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MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

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Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#471

Post by criddell »

mcv wrote: post #444
blackhaz wrote: post #412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thin laptops do suck. Give us ports and keyboards! Is there a single instance of high-quality laptop on the market with a generous key travel these days? Thinkpads don't quite reach the feel of MBP 2015 keyboard for me. (Typing this on a 101-key NMB I restored which, I think, is close to typing nirvana.)

> "Thinkpads don't quite reach the feel of MBP 2015 keyboard for me." They don't? I was under the impression that Thinkpads generally had the best keyboards. They get praised for it all the time. Are current Thinkpad keyboards actually worse than 2015 Macbook ones? Are keyboards a piece of technology that's getting worse instead of better as time goes on?

It's super subjective.

I have two Thinkpads that I use frequently. One is a T520 with the traditional Thinkpad keyboard and the other is a Yoga S1 with the island keys. I prefer the newer keyboard (island or chiclet keys) by a mile.

I ended up looking for a similar desktop keyboard and ended up with the Logitech K750.

Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#473

Post by parasubvert »

FireBeyond wrote: post #332
endorphone wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has been a hugely reported upon issue, so much so that Apple has a whole extended warranty and keyboard replacement program in place. https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Anews.ycombinator.com+... Surprised that anyone has missed this, as it has been front-paged on HN dozens if not hundreds of time. https://support.apple.com/en-ca/keyboard-service-program-for...

And yet even in this story, there are multiple comments a la "Yawn. I can't believe this is an issue. Apple shouldn't be paying attention to niche complainers."

Because the level of vitriol is not commensurate with the problem? They'll replace the keyboards, most people don't have issues. (I know I don't, 2+ years in).

Nerd entitlement rage is monotonous. The latest models 4th gen keyboards are pretty much fine.

Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#474

Post by panpanna »

ssijak wrote: post #276
__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are four of us at work that use Linux--the other 30 or so all have MacBooks. There are no converts, either you started a Linux person, or you started a Mac person. My little Linux enclave has some theories about the cognitive effect of all the polish that you find on Apple products, but we can't separate our biasses from good science, especially because there's nobody to ask that knows both worlds. So I have a…

I switched to apple ecosystem because I wanted the UX that just works reliably. MacOS is for me linux with ultrapolished DE. Bonus is that I can work on iOS apps and use Apple Photos which is way better for me than Google Photos. I used Arch Linux for many years before MacOS. I also switched to iPhone from Android. Wanted a phone that works in the same ecosystem (photos...) and is fast, reliable and does not change u…

To be fair, you started with arch which requires some attention.

Most professional users use Ubuntu since it's fairly polished and "just works".

Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#475

Post by ubermonkey »

So he's writing today about last year's keyboard, when the laptops introduced a few months ago have a different keyboard already?

I mean, good for him, but his complaint is literally a duplicate of what other people said about the butterfly keyboards for a couple years. I'm not aware yet of these complaints continuing to apply with the newest rev.

Obviously Apple fucked up on these, and obviously they're trying to fix it / make it right, but this particular post seems, well, uninteresting and unworthy of HN.

Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#477

Post by penagwin »

vegardx wrote: post #469
tolmasky wrote: post #37

The worst part is that I can tell this keyboard is actually having a detrimental effect on my typing abilities. Since being on these keyboards for years now, I've noticed that my typing speed has slowed, as I spend a significant amount of cognitive energy preparing to fix mistakes. The faster you type, the more annoying it is to go farther back to fix something. I'm not sure how to quantify the focus it steals from t…

> having to wait 3 days for a repair, even though it is done in-store is truly infuriating Oh - but it gets worse. I had my keyboard replaced a year ago, and it took over a week. In Norway they don't stock US International keyboards, which I can accept, but they can't (or won't, hard to tell) order a replacement unit before taking it into service. So it has to stay with them while they wait a 3-5 days just to get the…

I worked in computer/ phone repair - given the context keys falling off should definitely be under warranty. However lacking that context (let's assume there aren't widespread keyboard issues for that model) keys falling off could be the result of "rough handling" - we can't tell if a frustrated user was pounding at their keys or not, etc

But yeah given the known widespread keyboard issues for the Macbooks...

Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#478

Post by 8draco8 »

cujo wrote: post #466
8draco8 wrote: post #458

OK, so my theory on that is that it was all Jony Ive fault. Back in the days when Jobs was still around he was a natural counter balance to Ive. He wanted everything to be not only 'beautiful' but most notably just working. Ive was great source of new design ideas for him and he was usually throwing away bad ones (from technical point of view) and leaving the god ones (of course there was some mistakes but over all i…

I want to believe this, and as there is no evidence one way or the other, it sounds good enough that it makes me hopeful for future products. My question is, what did Ive do that was truly great? I honestly don't know and his name is mostly brought up with respect to designs that didn't pan out. What did he do that everyone seems to respect him as an uber-designer? I do think, for a while at least, apple's design was…

Pretty much everything what Apple made since original iMac G3 was Ive design and I think the biggest thing that he did was that original iMac G3.

The story is pretty simple, Ive became Apple employee around 92 so before Jobs big comeback. Back in those days he had soft spot for translucent plastics. This showed beautifully in his first serious design for Apple, Apple Newton eMate. When Jobs came back to Apple he was looking for cool designs and he felt in love with Ives designs and translucent plastics (Jobs was crazy on making even PCB look good and idea of showing that work to the clients was appealing to him). So that's how arguably one of the biggest tech bromances started.

So yeah iMac was the design that brought back Apple to living. Other most notable designs was iPod, iPhone, iMac G4, MB, MBP, slim iMacs, list goes on and on. The difference is that all those designs was under supervision of Jobs. So ideas like charging port on Magic Mouse wouldn't fly under Jobs supervision (and they didn't) but when Jobs passed away then suddenly those ideas went into production.

The story of how they met is from Jobs and Ives biographies, I highly recommend reading at least Jobs biography by Isaacson

Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#479

Post by parasubvert »

The monotony of this complaint is driving me crazy.

It's really simple.

1. If you don't care about MacOS, and want a different keyboard, please buy a Lenovo Carbon X1 and leave us happy Macbook Pro users in peace.

2. If your keyboard breaks, Apple will replace it free. The newer gen keyboards generally don't break.

3. If you really can't type on this keyboard and you really love MacOS, there are lots of decent thin Bluetooth keyboards. Microsoft has a great one. It's a small monetary sacrifice you'll need to make for sticking with MacOS. i.e. something we already do when we buy Macbook Pros ;)

I am getting tired of being sneered at for "clearly not understanding my own interests" because I like my Macbook Pro, have never had a keyboard issue, I LIKE TYPING on the keyboard, and would buy another one.

I do hope they change the keyboard radically in the next release so that the laptop posse finds another issue to rage at.

Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#480

Post by ubermonkey »

johnbrodie wrote: post #18
iamleppert wrote: post #12

I switched to a Thinkpad after I had the horror of using a new Macbook. Running Ubuntu is lovely, so much so that for a developer there is little reason to be using a Macbook anymore. You can get a lot more bang for the buck using a Thinkpad AND have a functional keyboard. Apple should be very worried. Once they loose the developers, users won't be long to follow.

Why do you say that? Honest question - nowadays it seems like most users are just using web apps, so less need for native apps anyway. Plus the users are still there, so I'd think market forces would keep highly-used native apps going anyway.

People who are serious about their tools tend not to use web apps as much.
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