A mechanical Magic Keyboard

The Altar II is a mechanical Magic Keyboard. From the HN announcement:

Today I’m revealing Altar II, an ultra-low profile (4.75mm) mechanical keyboard designed to replace your Magic Keyboard. It’s the keyboard I wish Apple made.

Altar II has fully mechanical switches, plus a magnetically detachable dial, haptic feedback, a red backlight, and a native macOS companion app.

As someone who likes mechanical keyboards but always ends up back on a Magic Keyboard, I was intrigued.

However, see the top HN comment:

To everyone who is about to pile on regarding the lack of a fingerprint sensor: you know it’s not possible, we all know it’s not possible, the creator of this project knows it’s not possible.

What are you adding to the conversation when you complain about it? So it’s a dealbreaker for you, don’t buy it.

I won’t comment on the lack of Touch ID, then.

What I’ll say instead: having a Mac mini as my desktop machine means I really like having Touch ID on my keyboard. To the point where it makes me wonder if I should have a Mac mini as my desktop machine. But that sends me into a fierce bout of Linux daydreaming, which I’m not up for at the moment.¹

So this Mac mini is great I guess! And, cool as it looks, I won’t be buying that keyboard.