Does Apple Magic Keyboard work with iMac G4?

[Riku7]

Beloved solar powered Logitech K760 keyboard finally died, it started acting like the wrong keys were pressed down so some traces have probably worn out and shorted. I haven't found any K760s for sale in used condition so I guess I won't be getting one back.
I'd like to replace it with a keyboard that has Mac layout and no number pad. I don't care if it's wired or wireless. Since there's not a lot of keyboards with Mac layout in general, I'm also considering buying the current Apple keyboard, but I'm uncertain:

Does the newest Apple Magic Keyboard work with iMac G4 running Tiger? Because according to the specs, you need 10.11, but actually, what is that info technically based on? What's so different about that keyboard? It seems so weird that Apple aren't selling a wired version of the keyboards anymore. My G4 has a wireless dongle for WiFi and that's what allowed the K760 to connect to it too. It has an Airport card but I don't think it's registering it at the moment, and because of the dongle, I don't really mind.

 

[eyoungren]

Beloved solar powered Logitech K760 keyboard finally died, it started acting like the wrong keys were pressed down so some traces have probably worn out and shorted. I haven't found any K760s for sale in used condition so I guess I won't be getting one back.
I'd like to replace it with a keyboard that has Mac layout and no number pad. I don't care if it's wired or wireless. Since there's not a lot of keyboards with Mac layout in general, I'm also considering buying the current Apple keyboard, but I'm uncertain:

Does the newest Apple Magic Keyboard work with iMac G4 running Tiger? Because according to the specs, you need 10.11, but actually, what is that info technically based on? What's so different about that keyboard? It seems so weird that Apple aren't selling a wired version of the keyboards anymore. My G4 has a wireless dongle for WiFi and that's what allowed the K760 to connect to it too. It has an Airport card but I don't think it's registering it at the moment, and because of the dongle, I don't really mind.

Apple's wireless keyboards are Bluetooth. So, you're going to need that. Either a stock part, if your Mac supports BT stock, or via some sort of USB adapter (Belkin makes a series that give you BT natively).

There is a BT update that allows the Magic Mouse to work with Leopard-based Macs so I imagine there's probably something out there along those lines. But you need to have BT first.

 

[Toyface19]

I'm not sure - as I've not tried it, but I did used to a Magic Keyboard and a Magic Trackpad 2 on my Mac Pro 2009 with the default Bluetooth chip (which I think was a 2.1 EDR affair?) and they both worked fine, I think that the usual Mac OS minimum requirements are due to how they appear when connected and so on. I think it would work, maybe with a Bluetooth dongle I don't know, but if the keyboard reports itself "specially" in such a way that requires OS 10.11 then it won't work. I guess if it doesn't work you could get the smaller wired USB keyboard they did for a bit, or the wider one which was a personal favourite of mine.

 

[eyoungren]

DELETE PLEASE, FORUM MALFUNCTION.

 

[eyoungren]

I think that the usual Mac OS minimum requirements are due to how they appear when connected and so on.

I've found it based on the feature set. If a specific version of OS X cannot provide the complete feature set then Apple will say it needs a higher version.

For instance, the Magic Mouse I mentioned above does not come with full support for all the MM gestures. For Apple, that means OS X 10.5 is not supported by the Magic Mouse. But the base functionality, including scrolling when using the top of the mouse is fully functional.

I imagine that in this case, the minimum is because the full features of the keyboard are not supported on versions lower than 10.11 - hence the system requirement.

 

[Amethyst1]

Does the newest Apple Magic Keyboard work with iMac G4 running Tiger?

Yes - I have successfully used it with a PowerBook G4 running Tiger both wired and wirelessly. The top row shortcuts (brightness, volume etc.) expectedly didn't work.

 

[Prorege1]

The Apple Magic Keyboard is nice, but I'm missing some backlight to the keys, so I just ordered this one with Mac layout:

Keychron K2 Wireless Mechanical Keyboard for Mac and Windows

Keychron K2 is a 75% layout tactile wireless mechanical keyboard giving you all the keys and functions you need while keeping it compact. With the largest battery seen in a mechanical board, Mac layout, connect up to 3 devices, comes with wired cable option, and 15+ types of RGB lighting option.

www.keychron.com

 

[Riku7]

But you need to have BT first.

Yeah, the WiFi dongle adds both. I'm successfully using Magic Mouse on it when the dongle is plugged in. Some cheap random eBay one, plug and play.

I imagine that in this case, the minimum is because the full features of the keyboard are not supported on versions lower than 10.11 - hence the system requirement.

Ah okay, that makes sense. So they don't officially promise that all features work, but it may work to a certain degree (about which they don't care about, thus it's up to you to find out). Yeah, I managed to get my Magic Mouse scrolling enabled too, but I never even noticed that it would be somehow 'incomplete' because I had completely forgotten about the fact that the Magic Mouse is capable of all those trackpad-like gestures as well; So in that case, I'm not missing any features because I didn't even remember them.

I guess if it doesn't work you could get the smaller wired USB keyboard they did for a bit, or the wider one which was a personal favourite of mine.

Yeah I have a full sized wired one on my main computer but honestly I'd ideally take a numpad-less one for the G4 because I use the numpad keys as special shortcut keys with BetterTouchTool, and since BTT isn't available for the G4 system, I don't care about those keys; If anything, for a right handed person the numpad causes a highly unergonomic position by barging into the middle of things; Surely the numpad should be on the left side so you could have the actual typing keys right in front of you and the mouse not too far away. I own the G4 primarily to type in a distraction-free environment so yeah, a compact one would be ideal. It's just strange that they don't make wired ones anymore, surely they're great if there's something wrong with the computer's connectivity and you need to troubleshoot...

Yes - I have successfully used it with a PowerBook G4 running Tiger both wired and wirelessly. The top row shortcuts (brightness, volume etc.) expectedly didn't work.

This is what I wanted to hear: actual experience of how it went. Wired, you mean those keyboards can be used with a wired connection too? Sorry, I had just looked at some retailers and often they don't do a very extensive sales pitch or even have multiple photos describing the ways that a given product can be used. Optional wiring would actually be great.
Although, it's very surprising that the top row stuff didn't work... Because that Mac's original keyboard has those keys too (as do the slim ones), and they are actions that exist in the operating system! Volume especially is pretty crucial.

The Apple Magic Keyboard is nice, but I'm missing some backlight to the keys, so I just ordered this one with Mac layout:

Yeah, I'm not looking for a mechanical one; I already have the original mechanical keyboard and it's just exhausting to use when you type a lot, and I'm not excited about the noise either. I also use the layout of a rare language which limits my keyboard options even further. I mean I've tried English layouts and you can still type the special additional letters that my language has, but the pain comes with all the basic punctuation characters and such because for some weird reason they have to be in completely different places and then you end up pressing every key with every possible modifier just to find an asterisk or something because it's not where it has that symbol on the physical key.

 

[Amethyst1]

Wired, you mean those keyboards can be used with a wired connection too?

Yes - you can use the included Lightning-to-USB cable to both charge the keyboard's built-in battery and use it as wired keyboard - I verified this by turning BT off on the PowerBook and the keyboard continued to work.

 

[Amethyst1]

Although, it's very surprising that the top row stuff didn't work... Because that Mac's original keyboard has those keys too (as do the slim ones), and they are actions that exist in the operating system! Volume especially is pretty crucial.

This is probably because the keycodes those keys send have changed. For instance, on the Magic Keyboard "brightness up" is mapped to F2. On the older Apple keyboard introduced in 2003, it's mapped to F15. But you may be able to use e.g. Spark to manually map the top row of keys to the correct functions (I haven't tried this).

 

[repairedCheese]

Although, it's very surprising that the top row stuff didn't work... Because that Mac's original keyboard has those keys too (as do the slim ones), and they are actions that exist in the operating system! Volume especially is pretty crucial.

This is something you can actually witness with the Apple A1243 keyboard. The early ones have slightly different F3 and F4 keys, and only the older ones have full functionality on PowerPC Mac. I honestly do not know why they did it, but they broke their own standard some time around 2011.

 

[Prorege1]

Riku7 - what language layout are you looking for?

 

[Riku7]

Yes - you can use the included Lightning-to-USB cable to both charge the keyboard's built-in battery and use it as wired keyboard - I verified this by turning BT off on the PowerBook and the keyboard continued to work.

Oh, is that not a problem with those Macs' USB ports having slower speeds? Can't remember off the top of my head which models had USB 1.0 and which ones were 2.0. I have a MIDI keyboard which is USB bus powered and it doesn't work like that on the iMac G4, I have to provide it with an external power supply. Which suggests that it's probably a slower speed than on my main computer (which I can't call new or modern either).

This is probably because the keycodes those keys send have changed. For instance, on the Magic Keyboard "brightness up" is mapped to F2. On the older Apple keyboard introduced in 2003, it's mapped to F15. But you may be able to use e.g. Spark to manually map the top row of keys to the correct functions (I haven't tried this).

Thanks for the tip! I hadn't heard of Spark, I've been a hardcore user of BetterTouchTool for so long. Maybe I'll test Spark with the current keyboard just to see if F-keys can be remapped in general!

This is something you can actually witness with the Apple A1243 keyboard. The early ones have slightly different F3 and F4 keys, and only the older ones have full functionality on PowerPC Mac. I honestly do not know why they did it, but they broke their own standard some time around 2011.

That's so weird, I wonder if that explains why I felt like the mentioned Logitech solar keyboard's F-keys seemed to go weird at some point. On my main computer that is. Because if I remember correctly, they used to work according to what was printed on them, but at some point things got weird and only some of the F-keys did what it said on the tin. I tried to ask Logitech for support multiple times but they were absolutely useless, prompting me to download multiple Logitech apps which were supposed to help configurations but in reality they were completely pointless pieces of software that contained no real actions that you could perform! Well, sure, the volume buttons worked and that was the most important thing.

Riku7 - what language layout are you looking for?

Finnish. I think Sweden might also use the same layout but still, we're a tiny population compared to the other layout users. Fi/Swe keyboards don't get manufactured except by the largest global brands or locally (and I can't name any non-global keyboard brands that would've been established in Finland or Sweden.) And most keyboards that get manufactured with this layout don't have the Mac layout, so getting to tick both of those two boxes is what's so extremely unlikely.

 

[repairedCheese]

@Riku7 And specifically when we're talking about the differences between the same basic keyboard:

These aren't great, but I couldn't find any pictures of the difference online, and I did look a while. The top is an MB110/A, and the bottom an MB110/B. They otherwise share an identical keyboard layout, but Apple managed to break the otherwise normal media keys so they don't work in older versions of the Mac OS.

It also feels like no one ever really looked into this. That I had to take these pictures instead of find better online says a lot.

 

[Prorege1]

I'm from Denmark, the (mechanical) Keychron K2 keyboard I ordered is with a Nordic layout fyg.

 

[Prorege1]

Slightly better details.