The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up • Hacker News Board

Re: The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up

#11

Post by 1996 » Sat, Jul 14, 2018, 1:45 AM UTC

dingo_bat wrote: post #7

Reading the comment under TFA it seems macbook keyboards have no water resistance? Seems a bit weird for such an expensive device.

This reminds me about the drain conduits (aqueducts?) in the thinkpads: liquids poured on the keyboard are diverted away from the electronics

Re: The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up

#12

Post by alfalfasprout » Sat, Jul 14, 2018, 1:46 AM UTC

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #4

My too-expensive 2015 MBP has a nonfunctional keyboard. I have to type using external keyboards, which is quite "fun". Apple wants $500. Dragging an old $10 USB keyboard around with you makes you look like you really like mechanical keyboards. It's been about a year and a half now. I guess you get used to it.

They switched to the butterfly keyboard in 2016. Apple fixed my 2016 MBP Touchbar for free. If you're having issues w/ a 2015 model that's unrelated to the issue the author and most others recently have referenced.

Re: The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up

#13

Post by phil248 » Sat, Jul 14, 2018, 1:47 AM UTC

I'm sorry, but are people actually more concerned with the sound of the keyboard than the arrow keys?

It took me a week to get used to the sound. Six months in and I still can't reliably hit the arrow keys. It's as if they're designed to be as difficult as possible.

Re: The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up

#14

Post by skygazer » Sat, Jul 14, 2018, 1:49 AM UTC

phlyingpenguin wrote: post #5

I’m confused. Are we supposed to be bandwagon mad that Apple took steps to fix their busted keyboard?

It only seems reasonable to be tongue-in-cheek mad. But, we, who hoped that the early reporting that Apple had done nothing to address the contaminent ingress issue may now be quietly relieved.

Re: The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up

#15

Post by protomyth » Sat, Jul 14, 2018, 1:50 AM UTC

princekolt wrote: post #10

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #4

My too-expensive 2015 MBP has a nonfunctional keyboard. I have to type using external keyboards, which is quite "fun". Apple wants $500. Dragging an old $10 USB keyboard around with you makes you look like you really like mechanical keyboards. It's been about a year and a half now. I guess you get used to it.

There is a service program to replace these keyboards for free. They are even refunding people who paid to get their keyboards fixed before the program launched. This is almost a non-issue at this point if you can use a replacement computer while they fix yours.

So, if I send in my computer, does the replacement keyboard have a fix to keep it from breaking again?

Re: The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up

#16

Post by murukesh_s » Sat, Jul 14, 2018, 1:51 AM UTC

phlyingpenguin wrote: post #5

I’m confused. Are we supposed to be bandwagon mad that Apple took steps to fix their busted keyboard?

Perhaps because they never admitted there was an issue. Whoever bought the upgraded MacBook pros with the upgraded butterfly keyboard for the last 2-3 years are probably mad that they got a mediocre product advertised as superior. At least Apple should offer a keyboard replacement/fix program at a lower rate like they did with the iPhone battery.

Edit: Apple did announce a keyboard service program for affected users.

https://www.apple.com/support/keyboard-service-program-for-m...

Re: The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up

#17

Post by BugsJustFindMe » Sat, Jul 14, 2018, 1:57 AM UTC

phil248 wrote: post #13

I'm sorry, but are people actually more concerned with the sound of the keyboard than the arrow keys? It took me a week to get used to the sound. Six months in and I still can't reliably hit the arrow keys. It's as if they're designed to be as difficult as possible.

I guess one kinda important difference is that you can see how bad the up/down arrows are going to be before you buy it.

Nobody predicted the failure rate.

Re: The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up

#18

Post by handbanana » Sat, Jul 14, 2018, 1:57 AM UTC

lancewiggs wrote: post #6

They fixed the keyboard, increased the max memory to 32GB and stuck to their guns on the touch bar - and that all seems reasonable to me. (I’m far more annoyed by Microsoft removing ESC as the dbox cancel key for errors in Excel than the disappearance of the ESC key)

They didn't really fix it though, did they?

Re: The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up

#19

Post by fzzzy » Sat, Jul 14, 2018, 1:58 AM UTC

princekolt wrote: post #10

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #4

My too-expensive 2015 MBP has a nonfunctional keyboard. I have to type using external keyboards, which is quite "fun". Apple wants $500. Dragging an old $10 USB keyboard around with you makes you look like you really like mechanical keyboards. It's been about a year and a half now. I guess you get used to it.

There is a service program to replace these keyboards for free. They are even refunding people who paid to get their keyboards fixed before the program launched. This is almost a non-issue at this point if you can use a replacement computer while they fix yours.

Not the 2015, only the butterfly keyboards.

Re: The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up

#20

Post by userbinator » Sat, Jul 14, 2018, 1:58 AM UTC

The fact that the membrane is still vented (labeled 321 in the diagram) suggests that this will only delay, and not fix the dust ingress problem. Indeed, it could make things worse by creating a tiny pump[1] that draws particles in on each keystroke.

I don't know why they didn't vent from the bottom instead, but that's how completely sealed (i.e. waterproof) keypads are vented.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaphragm_pump

Edit: wow, downvotes? Care to explain...?