I remember when the forums actually had people who liked Apple products. Now all people do is come here to bitch and moan about everything under the sun. I'm not sure if that speaks volumes about the site or Apple or society in general.
So will this be provided to us the next we have to send in our 2016/2017 macbook pro's for repair? I just got mine back from a repair just a few weeks ago.
The article should have started by saying Apple Lied.
Last week they said it had nothing to do with dirt and was to make the keyboard quieter.
I remember when the forums actually had people who liked Apple products. Now all people do is come here to bitch and moan about everything under the sun. I'm not sure if that speaks volumes about the site or Apple or society in general.
Everyone should write tcook@apple.com. Complain. They have someone monitoring this email.
In an internal document distributed to Apple Authorized Service Providers, obtained by MacRumors from a reliable source, Apple has confirmed that the third-generation keyboard on 2018 MacBook Pro models is equipped with a "membrane" to "prevent debris from entering the butterfly mechanism."
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Image Credit: iFixit
The relevant excerpt from the service document:In its teardown of the new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar last week, the repair experts at iFixit were first to discover the thin, silicone barrier underneath the keycaps, and theorized that it was to prevent dust indeed.
Publicly, Apple has only confirmed that 2018 MacBook Pro models feature an "improved third-generation keyboard for quieter typing," but many suspected that the silicon membrane was actually to prevent "contaminate ingress," fancy speak for the crumbs from your sandwich that you ate at your desk for lunch.
Following years of anecdotal complaints from customers, and a few class action lawsuits, Apple initiated a worldwide service program last month, offering free repairs of 2015-and-later MacBook and 2016 and 2017 MacBook Pro keyboards, which are equipped with low-profile butterfly switch mechanisms.
We've already reported about the service program in more detail, but the gist is that those particular MacBook and MacBook Pro models can experience issues with sticky, unresponsive, or inconsistently functioning keys when small particles like dust or crumbs get stuck underneath the shallower keycaps.
We've reached out to Apple for comment.
More details to follow...
Article Link: Apple Confirms 2018 MacBook Pro Keyboard Has 'Membrane' to 'Prevent Debris From Entering the Butterfly Mechanism'
This.Why does Apple have such a hard time admitting that it screwed up?
"Our bad. We'll fix your keyboards for free if they have the problem. Here's what we did to improve reliability going forward."
That's all they have to do. Instead they dance around it and are all mysterious and don't tell us anything.
TALK TO US, APPLE. Everyone makes mistakes, even big companies. At least fess up and admit that you *FIXED* the problem!
Let's see:
Doesn't make the best impression to me
- Apple designed a faulty keyboard in order to make the MBP 0.01 mm thinner
- Apple denied the problem even as data and hard facts proved them otherwise
- Only after some class action lawsuits went public Apple launched a keyboard replacement program
- Apple replaces faulty 2016 and 2017 keyboards with the same old faulty designed keyboards that will fail again - it's just a matter of time
- Apple released a new MBP with a fixed keyboard. This keyboard won't be available to 2016/2017 MBP owners.
- If you want a working keyboard just spend another 2,400-7,000 USD to buy a new 2018 MBP but please don't do anything more than surfing the web, sending emails or writhing a letter. Otherwise your powerful 6-core MBP will start throttling down to 800 MHz.
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Why does Apple have such a hard time admitting that it screwed up?
"Our bad. We'll fix your keyboards for free if they have the problem. Here's what we did to improve reliability going forward."
That's all they have to do. Instead they dance around it and are all mysterious and don't tell us anything.
TALK TO US, APPLE. Everyone makes mistakes, even big companies. At least fess up and admit that you *FIXED* the problem!
The official repair program was a necessary admission of flawed design. This only proves what most of us knew already, that making the keyboard quieter was the membrane's secondary purpose, but a better one for Apple to market.“They would never do that, because they’d be admitting fault.”
Oh... OH.
I had the same question and it seems Apple has officially confirmed that the new quieter keyboard is only for the mid 2018 model, so if we send our 2016 or 2017 we'll get the second generation keyboard, hopefully more reliable but not quieter.
well.. the new problem is throttling which might be much severe and yet we still don't know how effective this will be.
Enough folk had issues it would seem that Apple thought necessary to totally redesign the whole keyboard with a new membrane, that internally they admit is for debris. Do you really think if it was that small a number they would have made any changes? My bet is that the number is between 10-15% of all service requests on the 2016 onwards MBP. That is a huge number in relation to service requests!I understand we like to complain.. but let's see
- Some folks had issues with debris ingress ... apple shared data that it was a small number, but not small enough if its you thats effected.
Let's see:
Doesn't make the best impression to me
- Apple designed a faulty keyboard in order to make the MBP 0.01 mm thinner
- Apple denied the problem even as data and hard facts proved them otherwise
- Only after some class action lawsuits went public Apple launched a keyboard replacement program
- Apple replaces faulty 2016 and 2017 keyboards with the same old faulty designed keyboards that will fail again - it's just a matter of time
- Apple released a new MBP with a fixed keyboard. This keyboard won't be available to 2016/2017 MBP owners.
- If you want a working keyboard just spend another 2,400-7,000 USD to buy a new 2018 MBP but please don't do anything more than surfing the web, sending emails or writhing a letter. Otherwise your powerful 6-core MBP will start throttling down to 800 MHz.
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The day the 3rd gen keyboards were announced I asked if I could get mine replaced (just got back from repair for sticky keys) and they said no that the “new keyboard in the replacement program will fix the issue” so I’m not sure if I have a regular 2017 keyboard or not. But I’m frustrated because a defective part swap is not what I’m looking for.
I still don’t believe that the issue is debris. If debris was the problem they wouldn’t need to replace the keyboards. They could just clean them.Does this really fix the issue? It look like there's a way for debris to get under there - and maybe worse - it looks like it might trap unwanted debris in there...
I have been a member of MacNN since '02 (rip) and had been reading MacRumors in that time frame (not posting). I'm sure there were *some* positive postsI’ve been here a pretty long time. I don’t remember that![]()
I remember when the forums actually had people who liked Apple products. Now all people do is come here to bitch and moan about everything under the sun. I'm not sure if that speaks volumes about the site or Apple or society in general.
Your quite the victim aren't you? If you have issues just bring it in for repairs and they'll fix or replace your keyboard for free.
I've been using my 2017 MacBook Pro daily since pretty much the day it was released. I have no issues whatsoever. But then again, I don't crumb food all over it.