And my friends. The fateful day has come.
When Apple released the latest MacBooks Pro in 2018, we saw that they brought the third generation of the keyboard with the butterfly mechanism. The first two generations of this “new” keyboard were somewhat questioned – somewhat because of the design of the keys themselves (which have become shorter and have caused strangeness for some) and largely because it simply stops working when some type of dirt (including imperceptible ones) entered under the keys. The suggestion of cleaning Apple, it is so “weird”, it even generated memes – and the result of this design flaw could not be other: processes.
There was nowhere to run: Apple was forced to open a repair program (the famous recall) to exchange these problematic parts. Almost in parallel, a new generation of MacBook Pro has arrived, equipped with the aforementioned third generation of this new keyboard; not long after, it was the turn of the new MacBook Air.
The great advantage of this new keyboard is the presence of a protective film under the keys which prevents any type of dirt / residue from accumulating there. The problem is that, even with it, iFixit had already shown us that some dirt can cross the new barrier – which, in practice, would cause exactly the same inconvenience as before. No sooner said than done!
Joanna Stern, journalist at Wall Street Journal, is experiencing problems with her MacBook Air. And she is not alone: ​​Gavin Sheridan, who also has a MacBook Air, realized that just two weeks after purchasing the product, the E, R, W and T keys began to appear twice when he pressed them; Joshua Johnson goes through something similar to his MacBook Pro (1 out of 7 times he presses the T key, the result is a double T).
“We are aware that a small number of users are having problems with the third generation butterfly keyboard, so we apologize,” said an Apple spokesman in a statement given to WSJ. “The vast majority of Mac notebook customers are having a positive experience with the new keyboard. If you have a problem, contact Apple customer service. ”
As Stern said, the apology is valid, but Apple needs to take action and end this problem once and for all. This terrible experience is happening to people who have spent $ 1,200 or more; after three attempts by Apple to resolve the keyboard design (to no avail); that is, in Stern’s words, “it’s time to stop prioritizing thickness over usability. It’s time to free the butterfly keyboard. Let him fly … for good, very far ”.
In the meantime, you have a few possibilities:
- Take the problematic keyboard to an Apple store or an Apple Authorized Service Center.
- Use Unshaky, software created by Xinhong Sam Liu, a 25-year-old student who was p *** unsatisfied with duplicate keys (mainly W); the app detects when a duplicate letter is typed (with milliseconds) and erases this second typing automatically – it assured the newspaper that no user information is being collected, not even the keystrokes.
- Try to clean up, following Apple’s mind-blowing instructions.
- Use an external keyboard until you solve the problem once and for all.
- If you are RICO, buy another notebook – and if it is Apple, hope that the problem does not manifest itself.
Yes, good luck to those who are going through this… ?
