Apple combo, but when using a computer all day comfort always wins
 
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cmaier said:
That doesn’t seem to match at all.
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cmaier said:
That doesn’t seem to match at all.
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Try this angle. The grey is precisely the same. Obviously the key background is different but, all in all, this keyboard is arguably better than the Apple one.
 

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Wonder if that means a new color for the big iMac or if it's also going the colorful route?

Anyways, for the keyboard it doesn't matter to me. I don't care for Apple flat keyboards. Now if they remade the Apple Extended Keyboard II or Apple Adjustable Keyboard in colored aluminum. With pre-93 grade Alps switches or equivalent and removable batteries. I'd be all over that.
 
Imperial926 said:
Try this angle. The grey is precisely the same. Obviously the key background is different but, all in all, this keyboard is arguably better than the Apple one.
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I have the MX keyboard and mouse together with the LG Apple monitors.
They go perfectly together and actually look better than Apple keyboard and mouse with the monitors [I have all of them].

However, if Apple were actually to launch a monitor that looks like the new imac, then I would consider the Apple keyboard again.

Funny isn’t it though, because Apple doesn’t make a monitor, theit peripherals don’t match, and others [like the MX] match the monitors better.
It only makes sense really when using an iMac…….. so illogical its untrue
 
If there was a thing Apple should have stopped making, then it's that darn bar-soap of a mouse.

Apple knows what they are doing of course. And a new iMac M1 24" in Space Grey is most certainly coming.
 
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Still got the 2010 or something Apple wired keyboard with numberpad. I've even tried high-end mechanical keyboards but always go back to the Apple KB. I don't get why people want keys with more travel than a Countach clutch pedal and keycaps shaped to prevent your fingers from gliding across them quickly.

On the other side, Apple's mice are bad. The Mighty Mouse was their best one, and it suffered from eventual scroll ball failure. The Magic Trackpad is good, but I don't count it as a mouse. The random cheap wireless (w/ dongle ofc) gaming mouse I bought on Amazon is working well.
 
Doesn't make sense to discontinue them since the Space Gray mac mini is still being sold... even if they are planning to release a newer version in space gray, they should have waited until they actually launched the new set... makes me think they just do it to cause a panic and sell out the stock at full price.
 
Imperial926 said:
Just buy a Logitech Craft keyboard. Mine matches the Apple Trackpad perfectly, although the light in this quickly-taken snap doesn't do them justice.

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I personally feel the Satechi Slim X3 Bluetooth Backlit Keyboard is the closest on the market you can get to the official Apple space grey full keyboard.
 

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I always found that the white keyboards and mouse looked dirty rather quickly. The white trackpad was not so bad. However, aesthetically, I hated the white keyboard/mouse/trackpad, but that is just me. Unfortunately the grey/black alternatives from 3rd parties always seemed to have significant issues with the pairing process and would loose connection at regular intervals (I used them, or tried to, with iMacs from 2001 until 2020), requiring me to reconnect them as I was desparately trying to type a critical email or edit a crucial document. So the Apple products worked fine but I was more than happy with the space grey keyboard/mouse/trackpad which is probably why they discontinued them.

I do know that the color matched keyboards for the new iMac look hideous to me. Call me old fashioned, but I would be completely happy with a space grey iMac and matching keyboards if I had a choice. The machines retire into the background rather than making a statement. But again that is my aesthetic which appears to be not where Apple is going. I am not going to stop using Apple machines because of their, in my opinion, ill considered color choices. But I am going to stop using them if they keep building machine that are not assembled correctly (see the skewed display issue on the new M1 24" iMac) and the software keeps taking the dive into Windows reliability territory (I use Windows and MacOS machines daily). The pain level in current software releases is very high and it is getting increasingly difficult to justify the investment in these machines. The "they just work" mantra is long gone and the loss of the keyboards I like is just another nail (albeit small) in the Apple coffin. Death by a thousand cuts as they say.
 
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OWC sells a set of keyboards that look like Apple keyboards
https://eshop.macsales.com/search/?filter.catidpath=4368&filter.manufacturer=Matias

The quality is not as good as Apple's. I think they lack proper debounce so you may occasionally see a single keypress appear twice which is mildly annoying (otherwise the keys/typing feels the same). The ink on the keycaps fades quickly on keys you use most (such as "S" for Save or Down Arrow, then "C" and "V" for Copy and Paste, and Left and Right Arrow) but usually I'm not looking at the keys.

The dimensions are slightly different - the Spacebar, Delete, Back Slash, Return, and Right Shift keys are significantly wider. The functions keys are only slightly wider and only those between Escape and Eject inclusive.

The keyboards are USB 2.0 instead of USB 1.1, so they can't be used during boot on old Power Macs (Apple keyboard is also USB 2.0 but the keyboard device is USB 1.1 connected internally to the USB 2.0 hub of the keyboard). I haven't tried the wireless or Space Gray models.

I don't know if there are matching mice and trackpads. I usually use a third party mouse but the scrolling ability of the Magic Mouse and Apple trackpad are sometimes very useful.
 
opeter said:
May be, maybe not.
I think we will see black version of these "pro" Macs or whatever they will be called.
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Maybe not. Someone told me (and I did a little internet research on that topic afterwards) that eloxating aluminium to get a deep black is very hard and expensive. That's why they use "Space Gray". It's light enough to be machined easy.

I doubt Apple will make black eloxated aluminium product as the manufacturing cost increase is quite a bit which would cut into their sweet profits (or the black one would be quite a bit more expensive just for the color)
 
Bad that space grey mouse /keyboard is discontinued. But hoping that at least keyboards/mouse with the same colours of the 24" iMac will be available to buy separately.
 
IceStormNG said:
Maybe not. Someone told me (and I did a little internet research on that topic afterwards) that eloxating aluminium to get a deep black is very hard and expensive. That's why they use "Space Gray". It's light enough to be machined easy.

I doubt Apple will make black eloxated aluminium product as the manufacturing cost increase is quite a bit which would cut into their sweet profits (or the black one would be quite a bit more expensive just for the color)
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Yes that is true.
They can also abandon the use of dark/grey/black colors for some years and leave only the silver for now.

It can also happen, that they ditch the aluminium casing for something else, that is more simpler to build and also "eco-friendly".

Some type of wood perhaps? ;)
 
I hope they soon release an update to the Magic Mouse 2. Have the space grey keyboard but still use an ancient Mighty Mouse (with cord) as I always felt that the Magic Mouse was a suboptimal design.
 
coolajami said:
I'm curious about the rationale behind this decision. Apple accessories in space grey are very popular in the secondary market and it would be fair to assume that the same happens in the primary market.
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I think they are trying to get rid of overstock now that the iMac Pro has been discontinued.

my space grey iMac Pro keyboard has as a caps-lock key that "feels" a bit sticky, tho it works perfectly well. I may invest in one of these as a backup.

I love having a numeric keypad, its extremely helpful to my workflow.
 
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Khedron said:
Tim is there to count pennies not provide leadership. Once the transition to Apple silicon is complete there will naturally be some coherence again. In the meantime things will occasionally be out of sync as different departments move at different speeds.
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That’s rich. You’re going to say what Tim Cook is or is not and you have no idea what his job is on a daily basis. He runs a multi-trillion dollar corporation. Think you can do better?
 
Maconplasma said:
That’s rich. You’re going to say what Tim Cook is or is not and you have no idea what his job is on a daily basis. He runs a multi-trillion dollar corporation. Think you can do better?
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You proved my point. It’s all about the value of the company. When Steve was in charge people talked a lot more about the details of products and a lot less about the stock price.
 
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I do not care about the space grey MX mouse and keyboard. I care about the new colour released for iMac.
 
I just want them to start selling the iMac keyboard as a stand-alone because I want TouchID for my Mac mini. The Unlock with Apple Watch feature stinks.
 
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