iFixit Tests Silicone Membrane on 2018 MacBook Pro Keyboard With Dust Exposure

[kildraik]

Sounds like for what you use a computer for an ipad would be all you need. If you can't understand what people are talking about then best to stick to just smirking at what you read instead of replying.

Music and audio post production for film/tv/marketing is not an industry where I can rely on an iPad.

It simply blows my mind that we are talking about flagship products for its class, and quite frankly, as one package, the entire personal computing industry, and USB-A is a hot topic for end-users? Coming to terms with real life, the people buying $5000 computers (including myself, that we make our livings off of) don’t care about $50 cables to replace their old type-A’s for the simple fact that we want and need faster transfer speeds to get our **** done as efficiently as possible.

Dell has an online store. There are tons of USB-A ports there, and for most people, if you don’t need macOS exclusive applications, you can likely get what you NEED from a PC manufacturer, even if it’s not what you WANT.

Enough with the peanut galleries, though.

 

[Lone Deranger]

It's hard to tell what to make of that article. It seems that the new keyboard might be somewhat more protected than the prior keyboard. On the other hand, once something does get under there, it's also probably harder to get out. Hmmm.

Like excess heat?

 

[Brian Clifford]

That depends on the silicone but generally it can withstand high heats for long times (provided they selected a correctly rated silicon. no longer a given, sadly)

http://www.j-flex.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/SILICONE-RUBBER-WHATS-THE-STORY.pdf

View attachment 771603

Thanks for that great piece of research and information.

 

[pkissel]

In sum, snorting coke while using MacBook Pro 2018 models won't ruin your keyboard.

Doesn't the carbonation bother your nose? I usually let the coke sit for a while in a glass. After it goes flat I can snort it much easier. I have a friend who just pores it from a can and mainlines it. Straws are for wimps.

 

[Jimmy James]

I’m guessing any grit in there will eventually wear through the silicone. I tend to keep my stuff long enough to matter.

 

[Glockworkorange]

Doesn’t the keyboard serve as another cooling vent for hot air to escape through? I wonder if this silicone layer disturbs airflow just enough to contribute to the throttling issues.

Oooo....good question.

 

[MrGuder]

I have a few membranes as well!

This mentality baffles me.

Why would we step back into USB-A, when C is not only the future, but the now?

Why would I want MagSafe, when it is far better and more convenient to be able to charge from any port, from either side... not to mention blisteringly fast charging!

Who would want a 15” 4K screen, when their display is perfect for the size? Do you really want another $500-$1k option or price hike?

I love the touchbar. Makes timeline navigation, browsing, media playback, and office suites more fluid when you develop a relationship and workflow with it.

I can’t imagine not having that giant trackpad. It’s awesome.

The only thing I agree with is a possible SD card slot, but why bother when the (photography) industry has been going wireless?

Let’s look at it like this... Do you really think progress should reverse itself? Do you think 9-speed transmissions are ridiculous, and we should just go back to 5-speeds? What about cassette players? Should we waste space and development resources to still include those in vehicles?

Do you even own a ‘16-‘18 MacBook Pro?

It seems like macrumors is crawling with people who are certainly not compliant with paying-to-play for the latest and greatest. Product evolution can be both frustrating and freeing. The best thing about this? You don’t have to pay to play! Apple kept a 2015 model, first introduced in 2012, for 3 YEARS! Believe it or not, used models exist as well!

In summary, your opinion is null and void at this juncture. Anybody who willfully trolls these forums in 2018 complaining about 6 year old features is a tarnish on our technological future’s fine finishes.

I agreed with everything except the touch bar not necessary on a business MacBook Pro,it’s a gimmick should have been reserved to something like the MacBook Air. All I need are real function keys. It’s a loaded emoticon playground for non pro users. I personally keep mine on expanded with dedicated function keys. I’ll reserve playing for my iPhone and iPad.

 

[gnipgnop]

This "controversy" is starting to rival the stupidity of people intentionally bending the iPhone 6 case and then claiming that proved that it was defective. iFixit should be embarrassed. Glowing particles? Who's paying them to come up with this stuff? Are they going to dump those onto Dell and Lenovo laptops as well?

 

[BJonson]

This "controversy" is starting to rival the stupidity of people intentionally bending the iPhone 6 case and then claiming that proved that it was defective. iFixit should be embarrassed. Glowing particles? Who's paying them to come up with this stuff? Are they going to dump those onto Dell and Lenovo laptops as well?

Haha. I think they are awesome and using glowing particles is ghostbuster level science.

 

[Williesleg]

I love iFixit.

Hey Timmy Cook, here's an idea:
Send your prototypes to iFixit for feedback.

I'll bet you would have a lot more happy customers.

 

[Karnicopia]

In sum, snorting coke while using MacBook Pro 2018 models won't ruin your keyboard.

lol that's awesome on the other hand drinking Coke will completely void the warranty. If you like your liquids though there's always Lenobro which is ranked #1 when working from yeah.

 

[MrGuder]

Haha. I think they are awesome and using glowing particles is ghostbuster level science.

Yeah...the glowing particles is something you would hear Johnny Ivy speak about in a video..."and those glowing particles, it's like nothing you've ever seen before and we are the first to bring it to you, mesmerizing, breathtaking, and they come in the color of your choice just head over to the touch bar and choose your color, beauty meets function and I haven't even touched on what they can do for those emoticons" (accent included)

 

[dantroline]

I have a few membranes as well!

This mentality baffles me.

Why would we step back into USB-A, when C is not only the future, but the now?

Why would I want MagSafe, when it is far better and more convenient to be able to charge from any port, from either side... not to mention blisteringly fast charging!

Who would want a 15” 4K screen, when their display is perfect for the size? Do you really want another $500-$1k option or price hike?

I love the touchbar. Makes timeline navigation, browsing, media playback, and office suites more fluid when you develop a relationship and workflow with it.

I can’t imagine not having that giant trackpad. It’s awesome.

The only thing I agree with is a possible SD card slot, but why bother when the (photography) industry has been going wireless?

Let’s look at it like this... Do you really think progress should reverse itself? Do you think 9-speed transmissions are ridiculous, and we should just go back to 5-speeds? What about cassette players? Should we waste space and development resources to still include those in vehicles?

Do you even own a ‘16-‘18 MacBook Pro?

It seems like macrumors is crawling with people who are certainly not compliant with paying-to-play for the latest and greatest. Product evolution can be both frustrating and freeing. The best thing about this? You don’t have to pay to play! Apple kept a 2015 model, first introduced in 2012, for 3 YEARS! Believe it or not, used models exist as well!

In summary, your opinion is null and void at this juncture. Anybody who willfully trolls these forums in 2018 complaining about 6 year old features is a tarnish on our technological future’s fine finishes.

Are comments like these bought and paid for?

USB-A: It's environmentally responsible to offer backward compatibility, at least for the life of existing products which for external hard drives, printers, scanners, mice, is actually a very long time sometimes. Five years would suffice. I still cannot buy a cheap USB-C external hard drive, but had to buy an SSD for 5x the price per GB.

MagSafe: This has prolonged the life of my MBP by years. Other laptops are frequently on the ground when someone's foot yanks the cable. Also environmentally responsible because I have now bought about 4-5 USB-C cable replacements in one year for charging - the small size of the connectors means they are flimsy and the cables are pretty fragile, whereas my old MBP is still on its first charger and cable.

Touch Bar: Good luck to you. I don't like it or use it except when I need a function key or need to change volume or brightness, which was much easier without it.

SD Slot: why not wireless? Because once you buy a high end camera, say you spent $10k or more on it, you are not going to want to upgrade it just because Apple said you should. It's just rude of them to remove the SD slot.

This is not progress, but devolution. It's only because of the narcissistic PR department of Apple that they are blind to the fact.

 

[Feenician]

I still cannot buy a cheap USB-C external hard drive, but had to buy an SSD for 5x the price per GB.

You could have just replaced the cable on any drive for a couple of bucks. If the cable was fixed to the drive, you could have asked an adapter instead, also a couple of bucks. You definitely did not need to spend 5x

 

[dantroline]

Music and audio post production for film/tv/marketing is not an industry where I can rely on an iPad.

It simply blows my mind that we are talking about flagship products for its class, and quite frankly, as one package, the entire personal computing industry, and USB-A is a hot topic for end-users? Coming to terms with real life, the people buying $5000 computers (including myself, that we make our livings off of) don’t care about $50 cables to replace their old type-A’s for the simple fact that we want and need faster transfer speeds to get our **** done as efficiently as possible.

Dell has an online store. There are tons of USB-A ports there, and for most people, if you don’t need macOS exclusive applications, you can likely get what you NEED from a PC manufacturer, even if it’s not what you WANT.

Enough with the peanut galleries, though.

Music: So I need to buy a dongle to connect to my Yamaha's midi interface, because no USB-C cable for it exists. That's so professional. And now for years I have had to rely on an external ADAC for audio recording because Apple got rid of their high end stereo microphone input jack (for no particular reason AFAIK), and now I need a dongle for that, because no USB-C cable for it exists.

The whole set up now looks dinky and amateurish. So many cord connections due to dongles means more points of failure.

Remember that many audio producers are used to and work with Logic Pro X, so they are locked into Apple hardware unless they move to something like Cubase.

Edit: I know that there are USB 3.1 to USB-C connectors now available ($30US or more!), but when the USB-C only MBP's came out there was absolutely nothing out there.

 

[AbSoluTc]

Are comments like these bought and paid for?

USB-A: It's environmentally responsible to offer backward compatibility, at least for the life of existing products which for external hard drives, printers, scanners, mice, is actually a very long time sometimes. Five years would suffice. I still cannot buy a cheap USB-C external hard drive, but had to buy an SSD for 5x the price per GB.

Really? What's cheap? $60 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0792DP87N/ref=twister_B07CVVP5X8?_encoding=UTF8&th=1 - sounds like you just wanted an SSD and looking for a reason to justify your purchase.

MagSafe: This has prolonged the life of my MBP by years. Other laptops are frequently on the ground when someone's foot yanks the cable. Also environmentally responsible because I have now bought about 4-5 USB-C cable replacements in one year for charging - the small size of the connectors means they are flimsy and the cables are pretty fragile, whereas my old MBP is still on its first charger and cable.

Why is your computer on the ground? If you've bought 4-5 USB-C cables in one year for charging, you're doing something wrong and not taking care of your cables. There's nothing flimsy or fragile about them. I just had to retire my first lightning charging cable that came with the first iPhone that had lightning. Only because the sheathing started to "rot" away in one part. Cable/braid underneath is just fine.

Touch Bar: Good luck to you. I don't like it or use it except when I need a function key or need to change volume or brightness, which was much easier without it.

You could have gotten the non touch bar model?

SD Slot: why not wireless? Because once you buy a high end camera, say you spent $10k or more on it, you are not going to want to upgrade it just because Apple said you should. It's just rude of them to remove the SD slot.

Tech changes. Either adapt or pick something else. You can get an SD card reader (usb-c to sd) pretty cheap. I can tell you those SD card slots were pretty freaking flaky to begin with.


This is not progress, but devolution. It's only because of the narcissistic PR department of Apple that they are blind to the fact.

It's progress. It's just you don't like it and don't like change.

So much baloney in this post I feel like making a sandwich.

 

[kildraik]

Music: So I need to buy a dongle to connect to my Yamaha's midi interface, because no USB-C cable for it exists. That's so professional. And now for years I have had to rely on an external ADAC for audio recording because Apple got rid of their high end stereo microphone input jack (for no particular reason AFAIK), and now I need a dongle for that, because no USB-C cable for it exists.

The whole set up now looks dinky and amateurish. So many cord connections due to dongles means more points of failure.

Remember that many audio producers are used to and work with Logic Pro X, so they are locked into Apple hardware unless they move to something like Cubase.

Edit: I know that there are USB 3.1 to USB-C connectors now available ($30US or more!), but when the USB-C only MBP's came out there was absolutely nothing out there.

My Yamaha’s, the Genos and Montage, all have 3.0- to USB-C connectors. I went to Microcenter and picked up a 3.0 printer cable to USB-C for when I bypass my interface and directly record from my gear to my DAWs. Lots of routing, but works a charm. Otherwise, if I’m adding 500 series processing and other outboard gear, like my DSI synths and my drum machines, I just patch them through my interface, which is a single connection to my laptop (T2-T3)... Even then a synth doesn’t sound 100% until you route it through a pre-amp or DI. Even when I’m mixing on the go I use a USB-C to Micro USB for my Apogee Groove DAC. The only time I use a dongle is... Never. I used to for my older 256GB flash drive, but sold it after I found a good deal on a C drive.

I’ve had the same setup since 2016, but it took a lot of footwork to find the proper cables that early. Part of the adventure of early adopters, I guess.

 

[trifid]

I. Love. iFixit.

 

[citysnaps]

Music: So I need to buy a dongle to connect to my Yamaha's midi interface, because no USB-C cable for it exists. That's so professional. And now for years I have had to rely on an external ADAC for audio recording because Apple got rid of their high end stereo microphone input jack (for no particular reason AFAIK), and now I need a dongle for that, because no USB-C cable for it exists.

The whole set up now looks dinky and amateurish. So many cord connections due to dongles means more points of failure.

Remember that many audio producers are used to and work with Logic Pro X, so they are locked into Apple hardware unless they move to something like Cubase.

Edit: I know that there are USB 3.1 to USB-C connectors now available ($30US or more!), but when the USB-C only MBP's came out there was absolutely nothing out there.

Seriously?

Simply purchase a USB-C to USB-A 3.1 cable. I bought a couple last year at $10 each for my MBP and they work great. They're even less money now. No need for adapters (a much better word than "dongles," especially if you're a professional and/or out of high school).

 

[kjvmartin]

The keyboard is under warranty until 2020 and there aren’t any other known problems with the 2016/17 that I have heard of.

2020 is about when I would sell my 2017. So, if the warranty is up on the keyboard, who in their right mind would buy it?

How is it ok for Apple to sell me a computer that is useless in 2020.

 

[trifid]

2020 is about when I would sell my 2017. So, if the warranty is up on the keyboard, who in their right mind would buy it?

How is it ok for Apple to sell me a computer that is useless in 2020.

1 speck of dust on that spacebar and it’s $550 (probably $600-700 with inflation) flat rate repair in 2020. Delicious profits guaranteed.

 

[applefan69]

It’s legal just like tallosivetech said.

If they admit it’s a fix, anyone who bought a 2017 within a year would be taking them back or suing them.

Hence it’s to do with ‘quietness’

These people should be informed so they can make the decision whether or not to take their 2017 model back. That would be the good honest approach. If Apple is actually confident in their products they would not feel the need to trick people.

Apple is getting disgustingly poor & shady quick.

 

[felixroqu3]

Does anyone think that they’re intentionally sabotaging their 'MacBook' product line so people move over to iOS?

Dat paranoia though.

 

[jonnysods]

So not due to noise then?

Poor Apple are getting hemmed in on this keyboard and the i9.

 

[LovingTeddy]

Yeah, but you'd still be stuck using a ThinkPad.
I kid, I kid. I know some people love their ThinkPads. I always found them clunky.

I love my ThinkPad, I have the T430s... To this day, it still runs like champ. I dropped it, put in my backpack with whole bunch of other stuff and accidentally splashed water in the machine. This thing is just keep running. Love it... Main while the MacBook Air 2013 just in the drawer....
[doublepost=1532053496][/doublepost]

You could go with another laptop manufacturer where everything is perfect and choices don’t have to be made. Right?

ThinkPad. Problem solved.