{"id":1025,"date":"2025-03-10T01:02:35","date_gmt":"2025-03-10T01:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/?p=1025"},"modified":"2025-03-10T01:02:35","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T01:02:35","slug":"the-new-m4-macbook-air-finally-fixes-an-apple-keyboard-annoyance-thats-been-around-for-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/2025\/03\/10\/the-new-m4-macbook-air-finally-fixes-an-apple-keyboard-annoyance-thats-been-around-for-decades\/","title":{"rendered":"The new M4 MacBook Air finally fixes an Apple keyboard annoyance that&#8217;s been around for decades"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Consistent muting<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/54UkqiqivmXDN4B9Dd9aM4-1200-80.jpg\" alt=\"MacBook Air mute key\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Apple keyboard mute buttons, old (left) and new (right)(Image credit: Apple)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>The Mac mute button now matches the on-screen graphics<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Keyboards for MacBooks and iPads have been updated<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>It&#8217;s the first tweak to the button design since back in 1999<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Appleunveiled some shinynew MacBook Airsfor 2025 earlier this week \u2013 and as well as featuring the latest M4 chipsets inside, they also correct a keyboard oversight that&#8217;s been around since the last century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As spotted byiCulture(viaMacRumors), the mute button on the keyboard now shows a small speaker with a strikeout line through it. Previously, the icon was just a speaker, with none of the sound waves next to it that the other volume buttons show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why does this matter? Well, as you&#8217;ll notice if you&#8217;re reading this on a Mac, if you tap the mute button on an Apple keyboard, you get a speaker icon with a strikeout line through it on screen. The keyboard graphics now match the macOS visuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s not much of a change in the grand scheme of computing upgrades, but it&#8217;s nice to now have some consistency. The old mute button icon has been around since the launch of the PowerBook G3 all the way back in 1999.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&gt;&gt;&gt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/detail-Apple-1744069-A2669\">A2669 Battery for Apple MacBook Air 13 M2 2022 661-26150<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"looking-good-3\">Looking good<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/B4R849rsTtzuhBK4At6z2V-970-80.jpg.webp\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The updated laptops bring with them a fresh color(Image credit: Apple)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Apple hasn&#8217;t said anything officially about the updated iconography, but the change has also been made on the new Magic Keyboard that comes with the refreshed7th-generation iPad Air tablet, powered by the M3 chipset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That would indicate the new look is here to stay, and will continue to feature on Mac keyboards going forward. The next computers we&#8217;re expecting from Apple are the M5 MacBook Pros, duebefore the end of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Judging by the comments in the MacRumors article above, this isn&#8217;t something that has been particularly confusing or frustrating for users \u2013 but given Apple&#8217;s usual attention to detail, it&#8217;s strange that the inconsistency has persisted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&gt;&gt;&gt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/detail-Apple-1743765-A2681\">A2681 Battery for Apple MacBook Air 13 M2 2022 661-26150<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our full review of the M4 MacBook Air is still in the pipeline, but we have managed to get&nbsp;some hands-on time&nbsp;with the updated laptops already \u2013 and the fresh Sky Blue color is definitely one that catches the eye.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Consistent muting Apple keyboard mute buttons, old (left) and new (right)(Image credit: Apple) Appleunveiled some shinynew MacBook Airsfor 2025 earlier this week \u2013 and as well as featuring the latest M4 chipsets inside, they also correct a keyboard oversight that&#8217;s been around since the last century. As spotted byiCulture(viaMacRumors), the mute button on the keyboard &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/2025\/03\/10\/the-new-m4-macbook-air-finally-fixes-an-apple-keyboard-annoyance-thats-been-around-for-decades\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The new M4 MacBook Air finally fixes an Apple keyboard annoyance that&#8217;s been around for decades<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1025"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1026,"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1025\/revisions\/1026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}