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Apple Files Patent For a Crumb-Resistant MacBook Keyboard (digitaltrends.com)
According to a patent application made public on Thursday, March 8, Apple could be developing a new MacBook keyboard designed to prevent crumbs and dust from getting those super-shallow MacBook keys stuck. "Liquid ingress around the keys into the keyboard can damage electronics. Residues from such liquids may corrode or block electrical contacts, getting in the way of key movement and so on," the patent application reads. Digital Trends reports: The application goes on to describe how those problems might be remedied: With the careful application of gaskets, brushes, wipers, or flaps that block gaps beneath keycaps. One solution would include a membrane beneath each key, effectively insulating the interior of the keyboard from the exterior, while another describes using each keypress as a "bellows" to force contaminants out of the keyboard. "A keyboard assembly [could include] a substrate, a key cap, and a guard structure extending from the key cap that funnels contaminants away from the movement mechanism," the patent application reads.
It was a design flaw to create a keyboard that couldn't be cleaned in the first place. More of Apple putting form over function. Besides.. there are laptops with waterproof keyboards already, how is a dust free keyboard even eligible for a new patent?
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
This problem was 100% solved back in the 80's. C'mon Apple, do the courageous thing and follow suit!
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
A better move would be to simply make the keyboard repairable/replaceable like other laptop manufacturers do. Instead, it's made part of the main chassis along with a glued-in battery which amounts to $260+ in parts alone, let alone an insane amount of labor, just to replace one of the 2 most-damaged parts of the laptop (the other being the screen, which they make cost 5X what it should in order to extort money from users that way too).
No matter how crumb-resistant or liquid-resistant you try to make the keyboard, it's still going to need to get replaced often.
My wifes imac had a bug crawl between the LCD and diffuser and promptly die. It was about 5 pixels big!
Kudos to Apple for replacing it, but you think they could at least seal their screens to stop insects that are attracted to bright lights from crawling in there.
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MacBook users may rejoice, knowing that maybe their next $1,000+ computer won't have the same problems their current $1,000+ computer does...
Fashion before substance!
My first home computer was a Timex/Sinclair 1000.
Perhaps you saw a new device in the store, so it would make sense you thought it would keep out liquids. But that style of metalicized plastic dome tend to crack. The key thing to understand isn't that plastic can keep water out, it is that it can also keep it in. The foil tends to pinhole, and just using the computer in a cold room can cause condensation on the inside of the keys. It isn't the keys you press that stick, but when you press a key, then the most cracked nearby key will join the fun and stick!
If you think you understand how awful that keyboard is just because you touched it and found out why they called it a "dead flesh" keyboard, you still have no idea.
This is Apple, it isn't going to be ugly and poorly designed, it is going to be beautiful and poorly designed. So at least PC Jr level.