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There are plenty of us real professionals who like the butterfly keys. You just don't hear from us because we'd get our arses flattened by the MacRumors mob for having an unpopular opinion.

They're not actually my favorite keyboard though, but I do find them better than the old scissor switches.

I was specifically talking about this new patented technology. Do you want a partially touch screen/glass covered keyboard? Really?

Optimally I would prefer something in the middle of the 2018 and 2015 keyboards, without the touch-bar, and spill resistant (like Lenovo's and IBM ThinkPad's of the past) which are highly reliable and easily replaceable (I.E not needing an entire top case replacement just because of one broken key).
 
I'd gladly take a modest increase in thickness in exchange for getting the previous generation keyboard back.

Edit: And based on those above that beat me to the submit button, I'm clearly not alone.
don't even need to be previous generation, the Magic Keyboard 30% less thick design would be perfect.
 
I was specifically talking about this new patented technology. Do you want a partially touch screen/glass covered keyboard? Really?

To be honest, I'd be curious, but skeptical. If an all glass design is able to produce an impenetrable design that retains tactility, I'm all for giving it a try. I didn't think I'd like the butterfly keys at first. I hated them so much I carried a Bluetooth keyboard around with me when I couldn't hook up one of my mechanical keyboards at my office to it. I hated them that much and yet it is now my preferred laptop keyboard. With some exceptions, I really don't like scissor switches. They make my hands hurt.
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I gotta disagree, the best laptop keyboards in the industry are found on the ThinkPad's and i've tried both.

I don't see what's so great about the current ThinkPad's keyboard. I've heard so many people rave about it so I finally got my hands on one and it just seems like any other squishy scissor board. Are there higher end Thinkpads with better keyboards? I don't remember which model I tried. It was one they sold at Costco so it wouldn't be one of the premium models.

On the other hand, the Classic IBM Thinkpad was a joy to type on. When I was badly needing to upgrade to my current 2016 MBP, Lenovo re-released an updated version of the Classic Thinkpad with the classic keyboard. If they actually released a fully speced version of that instead of a souvenir throwback edition, I might be typing from that laptop now.
 
do whatever, just make it better. the only good thing about post '15 keyboards is that larger crumbs can't get through...
 
It’s nice to see some positive posts for a change, it seems that just lately this forum as turned into a Apple hating place :rolleyes:

I do think a glass keyboard is the next logical step, the Touch Bar was only the beginning I think.

I don't see a point in being negative when it comes to things I have zero control over. I ultimately think Apple will create some sort of iOS hybrid clam-shell device that is essentially two iPad Pro's put together with an innovative hinge and magnets to keep the screen from touching. Keyboard/trackpad combo that adapts to whatever app you are using (like the touch bar).
 
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What about the fact that the new keyboards are terrible to type on for longer periods of time? Apple went from the best keyboard design in the industry to the worst in a single year.

This.

I recently tried typing a few paragraphs in Word on the latest Air in a store's showroom to get a feel for the keyboard and I honestly couldn't imagine typing on that for extended periods of time, be it documents or code. I've seen reviewers complaining that their fingers hurt after a while of typing and thought they were greatly exaggerating but after giving it a go myself, I can definitely see where they're coming from.
 
I don't see a point in being negative when it comes to things I have zero control over. I ultimately think Apple will create some sort of iOS hybrid clam-shell device that is essentially two iPad Pro's put together with an innovative hinge and magnets to keep the screen from touching. Keyboard/trackpad combo that adapts to whatever app you are using (like the touch bar).

That would be awesome, I would buy that! I wonder what they will do for the MacBook Pro line up this year and into 2020? It will be interesting. Maybe just a spec bump for this year, last year was a nice update, they put quad core in the 13” MBP, Hex core in the 15” gave True Tone on the display and the Touch Bar, 32GB Ram option and the T2 chip.
 
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I just read this story and I already know my post isn't going to add anything to the chorus other than to reinforce what everybody else is saying. I ***hate*** the loud, shallow travel current MacBook Pro keyboards so much I have to use an external keyboard. I never use the touch bar because it's just too far away from the external keyboard to be practical. This new keyboard idea might make sense for an iPad, but OMG what a bone-crushingly mental idea for a laptop. I would gladly give up some of Apple's precious thinness for a real 2015-style laptop keyboard. If anybody at Apple is listening then please stop this keyboard trend. I'm all for coming up with different ways to make good, functional keyboards - Think Different, not Stupid.
 
Yes, please keep reinventing the keyboard. Meanwhile we are stuck with a less than 4k screen, no num-pad on a 15" device, no NFC reader (smartcards), no proper Displayport Protocol support on intel GPUs, completely fail-designed cooling solutions (especially Air 2018),...

I don't know who is responsible for prioritizing (failing to) these things at Apple, but that person needs to be fired.
 
We would need a petition with tens of thousands of persons asking for a "regular" keyboard like they use to have.

Don't know if it would do anything but it could be worth trying. MacRumors, that's a job for you!
 
Apple really should just swallow their pride, admit they made a mistake, and kill the touchbar and butterfly switches. I promise not to recklessly throw around "I told you so's".

I might be the only one, but I prefer the butterfly keys over the previous(2015 models) keyboard. I can type so much faster with less errors...

However I do not like the sound while I’m typing, that’s my only issue with it.
 
I'm on record for saying this for years. TouchBar is the future of what Apple thinks is the best interface. Following Apple's last 10 years of design

  • Remove all moving parts. If it moves, it can be broken
  • Add the amount of touch surfaces to everything (TouchBar, comically large trackpad)
  • Make buttons that are present as low as possible with as little key travel as possible to ween users off the need for a moving button
  • Improve Haptic incrementally and make it mimic a button push on every surface so good that the user no longer needs a button
  • Get them used to touch through a degradation of key travel and feel and the growing encroaching of touch surfaces

Then introduce a glass panel with back lit fake buttons and tout how amazing haptic is, how buttons can be customized to the app you're using or keyboard you need internationally and make the surface of the notebook 100% touch like an iPad.

Users can still connect a wireless keyboard if they want but the is the future.

I don't agree with it but that's Apple over the last 10 years. They continue to remove buttons, make them thinner and add more touch surface area.
 
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Apple is always on the quest to cut costs and maximize profits, no surprise there every company does, but apple is doing it to the detriment of their product line
 
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A glass keyboard with raised “keys” to provide fingers a tactile sense of location and a Taptic Engine to provide the tactile feedback could get to a place that feels very much like typing on a mechanical keyboard.

Take the Magic Trackpad. It feels indistinguishable from a mechanical trackpad. The Taptic Engine feels so much like mechanical feedback that it tricks your brain into thinking that the trackpad is moving down when you press it. It’s such a weird feeling when the trackpad is off and it doesn’t do anything.

Real key travel may be zero but a well tuned Taptic Engine response could actually make it feel like the keys are travelling, even more so than the butterfly keyboard which already has so little travel. Our brains don’t process reality entirely as it is, our brains fill in missing information based on other inputs and our expected reality.

I’m excited to see it Apple can pull this off.
 
My initial response to this is--like most people--this is a terrible idea, and Apple would be best served just going back to the 2015 keyboard.

But I can imagine a situation in which we get at least some tactile feedback via taptic engines--like on the (kind of magical) trackpads on the current version of the Macbook.

Still probably a terrible idea, still probably terrible and fatiguing to type on, but maybe an improvement over the current low-ebb keyboards.
 
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