This. The keyboard comes out with a few screws and a connector or two. Anyone with a bit of mechanical talent can grok how to replace it. No "Genius(tm)" needed.
No need to "replace the top case" or whatever Apple's boneheaded, crappy-ass design requires people to do.
Unfortunately, it is NOT simple on a Unibody MacBook Pro (or any of the various Laptops trying to COPY that design, like my work Samsung RV511) to replace the keyboard. In fact, it is one of the worst packaging decisions Apple has ever made, IMHO.
About 2 weeks after I got it, something really big and heavy accidently got dropped on my 2012 MacBook Pro's keyboard. Instant death for 3 keytops! They keys still work, but it's kind of ugly. Of course, no way would that be covered under ANYONE's warranty (I didn't even try). So I looked into replacing the keyboard myself.
Although I have been an electronic bench-tech at certain times in my life, I QUICKLY decided it wasn't worth the effort to replace the keyboard. So I didn't.
BTW, interestingly enough, when my work's Samsung RV511 laptop's keyboard developed some keys that just-won't-work, no matter what, I looked into replacing ITs keyboard. Same fucking thing! You have to disassemble the laptop just about down to the last fucking screw to FINALLY reach the keyboard! Only THEN is it a matter of undoing the few mounting screws and taking 30 seconds to replace the keyboard. But by then, you have quite a display of different-sized screws, daughter boards, etc. sitting BESIDE what USED to be your laptop!
Iâ(TM)ve got a 2017 âoeKaby Lakeâ MacBook Pro, just closing in on a year and have zero issues so far. With my luck, it will probably start acting up a day after the warranty expires!
Well, zero issues if you don't count not knowing how to type a fucking apostrophe.
Nice way to deflect the fact that Apple apparently addressed the issue, at least going forward.
And I bet if you bitch about keyboard issues, you will get a new top-case-section, with a nice, new v2 Keyboard in it.
No need for a stupid Class-Action. All that does is make some Attorneys richer.
I'm guessing you clean your house a lot and you don't have a lot of pets.
Don't listen to this idiot.
He seems utterly incapable of taking even the most minimal care of equipment. At one point, he complained of going through some utterly impossible number of power cables, too.
I would really hate to see what his "work area" looks like, with Taco Bell wrappers and half-eaten french fry containers and whatnot, with a little "clean spot" carved-out for his MacBook Pro (which he doesn't care about, since his employer reportedly bought it FOR him)...
I don't disagree with you, but even if Apple's failing was in design and/or testing they could resolve it by not shirking their responsibility to stand behind their products, which they almost never do unless forced to via class-action suits.
It's because Apple doesn't know how to test stuff. They do this over and over again, more so than any other 1st tier company.
This kind of flaw would have been discovered during routine testing of the keyboard at Lenovo out Dell. They would have aged it, blasted it with dust, tested it in 100% humidity and -10C, dropped all kinds of stuff on it...
I can only think that Apple is so desperate to keep stuff secret that they have to forgo this. They must have product engineers telling them they need to do it.
And now they have who knows how many defective keyboards, rivetted to the upper part of the case and battery so replacement is insanely expensive and labour intensive.
No. Apple "Doesn't know how to test stuff." No expertise in simulated real-world testing. Of course not.
Retard. Apple has its own destructive-testing facility:
The problem is, you go to Apple support and they will just give you the same keyboard that will have the same issue. So you're only extending the problem until just after you don't have a warranty any more, even if you bought the maximum amount of Applecare.
So do you expect them to give you a custom-designed keyboard, JUST for you?
1. There seems to be plenty of space between the center of the top row of keys to the bottom of the Touchbar to avoid "Accidental Touches" by all but the most ham-fisted "Typists".
2. If it bothers you that much, simply park an external keyboard (with a "real" ESC key!) in front of your MBP. Yes, it's a bit of a kludge, but since you can purchase a wireless keyboard for as little as $14 at Walmart, I have little sympathy for you. I did that when my work Samsung Laptop (which has a difficult-to-replace keyboard), suffered some key failures. It was that, or throw out an otherwise perfectly-functioning laptop.
3. You CAN disable the Touchbar in s/w. Have you tried this?
Having said that, I DO believe Apple should update their TouchBar driver or firmware to include some sort of "sensitivity" or "glancing-blow" detection/adjustment, kind of like with the Trackpad. Another fix would be to mount the entire TouchBar on a "spring-loaded" mount; so that a bit of down-force (albeit anywhere on the TB) would be required to "register" a Tap. If Apple can make a "clicky" Trackpad, then they could easily do that.
In most companies, if the first tier of tech support is unable to resolve your issue it gets escalated to a 2nd tier of support personnel. At Apple it gets escalated to black hole, requiring customers to file class actions to get resolution.
Riiiiiiight.
Prove it.
So that's why, when a man reported that iTunes "ate" his song-Library, they ultimately sent not only a special version of iTunes with some additional logging features, but then actually flew TWO engineers from the iTunes DEVELOPMENT TEAM across the country to his HOUSE to see if there was something particular about his computer, network, music files, etc. that was causing the issue.
The debugging session proved unsuccessful as Apple couldn't reproduce the reported issue; but apparently later found a bug in iTunes that might have been at fault.
I don't know what their major malfunction is; but MS has a singular "talent" for taking wildly successful Products and turning them into useless piles of shit.
I know, because they are currently doing that for the ERP product I Develop in for a living.
Not only have they just had a record-breaking quarter, but Apple took 86% of profits across the whole smartphone industry and iPhone X took 35% alone in Q4 2017. I wish I could fail as badly as Apple.
iPhone Manufacturers’ Slowing Sales Are a Bad Omen for Apple. [bloomberg.com] Don't like the Slashdot headline? Then how about that bastion of conservative capitalism, Bloomberg. For your edification, "slowing sales" is commonly understood as synonymous with "slowing growth". Because everybody knows what comes next: "flat sales". Then "declining sales". Sorry I needed to spell it out for you.
I guess it has to be repeated AGAIN:
"Apple: Proudly Going Out of Business for Over FORTY Years!"
Beyond the 10% bump lets try to acknowledge the share price is at an all time high at the moment. Doesn't strike me that the market is really thinking that Apple is somehow doomed.
The funny thing here is that they’ve managed to twist a record-breaking quarter into a bad thing. Check the summary and you’ll see that it contradicts the headline. The summary makes it clear that it’s slowing iPhone sales growth, not slowing iPhone sales. Sales are still up, they’re just not up by as much as they were before the market became saturated.
Those are the same people that try to twist a Tax Increase that is less-than-predicted into a Tax CUT. Not talking about any SPECIFIC Tax Increase/Cut here; just the terminology.
Most people couldn't afford reel-to-reel machines back in the day (when it actually was the superior format), hence the nostalgia for shitty ass vinyl. Today, even if it was less expensive, it's likely the hipsters wouldn't want it because reel-to-reel doesn't have that "warm" (which is really just the RIAA EQ curve and any other adjustments done to the sound to make it cuttable) sound they associate with "analog". If you wanted your music to sound true to the source, you'd just be using lossless digital formats anyway.
In other words, people buy vinyl copies of modern albums because they want the shitty music to sound shittier. There's no helping those people.
If you were reading your own posts, would you be yellling for all the caps you use unnecessarily? If one spoke like that in real life, you'd be more like apk than a functioning human being.
If/. had a real rich text editor (like 99% of forum sites do!), I might be bothered to use "styled text". But when typing posts requires a goddamned ignorant HTML test (which is absolutely a PITA to type on a phone or tablet, requiring up to fifteen extra keystrokes!!!) just to create an italicized or bolded word ot two, I will FUCKING CONTINUE TO USE CAPS, like people did in BBSes, back before there WAS "styled text"!
Or would you prefer equally ignorant "emphasis tags" such as *this* or _this_?
Capitalized words are there for EMPHASIS, not "yelling"; since you cannot HEAR my vocal inflections.
Now, PISS OFF, YOU IGNORANT PEDANT (now THAT was yelling...)
I don't know about others, but if I'm dealing with more than 8 pins, I'd rather work with BGA and QFN than chips dealing with individual pins that need to be soldered. The time and frustration difference is huge. Once you've done it once or twice and have the equipment, it's like 5 minutes work for the next one.
If you have the equipment (in our R&D lab, we used a Black & Decker toaster oven retrofitted with a precision PID temp controller to do "IR Reflow", and a Pace(?) multi-tool SMT soldering/rework station, along with a really nice video microscope), none of those packages are too much of a problem (we tended to hand solder the QFNs, though). If you have a nice solder paste dispenser like we had, we usually just manually applied paste-dots and hand placed the chips (video microscope helps a lot; but don't drink too much coffee first!), then stuck them in the toaster oven.
But, my point is, not 1 in 1 million smartphone/computer users is going to have even that level of "SMT rework" equipment.
Not to Reply to my own Post; but modern Macs with Soldered SSDs also have an internal Port on the mobo that allows an Apple Repair Center to Download the data off of the machine's SSD; so that also somewhat obviates the need for the SSD to be socketed, too.
And the possible chipset configurations in Mac designs are few enough that I doubt that those are even specifically enumerated in a "must never be corrupted" area of Flash, anyway.
Slashdot Mirror
This. The keyboard comes out with a few screws and a connector or two. Anyone with a bit of mechanical talent can grok how to replace it. No "Genius(tm)" needed.
No need to "replace the top case" or whatever Apple's boneheaded, crappy-ass design requires people to do.
Unfortunately, it is NOT simple on a Unibody MacBook Pro (or any of the various Laptops trying to COPY that design, like my work Samsung RV511) to replace the keyboard. In fact, it is one of the worst packaging decisions Apple has ever made, IMHO.
About 2 weeks after I got it, something really big and heavy accidently got dropped on my 2012 MacBook Pro's keyboard. Instant death for 3 keytops! They keys still work, but it's kind of ugly. Of course, no way would that be covered under ANYONE's warranty (I didn't even try). So I looked into replacing the keyboard myself.
Although I have been an electronic bench-tech at certain times in my life, I QUICKLY decided it wasn't worth the effort to replace the keyboard. So I didn't.
BTW, interestingly enough, when my work's Samsung RV511 laptop's keyboard developed some keys that just-won't-work, no matter what, I looked into replacing ITs keyboard. Same fucking thing! You have to disassemble the laptop just about down to the last fucking screw to FINALLY reach the keyboard! Only THEN is it a matter of undoing the few mounting screws and taking 30 seconds to replace the keyboard. But by then, you have quite a display of different-sized screws, daughter boards, etc. sitting BESIDE what USED to be your laptop!
Don't believe me?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Iâ(TM)ve got a 2017 âoeKaby Lakeâ MacBook Pro, just closing in on a year and have zero issues so far. With my luck, it will probably start acting up a day after the warranty expires!
Well, zero issues if you don't count not knowing how to type a fucking apostrophe.
Nice way to deflect the fact that Apple apparently addressed the issue, at least going forward.
And I bet if you bitch about keyboard issues, you will get a new top-case-section, with a nice, new v2 Keyboard in it.
No need for a stupid Class-Action. All that does is make some Attorneys richer.
I'm guessing you clean your house a lot and you don't have a lot of pets.
Don't listen to this idiot.
He seems utterly incapable of taking even the most minimal care of equipment. At one point, he complained of going through some utterly impossible number of power cables, too.
I would really hate to see what his "work area" looks like, with Taco Bell wrappers and half-eaten french fry containers and whatnot, with a little "clean spot" carved-out for his MacBook Pro (which he doesn't care about, since his employer reportedly bought it FOR him)...
I don't disagree with you, but even if Apple's failing was in design and/or testing they could resolve it by not shirking their responsibility to stand behind their products, which they almost never do unless forced to via class-action suits.
Prove it.
It's because Apple doesn't know how to test stuff. They do this over and over again, more so than any other 1st tier company.
This kind of flaw would have been discovered during routine testing of the keyboard at Lenovo out Dell. They would have aged it, blasted it with dust, tested it in 100% humidity and -10C, dropped all kinds of stuff on it...
I can only think that Apple is so desperate to keep stuff secret that they have to forgo this. They must have product engineers telling them they need to do it.
And now they have who knows how many defective keyboards, rivetted to the upper part of the case and battery so replacement is insanely expensive and labour intensive.
No. Apple "Doesn't know how to test stuff." No expertise in simulated real-world testing. Of course not.
Retard. Apple has its own destructive-testing facility:
https://www.theverge.com/2014/...
The original report I saw also mentioned that they were stress-testing Macbook Pros, etc. in that facility.
The problem is, you go to Apple support and they will just give you the same keyboard that will have the same issue. So you're only extending the problem until just after you don't have a warranty any more, even if you bought the maximum amount of Applecare.
So do you expect them to give you a custom-designed keyboard, JUST for you?
Idiot.
Do you have Parkinson's much?
1. There seems to be plenty of space between the center of the top row of keys to the bottom of the Touchbar to avoid "Accidental Touches" by all but the most ham-fisted "Typists".
2. If it bothers you that much, simply park an external keyboard (with a "real" ESC key!) in front of your MBP. Yes, it's a bit of a kludge, but since you can purchase a wireless keyboard for as little as $14 at Walmart, I have little sympathy for you. I did that when my work Samsung Laptop (which has a difficult-to-replace keyboard), suffered some key failures. It was that, or throw out an otherwise perfectly-functioning laptop.
3. You CAN disable the Touchbar in s/w. Have you tried this?
https://github.com/LumingYin/T...
Having said that, I DO believe Apple should update their TouchBar driver or firmware to include some sort of "sensitivity" or "glancing-blow" detection/adjustment, kind of like with the Trackpad. Another fix would be to mount the entire TouchBar on a "spring-loaded" mount; so that a bit of down-force (albeit anywhere on the TB) would be required to "register" a Tap. If Apple can make a "clicky" Trackpad, then they could easily do that.
I've said many times on Slashdot that my keyboard is shit.
Actually, all you DO on Slashdot is bitch about Apple, and then continue to support the platform with your iOS Development.
Why don't you just Develop for Android if you hate Apple so much, fucktard?
In most companies, if the first tier of tech support is unable to resolve your issue it gets escalated to a 2nd tier of support personnel. At Apple it gets escalated to black hole, requiring customers to file class actions to get resolution.
Riiiiiiight.
Prove it.
So that's why, when a man reported that iTunes "ate" his song-Library, they ultimately sent not only a special version of iTunes with some additional logging features, but then actually flew TWO engineers from the iTunes DEVELOPMENT TEAM across the country to his HOUSE to see if there was something particular about his computer, network, music files, etc. that was causing the issue.
The debugging session proved unsuccessful as Apple couldn't reproduce the reported issue; but apparently later found a bug in iTunes that might have been at fault.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bus...
Yep. Straight into a Black Hole.
I don't know what their major malfunction is; but MS has a singular "talent" for taking wildly successful Products and turning them into useless piles of shit.
I know, because they are currently doing that for the ERP product I Develop in for a living.
Yes, but the Apple App store does not distribute apps that will run on any of my equipment.
Sounds like you have the wrong equipment.
There's at least two orders of magnitude more malware on a per-app basis at Google Play than at F-Droid.
And about Infinity-times more than on the Apple App Store.
To vet the software it makes available?
That's the REAL joke: They say they already DO that.
Have they considered just lowering the damn price?
Why?
Fairly comparable Android phones are also fairly comparable in price.
Now what?
Not only have they just had a record-breaking quarter, but Apple took 86% of profits across the whole smartphone industry and iPhone X took 35% alone in Q4 2017. I wish I could fail as badly as Apple.
Precisely!
iPhone Manufacturers’ Slowing Sales Are a Bad Omen for Apple. [bloomberg.com] Don't like the Slashdot headline? Then how about that bastion of conservative capitalism, Bloomberg. For your edification, "slowing sales" is commonly understood as synonymous with "slowing growth". Because everybody knows what comes next: "flat sales". Then "declining sales". Sorry I needed to spell it out for you.
I guess it has to be repeated AGAIN:
"Apple: Proudly Going Out of Business for Over FORTY Years!"
Beyond the 10% bump lets try to acknowledge the share price is at an all time high at the moment. Doesn't strike me that the market is really thinking that Apple is somehow doomed.
Exactly. TFS (and TFA) is disingenuous, at best.
The funny thing here is that they’ve managed to twist a record-breaking quarter into a bad thing. Check the summary and you’ll see that it contradicts the headline. The summary makes it clear that it’s slowing iPhone sales growth, not slowing iPhone sales. Sales are still up, they’re just not up by as much as they were before the market became saturated.
Those are the same people that try to twist a Tax Increase that is less-than-predicted into a Tax CUT. Not talking about any SPECIFIC Tax Increase/Cut here; just the terminology.
Really? Is there no Apple news that can't be twisted into an "Apple is dying" story?
Exactly what I came here to say.
EVERYONE'S (or nearly everyone's) Smartphone sales are DOWN.
TFS is Clickbait at its best. Or worst.
However, no hipster has $11,000 to spend
Most people couldn't afford reel-to-reel machines back in the day (when it actually was the superior format), hence the nostalgia for shitty ass vinyl. Today, even if it was less expensive, it's likely the hipsters wouldn't want it because reel-to-reel doesn't have that "warm" (which is really just the RIAA EQ curve and any other adjustments done to the sound to make it cuttable) sound they associate with "analog". If you wanted your music to sound true to the source, you'd just be using lossless digital formats anyway.
In other words, people buy vinyl copies of modern albums because they want the shitty music to sound shittier. There's no helping those people.
Exactly.
If you were reading your own posts, would you be yellling for all the caps you use unnecessarily? If one spoke like that in real life, you'd be more like apk than a functioning human being.
If /. had a real rich text editor (like 99% of forum sites do!), I might be bothered to use "styled text". But when typing posts requires a goddamned ignorant HTML test (which is absolutely a PITA to type on a phone or tablet, requiring up to fifteen extra keystrokes!!!) just to create an italicized or bolded word ot two, I will FUCKING CONTINUE TO USE CAPS, like people did in BBSes, back before there WAS "styled text"!
Or would you prefer equally ignorant "emphasis tags" such as *this* or _this_?
Capitalized words are there for EMPHASIS, not "yelling"; since you cannot HEAR my vocal inflections.
Now, PISS OFF, YOU IGNORANT PEDANT (now THAT was yelling...)
I don't know about others, but if I'm dealing with more than 8 pins, I'd rather work with BGA and QFN than chips dealing with individual pins that need to be soldered. The time and frustration difference is huge. Once you've done it once or twice and have the equipment, it's like 5 minutes work for the next one.
If you have the equipment (in our R&D lab, we used a Black & Decker toaster oven retrofitted with a precision PID temp controller to do "IR Reflow", and a Pace(?) multi-tool SMT soldering/rework station, along with a really nice video microscope), none of those packages are too much of a problem (we tended to hand solder the QFNs, though). If you have a nice solder paste dispenser like we had, we usually just manually applied paste-dots and hand placed the chips (video microscope helps a lot; but don't drink too much coffee first!), then stuck them in the toaster oven.
But, my point is, not 1 in 1 million smartphone/computer users is going to have even that level of "SMT rework" equipment.
Agreed. I only ever use the port for charging. Iâ(TM)d like it to be always locked.
I'm with you on that.
My only issue with the feature is that the lockout should be more like 7 minutes instead of 7 days.
That was my thought, too.
Or make it user-settable.
Not to Reply to my own Post; but modern Macs with Soldered SSDs also have an internal Port on the mobo that allows an Apple Repair Center to Download the data off of the machine's SSD; so that also somewhat obviates the need for the SSD to be socketed, too.
And the possible chipset configurations in Mac designs are few enough that I doubt that those are even specifically enumerated in a "must never be corrupted" area of Flash, anyway.