Apple Pay appears buggy with exterior Magic Keyboard Touch ID

Publications like 9to5Mac and Macworld have reported some odd conduct when making an attempt to make use of Apple’s Magic Keyboard with Touch ID to authenticate for Apple Pay — particularly, that it gained’t work in the event you’re making an attempt to do it with a MacE-book that has its show closed, as it could be whereas operating it in “clamshell mode” hooked as much as an exterior monitor.

Obviously, when the MacE-book’s lid is closed, you possibly can’t use the built-in Touch ID sensor, so it’s simple to see how this limitation was put in place. But in a world the place Apple sells an exterior keyboard with the sensor (beginning at an eye-watering $150), the limitation is so awkward that it looks like a bug. That’s very true on condition that the keyboard’s Touch ID performance solely works with Apple Silicon-powered Macs and comes with all however the base-level iMac. That implies that the general public shopping for it should seemingly be laptop computer customers in search of a method to kind whereas their laptop computer is docked (possibly even with the display screen closed).

Apple didn’t reply to a request for remark about whether or not the conduct was intentional or a mistake. Either method, hopefully, it’ll let its customers make funds with their exterior keyboard quickly, it doesn’t matter what the state of their laptop computer’s lid is. It’s comprehensible that Apple desires to make it possible for cost authentication is a safe course of — Macworld’s article mentions a load of different safety settings that would have an effect on having the ability to use Touch ID with Apple Pay — but when it’s protected sufficient to make use of with the M1 Mac Mini, it ought to be protected sufficient to make use of with a docked laptop computer.