Apple Bluetooth Accesories & Wireless Peripherals

Explore and review these Mac compatible wireless and Bluetooth computer peripherals for tangle-free computing.

Apple's Magic TrackPad

Bluetooth Touch-Pad
REQUIRES OS X 10.6.4

There's an ever growing range of Mac compatible Wireless and Blue-Tooth keyboard options. From the minimalist model Apple currently sells to full-size keyboards for Mac with numeric keypads, You'll ideally want Apple supported function keys that are clearly labled and support Expose, Screen Brightness, Speaker Volume and proper Disk Eject features of OS X Leopard and Tiger.

MacAlly BTKey For Mac

108 Key Bluetooth

Beyond the input devices made by Apple and sold at the Apple Store - select 3rd party input device makers have stepped-up to the ever growing Mac market with OSX friendly Blue-Tooth accessory lines that support all the features of the Macintosh operating system.

Kensington Accessory

MacAlly Peripherals

Logitech Mac Products

diNovo Edge Mac Edition Cordless Bluetooth

Recharging Stand + Touch Pad

Apple iPad iPhone Bluetooth Keyboards

Apple added hardware keyboard support to the iPhone IOS4 to support Bluetooth keyboards - much as on the iPad, allowing you to enter text within applications and use some of the control functions (selecting text; cut, copy, and paste, undo, redo, etc.) That said, the iPhone is clearly meant to be mainly used with the touch interface. But it's nice to have the option to carry a Mac compatible keyboard for those who need to do a lot of typing on the go.

Mac Compatible Wireless Bluetooth Acessories

Apple Mac folk love wireless! For years we've been tethered with far too may cables and wires tangling up our lives. A growing range of Bluetooth computer accessories, add-ons and peripherals for OSX and iPad-iPod-iPhone needs exists. From wireless speakers and headphones to keyboards and mice, to Bluetooth home stereo and car receivers to HandsFree Bluetooth headsets and more - all are delivering a close-range wireless solution for our computing and communication needs.

Apple's Current Bluetooth Keyboard Options

The small and compact Bluetooth keyboard Apple currently offers and ships with it's Aluminum iMac line. It's lack of a separate numeric keyboard (which the full-size USB version has) is frustrating for some. It's a functional and servicable wireless option, but far from ideal.

Apple Compact Wireless

Razor-Thin Aluminum

3rd Party Wireless Bluetooth Keyboards Made For Mac

Several computer accessory manufacturers make input devices with Macintosh users in mind. Among these Wireless Bluetooth Keyboards you'll see MacAlly, Logitech and other alternatives worth pondering beyond Apple's own offerings.

RocketFish Bluetooth

Aluminum Full Size

Bluetooth Keyboards - Advantages vs Disadvantages

There's good reasons to avoid the tangle of wires and freedom of placement of your keyboard with your Bluetooth equipped Macintosh. And many opt for an Apple Bluetooth Keyboard with their Mac order. There are some drawbacks: Difficulty pairing, futzing and replacing batteries, Bluetooth interference issues. A wired device is implicitly more predictable and reliable than any wireless battery-operated peripheral. But that's the price you pay for wire-free computing. It's important to note that not all Wireless keyboards are explicitly Blue-Tooth devices. For years, Radio-Frequency RF transmitters have been used - the RF Transmitter a USB dongle type device to communicate with the keyboard. And some of these RF keyboards (and Mice) can be Mac compatible.

Older Apple Bluetooth Keyboards - Non Aluminum

Some users really want an original matching Apple keyboard when they need to replace it. The earlier clear acrylic and white plastic Bluetooth Apple keyboard models can still be found. Try scouring - you can often find the exact color or style of discontinued model. But buyer beware: Really make sure the auction clearly states it was TESTED - and guaranteed fully-functional and not have any dud or broken keys.

Unfixable Mac Keyboard - Sometimes You Just Can't

Broken and damaged keys often require completely replacing the entire keyboard. A single unresponsive or hopelessly stuck key is often caused by a damaged micro-switch under the keytop that is so small and tiny there is NO way to 'repair' the key switch. A Bluetooth keyboard's batteries may leak or corrode, damaging the battery compartment and killing it. Cracked key-tops or missing Mac keytops can sometimes be replaced individually, but often small plastic latches get broken when something falls onto your keyboard and won't stay on when pressed into position. Just buying new Mac compatible keyboard is the most direct solution for 'repairing' the vast majority of keyboard problems.

Windows PC Bluetooth Keyboards On A Mac : Okay, Sorta, Kinda, Ugh!

Yeah, nearly ANY Windows PC 'board will Pair over Bluetooth and largely work on your Macintosh. Well, at least PART of it. Far too many these days have literally a dozen or three extra special function keys and spiffy features only supported on Windows -- keys which when pressed may very well do nothing, something unpredictable, or worse-case do something you DON'T want to happen. Often the 'Windows' icon key is NOT mapped to the Apple 'Command' key and when you want the Option key you have to press ALT instead. Yeah, you can 'get used to it'. But it's far from elegant.

Another frustration you may find trying to use a Windows keyboard is that on bootup your Mac may have problems initially recognizing the 'alien' keyboard and require you to follow on-screen instructions built-into OS X that have to be done at boot time to help your Mac figure out which key is what. Annoying!

About Bluetooth Accessories For Mac OSX - iPhone - iPad - iPod

With iOS4 Pairing a Bluetooth keyboard—almost any Bluetooth keyboard, not just the slender Apple-branded kind—is as simple as pairing any other Bluetooth device. Turn the keyboard on, turn on Bluetooth, let your phone detect the keyboard, and tap a few numbers.

Bluetooth 2.0+EDR Spec is now standard equipment on all Macs - a good trend from the earlier days when Apple often had Blue-Tooth OPTION rather than included - particularly during the G4 and G5 era. For some a USB Bluetooth donge transmitter / receiver might add functionality for perpiherals like wireless keyboards and mice. Stereo streaming A2DP audio was only added in OSX Leopard 10.5 and better implementation of the AVRCP Bluetooth stack is helping iPads, iPhone and iPod Touch users unleash more capabilites with various Bluetooth gear. As with the world of technology in general, being close to CURRENT with both an Intel Mac, OSX updates, newer models of handheld accessories with CURRENT Bluetooth specs - will let you choose from the widest range of wireless BT peripherals and gadgets.