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Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

ifixit.org

581–590 of 927 posts

Re: Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

#581
post #418

Stupid Apple - I blame Schiller. They won’t support 32Gb ram because it might decrease battery life and requires them to reengineer the logic board but they’re totally cool with a fragile ass keyboard GLUED to a battery! Really there’s no way to call this anything other than insanity. I remember the media used to talk about the ‘halo effect’ - well I’m someone who has Almost every MBP between 2002-2012 and every iPho…

I mostly agree with you. But really, who needs +16GB RAM on their laptop?! I think the need for more RAM is correlated with the need for more CPU clock, more powerful graphic card, and a better Motherboard, all of which result in a huge decrease in battery life (which is supposed to be a laptop's main strength over heavy, power-consuming PC).

I need the RAM. Network modeling, network simulation, dev installations of SDN platforms. This is a developer and programmer forum, right?

Re: Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

#582
I love iFixit. I used them extensively when I used to run a cell phone repair shop. I don't read them much any more, but they stick to their principles and provide amazing insight.

Since the iPhone 3GS, one of Apple's priorities has been to make their devices less repairable. They have made conscious decisions that actually make the device cost more, such as introducing pentalobe fasteners for their iPhone 4 partway into it's manufacturing run.

Now that Windows 10 has a built-in Linux subsystem, what advantage do Macs have any more other than signaling?

Re: Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

#583
post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially in cases when it doesn't need to be thinner. I just tried out a Apple Magic Keyboard, which is a razor blade for some reason, and had wrist pain within a few hours of using it. Everybody's different, but this keyboard is trash. It is designed solely to look pretty in marketing photos. I'm not a keyboard snob. I don't need Cherry MX Blue's to be happy. I thought the Apple Wireless Keyboard (with the AA batt…

> Especially in cases when it doesn't need to be thinner. I just tried out a Apple Magic Keyboard, which is a razor blade for some reason, and had wrist pain within a few hours of using it. Everybody's different, but this keyboard is trash. It is designed solely to look pretty in marketing photos. If you're talking about the keyboard on the new MacBook Pros, yes, it's trash. If you're talking about the standalone key…

Is he's talking about this thing?

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/611149H28WL...

Because I absolutely love it, been coding on it for years.

Re: Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

#584

> In the meantime, let’s give some other companies a shot. Dell and HP have gorgeous, reliable, repairable flagship laptops that are getting rave reviews. Right now, I think they’ve done more to earn your business than Apple has. The laptop mentioned in the "rave review" link is an elitebook 840 g5. I have been using the 840 g1 as my primary laptop for the last 4 years and it really is a sturdy device. The hardware i…

The 840 G5 has an off center trackpad with buttons and a number key block. How this is still a thing is absolutely beyond me.

Off center track pad is not an issue. Just a matter of getting used to it. Buttons is a great addition. I don't understand why having buttons is an issue. You can still tap if you want to. But with buttons, things like dragging become much easier.

What's a number key block?

Re: Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

#585

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At same boat as you, and just have migrated all my activities to Windows on 64 Gb Core i7 8 gen CPU desktop. It's a real booster for my day to day work. I love and miss the aesthetics of macOS and Magic Mouse swipes. However let's face it, Apple alone cannot stand the pace. It just cannot compete with hordes of companies from all over the world who do their part of job really really good. Gigabyte, ASUS, Samsung, Int…

We all lose in the long run. Those companies all existed in 2005, but Apple was streets ahead of them for the average person. Apple pushed the industry forward. Remember what the typical phone was like before the iphone? Or the typical mp3 player before the ipod? Sure, the ipod may have had less space than a Nomad and no wifi, but it was what people actually wanted. The question is, is apple really going backwards, o…

>Is USB-C really a step back from magsafe?

Without a single doubt in my mind.

Re: Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

#586
I am a huge fan of Apple's products and never understood the fuss when the new Pro Keyboard attracted bad press, reading it on my old, robust pre-2015 era Macbook.

Until now. I got the new one at my job three months back. And, here I am, still struggling with and super annoyed with the missed keystrokes (the buttons are so thin/don't press properly), the almost non-existent 'Enter' keys (seriously, who messes with the Enter keys! ), the useless touchbar. I look like a klutz when I have to show code/artefacts to someone because I am always mistyping or closing windows.

Additionally, the touchbar led me to one heart-stopping evening of infinite restarts[1].

I am terribly disappointed that they released such a shoddy product, especially since it's used as a workhorse by thousands of developers world-wide.

1. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8189417

EDIT: Grammar errors

Re: Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

#587
The real problem is they have no competition, so they can do whatever they want. See the person describing their Dell XPS problems somewhere in this discussion.

All the various stupid decisions and quality problems add up slowly, but I'd hate for my 2012 mbpro to die right now. I might reluctantly go for something from Dell or Lenovo with Linux, but I'm sure I'll get a thousand paper cuts from things I used to take for granted but don't work any more.

Re: Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

#588

I was absolutely ok with repairability of 2013 pro models. But what they did with new keyboard design is awful. I write this now from my Dell XPS 13, not from my MacBook Pro different models of which I used for > 5 years.

Writing from my 2017 MacBook Pro. Apart from the keys being louder than before and my nagging fear of an errant crumb or cat hair I'm happy, typing is crisp and maybe faster for me than on any other keyboard. I move my hands less. In comparison my regular Mac keys now feel loose and smooshy, almost as if they'd been produced by the Haribo Gummy Bear factory. (Not that this is a horrible feeling. I miss gummy bears; c…

maltitol gummy bears do exist. Search for "sugar free gummy bear". Eat in moderation at first - some people have a very intense bowel reaction to them.

Re: Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

#589
post #418

Stupid Apple - I blame Schiller. They won’t support 32Gb ram because it might decrease battery life and requires them to reengineer the logic board but they’re totally cool with a fragile ass keyboard GLUED to a battery! Really there’s no way to call this anything other than insanity. I remember the media used to talk about the ‘halo effect’ - well I’m someone who has Almost every MBP between 2002-2012 and every iPho…

For what it's worth, the keyboard and trackpad both keep breaking on my XPS 15 :/

Re: Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard

#590
post #576

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And why do you think that a lot of people who are painfully aware of all the issues you mention still refuse to use Linux on a laptop while happily using it on servers? There is a riduculous repetitiveness about this debate. For me and many others, Linux on a laptop has always been unstable, insecure, hot and noisy. Many specific issues can be fixed if you put in the effort, but on almost every dist-upgrade something…

Exactly! Personally I've been running Debian on my laptop for about 3 years now but come on! You can't deny that it is a pain in the ass to use especially if something breaks and the only way to fix it is to sift through many forums online to find the right commands solve even a simple problem. Also, why is it so painfully slow to copy documents to a thumb drive using Linux as compared to Windows?

This is one of the things I am eagerly waiting to see answered :-) Hopefully someone suggests a better way to do this with a utility or something.
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