Apple Wireless Keyboard – Why are my batteries dead???

I’m an Apple fan, wouldn’t say a massive fan, but a fan nonetheless. The hardware they have for most of their products is top notch and the software puts simplicity at its heart for its users. I don’t mean to dis Windows, I use that as well and Linux too.

I wrote this because of a pretty serious problem I have (serious in that it is costing me money or rather batteries).

I got the Apple Wireless Keyboard last October and I really like it. Took awhile to break in the keys but its pretty good, nice sleek form factor and was at the time very good on battery usage in fact I didn’t have to change the batteries till I ran into my problem.

Which started once I got the Apple Magic Mouse. The Magic Mouse is a pretty cool device and I didn’t really liked it at first but got very used to it very quickly. I now use it everyday.

The problem I have is since I started using the Magic Mouse, battery life in the keyboard has been destroyed. Brand new batteries in the Keyboard for me only last 2 weeks, then I have to replace them. Others have reported even less time, as short as one week. The problem seems to be that the Might Mouse does not let the keyboard go to sleep when it is not in use. Usually the keyboard goes to sleep very quickly when not in use and turns itself back on and connects to your Mac when you come back saving on power. But because of the way the Magic Mouse uses Bluetooth with your Mac the Apple Keyboard does not go to sleep when its is not in use.

On the Apple Forums, hundreds upon hundreds have reported this on three different threads. It’s a very interesting read actually to find out that the problem is world wide. One of the threads can be found here.

Geeks.com have a report on the matter, reporting that Apple have known about this software bug for sometime and are currently working on a fix.

Currently I have switched back to the Wired Keyboard that I got last Christmas but I still use the Magic Mouse. I do not want to spend more and more money on batteries.

For now I would not recommend getting the Apple Wireless Keyboard until Apple fix this issue or your going to be using a lot of batteries for the time being.

==Update==

The Register has an article on this reporting that it is in fact a software bug in the firmware for the device. The Magic Mouse just does not let the Keyboard go to sleep when not in use. I tried this out yesterday with 3 new Duracell Ultra batteries. The battery life registered at 100% but then a few hours later it was down to 94% in ONLY A FEW HOURS. Even the “Ultra” performance of these batteries is obviously not Ultra enough for Apples battery life sucking issue. Apple really need to get on this and to release a firmware update for the devices.

==Update==

Apple are seeming working on the Firmware update at the moment to fix this battery life issue for the keyboard. When this is going to be out is anyone guess but it may coincide with the Apple Conference on the 27th and may be included in OS X 10.6.3 update but only time will tell.

==Update==

Apple have released a fix for this issue and is available from their software download site. Seemingly it only works with the 2007 model (the one with 3 AA batteries not just 2, even though people with the newer version are experiencing the same issue) . After installing the software update and firmware update (both included in the one download) and all seems to be fixed. Battery power is holding steady and has not changed in the last 24 hours. Some people on the Apple Support Forum are still having the “battery life sucking issue” even after the update so it still a bit flaky at the moment. Some suggest un-pairing then re-pairing the keyboard and Magic Mouse, while others have had no luck at all. But for me all is working ok now. Finally I can go back to using this keyboard. Thanks Apple for fixing this quite quickly.