Testing Apple's New Standalone Touch ID Keyboard With an M1 Mac

[400]

I like it. Glad I ordered it with the new iMac. Not hit any glitches with the fingerprint option and took a bit effort to not hit enter after every touch.
Now, if they has a corner on the track pad to do the same.

 

[ForkHandles]

I bought one of these for my M1 Mini and now it's at feature-parity with my MBP. Pairing the keyboard made TouchID show up in the preferences, and adding a fingerprint made Wallet & ApplePay show up, and I was able to add all of my cards, just like on the MBP.

A question for you.
When I use my existing magic keyboard to to wake up my M1 Mini I have to press a key wait 3 seconds for the screen to appear and then type my password.
Does the touchID keyboard have this lag? Or is it possible just to rest my finger and it all authenticates in quick time?
Thanks

 

[MecPro]

If you have an apple watch Touch-ID is useless and actually makes the experience suck requiring an extra step.

How? The AppleWatch is an extra step too. Its actually more effort for me to remove my had from the keyboard and double press my AppleWatch

 

[jdb8167]

I doubt there was any technical reason to not get this to work with an Intel Mac.

There is definitely a technical reason. Whether you think it is important enough to limit the Touch ID to the M1 Macs is another matter. Since the T1 and T2 chips don't do Bluetooth, the Secure Enclave data would have to be processed through the CPU in order to support the Touch ID communication. This makes it possible to intercept the data. With the M1, everything stays within the SoC and nothing is ever put on an external bus. There is no chance for snooping except on the encrypted Bluetooth signal. The risk for T1 and T2 Macs is low but higher than with the M1 with all the communication internal to the SoC.

 

[norwaypianoman]

Apple, please bring back wired keyboards.

For some of us, wireless is the step back: the dabbling with charging.

 

[Sam Squanch]

Do people really lock their personal macs with passwords?
I have my home computers never require a password to unlock. Laptop after like 8 hours.

If it is a laptop then it is certainly a good thing to do. My iMac is locked but only because it won't let you have the finger print option on without locking your Mac.

I was in the camp prior to getting my iMac of seeing its value but nothing I'd like or want.

Now I'm a spoiled brat throwing mini-tantrums when I have to manually put in my passwords (Over-exaggeration of course but have become spoiled by the ease of use the finger print button offers.) I'd imagine it is even more useful for laptops.

Those who are negative about it I'd venture a guess they haven't tried it or experienced it at all or for just a limited time. It is way better than I initially thought.

 

[deeddawg]

Apple, please bring back wired keyboards.

For some of us, wireless is the step back: the dabbling with charging.

Simply connect the included wire to your computer and you have a wired keyboard. Easy peasy.

 

[deeddawg]

Yes, but I find that the double tap on watch option is somewhat flimsy or I don’t understand it fully:

• Unlocking the computer is great, it works (except if anything is using an external display via screen permissions like Duet/Luna Display or DisplayLink dongles).
• Unlocking settings that are locked via the lock pad (i.e folder permission changes, privacy/location/etc changes in the settings app) do work 99% of the time for me. Sometimes it asks to t
• Creating a new folder in a higher security part (like ~/Applications folder) sometimes asks for the double tap on watch, sometimes for the macOS account password
• Mostly anything else (keychain auto fill, buy, etc) just asks for the user’s account password.

Would be great to really have a system wide double tap on watch authentication. Maybe I’m doing something wrong?

No, you're not doing anything wrong. Watch authentication isn't as universal (or as reliable) as some posters here seem to imply.

 

[kht410]

FaceID on iMacs makes sense though.

 

[BaltimoreMediaBlog]

whoa, bummer about intel macs...

And it's not a technical issue. It's a feature!

 

[raindogg]

I find Touch ID annoying. I bought the high end iMac and put the tiny keyboard with Touch ID in the closet. It's just one fake added step, if someone really wanted in my computer they can just use another keyboard. It's a false sense of security, a gimmick.

I'm also tired of the "Magic" naming. Cringe...

 

[deeddawg]

I find Touch ID annoying. I bought the high end iMac and put the tiny keyboard with Touch ID in the closet. It's just one fake added step, if someone really wanted in my computer they can just use another keyboard. It's a false sense of security, a gimmick.

Are you envisioning someone setting up a 2nd keyboard with their fingerprints then just walking over and using it with your iMac?

There's a secure-pairing step that'd have to happen first for keyboard touchID to function, which means they've already got your password and thus have no need for TouchID.

See https://support.apple.com/guide/security/magic-keyboard-with-touch-id-secf60513daa/web

You may not care for the apple keyboards whether in extended or non-extended form, and you may not care for TouchID, but let's not spread misinformation about how this works.

 

[grjj]

So I noticed there is no wired option at all. I feel like I’ve been bitten where Bluetooth wasn’t working and I needed to rely on a wired keyboard. Is that not a thing anymore? Can these be assumed to be reliable enough to be your only keyboard?Tthese are ALSO USB keyboards. You initially pair and recharge them with the USB cable. When tethered, they do not use Bluetooth.

The stupid design of the Apple Mouse still prevents use while charging, I'm starting to wonder if they'll ever fix that design flaw.

 

[alexandr]

And it's not a technical issue. It's a feature!

exactly. for everyone else — don't use that button, it won't do anything

 

[ascender]

I needed a new keyboard so this has come at a good time. Like others have said, I think I’d prefer FaceID on my Macs, but that won’t work for laptops in clamshell mode. It’s a brilliant feature on my iPad Pro, but after a few days of use I’m glad I have it on the Mac now. There’s loads of times you need to authenticate something and its nice to just do that and to be able to unlock the Mac with my fingerprint.

I do have an Apple Watch, but have never really got in to the habit of using that to authenticate anything. Possibly because it means I have to move my hands away from the keyboard?

One strange thing is that there’s still things like Keychain where I need to put my password in. Not sure if that’s a security feature though?

 

[xraydoc]

I find Touch ID annoying. I bought the high end iMac and put the tiny keyboard with Touch ID in the closet. It's just one fake added step, if someone really wanted in my computer they can just use another keyboard. It's a false sense of security, a gimmick.

Umm. Yeah.... that's not how this works. The secure enclave that stores the fingerprint data is in the Mac itself, not in the keyboard.

You cannot configure a keyboard fingerprint on your computer, walk up to mine, plug your keyboard in, and open my computer.

 

[AxiomaticRubric]

a) Expensive
b) Bummer no Intel
c) wish they would release a keyboard in between sizes with just the numeric keypad added on.

d) With backlit keys!

 

[topmounter]

It would be great if they made a stand-alone version of the TouchId sensor. I already have three Apple keyboards (two Magic and one wired) that I don't use and I really don't need another one.

 

[NewUsername]

I got one to replace my ageing wired 2007 Apple keyboard. I like it, though I do think it is about $100 more than it's worth.

 

[tmoerel]

Yes it is expensive, yes I could live without it on my M1 mac mini.....and yes I bought it and I love it. Typing passwords always bugs me but I will not disable them as they have saved my arse quite a few times in the past. So now with touch ID I have the best of both worlds.
Also the texture of the keys is much better than the old magic keyboards. They feel silky!

 

[Minuteman3]

I have one paired with my M1 MB Air and it works flawlessly. The touch ID is nice ... but less helpful than it could be because 1Password doesn't yet recognize I have Touch ID capability!! Upon initial startup/restart, I have to input my password as it keeps saying "touch ID is not available when laptop is closed". I'm sure they'll find a way to fix that soon ... at which time this will be an even more handy feature!!

Ken

 

[Mattstrete]

I find Touch ID annoying. I bought the high end iMac and put the tiny keyboard with Touch ID in the closet. It's just one fake added step, if someone really wanted in my computer they can just use another keyboard. It's a false sense of security, a gimmick.

I'm also tired of the "Magic" naming. Cringe...

 

[SegNerd]

No one outside of Apple can definitively prove whether it is possible to make this work on an Intel Mac. I don't know if it's possible or not. But I'm really troubled by how many people are saying, "Either it has a secure enclave or it doesn't. If it has a T2, it should work."

This is the same as saying, "Either a computer has a CPU or it doesn't. Since my Mac SE/30 has a CPU, it should be able to run Big Sur."

It is absolutely possible that the secure enclave in the M1 has more storage space (or more processing capabilities) for things like fingerprints. In fact, it would actually be really odd for Apple to include these capabilities in the T2 since they were never intended to support this.

New hardware will always have new features that will be unavailable on older devices. There is no evidence that Apple is deliberately and unnecessarily locking out Intel users from using TouchID. Apple has actually already provided features to Intel users (like the OCR in Monterey) that were originally announced as Apple Silicon-only, so if it were possible, they would probably do it.

 

[donguevas]

Maybe it works with 1Password and ApplePay; and maybe all the times you have to put in your password to install software, etc. If it does then it will be useful for me anyway. Then maybe I'd change to a safer password.

I don't lock my home iMac, but I don't want all my passwords exposed.

Not locking your home mac does not expose your keychain passwords because you will need to know the admin password to know them.

However, if someone boots into recovery and they are able to use "resetpassword" via terminal and reset your admin, your keychain passwords will still require the previous admin password. but any passwords saved in Safari, Chrome, and many third party password apps require the admin pass and they do not care if it has been reset or not.

 

[canonical]

Is there a wired version (without Bluetooth). I really don't want to be unnecessarily radiated by a keyboard, every time I type something.