You get pretty much the same thing these days if both devices support NFC. Just get within range, and ding.

Standardise that and make it ubiquitous and then it's interesting. Apple has the advantage that they own their entire platform so they can adopt a new "standard" immediately.

The standard already exist, and has been with us since 2.1. Now the ubiquity thing is quite another kettle of fish...

I didn't know that, cool! Though also depressing...

Even with the Apple pencil, the pairing reliability is not great. Every time I disable Bluetooth on my iPad, I have to re-pair.

I'm surprised they didn't use some custom protocol, especially given how bad Bluetooth is, and they control the entire software and hardware stack.

probably because the hardware for bluetooth stacks have gotten crazy small and efficient. I doubt even apple could recreate it without straight up acquiring a company that already can do it.

That, and there would be the need for an additional chip and antenna.

Apple Magic Trackpad 2/Mouse/Keyboard do work this way.

How? I always have issues switching my trackpad from my laptop to my mac mini and back...

edit: nevermind, just noticed you said magic trackpad 2

They have a USB => Lightning cable. Plug it in briefly.

thanks, just noticed i missed a crucial '2' in the reply

Im expecting the new beats to have something similar to this, or at least NFC if not.