Apple’s new keyboard, trackpad and mouse look attractive, and at last have rechargeable batteries. All require OS X 10.11, El Capitan.

Although the keyboard and mouse should work with any Mac which supports Bluetooth peripherals, there is a significant sting in the tail of the new Magic Trackpad 2: it requires Bluetooth 4.0 (LE), which Apple added to Macs from 2011 onwards: first to the Mac mini (mid 2011 5,1) and MacBook Air (mid 2011 4,1), then the MacBook Pro (mid 2012 9,2) and iMac (late 2012 13,1), and finally to the Mac Pro in 2013 (6,1).

If you are unsure as to whether your Mac is compatible with the Magic Trackpad 2, open the About This Mac dialog from the Apple menu, and click on System Report. Select the Bluetooth item in the left pane (in Hardware), and check the number given for the LMP Version. To support the new trackpad, you will need LMP version 0x6 or greater.

(Confusingly, Bluetooth 4.0 has an LMP version not of 0x4, but 0x6. Good counting, someone.)

Thanks to MacFormat for alerting us to this item in the small print.