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The One Hidden Feature New MacBook Owners Need to Know

Every once in a while, we stumble across a hidden laptop feature that makes our lives a heck of a lot easier. Last week, my co-worker Rami Tabari and I did just that.

While fiddling with the 2018 MacBook' Pro's Force Touch trackpad (he's not a fan), we noticed something peculiar: Every time we tapped the surface, the laptop turned on. At first, we thought the device hadn't shut down correctly and that it was simply starting back up from an idle state.   

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But after some frantic keyword searching, we came across this line on Apple's support web page: "Some Mac notebooks also turn on when you open them, connect them to power, press any key or press the trackpad." 

Yes, this is a feature, not a bug, and Apple appears to have added it fairly recently. According to the company's support page, only the 2018 MacBook Pro and the new MacBook Air (with the Retina display) can be turned on by pressing the trackpad or any key.

You don't need to do anything to enable the feature, either. And there doesn't seem to be a way to turn it off, although I can't think of a single good reason why you would want to use the trackpad or keyboard on a powered-down laptop.

This feature isn't reason enough to spend a premium on a new Apple laptop, but using this method sure beats searching for the power key or Touch ID button on the top right corner of the keyboard. Better yet, new Mac laptops also turn on when you open their lids, even if the devices aren't connected to power. A new Mac will turn on, as well, when you connect it to a power adapter when the lid is open.

Credit: Laptop Mag