You could hear a cheer from tech fans worldwide go up on Monday as Apple confirmed it was moving to USB-C Mac accessories alongside the launch of the iMac M4. But as wonderful as it is to see the Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad ditch the old Lightning port, Apple's added a wrinkle to this news that could make upgrading your Mac set-up slightly tricky.
Early adopters of the USB-C peripherals writing on the MacRumors Forums are reporting that unless your Mac's running the latest update of macOS — macOS Sequoia 15.1 — the accessories don't behave properly. Users on macOS Sonoma and macOS Ventura, the two previous macOS versions, claim that key features like scrolling on the mouse or the keyboard's Touch ID and function keys don't work. Users on the launch version of macOS Sequoia also faced this problem until they installed the 15.1 update.
If you're considering buying these new Mac accessories and are already using a Sequoia-compatible Mac, updating is not a problem, you just need to make some time to install it. But if you're on an older Mac, this is quite annoying. Other than the new ports, the keyboard, mouse and trackpad are identical to the Lightning versions they replace. So why do users need the latest software in order to use them properly? It honestly makes no sense, so we can only hope this is a weird oversight that Apple will fix once the new Macs go on sale officially, rather than a ploy to encourage users to upgrade their machines.
The beta's no good either
To make matters worse, some users on the beta version of macOS Sequoia 15.2 reported on the MacRumors Forums that they couldn't get the devices to work either. This is presumably because the beta launched prior to Apple announcing its new accessories, so hopefully this will be fixed quickly for the next beta. But the fact a more advanced version of macOS couldn't fully use accessories that an earlier version could adds another strange face to this whole situation.
The fact a more advanced version of macOS couldn't fully use accessories that an earlier version could adds another strange face to this whole situation.
While adding USB-C to its peripherals is important news, the real starts of this week's Mac announcements were the M4-powered iMac, a new even smaller Mac mini with M4 and M4 Pro chip options, and new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros with M4, M4 Pro or M4 Max chips. There was also the news that the M2 and M3 MacBook Air models will now get 16GB RAM by default for no extra cost, plus the promised of a continued focus on gaming with the announcement of Cyberpunk 2077 on Mac.
We've yet to go hands-on with these new Macs, but rest assured that once we do, we'll bring you our thoughts on how they perform and soon after full reviews of all their features. And hopefully the USB-C accessories too if they decide to behave.
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