Bluetooth, a neat idea that doesn't work
When I bought the M4 Mac Mini, I ordered a “magic” trackpad with it. An employer had, long ago, equipped me with the magic trackpad v1 for a 2012 iMac, which was perfectly fine. It got a little persnickety with the battery connection as it aged, but as long as the light came on, it basically always worked with the computer.
This is not what happened with the Mini. Whenever logging in after a cold boot,1 the trackpad has to reconnect, which takes a noticeable amount of time, which is baffling. It was already connected at the login screen?
The same applies to the keyboard. I have a Logitech K250 Bluetooth, which is apparently different than an older K250 somehow (why would anyone do this??) but it also needs to reconnect after login. Obviously, it was also connected, because I typed my password on it.2
I can only conclude that nothing is handed off to macOS from the bootloader environment? The screen goes dark for a second, the Bluetooth stuff disconnects, and I don't know why. I just don't know. Why would a company take a reputation of "it just works" and then make the experience so sloppy that their own hardware feels broken and halfhearted?
There is no reason any of this should have ever come to my attention. This is the sort of thing I expect from my car,3 and from Android.
I regularly cold-boot it, because I switch the power strip off when not in use. It saves energy and turns the lights off.↩
The keyboard doesn't even notice it has been disconnected nor attempt to reconnect until I press a key. Whether that key is received by macOS is random. This is as disconcerting as the connection issues are puzzling.↩
The dealer once asked if I wanted to “upgrade for new tech.” Bro, the Bluetooth quit connecting to the phone after like, the very next iOS version. Apparently, having tech work there means buying a car every year? Insanity.↩