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My MacBook keyboard is broken and it's insanely expensive to fix

tobiasberg.net

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Re: My MacBook keyboard is broken and it's insanely expensive to fix

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Name me an american tech company that isn't complicit in the fascist project. I bet you they don't produce laptops

Purism

Normally I'd agree purity tests are largely counterproductive. But large tech companies are major players and deserve extraordinary scrutiny for their actions.

Anyway, simply noting the impacts of their decisions doesn't seem deserving of an "ism"—surely there should be a normative component to make this a proper ideology—I haven't told you what to do.

Re: My MacBook keyboard is broken and it's insanely expensive to fix

#122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No, this is a bad solution. You didn't say why this is a bad solution. The government mandates that cars get safer every year and fatalities are down 78% from the 1960s. Whenever government regulates things to benefit people, people tend to benefit. > One of the things macbook users praise the most is "build quality", which often means the solidity of the device, lack of flex, etc. It seems like the Macbook Neo has…

> You didn't say why this is a bad solution. The fear is that regulations ossify industries and that's why heavily regulated industries like healthcare, education, and transportation have seen basically no innovation in 50 years. If you mandate that all electronic devices must have USB-C cables, how can anyone invent something better than a USB-C cable? And for what, so people don't have to have multiple cables? That…

Healthcare? Maybe you distinguish that from medicine somehow, but I'd rather have [literally any disease] today than fifty years ago.

Re: My MacBook keyboard is broken and it's insanely expensive to fix

#123

>Here’s hoping governments regulate laptop manufacturers to actually make repairable machines in the future. No, this is a bad solution. If you want a repairable machine, buy one. They exist. Others have already mentioned Framework, but there are other options that aren't that far down the spectrum either. One of the things macbook users praise the most is "build quality", which often means the solidity of the device…

Decades of HN users finger wagging and suggesting FOSS hardware has progressed society nowhere. 12 months from EU mandatory replaceable batteries and products across the industry are being redesigned with repairability, usb-c, and user friendly designs. It’s time to accept regulation actually does work when you have a competent government.

That's a great example of their point, all I got was a mechanically inferior connector (putting the most important piece of the female connector on a floating sliver of plastic was a choice) and the cable hell attached to USB C.

If USB C had been so important to me I wouldn't have bought iPhones all those years.

Re: My MacBook keyboard is broken and it's insanely expensive to fix

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Name me an american tech company that isn't complicit in the fascist project. I bet you they don't produce laptops

System76

This is a great answer. I lost the bet. I suspect even this falls apart if you consider the bill of materials, though.

Look my point is that commodity fetishization is real, it protects our entire economy, and once you look deeper/underneath the hood/covers, many reasonable prices become violations of our personal values. With such insanely complex and largely offshore supply chains, laptops and phones (and servers etc) become very problematic devices that we nonetheless rely on.

Re: My MacBook keyboard is broken and it's insanely expensive to fix

#125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Name me an american tech company that isn't complicit in the fascist project. I bet you they don't produce laptops

"Made in america" is dead.

It's getting there. The exceptions are exceptional.

Re: My MacBook keyboard is broken and it's insanely expensive to fix

#127
No symphaty!!!

Apple has been doing this since forever and people keep buying its hardware.

You cannot replace a screen even if you buy a genuine one because Apple locks hardware ID via firmware, so only they can replace that!

Apple own customer is the reason why Apple does what it does best: You rent your hardware, you don't and never will own an Apple hardware!!

Re: My MacBook keyboard is broken and it's insanely expensive to fix

#128
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If anything, the extra material for the case would be the perimeter length times the perimeter wall width times the height That's what they did? Perimeter length = 2*335mm + 2*235mm Wall height diff = 2mm Wall width = 1mm (2*335 + 2*235) * 2mm * 1mm = 2,280 mm^3

Ah, thanks, I think what happened was that the asterisks were turned into italics and confused me. I think the message was edited to clarify.

The post was fixed about 30 seconds after making it - due to the *s being interpreted as italics. It is a shame there isn't a preview button when composing posts.

Re: My MacBook keyboard is broken and it's insanely expensive to fix

#129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, thanks, I think what happened was that the asterisks were turned into italics and confused me. I think the message was edited to clarify.

The post was fixed about 30 seconds after making it - due to the *s being interpreted as italics. It is a shame there isn't a preview button when composing posts.

Or just more sane markdown handling :/

Re: My MacBook keyboard is broken and it's insanely expensive to fix

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It seems like the Macbook Neo has a lot of those properties as well for a very inexpensive device that is extremely easy to repair. It's slightly worse, slightly more flex, thicker and heavier vs an Air in spite of having a smaller battery and more empty space. It's all trade offs. If you want repairable, please buy a Framework or Lenovo. Backseat industrial designing through legislation is not the answer.

> Backseat industrial designing through legislation is not the answer. Again, why not? It's not mandating design, just minimal standards for repairability that should be obvious. If Framework and Lenovo can do it and Apple can do it on a $600 laptop, why can't everyone do it?

Agreed.

> why can't everyone do it

What everyone is missing: Because other manufactures do not have to; the profit margins are too good to give a shit, and they allow some pretty fierce competition within the target demographic:

Sadly, the general public still just wants the cheapest option to consume their bullshit content, even if it needs to be replaced a year from now after their cat walks on it and causes critical damage.

The MacBook Neo is brilliant in that Apple takes a share of this market with a premium and affordable product that is basically just their previous generation phone, with the expensive bits likely sourced from their exchange program or surplus supply. Products that at some point the same people would've loved to have, but couldn't afford. Now repurposed with a larger screen, sporting the envied Apple logo, at an affordable price, and targeting that same demographic as the hot new thing, just one generation later.

I have a feeling we'll see this pattern continue, and it's genius. Minimizing waste, maximizing profits, and giving the consumers what they want, while maintaining a gap between low-end and high-end -- people that spend $$$$ still want to feel special, of course.

Don't get me wrong, the Neo is great, especially for us hackers, but it is absolutely not meant for us in any way. What is in our favor: it does, at the very least, raise the bar for these other manufactures that product absolute garbage.

Someone needs to be a reference as to what is feasible in order for a standard to be established. Apple, Framework, and I guess Lenovo are the ones doing this these days. RIP the others.

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