Hacker News Reader

Comment by bryanlarsen | Hacker News Reader

"... so many reports that it can be rendered inoperable by a grain of sand and that is incredibly difficult and expensive to repair or replace. This new third-generation keyboard wasn’t designed to solve those issues, Apple says."

https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/12/17563640/apple-macbook-pr...

View on HN

Just wait until you see Apples own instructions for removing the sand.

https://support.apple.com/en-ca/ht205662

I don't see the problem? Holding at an angle and using compressed air is the most sensible way to dislodge a small foreign object from under a key.

Oh crap, this is the only thing I cared about. Ok so it's a no-go from day one.

I don't care if Apple has a 4 year warranty program for the keyboard. The fact is, I can't give up my main laptop for 2-5 days every 6 months to have them fix it for free.

I take advantage of Apple's no questions asked return policy for stuff like this:

Take my laptop in to be repaired, buy a brand new MBP at the same time. Load everything onto the new laptop using a time machine backup (takes about 2 hours), and use that while they're repairing my laptop.

When my laptop is fixed, I pick it up and return the one I bought at the same time for a full refund.

It's a bit of fuss making sure I keep the 'free-hire' laptop completely pristine, but it's fun to use a brand new machine every so often.

Not everyone has thousands of dollars sitting around to “rent” new apple hardware. Fine, if that’s your solution. I’ll stick to buying hardware that works.

>Not everyone has thousands of dollars sitting around to “rent” new apple hardware.

I imagine the vast majority of people using MBPs also have a credit card. I think you're imagining a problem here.

It could also be that this is an imaginary "solution" to a "real" problem.

I have done this in the past and its the way to go for sure.

I find it odd that "so many" reports are related to a grain of sand. I get a lot of dirt in my keyboards, but never sand. But maybe that's because I don't use a laptop on a beach or construction site?

A grain of salt (ahem) would be much more believable.

Sand is everywhere, it doesn't require you to be at a beach or construction site. In the northeast, they salt/sand the roads every winter and plenty of it ends up inside my house. Not hard to believe that it can transfer to my hands/clothes and eventually my laptop.

My municipality even sands our sidewalks in the winter, but not a whole lot gets into my house past the shoe mat. But I kick my shoes/boots off vs using my hands, so maybe that's why.

Wow.

I don't believe it for one second.

This is of course PR bs to prevent adding more wood to the bonfire.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com