Apple's QWERTY gets dirty, leaving fanbois shirty

The problem is you're all typing wrong and need new fingers, obviously!

I Have A Fix

Figure out a way to put components inside the empty space in a buckling spring keyboard. Like 104 tiny batteries or maybe some RAM chips. Classic. Timeless.

This is exactly why I now avoid Apple gear

Poor quality components and build leads to inherent faults but out of warranty you're on your own. And for the price of Apple products and the fact they are "premium" (apparently) they should have a 5 year warranty.

£502 for a keyboard replacement is insane, especially when you can buy their complete standalone metal one for an already expensive £129. they are really really taking the piss with this.

Time and time again this happens to Apple gear but mugs just go back for more. Bending iphone 6 models, peeling screens, dodgy batteries, MacBook Pro video card issues ..... the list goes on.

On the other hand, my 8 year old 24" cinema display backlight circuitry died this week. It was one of the old school Apple products built to last, unlike the thin designer crap they produce today. Given the fact it was used pretty much every day over an 8 year period and cost £600, that's twenty pence a day, so not bad value at all. But after investigating it is in fact another inherent design fault where the power supply to the back light burns out. Most of these cinema displays are now dead with exactly the same issue, but of course Apple now don't repair them or stock any parts. Shock.

People also need to get a bit realistic about how thin a computer they actually want. The anorexic lappy wars have gone a bit insane. I mean the current Macs are so thin that a headphone jack barely fits into the case.

Would be good to hear from a professional who repairs Apple products for a living.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUaJ8pDlxi8

$700 is more than the cost of the logic board

As someone who has recently used the service, the current cost charged by Apple for an out-of-warranty replacement of the original Retina MacBook's logic board — i.e. the single component that comprises the CPU(/GPU), RAM and SSD — is $475 for the part plus $100 for the labour.

So it's more than 20% more expensive to replace the keyboard than it is all the bits that actually constitute the computing part of the computer? Somebody definitely needs to go back to the drawing board on that design, I think.

I use a simple tool to clear any dirt from the keyboard that would get in the way of travel http://menda.descoindustries.com/MendaCatalog/Hand-and-Power-Tools/Probes-and-Spudgers/Nylon/35622/#.WuH1fcgh124

Cough. Splutter.

£500+ just for a keyboard? That is 3 times the price I paid for my entire Acer laptop (£130). OK it is not so slim that you can use it as a steak knife but it does its job and is almost exactly the volume of 50 sheets of A4. Having thrown away Win10 and replaced it with Xubuntu so that I have space to store files locally instead of on the cloud, it is surprisingly quick and reliable. The only problem is the non-opensource driver for WiFi which causes freezes once or twice a week. Reboot is only 14 seconds so not much of an interruption.These crashes sometimes cause me to lose 30 seconds of work as EXT4 throws away inconsistent inodes but usually its just Firefoxe's information about the last tab opened.

Awful Keyboard of the Century.

I have the MacBook Pro and can confirm it's keyboard is truly awful. I have a can of air on the shelf for a 4 month old laptop and it needs using every week to blow out crap so the keys work. Truly awful design.

Contrast with my MacBook Air 2011 which still worked after trips to Africa and used on a bus with more red dust than Mars yet a Pro machine which never leaves the sofa craps out every few weeks.

it's the os...

Windows - no thanks.

Linux - wish the DE and apps were more robust - still not ready for desktop prime time.

Mac OSX - the best option of the bunch - imho.

Probably why Apple doesn't allow their OS on commodity hardware...

But..but..but...

I like to pay more for my tech so I can get a better resale value when I buy the next model Apple tell is better.

What the hell's happened to Apple?

The trouble with gurus who choose their successors is that they invariably choose someone comparitively cr*p to take over, because of their essential failing: Narcissism. Gurus don't want to be outshone, even in death. Somethings rotten at Apple, unless they reanimate the body of Jobs which they have pickled in a secret chamber deep beneath the middle of the Apple saucer, I fear they are doomed to perpetual ineptitude or a terminal case of Microsoft.

The most horrible Apple keyboard ever

Apple always put so much effort into keyboard design, including feel, noise, etc. but this one is horrible. It's stiff, it's noisy, it becomes unreliable, it's uncomfortable. The iMac keyboards were the best.

Profit over everything

I used to be an Apple junkie, my 2011 MacBook Pro was a thing of beauty with really high quality components, build and easy accessibility for upgrades/repairs. I could easily get it running four VMs at once if needed when doing non-performance simulations. It had a mid-life upgrade of a 1TB SSD in 2014-ish and that made it like a new machine outperforming most modern laptops I saw at the time. The discrete graphics card died last year but that's not surprising given I used it like a heavy-use desktop rather than laptop with constrained airflow and smaller scale components.

The newer Apple computers (both desktops and laptops) are poor machines with usually one generation out technology, poor quality of components and an idiot obsession with slimness and locking the case away from heathen unclean owner hands. The Air is more than good enough for those who want an overpriced flip-top iPad, taking the MBP that way is an idiot move that alienated quite a lot of core fanbois like me; a good example is the fantastic maglock power cables that saved my laptop flying off the table many a time, replaced because the magnetic dock was too big for the newly anorexic frame. Also, far too many stories of simple problems you don't expect on premium kit.

It's all down to the corporate folk who get chubbies on over profit rises every year and go out of their way to shave more off costs while looking for excuses to raise the prices yet again. I really don't mind paying premium prices but I want premium kit in return.

I couldn't find a replacement I liked so ended up replacing my dead MBP with a £1000 big-brand gaming laptop. Excellent spec, equivalent to the near £3k MBP but just not as metallic and shiny. If it fails out of warranty, I'll just get the newer model and still have money left over to buy a third one in another year or so. I do miss working on the Apple OS rather than this Win10 asthmatic labrador of an OS, but that's an acceptable cost for not being treated like an idiot cash cow.

I quite like the keyboard...

I quite like the keyboard on my 2016 MBP. It's positive and fast to type on, with good audible feeback (aka it's too clicky!)

But I'm wating with bated breath for it to fail. Probably the day after my Applecare expires.

Hackbook?

At $700, you could get a decently specced commodity laptop NEW, and then just set the Macbook up as a desk-bound unit with an external keyboard. If you *really* needed MacOS, just Hackintosh that commodity one.

I'll never leave mechanical again

Can't comment on the Apple keyboards cos I don't own any overpriced Apple shinies, but I type a lot and confess that I had kind of gormlessly trailed along during a decade of computers with ever-cheaper keyboards (after all, it was the innards that counted, wasn't it? Wasn't it?), only pausing to reflect on what had happened to my typing skills and carpals when I was bashing away on some sub-£10 POS.

It was my son, then about 11 years old, who demands only the very best for his gaming rigs (price of a small second hand car for a GPU?!?), who asked for a mechanical keyboard using Cherry mechanisms. I scoffed, argued, gave in (of course) and had an epiphany when the damn thing arrived: realised what I'd gradually sacrificed over the years.

Now I do understand why it's worth paying £100—and I am a noted tightwad—for a well-built mechanical keyboard, and after five years of this one superb, flawlessly reliable Cherry-based clickety, I would never go back to those f***ing horrible rubber membrane things.

Well, yes, good enough reason buyers should ALWAYS spring for AppleCare.

However, if your KB fails, after you've gotten and AppleCare case number and gotten a MASP to order you a new one, DON'T leave your Mac!

Take it home and plug in an external keyboard to use until your repair shop calls you in.

Been using a MacBook Pro since it came out with the butterfly keyboard and touch bar. Haven't had a single problem.

Do people bury it in a beach for a week, then complain about the QWERTY?

Today, must be an Apple bashing day!