Taika Waititi on MacBook Keyboards
Sam Byford (video, Hacker News, Reddit, MacRumors):
“Apple needs to fix those keyboards,” he said. “They are impossible to write on — they’ve gotten worse. It makes me want to go back to PCs. Because PC keyboards, the bounce-back for your fingers is way better. Hands up who still uses a PC? You know what I’m talking about. It’s a way better keyboard. Those Apple keyboards are horrendous.”
“I’ve got some shoulder problems,” Waititi continued. “I’ve got OOS [Occupational Overuse Syndrome, a term used in New Zealand for RSI] — I don’t know what you call it over here, this sort of thing here (gestures to arm), that tendon which goes down your forearm down into the thumb? You know what I’m talking about, if you guys are ever writing.
It’s only because Apple allowed the MacBook Pro keyboard problem to go on SO LONG that it could possibly have become a talking point in an Oscar awards interview. I hope some lessons have been learned.
John Gruber (tweet):
Yes, there’s a new keyboard with scissor-switch mechanisms in the 16-inch MacBook Pro. It’s a pleasure to type on. But we’re still months away from the rest of the MacBook lineup being updated to use that new keyboard. And that’s a presumption on my part, that all MacBooks will get the new keyboard sooner rather than later. It certainly wouldn’t make any sense if they didn’t — but the whole butterfly-switch saga has never made any sense.
The 16-inch Macbook Pro’s keyboard is apparently more reliable and has more travel, but I think it’s still inferior to the pre-2016 keyboards. It’s less comfortable to type on because the keys feel hard, perhaps due to the reduced travel. And the Touch Bar makes it harder to type the F keys because you can’t feel where the key is, can’t be sure when you’ve pressed it, and can “press” it accidentally just by touching it.
From his description, I’m remotely diagnosing this guy with “Radial Tunnel.” Ergonomically speaking, Apple’s input devices are criminally bad.
Previously:
Update (2020-02-14): Edgar Wright:
The funny thing is though he’s not joking. And he’s right!
Oh my god, I’m glad to know someone else feels my pain. This is my current keyboard, I ended up taping over several keys because they’re a nightmare when writing.
4 Comments RSS · Twitter
One wonders if the same laughs are going to come from the woefully buggy state and insane security alerts in a few years if Apple does not address some of these issues.
Apple deserves this. Richly.
>It’s a pleasure to type on
I get that typing is extremely subjective, and has a lot to do with how people feel about the device they type on, but come on. These keyboards may be more reliable, but they're still garbage to type on. They still have minuscule travel distance and basically require bottoming out to type. Compared to some of the better keyboards that copmanies like HP, Asus, MSI, or Lenovo put into their laptops, the MacBook keyboards are a crime against typists.
Edgar Wright backed him up on this: https://twitter.com/edgarwright/status/1226817900494934017