When you go online and look for reviews of peripherals for Macs you will most likely never see the Apples keyboard and Magic Mouse recommended, and maybe just maybe you will see the magic track pad be recommend. Why is this? Well, most reviewers say that the keyboard and mouse profiles are too low and therefore, it will hurt your wrists. Which is fair they are extremely low. And what about the Magic Track pad? Well I actually think most people like this one, but as most reviews are focused on mice it gets ignored. However, I actually do not think the keyboard and mouse is getting enough credit and in this post I will talk about why. I will also cover some improvements that I think all three products need.

Let us start with the improvements. One of the things I hear a lot as a negative comment about all three products is that they still require a lightning cable rather than a USB type C. I 100% agree with this, it is so stupid that Apple has not updated them to type C yet, when the iPad, macs and so on all use type-C. Therefore upgrading to this will be a big plus. However, I actually believe that for the magic mouse I have a better idea. Give it QI wireless charging capabilities. So why do I think this? Well a lot of people (myself included) thinks that the fact that apple put the charging port on the bottom of the mouse is idiotic, as you cannot charge it while using the mouse. My solution has always been to charge it over night or lunch when I saw the mouse was reaching very low energy levels. Yet I have missed the warning from time to time. Therefore, I would like the option to simply put the mouse on a QI charging pad while not using the mouse. For me this makes a lot of sense as I have some sessions where I barely touch the mouse for hours. Although I do understand why some people may still find that annoying as hell. And that was basically all the ideas I had for improvement…

Let us now move on to why I like them. First of Apple Macs track pads are legendary, there is nothing on the market NOTHING that compares in the Windows/Linux device world. NOTHING! and that is a hill I am willing to die on. I actually extend this to the external Magic Track pad. I have tried quite a few external track pads as using them over longer time helps me with RSI pains compared to using a (moving) mouse. Apples is by miles the best and I talk about both the old one with replaceable AA batteries and the new one with rechargeable batteries. I have also found that the reason I find it much more comfortable compared to other move mice is that well I get the same benefit as the trackball in a sense… No moving the damn mouse.

Next, and this is a two in one, the keyboard and magic mouse. I have used Apples peripherals for quite some time, I had the magic mouse, the mighty mouse, and the Apple Pro mouse that came before, and to be honest I have loved all of them. So why do I love them when others seem to hate them? Well, honestly I think it is because I am weird. What do I mean weird? What I mean is that I started noticing a pattern. When I look at colleagues, I seem them use the mouse and keyboard relatively (for me) close to the edge of table. When I say close I mean 10CM or so from the bottom end of the keyboard to the edge of table nearest the user. On the other hand I prefer to have the keyboard and mouse at a depth of 15 to 20CM, and then I have then I have the mouse matching this. The lower the profile of the keyboard the further in on the table I place it Funny enough this depth makes the Apple keyboard and mouse really comfortable for me. Also I actually noticed advertisement material where the keyboard and mouse is roughly in the position where I like it. I do not know if I just accidentally put them where Apple expects them to be placed.

But yeah so I like them!

./Lars