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Comment by adolph | Hacker News Reader

By the numbers, the secure enclave implementation is $50. I wonder if Logitech will get a shot at TouchID like the Crayon did for the Apple Pencil? I'd pay $50 to add it to my K380.

$99.00 Magic Keyboard - US English

$149.00 Magic Keyboard with Touch ID for Mac models with Apple silicon - US English

$129.00 Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad - US English

$179.00 Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and Numeric Keypad for Mac models with Apple silicon - US English

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I’m honestly almost a little bit appalled by myself when I realize that I probably would be willing to pay an extra $50 to have a TouchID interface on my ErgoDox EZ Shine, just to save myself from having to reach over and extend my arm an extra half of a meter several times a day when I am stationed with my keyboard and external monitor, and my MacBook Pro that is connected to them sits out of reach over there where I keep it.

I'm also spoiled by (what I consider) a great keyboard, the Kinesis FreeStyle 2. I don't think I'm going back to this Apple keyboard, but boy would Touch ID be useful.

Moonlander user who also would definitely pay money to not have to reach over to my laptop several times a day.

I continue to hope they bring FaceID to the Mac in a manner similar to Windows Hello, where you can buy a webcam certified for it

That would mean updating the "isight" webcam for the first time in a decade or so.

As if. If Apple ever brings FaceID to macs, it will be with the webcam of their own monitor and nothing else.

Face ID works with something more like an XBOX Kinect with an infrared light projecting a pattern to understand depth.

https://www.macrumors.com/2017/09/13/how-iphone-x-face-id-wo...

I have a Freestyle 2 and the Freestyle Edge (the blue version). I completely understand what you are talking about.

Freestyle 2 (blue) is good. Feels good, bluetooth just works, battery life is great. Non mechanical, but if you like Apple Keyboards that shouldn't matter. Also no backlight if it matters.

The Edge has survived multiple coffee spills (although the backlight on the "2" key doesn't work anymore, after the last one).

Left it to dry and sunlight warped one of the spacebar caps. Those keys are custom and so impossible to find. Tried 3d Printing one but it wasn't really usable. Contacted Kinesis support fully expecting them to say that it's no longer supported... not only it is supported, but they mailed me a new spacebar keycap, for free.

So yeah. The Edge is pricey, non-removable switches unfortunately. Doesn't come with palm rests but it really, really should. Great onboard software(again, only the Edge). And great support, to the point that I'm here advertising for them for free.

Also split keyboards in general are great since you can have all sorts of stuff in between them :)

The Touch ID issue was solved with the Apple Watch. I'm not going back to Apple Keyboards. Really trying to avoid the custom keyboard rabbit hole too :)

That's quite the review, I'll definitely consider it for the future. The thing with the Freestyle 2 is, it's actually very cheap for a split keyboard. But to hit that price point, it's really quite a conventional keyboard in other aspects.

I once built a custom keyboard but made a couple of mistakes, and I realized the Freestyle is not bad at all :)

In many ways a much more expensive way to solve the problem, but since I switched to the same keyboard (and I leave my laptop shut) I have been glad of the Apple Watch unlocking.

I want them to add touchID to the magic trackpad. I use the magic trackpad with my mechanical keyboard and it's great, except for the point you made.

That's actually a really great idea! I can't believe I never thought of it.

Assuming you are not interested in the Apple Watch. Otherwise, the watch can do everything TouchID can (edit: on the mac).

My laptops operate almost exclusively in clamshell mode. So, having a Touch ID on the external keyboard would be great!

Sure would be nice if it worked with Intel-based hardware, though. ;(

Logitech can't even connect to the laptop via BT before you are logged in, I doubt it will get this integration.

This goes for all non-Apple BT keyboards, and is a security feature (or so Apple says).

I mean if they can't get Apple to include them in this (like you said you can use BT magic keyboard so clearly there's a way built-in) they have no chance at getting touchid

Someone will probably reverse engineer the protocol. And you'll be able to build your own keyboard with touch ID as long as it doesn't rely on each keyboard having a unique key that you can't read out of it. Which, knowing Apple, it probably does.

With the level of complexity involved, I’d bet a homegrown solution would cost more than the keyboard Apple makes.

Seems like a lot for a keyboard.

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