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New 12.9-inch iPad Pro Not Compatible With Older Magic Keyboard

dmylrea said:
This has already been done by me and others here, and 5 sheets of 28lb paper fits perfectly and causes no issues.
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What about the hinge? I wonder if there is there enough room between the hinge and the iPad for the additional thickness? Maybe there’s not and it doesn’t close? The fact that the new keyboard is backwards compatible tells me that somewhere at Apple they dropped the ball in not making the current keyboard with enough tolerance to support a slightly thicker iPad. These products are planned out years in advance. The accessories team had to know a thicker iPad with new display tech was in the pipeline. I guarantee there are people with older iPads who want to replace it but don’t need a new keyboard. I’m one. But if my current keyboard won’t work with the new iPad then I’ll keep the iPad I have and Apple can screw off. I’m not spending $350 on a new keyboard (that doesn’t appear to have any new functionality) when I just bought one last year that works just fine.

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ggx12 said:
"The news, first reported by French site iGeneration and confirmed via sources familiar with the matter to The Verge", so they are not just quoting the french site.

Apple is a pretty big company and pretty secretive as well, so I can see how some support staff would not have briefed yet about such a detail. I unfortunately will side with the verge and french blog on this one.
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As others have already pointed out. The Verge noted that the checked their sources and confirmed it.

But we can confirm this ourselves! Apple lists the a new keyboard for the 12.9 iPad Pro on the store if you drill down. It isn't yet available for purchase either.

www.apple.com

Magic Keyboard for iPad Air 13-inch (M2) - US English - White

Magic Keyboard delivers an amazing typing experience, has a built-in trackpad, and provides front and back protection. Buy now at apple.com.
www.apple.com

If you were to do the same for the 11" they don't list a new generation and the only keyboard they list as unavailable right now is the White Keyboard that we all know is new. So they are clearly saying they have a new keyboard here. This is as confirmed as we'll get. The question remaining is why this is happening. It obviously isn't thickness.

Screen Shot 2021-04-23 at 6.05.46 PM.png


Jonathantuba said:
I will wait and see. I have just tried closing my iPad Pro with 1/2mm of papers to try to mimic the extra thickness and it seems to work
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It isn't thickness I bet. If I were a betting man (I'm not) then I'd place my wager on magnet placement. They moved the magnets in such a way to either make the case unable to securely hold the tablet or the tablet will get pulled by the strong magnets into an alignment that prevents the smart connector from properly aligning. Either way, they should have made this distinction clear during the keynote or on the store pages... For a company claiming to focus on the environment they also should make sure these lasts longer than 1 year... I'd even wager a swap with a purchase should be allowed so these can be recycled properly and potentially turned into refurbs.
 
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JohnIrvine said:
Yeah, they’re usually model specific, but none of the others cost $349. I think if it were $149 this would be a much smaller thread.
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So its not to do with the environment after all ;)

Second hand value is also much higher than a Logitech anyhow. But seeing as Apple have confirmed it's a non-issue ... not much more to talk about, unless their staff have been mis-informed.
 
LogicalApex said:
As others have already pointed out. The Verge noted that the checked their sources and confirmed it.

But we can confirm this ourselves! Apple lists the a new keyboard for the 12.9 iPad Pro on the store if you drill down. It isn't yet available for purchase either.

www.apple.com

Magic Keyboard for iPad Air 13-inch (M2) - US English - White

Magic Keyboard delivers an amazing typing experience, has a built-in trackpad, and provides front and back protection. Buy now at apple.com.
www.apple.com

If you were to do the same for the 11" they don't list a new generation and the only keyboard they list as unavailable right now is the White Keyboard that we all know is new. So they are clearly saying they have a new keyboard here. This is as confirmed as we'll get. The question remaining is why this is happening. It obviously isn't thickness.

View attachment 1762945



It isn't thickness I bet. If I were a betting man (I'm not) then I'd place my wager on magnet placement. They moved the magnets in such a way to either make the case unable to securely hold the tablet or the tablet will get pulled by the strong magnets into an alignment that prevents the smart connector from properly aligning. Either way, they should have made this distinction clear during the keynote or on the store pages... For a company claiming to focus on the environment they also should make sure these lasts longer than 1 year... I'd even wager a swap with a purchase should be allowed so these can be recycled properly and potentially turned into refurbs.
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As you can see here the new case is compatible with 3rd, 4th and 5th gen. if the magnets were an issue it wouldn’t support the earlier models
C493983B-4C02-4D9E-AE4A-6D085FC0421E.jpeg
 
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Marshall73 said:
As you can see here the new case is compatible with 3rd, 4th and 5th gen. if the magnets were an issue it wouldn’t support the earlier models
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Why wouldn't it? There is nothing to say they couldn't have added additional magnets to the new case to allow it to align with both iPad generations.

We know it isn't thickness as .5mm is hardly enough to be an issue here. That only leaves magnets as any movement in the smart connector would have made previous generations incompatible.
 
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LogicalApex said:
Why wouldn't it? There is nothing to say they couldn't have added additional magnets to the new case to allow it to align with both iPad generations.

We know it isn't thickness as .5mm is hardly enough to be an issue here. That only leaves magnets as any movement in the smart connector would have made previous generations incompatible.
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Well, that image, the apple support chat and only igeneration saying it’s not compatible. Likely is compatible and if so there’s a lot of haters outed in this thread.
 
Well if I’m forced to go down the road of buying a 2021 MK, instead of using my 2020 MK, I wish Apple would have found a way to use a larger trackpad, like Brydges’ newly announced version. I’m not sure how they did that???
 
bakerzdosen said:
Sadly, the only indisputable answer here is: we will have to wait and see until people get the new iPad Pros in their hands to test this.

But personally, I'm guessing this is the same as the iPhone X/iPhone XS case differences: they are completely interchangable but Apple doesn't list them as such because there ends up being a tiny gap on the side of the camera cutout because the specs are ever so slightly different.
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Hopefully this is the case (pun not intended)
 
LogicalApex said:
Why wouldn't it? There is nothing to say they couldn't have added additional magnets to the new case to allow it to align with both iPad generations.

We know it isn't thickness as .5mm is hardly enough to be an issue here. That only leaves magnets as any movement in the smart connector would have made previous generations incompatible.
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I mean, every article states it is the .5mm, not sure why you think that can't be it. It likely won't close fully so the screen won't properly sleep when closed.
 
Maybe I can actually snag one because fewer current twelve-point-niners will upgrade.
 
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Lobwedgephil said:
I mean, every article states it is the .5mm, not sure why you think that can't be it. It likely won't close fully so the screen won't properly sleep when closed.
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That’s due to only thickness differences being known as this time. The difference is small enough that I am certain that isn’t the case. We’ll see magnets become the issue once we have it in people’s hands.
 
LogicalApex said:
That’s due to only thickness differences being known as this time. The difference is small enough that I am certain that isn’t the case. We’ll see magnets become the issue once we have it in people’s hands.
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Could be the extra weight.
 
it COULD be a weight issue.. 40 grams is about 7-8 quarter coins of weight.. that might just be enough to not provide the same level of magnetic friction to the new 2021 ipad pro 12.9
 
Lobwedgephil said:
I mean, every article states it is the .5mm, not sure why you think that can't be it. It likely won't close fully so the screen won't properly sleep when closed.
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Every article is repeating the same piece of info without testing it, meanwhile we have people on here who have tested twice the difference and they are saying that it doesn't affect closing the MK. It is more likely a weight issue.
 
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It's not weight. Others have used an iPad Pro protective case that's 75 grams heavier and 2mm thicker. Still works with the existing keyboard. Either it will work, but Apple is merely pushing people to use the newer keyboard. Or it is the magnets that will be the issue.
 
Hmm, maybe I will get the new 11” iPad Pro after all, since it’s backwards compatible with my Smart Keyboard and Apple Pencil.
 
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onlinespending said:
It's not weight. Others have used an iPad Pro protective case that's 75 grams heavier and 2mm thicker. Still works with the existing keyboard. Either it will work, but Apple is merely pushing people to use the newer keyboard. Or it is the magnets that will be the issue.
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I'm curious what cases people are using that envelop the iPad Pro but don't also hold the Magic Keyboard (such that the Magic Keyboard is holding the iPad and case entirely magnetically).
 
papbot said:
The Verge, AppleInsider, etc. are all referencing a French article that claims to have seen a document issued to Apple Stores. No one, not the Verge or anyone else has had any official comment from Apple confirming this. Meanwhile several have had chat conversations with Apple Support claiming it will be compatible. Right now no one will know anything until next week, if one of the review sites actually gets their hands on the new iPad.
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It will likely be several weeks, as the release will be the latter half of May.
 
Hey folks - do we know if older smart folios will be compatible with new 12.9? Not the keyboard one but just folio! TIA
 
rajasingh said:
Hey folks - do we know if older smart folios will be compatible with new 12.9? Not the keyboard one but just folio! TIA
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The website lists new versions for the Smart Folio, too. It could very well simply be a slight modification to account for the increased thickness.
 
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