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Comment by mtmail | Hacker News Reader

https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/21/apple-announces-new-macboo...

"Today, however, [Apple] told me that they’re taking three explicit steps to help with the keyboard situation. 1. The MacBook Pro keyboard mechanism has had a materials change in the mechanism. [...]"

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This is the real announcement, to be honest. 8 cores is a convenient smokescreen, and they clearly don't want to talk about how borked their product is at WWDC so they are dropping the keyboard update with this news like it's a detail when it's actually the real story.

These shitty keyboards cast a shadow over the whole product line. If they didn't fix it the third time around, it's time to abandon the damn mechanism and accept that thicc computers can be beautiful, too.

Ehh, fixing the keyboards (assuming its fixed--they've said the same thing 2 or 3 times now) and hopefully the monitor cable only addresses the literally broken things about the new laptops and ignores the other things people prefer the 2015 for. Although multi-core is nice to see, it still maxes out at 32G--without an option to upgrade later, either.

It still looks to have the same camera I had in my 2009 MBP...this can't be a cost/space/engineering thing since iPhones exist. I don't care if it's higher res. Make it higher quality and less noisy. I genuinely miss charging and battery LEDs they removed from the case (and magsafe). I've plugged in my laptop overnight only to find it never charged once or twice. I see the touchbar causing more problems than it solves.

I'm actually disappointed. I was hoping whatever next Macbook Pro they released would be a significant update or offer more compelling things.

I feel like the power management through USBC on the new Macbooks is not good. Frequently my CPU would overheat whenever I was charging my computer.

> If they didn't fix it the third time around, it's time to abandon the damn mechanism and accept that thicc computers can be beautiful, too.

The crazy thing is that it was/is. Who didn’t love it?

The pre 2016 retina MacBook Pros were thin enough with a great keyboard. Then they went and broke them.

The other thing I would question is whether or not the cooling is sufficient as well. 8 cores doesn't mean much if you can't keep them working at a reasonable clock.

They didn't fix it.. it still has the god damn touch bar.

It's like they're trying to be as stupid as possible.

Big news to me is that replacements of older butterfly keyboards (program extended again) will receive new 4th-generation keyboards. Previously if you brought a 1st-gen in, you'd get a new 1st-gen keyboard.

The articles make clear that only 3rd-gen replacements (the ones with last year's new membrane) will get today’s new keyboards. 1st and 2nd-gen customers are still stuck (no pun intended) with their original problem designs.

I just had the keyboard (really the entire top assembly) replaced on my 13" 2016 mbp, and I'm pretty sure it got the 4th gen keyboard. The keys feel and sound significantly different, and the Apple employee who did the replacement (or I think that's who I talked to) said that they were putting redesigned keyboards in for the replacements. I was pretty unhappy that I had to get this done and I'm still not in love with the machine, but I will say that with less than 24-hour turnaround and the new key feel, the replacement process left me with a good impression.

I just had the top case replaced in my 2016 MacBook Pro 15, and they used a top case from a 2017. The tech confirmed that they use the 2017 top case for 2016 models, but the 2018 top case isn’t compatible.

The 2017 does have changes vs the 2016 to make it quieter and less clicky.

That's really interesting. Where are you located? I had my 2017 done a few months ago (back when they were shipping them all out), and I definitely got the old mechanism. Would love to get the new version!

This was at the Apple store in Walnut Creek. I think they’re shooting for 24-ish hour turnaround at all of their stores now. I was putting the repair off until I was sure that I could get it done quickly. They told me that they’re not yet quoting 24 hours, but they do do them in store now, and they typically quote 3 days or so.

It could be that they don’t guarantee you get a new generation keyboard but you might. One would presume they quit manufacturing the old design.

My 2018 13" mbp has been in repair (for the keyboard ofcourse) for weeks now and they told me it won't be finished until somewhere in june, so this might explain why it's taking so long, perhaps it was on hold for a 4th gen keyboard replacement. I sure hope this 4th gen keyboard fixes the problems.

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