Inspired by the all new OLED Touch Bar Apple recently debuted with the new 13” and 15” MacBook Pro models, Reddit user and designer Hazza42 has come up with some brilliant renderings of an Apple Magic Keyboard featuring the Touch Bar, hoping that Apple might offer something like this as an optional extra when the new iMacs and Mac Pros are announced.
The concept shows a wider keyboard than the current Magic Keyboard. It’s a full-size keyboard, including a separate area for arrow keys and a full number keypad to the right, which also extends the OLED Touch Bar on top further than it stretches on the MacBook Pro. Although Apple might not opt for a longer form factor, it does give an idea of how the Touch Bar could work for Apple’s desktop computers.
The concept Magic Keyboard also shows the Touch ID in the middle, although the sensor is located to the right of the Touch Bar on the MacBook Pros, and is not a part of the display. Check out the mockups and share your thoughts in the comments section:
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I doubt you’ll see TouchID on a standalone piece of hardware. Too much of a security vulnerability. Aside from that, the concept is nice.
Considering the iPhone’s Touch ID or the Watch can authenticate over Bluetooth I wouldn’t be surprised to see Touch ID come to the standalone keyboard.
I’d be curious to see it implemented but I wouldn’t hold my breath for it 🙂
Well, it’s technically already implemented in macOS 10.12 (using Touch ID on the phone to authenticate an Apple Pay purchase in Safari for example).
We’ve seen that the T1 in the MacBook Pro is essentially a very shrunken down iOS device, if they do make an updated bluetooth keyboard for Macs/desktops, it’ll likely be that the keyboard itself becomes an iOS device of sorts.
If Steve Jobs were still alive, I’d say this person is crazy to put a numeric keypad on the thing, but since Apple is becoming just another big company these days it likely fits with their current disposition.
When Steve Jobs was alive was when iMacs came with numeric keypads as standard.
You can also still buy this keyboard from Apple right now,