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FCC filings confirm Apple's new Bluetooth mouse, keyboard

Documents released by the Federal Communications Commission Friday show a new wireless mouse and keyboard from Apple, furthering reports of an imminent Mighty Mouse update.

The documents, first discovered by Engadget, confirm a new keyboard with model number A1314 and model A1197 mouse. The included dimensions show a keyboard smaller than the one currently available from Apple.

Earlier Friday, AppleInsider shared word that a newly designed Mighty Mouse is on the way. The new hardware, people familiar with the matter have said, will do away with the mechanical roller ball and use an expanded touch sensitive housing.

Sources said the new Mighty Mouse is a project under the direction of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. It will take advantage of the company's patented multi-touch technology and provide an intuitive new feel for users through a combination of hardware and software.

Soon after the FCC posts were discovered, they were quickly pulled from the commission's Web site. The documents (1, 2) have seen been updated to crop out the hardware, and only display relevant FCC labeling and corresponding model numbers.

Additional information on the new hardware was not made available from the FCC filings, though their submission would again suggest that a launch of the new hardware is imminent.

FCC 1



85 Comments

jazzguru 15 Years · 6380 comments

Touch-pad-like scrolling! Nice! Much better and more reliable than the roller ball.

ituomas 15 Years · 35 comments

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gadgetoid

Black keys and backlight, please.

+1 for the backlight, but no black keys please. They look ugly once the texture starts wearing off.

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This is really interesting! Nothing really wrong with my current Mighty, but I'm excited to see what they'll come up with.

gazoobee 15 Years · 3753 comments

Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Documents released by the Federal Communications Commission Friday show a new wireless mouse and keyboard from Apple, furthering reports of an imminent Mighty Mouse update. ...

Interesting leak indeed.

I'm all set for a new mouse being as the Mighty Mouse only ever appealed to me for the first week of use or so. The cleaning is simple, but a device you have to clean all the time is just not fun.

Having experienced pretty much every keyboard I ever heard of from AT days to today, I have to say Apple's bluetooth keyboard is absolutely the best keyboard I've ever used by a country mile, so it will be interesting to see what the new model is like. It appears from the diagram that it doesn't have the cylinder along the back and is flat with a border all the way around like the iPhone (suggestive?) but I don't get the size change.

According to the diagram labelling it's slightly less wide (5 Mils or so), but hugely "deeper" (50 Mils). Although the image itself makes it look as if it's the same general proportions as the current one that's quite a change. Makes it almost possible that the keyboard will have palm resting areas or a trackpad.

It's also kind of intriguing that the size of this keyboard is the same or perhaps even bigger than the size of the screen parts that everyone is always talking about when they talk about the tablet. If it *is* a multi-touch keyboard and is the same size as the tablet, why wouldn't they just make the tablet? Will we all be buying tablets because we need a new keyboard and the tablet "guts" come with it? There are more questions than answers provided by this development as they say.

ireland 18 Years · 17436 comments

Quote:
Originally Posted by iTuomas

This is really interesting! Nothing really wrong with my current Mighty, but I'm excited to see what they'll come up with.

Good one. You need to laugh at least once a day.