Remember Apple's disastrous butterfly keyboards? These lawsuits against the iGiant just formed a super class action Lawsuits alleging Apple knowingly sold laptops with its defective butterfly keyboard mechanism will go ahead as a single class action. In an uncharacteristic move for the iGiant, it favored form over function when it introduced the keyboard design in 2015 for its MacBook line. The keys are shallower and flatter than usual, and …
You know Apple is no longer a tech giant, and is more of a cult? And when it becomes a cult, they can do pretty much what they like, short of telling people to eat apple sauce and commit suicide en masse.
Sorry, I mean you know Apple are so popular they can do what the feck they like and people will still buy it?
Apple sounds pretty damn good to me, with each petty lawsuit. Is that it? Is that the worst thing Apple's suffer from? The keys don't work if you get crud behind them? Maybe put down the donut when you're working!
Over in Android tablet land, I have a company that displays a '*black* X on a *green* circle' notification icon, as a *white* X on a *white* circle icon. White on white!
Worse, with a home screen picture, a normal snap on a sunny day with bright sky at the top of the picture, its a *white* X on a *white* circle on a *white* background! That is the perfect zero score there, zero amount of information is visible from a status line that is supposed to convey information.
A perfect 1 score would be, if all of the information on that status line was readable and understandable, a zero is Google's 'Material Design'. That status bar is information important enough to be on screen at all time, yet lost in white on white on white because a programmer only uses the transparency channel of the icon to draw it. You can't even outline it with a black edge to keep it visible, because black is thrown away.
I think if Google designed a keyboard the keys would be totally non-functional, they would be a drawing of a nice aesthetic keyboard, not an actual keyboard with keys. Reviewers would pretend the "Google Pixel Keyboard" is good because its *pure* Google, but then nobody, including them, would buy that incompetent crap with their own money, and it wouldn't sell. Just like *pure* Google Pixel products don't sell.
Count yourselves lucky, Apple users.
Everyone knows status icons are displayed as white in the Android task bar. If an app developer failed to do even the cursory testing that would have indicated this, whose fault is it? Clue: not the OS.
As for "If I set the background to be white, I can't see the white things in front of it" - whose fault is that? (hint: might be the person setting the background)
Guess what? It used to be the case in Windows (I don't know if it still is, because I don't waste my time doing the electronic equivalent of navel-gazing and sit there fiddling with personalisation) that you could set all the customisable bits of the OS to the same colour. A lime green window, with a lime green title bar, and lime green text, lime green scroll bar, etc. etc. Only an idiot would actually do such a thing and then claim it was the fault of the OS. I have a strong inkling that you may not agree, for fear of self-incrimination.
To me, Apple sounds far from "pretty damn good". Overpriced hardware with built-in obsolescence, hard to repair, phones which have a 50% chance of having a broken screen at any time, judging from the number of smashed iPhone screens I've seen on people's desks. Ecosystem lock-in, hardware you can't even put your own software on until it has been "approved" by the manufacturer. Shops that look like recruitment centres for a cult religion, with "geniuses" that probably put their underpants on backwards half the time. I could go on.
Sure, other companies aren't great either, but standing up for Apple by attacking Google is a pure straw-man argument. "Yes your honour, my client murdered the victim, but look over there, Fred West murdered more".
The fact of the matter here, is that Apple knew their keyboard design was shoddy, and it's pretty reasonable to assume that in normal usage, the odd crumb is going to fall into a keyboard. It's not a huge stretch to assume that crumbs aren't going to stop your keyboard from working, especially since keyboards have been around longer than the computers that use them.
I've still got one of those horrible hemisperical one-button mouses somewhere. Absolutely horrible to use, but look! What a clean design. Then there's my iMac. If you need to spend ten minutes working out where they've hidden the bloody on/off switch you've got form trumping function.
Apple have a long history of less-than-perfect mice.
As soon as two-button mice were supported in the Mac OS back in the mid-nineties, I went out and got myself a third party two-button mouse and used that instead. While Apple's teardrop mouse was easy to hold & comfortable, having to press down on the control key to get the contextual menus was an Apple tax I was not prepared to pay.
Still, it has to be said, Apple once made superb keyboards. Some years ago, I found a NIB Apple Extended Keyboard II and I snapped it up. Together with the Wombat from BigMessOWires, it is a mostly usable (and loud) keyboard.
After the AEK IIs were no longer available with Macs, I got my keyboard & mice from Microsoft. Input devices is something the Hardware Division of Microsoft do well and they run nicely on both my old macs and modern hardware.
My thoughts exactly. The only ones who can rejoice here are the lawyers. What are the users going to get out of this ?
Can you shove a standard, functional, keyboard into a space designed for a flat butterfly keyboard ?
Or is Apple going to have to replace all those laptops entirely ?
That would be a solution for the users, and Apple can afford it.
Per my analogy: Your kitchen's burnt down? Oh well, here's another dryer with the same fault. This new one's not caught fire yet. If it does, we'll replace that, too.
These are not faulty parts. It's alleged to be a faulty design. Now I'm open to the idea that punters "knew" what they were getting and on that basis have to suck it up. But if the keyboard is found not to be fit for purpose, then Apple should have to rework the models to have a better keyboard or provide equivalent (or better) spec replacements.
I have a late 2016 MacBook Pro with said crappy keyboard. It really is bad.
I had to take it to the apple store last year as keys where stuck etc and they shipped it off to replace the battery and keyboard so I have a new battery too.
It was a crummy design, but apple aren’t the only ones to have sold crappy designed products. Lots of Microsoft hardware fits that description as well as disappointments from every hardware manufacturer if you care to look.
Can I sue volvo for that horrid 340 GLE I had, or vw for the cam belt disintegrating on the polo?
If you buy something that normally lasts for maybe a decade (or more) and part of it fails after a couple of months, and then the replacement also fails... etc...
Then yeah, I say 'sue!'.
However, when you buy a 30 year old car, then I do not think you can expect much. Or when you buy a VW, famously known for fudging their numbers a lot. Or when you buy a French car.
"However, when you buy a 30 year old car, then I do not think you can expect much. Or when you buy a VW, famously known for fudging their numbers a lot. Or when you buy a French car."
It's funny how people think every thing is all about the now and present.
My Volvo 340 GLE was made in 1990 and came into my ownership in 1995.
it wasn't that old, at the time and was an absolute abomination. Every car i've owned since has been far superior, even the howlers.
The Polo was from 1985, and i owned from ~1998. it had a fsh and i had had it serviced & was told by VW the cam belt had been recently changed by VW. It always started first time every time apart from that last time!!! In stark contrast to the Volvo that would frequently decide not to start or to shut the engine off, stranding me in precarious places frequently.
This post has been deleted by its author
Companies who manufacture products, love planned obsolescence
Is it any surprise that a perfectly designed 'no moving parts' smart phone, they will try and make it a folding smart phone
Alot of these companies should be charged with crimes against humanity, because of some of the shit they produce
In the grand scheme of things, its all junk
By which I mean, who keeps demanding thinner and thinner laptops?
To be clear, I don't miss the giant "luggables" from the 1980s/1990s but there is a point of diminishing returns and we crossed that line at least a decade ago.
IMHO, if it can't have a full-sized Ethernet (RJ45) port then it's too thin.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2023
