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The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up

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121–130 of 186 posts

Re: The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up

#121

Was the old keyboard engineering so bad? I feel like Apple has been fixing what wasn't broken since about 2010, regarding the MBP at least. Literally all they needed to do was retina screen, upgrade the internals, and add a few USB-C ports. Was anyone ever legitimately inconvenienced by the thickness of the 2010 MBP? I know I was directly inconvenienced by the loss of MagSafe, ethernet, SD card and USB-A, the loss of…

> Was anyone ever legitimately inconvenienced by the thickness of the 2010 MBP? My tinfoil hat theory is yes - Apple's supply chain folks. Thinner and lighter laptops means more fit on a cargo airplane, which means lower shipping costs. Tim Cook cut his teeth on Apple's supply chain as COO before becoming CEO, after all.

>Was anyone ever legitimately inconvenienced by the thickness of the 2010 MBP?

Sure. Here's a certain Linus Torvalds:

"I’m have to admit being a bit baffled by how nobody else seems to have done what Apple did with the Macbook Air – even several years after the first release, the other notebook vendors continue to push those ugly and clunky things. (...) I don’t think I’m unusual in preferring my laptop to be thin and light. (...) Btw, even when it comes to Apple, it’s really just the Air that I think is special. The other apple laptops may be good-looking, but they are still the same old clunky hardware (...)"

Re: The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up

#122

This is in-line with the the 'under promise and over deliver" mantra I was taught at Apple Retail. Don't make any promises you can't keep, and silently start to fix issues like this. Apple having a hardware fix for their keyboard disasters in this revision is also inline with their repair program they just issued.

> Don't make any promises you can't keep What, like delivering a keyboard that actually works reliably? It seems very much the opposite of under-promise, over-deliver in that they promised it and the touch bar would be better. The most that can be said is both are proving hugely subjective and controversial. Now, had they managed to get Thinkpad feel in 2mm travel...

>What, like delivering a keyboard that actually works reliably?

Under all other constraints you have. Which is not just simple "put any old working keyboard in there and call it a day".

Re: The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up

#123

This is in-line with the the 'under promise and over deliver" mantra I was taught at Apple Retail. Don't make any promises you can't keep, and silently start to fix issues like this. Apple having a hardware fix for their keyboard disasters in this revision is also inline with their repair program they just issued.

> Apple having a hardware fix for their keyboard disasters in this revision is also inline with their repair program they just issued. Yes, they just issued a repair program. Until precisely 3 weeks ago Apple refused to acknowledge the issue and forced customers to pay for costly repairs on their own dime. This patent was filed in September 2016. Apple was fucking lying through their teeth for a full 22 months and ha…

>Yes, they just issued a repair program. Until precisely 3 weeks ago Apple refused to acknowledge the issue and forced customers to pay for costly repairs on their own dime. This patent was filed in September 2016. Apple was fucking lying through their teeth for a full 22 months and have been caught in that lie.

Do you expect companies to immediately jump to full repair programs the minute the first few users complain?

Especially when people will complain about anything.

Of course they'd wait to see if it's a widespread issue.

Re: The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up

#124

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's a way to pay a lot less. Ask apple to replace the battery, it costs $219 and because they have to replace the topcase when replacing the battery, you will get a new keyboard.

I was in the same situation and Apple also quoted me $500 until I asked to replace the battery.

Re: The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up

#125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Edit: wow, downvotes? Care to explain...? > Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading. Don’t worry about downvotes, even if you care about the karma points you can at most get to -4 anyway.

Concerning points, here's what works for me: I act on the assumtion that I can't take the points with me when (I'm || HM) is dead. So... while I need enough to enable free speech, accumulating internet points is not the reason I participate in this forum.

Let's wait for the Black Mirror episode where your internet points will make your Avatar's afterlife more enjoyable.

Re: The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up

#126
post #32

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)

Remapping the "caps lock" key to ESC has worked out really well for me.

I don’t have a touch bar but I do this too. I have it mapped to escape when pressed on its own and Ctrl when pressed with another key and that works great.

Re: The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up

#127
post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Concerning points, here's what works for me: I act on the assumtion that I can't take the points with me when (I'm || HM) is dead. So... while I need enough to enable free speech, accumulating internet points is not the reason I participate in this forum.

Let's wait for the Black Mirror episode where your internet points will make your Avatar's afterlife more enjoyable.

See Tom Scott’s Welcome to Life. [0]

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFe9wiDfb0E

Re: The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up

#128

Was the old keyboard engineering so bad? I feel like Apple has been fixing what wasn't broken since about 2010, regarding the MBP at least. Literally all they needed to do was retina screen, upgrade the internals, and add a few USB-C ports. Was anyone ever legitimately inconvenienced by the thickness of the 2010 MBP? I know I was directly inconvenienced by the loss of MagSafe, ethernet, SD card and USB-A, the loss of…

Yes but think about the people at the top of Apple who need to be seen to "innovating". Even if its misguided innovation. Change is good! Embrace!

Re: The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up

#129
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how does the touchpad compare? I feel I've been spolied by apple's touchpads, when I had to use another laptop I wanted to cry.

It’s definitely worse but not as bad as non-MB touchpads used to be. Plus, it’s motivating to use more keyboard shortcuts.

And when you learn to use the Lenovo TrackPoint, there is no going back.

Having a T25, X1C5 and X1C6 in the family and the keyboard+mouse experience is so much ahead of everybody else.

Re: The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up

#130

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's a way to pay a lot less. Ask apple to replace the battery, it costs $219 and because they have to replace the topcase when replacing the battery, you will get a new keyboard. I was in the same situation and Apple also quoted me $500 until I asked to replace the battery.

He's talking about an older model.
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