Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

lastochka

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 22, 2008
70
0
Does enyone know whether the backlight keyboard is *physically* abscent from the new entry level MacBooks.

Considering the mixup at the US AppleStore it may be so that the decision to differentiate between the models came in very late. I am speculating that the hardware producing the backlight is present in both models, however has been disabled through software (which would really be a trivial thing to do). If so, a simple software hack could potentially enable the backlight on all MacBooks.

I'm stressing that this is speculation, just an idea. What do you think?
 

aristobrat

macrumors G5
Oct 14, 2005
12,292
1,403
Since the un-backlighted keyboards are also missing the "brightness up/down" function keys, my vote is that it's a physically different keyboard missing the lights.
 

xUKHCx

Administrator emeritus
Jan 15, 2006
12,583
9
The Kop
I am guessing if it was there it would've been found by now especially with all the disassembly pictures and such.

As to why it was present on the website, that is just a basic copy and paste error from someone who didn't bother to check the facts.
 

Chrisrokc

macrumors regular
May 19, 2008
163
0
The dimmer module that controls the keyboard brightness is in both macbooks. However the keyboard is not. Ifixit will be carrying the keyboards in stock if you are looking to upgrade.
 

acfusion29

macrumors 68040
Nov 8, 2007
3,128
1
Toronto
If you want to install your own backlight (that would be permanent), then you can because when I light up my caps lock, the dot goes green, as well as half the letters on the actual key.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.