¶ Apple Finally Fixed the MacBook Keyboard

Back in 2015 Apple released the 12-inch MacBook with a new keyboard mechanism they called the Butterfly Keyboard. One of the advantages of this design was it provided a great deal of stability to the key caps. It also allowed for extremely shallow key travel, which enabled Apple to push its obsession with thinness even further.

But there were disadvantages, too. While this is subjective, the extremely shallow key travel was probably swinging the pendulum too far. While initially excited by the purported awesomeness of the MacBook’s butterfly keyboard, I remember feeling slightly repulsed by the minimal 0.5mm travel when I first tried it out in the Apple Store. I wasn’t confident that I had actually pressed the keys.

And it didn’t take long for reports to start coming out from MacBook owners about reliability issues. It seemed the slightest particulate could wreak havoc on the butterfly mechanism and break it. And, beyond all expectations, Apple went all-in with the flawed design. In 2016 it spread like a cancer to the MacBook Pro line, and then to the beloved MacBook Air line in 2018. All the while, Apple kept revising the butterfly keyboard with new generations to try to mitigate the reliability issues.

In June 2018 Apple began a Keyboard Service Program for any and all notebooks that had the butterfly mechanism, covering repairs for 4 years after the date of purchase. Perhaps most embarrassingly, every new release of a MacBook/Pro/Air was automatically added to the Service Program day and date. This was probably the closest we will ever get to an admission from Apple that the butterfly keyboard was incredibly, deeply flawed.

I have been so cautious about this keyboard that I am still clinging onto my 2012 MacBook Air, hoping it will last until the butterfly keyboard is phased out of a future MacBook Air.

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Enough history. I’ve done enough burying of the lede. This morning Apple unveiled the new 16-inch MacBook Pro with all sorts of great specs that I’m sure many pro users will care about, but most importantly they fixed the keyboard!

Apple has returned to traditional scissor switches, and they say they took inspiration from another keyboard that was introduced in 2015 — the Magic Keyboard. I have owned a Magic Keyboard since it was introduced and have used it without issue for years. It feels great to type on and has adequate travel. It’s honestly the best keyboard I have ever used. And I’ve long been a proponent that Apple should just stick that in the MacBook line. I couldn’t be happier at the news.

The new Magic Keyboard adapted for the MacBook Pro has a full 1mm of key travel, increased key stability, backlighting — the works. Apple also eschewed the full-height left and right arrow keys and returned to half-height keys in an inverted-T layout, which should make it easier for many people to quickly orient their fingers for directional navigation. I personally haven’t had an issue with the full-height keys on my external Magic Keyboard or my iPad Smart Keyboard cover, but undoubtedly the inverted-T layout is the better choice for mass appeal.

I enjoyed this particular take from John Gruber’s review over at Daring Fireball:

Calling it the “Magic Keyboard” threads the impossible marketing needle they needed to thread: it concedes everything while confessing nothing. Apple has always had a great keyboard that could fit in a MacBook — it just hasn’t been in a MacBook the last three years.

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I have been very grateful for the Apple of 2012 designing the MacBook Air of that era for the long haul. For most of my purposes, my MacBook Air continues to do most of the I need it to, albeit slowly, and despite my eyeballs bleeding on the chunkiness of its non-retina display.

I honestly would have replaced it with the Retina MacBook Air in 2018 if that computer had not come equipped with the butterfly keyboard. I just didn’t (and still don’t) trust that design. The butterfly keyboard tarnished the reputation of the entire MacBook product line.

Marco Arment said it perfectly in his review today:

Following in the footsteps of the fantastic iMac Pro, updated Mac Mini, and upcoming Mac Pro, the release of the 16-inch MacBook Pro ends a painful chapter of neglect and hubristic design of the Mac. Apple has finally turned the ship around.

I fully expect that in 2020 Apple will bring this new Magic Keyboard design to the smaller MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air. And I honestly can’t wait.

¶ WWDC 2012 | Next Generations

While it could be said of just about any product announcement, Apple seemed to have a clear message earlier this week at WWDC 2012: the coming year is about the next generations of hardware and software.

By generations, I don't simply mean just a slight reiteration from last year. I mean the next year will set the foundations for the next decade of products.

Apple touched on three major areas of their ecosystem — Mac hardware, OS X, and iOS.

Mac

We all love new Macs, right? Well, Apple refreshed their entire notebook lineup. The MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models received some very nice revisions.

MacBook Air

The MacBook Air received the latest Intel processors and integrated graphics, faster RAM, a faster solid-state drive, USB 3, and an upgraded FaceTime camera which now captures HD at 720p. It also received a new iteration of MagSafe, Apple's magnetic power port. MagSafe 2 is thinner.

Another nice upgrade is what exactly you can upgrade. You can order an Air with up to 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. Basically the computer I'd really like to have if I had to replace mine.

MacBook Pro

The MacBook Pro as we know it received better processors and graphics, as well as USB 3. And that's about it.

The Next Generation MacBook Pro

Ever since the MacBook Air's big revamp in 2010 — the one where the Air really started to sell like hotcakes — many of us have wondered when we'd either see a 15-inch version of the Air or if the MacBook Pro would begin to take after the Air.

Hint: it's the latter.

Apple imagined what a powerhouse of a notebook computer would look like without all the legacy technology. Hard drive? Gone, replaced by an SSD. Optical drive? Gone. FireWire 800? Usurped by Thunderbolt and USB 3. Ethernet port? Too big, gone. And it sports the new MagSafe 2 port.

What we have ended up with is a 15-inch notebook that is lightning fast and weighs as much as the old-style 13-inch MacBook Pro.

Oh, and it has a retina display.

Talk about a dream computer.

It's also very expensive — starting at $2200. But it would serve us well to remember the first MacBook Air in 2008 — that was very expensive, too. And its second take was much more affordable.

This new MacBook Pro is the clear vision of what Apple plans to do with all their portables. Thin & light. Super fast. Retina displays.

I envision within a couple years time Apple's notebook lineup will pretty much be the 15-inch MacBook Pro and the 11- and 13-inch MacBook Air equipped with retina displays.

This new MacBook Pro is the forerunner for the future of the Mac as we know it.

OS X Mountain Lion

One of the best kept secrets in recent Mac history has been OS X Mountain Lion. I remember waking up and reading tweets about Mountain Lion's existence back in February and being completely surprised.

Mountain Lion is the cat that eluded the rumor mill.

Well, now we know when we'll get our hands on it and how much it will cost. We'll see it in July on the Mac App Store for $20. For comparison, Snow Leopard and Lion each cost $30.

And, if you are one of those who is still on Snow Leopard, you can go directly to Mountain Lion for the same $20.

I can't wait for Mountain Lion. It will bring tighter iCloud integration, separating Notes from Mail and Reminders from iCloud and into their own respective apps. Not to mention finally bringing Documents in the Cloud to the Mac.

iMessage, the fantastic way to not use text messages on iOS devices, is coming in the form of the new Messages app, which replaces iChat.

In iOS 5, Apple revamped Notifications to have fairly unobtrusive banner alerts that roll in for a few seconds, then roll away. And with a simple gesture, you can bring in the Notification Center which stores all of your notifications.

Apple is bring that same concept to the Mac, giving a universal notification interface, and a gesture-activated Notification Center.

Mountain Lion also integrates Twitter and Facebook, which should be quite handy.

Two things that were revealed at WWDC that we didn't know about Mountain Lion before are Power Nap and Dictation.

Power Nap is for Macs that come standard with an solid-state drive. These Macs will be able to update Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Reminders, Notes, Photo Stream, Find My Mac, and Documents in the Cloud — all while the Mac is closed and/or sleeping. And, if plugged into power, it can check for and download software updates, and back up to Time Machine.

Dictation is something we first saw in the iPhone 4S, accompanying Siri, and in the retina display iPad. I have been using dictation like crazy with my iPad the past couple months, so I am thrilled that it is coming to the Mac. Simply place your cursor where you want text, tap the fn key twice, and speak away.

There is a lot more coming to Mountain Lion, which you can check out here. And of course I'll go over it in detail once Mountain Lion is released.

iOS 6

Lastly, Apple showed off iOS 6 for the first time, available this fall. It has a significant smattering of refinements, but Apple detailed ten up close.

Siri is getting smarter and coming to the Retina iPad. You'll be able to find out scores and stats for sports, find reviews and showtimes for movies (and even ask for a trailer to be played), make reservations at restaurants, and — my favorite — launch an app by name. Siri can also tweet and post to Facebook.

Speaking of Facebook, that is coming baked into iOS in the same way Twitter did last year. In addition to using Siri to speak updates into the two big social networks, there will be tweet and post buttons in Notification Center. All of this will be great for me, as I often just want to quickly publish a quip without having to spend time loading up an app.

Photo Stream is getting a sharing component, which will hopefully make it easier for me to get pictures of my son to the grandparents in a more timely manner (I have severely neglected Flickr).

We'll also get to use FaceTime over cellular, though I imagine many of us, at least in the USA, will force ourselves to use it on Wi-Fi, since many of us now have limited data plans.

The phone app is getting a nice little feature to decline a phone call and either follow up with a canned message or set a reminder to call the person back. I can definitely think of a handful of situations where this will be very useful.

The iPhone is also getting a new app called Passbook, which will store things such as boarding passes, movie tickets, coupons, and gift cards. A nice touch with Passbook is that can alert you if your flight's gate changes or a coupon is about to expire. It can also put a notification on your lock screen when you go into the coffee shop that your gift card is from or when you arrive at the airport.

Speaking of Notifications, iOS 6 is bringing a feature called Do Not Disturb, something I have desired for some time. And it works exactly how I imagined. Flip the Do Not Disturb switch and notifications will no longer make sounds nor light up the screen. You can even schedule the hours in which you sleep.

In typical Apple fashion, they have paid attention to the details with Do Not Disturb. You can set exemptions for phone calls, such as your Favorites list or another group. Also, if someone calls you twice within three minutes, the call will go through, as it may be an emergency. I am literally ecstatic about this feature.

By far the biggest announcement for iOS 6 is that Apple is ditching Google Maps as the provider for the Maps app. Apple has rolled its own mapping solution, bringing vector-based maps (the tiles won't have to reload as you change the zoom level), turn-by-turn navigation, and a new view called Flyover, which gives a 3D, bird's-eye view of cities. The feature set is impressive and Apple's cartography is stunningly beautiful.

There are a few other things about iOS 6 that I haven't taken the time to cover, so I suggest you go check out the preview page.

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Apple has definitely set the bar high for the future of Mac hardware. OS X is becoming more in tune with its sibling iOS, and iOS is taking a few cues from OS X. The new, more annual development schedule of OS X is helping to keep it and iOS in parity.

And iOS 6 is really showing one big theme: Apple is hurting Google where it counts — eyeballs, or rather the lack of them — on Google's ads. Google has sponsored locations in Apple's Maps app. That's going away. Siri is bypassing what many people would use Google Search for and giving results directly from great sources. And Passbook has the potential to put the hurt on Google Wallet. The message is clear — Google was unwise to make an enemy of Apple.

Maps were essential for Apple to bring in-house. Siri and Passbook are chipping away at what is left.

All in all, Apple is leading the way forward to the next generation, where Apple defines the entire experience.

MacBook Pro Updated, Thunderbolt Included

Today Apple did a refresh of their MacBook Pro line, something that has been due for some time, as the previous refresh was in April of 2010.

Processors & Graphics

The entire MacBook Pro line is on the latest Intel processors. The 13-inch models have finally graduated from the Core 2 Duo processors to dual-core Core i5 on the low-end and Core i7 on the high end. Apple says the new 13-inch model is twice as fast as the previous generation. The 15- and 17-inch models all sport Core i7 processors instead of i5 processors, and they are quad-core!

All models have shifted to Intel HD 3000 integrated graphics. I am unsure how I feel about this as Intel's integrated graphics have never been known as fantastic. However, Intel blocked NVIDIA from making integrated chipsets for the Core i-Series of processors (this is why Apple stuck with the Core 2 Duo for so long on the 13-inch MacBook Pro. They preferred NVIDIA's chipsets).

Whereas the 13-inch model relies solely on the Intel graphics chip, the 15- and 17-inch models can automatically switch to higher-end AMD discrete graphics when some extra horsepower is needed. The low-end 15-inch sports the AMD Radeon HD 6490M with 256MB GDDR5, and the high-end 15-inch and the 17-inch models have the AMD Radeon HD 6750M with 1GB GDDR5. Nice.

FaceTime HD

The new MacBook Pro's have a new HD camera in the monitor bezel. These used to be called iSight's, but since the iPhone 4 was introduced, Apple has been rebranding with FaceTime. The MacBook Air was the first Mac to receive the FaceTime Camera moniker, and the MacBook Pro now has FaceTime HD.

Thunderbolt — One Port to Rule Them All

This section quite possibly deserves a post all in itself. Thunderbolt is a new port that handles, well, everything. It was a project by Intel to create a port that just about anything can plug into. Intel and Apple worked together to make this port, which has taken on the form-factor of Apple's mini-DisplayPort plug.

Thunderbolt can transfer data at 10 Gbps (USB 3.0 does 5 Gbps), connect storage devices, storage arrays, displays, and even connect to networks. It even supplies 10-watts of power to power devices.

So, what does this mean for future Macs? Well, one of the things I was hoping for in this refresh was that the MacBook Pro would become more like the MacBook Air. Especially in adopting the thin wedge profile. There are four main things that stand in the way of the MacBook Pro getting much thinner: hard drive, optical drive, Ethernet, and FireWire.

The hard drive will eventually go solely SSD in portable Macs, I am convinced of this. The optical drive can go the way of the floppy, and users who need it can have an external drive, like we see with the MacBook Air today.

But Ethernet and FireWire are large ports that aren't going away in the near future — or at least weren't, since there wasn't a viable replacement. Thunderbolt is that replacement.

Apple and Intel designed Thunderbolt to continue to support existing USB, FireWire, Gigabit Ethernet, and Fibre Channel networks using simple adapters. And since Thunderbolt is based on mini-DisplayPort, users can still use existing adapters to connect DisplayPort, DVI, HDMI, or VGA displays.

Thunderbolt literally wraps all the ports on the side of the MacBook Pro into one connector. This is just the first step.

As Thunderbolt takes off and is included with other devices natively, Apple (and other manufacturers) could offer a bunch of Thunderbolt ports on their computers, and retire ports such as Ethernet, FireWire, and maybe even USB.

Imagine if thumbdrives had a Thunderbolt plug instead of USB. This one port design could very well be the future.

Conclusions

This is an impressive update to the MacBook Pro line. If you've had your eye on a new MacBook Pro, now is the time to get one. Mine is doing fine, and I am honestly waiting for the MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air to hook up. Not to mention that the inclusion of Thunderbolt has me waiting to see a simplified I/O and thinner designs.

The Future of MacBooks

When the new MacBook Air was introduced the other day, Steve Jobs stated “we see these as really the next generation of MacBooks. We think all notebooks are going to be like this one day.”

This statement had me pondering yesterday about what I’d like to see in the next MacBook Pro. Some achievable near-term, and some arriving at a little longer outlook.

The things that really distinguish the MacBook Air from the MacBook Pro line, as far as hardware is concerned, are the absence of a hard drive and an optical drive. In substitution, the MacBook Air utilizes a solid-state drive for storage, and forgoes the optical drive entirely, unless you care to purchase a USB-based external optical drive. Apple reduced the price of their external optical drive from $99 to $79 the other day. Also, the MacBook Air (or any recent Mac, for that matter) can also borrow the optical drive from another Mac or PC on the same wireless network, which is pretty neat.

Now, I use a 15-inch MacBook Pro as my computer. It does everything for me. And when I think about it, I rarely use the optical drive. Maybe once or twice every six months. Most software I buy/use is downloadable. Soon that will be the status quo, with the Mac App Store coming soon.

I would gladly give up a built-in optical drive in my MacBook Pro in favor of occasionally needing to plug in an external one. That space in my MacBook Pro could be used for more battery, or even making the entire computer a little thinner and lighter. For the frequency I use it, the optical drive is dead weight.

As for reinstall media, or even new versions of Mac OS X, we’re already seeing the future with the MacBook Air’s USB reinstall drive.

As for the hard drive…that’ll be around a while for MacBook Pros, I imagine. High-capacity SSDs are still too expensive to hedge out a 500 GB hard drive any time soon. But I bet as soon as SSDs are cost-effective at high capacities, the hard drive will get nixed from MacBooks in general.

In the interim, it wouldn’t surprise me if Apple took a “best of both worlds” approach to storage by offering a small SSD on the logic board, along with a hard drive. The idea being that Mac OS X and its bundled apps are stored on the SSD, while user data and other apps are stored on the traditional hard drive. This hybrid drive system would allow for the instant-on advantage for the system, while not sacrificing storage for those that need it. Heck, Seagate already sells a hybrid drive that aims to do such a thing.

The times are changing. I won’t be surprised if Apple retires built-in optical drives from its entire portable line soon. And once SSDs are cost-effective, say farewell to them as well.

I, for one, can’t wait for this future of MacBooks.

Lions, MacBooks, Predictions! Oh My!

As I noted earlier, Apple’s Mac event is just a week away, and the invite is highly suggestive of two things:

1. New Aluminum MacBook Pro’s and/or MacBook Air, and
2. Mac OS X 10.7 Lion

The majority of the invite itself looks like the lid of a an aluminum Mac notebook, with the Apple logo freshly cut out (I’d love to get my hands on one of those scrap Apple logos). And then there is the lion peeking out. And let’s face it, I don’t think Apple will stick with the cat theme for Mac OS 11, so my bet is definitely on Mac OS X 10.7.

Needless to say, I have my hopes and dreams…

New Mac Portables

MacBook Pro

I suspect there will be slight refreshes to the MacBook Pro. Faster processors, bigger batteries, USB 3, and maybe even higher resolution screens (maybe even 16:9). Honestly, I wouldn’t mind if the Pro line took a page from the MacBook Air and moved the optical drive to an external accessory. I rarely use my optical drive, and would love to use that space for something else.

MacBook Air

The MacBook Air has always been an enigma to me — super light & portable but severely underpowered and overpriced. Also, with the 13-inch screen, a 13-inch MacBook Pro seems like a better investment.

For weeks there have been rumors that the Air may go to an 11.6-inch screen. I think this seems right. Shrink the screen, shed even more weight, give it the all-glass trackpad like the MacBook and MacBook Pros, and for crying out loud, figure out how to squeeze more than one USB port in the thing.

And hey, if the price can be chopped further, I think you may have something neat on your hands.

Lion

Whenever there is news of an upcoming major update to Mac OS X, I always find myself at a loss for what Apple could possibly add to make it better. And, of course, I am always blown away. Last time, for Snow Leopard, I was blown away by the cost — $29. Once installed, Snow Leopard blew my mind with the overall “super polished” responsiveness. Even though there wasn’t a great deal of new features, it was obvious there was a lot of refactoring under the hood.

For Lion, I can only fathom a couple things that seem like shoe-ins.

FaceTime

Apple’s giant drum to parade around this year is FaceTime. It’s in the iPhone 4 and the latest iPod touch. I also think it is going to be in the next iPad.

For years, we’ve had video calls in iChat on Mac OS X. However, right now, FaceTime isn’t getting a lot of my attention since I can’t do a video call with my relatives who don’t have an iPhone 4 or new iPod touch. Lion will likely change this. I bet iChat will gain FaceTime support for video calls to Apple’s mobile devices.

Hey, maybe Apple will give iChat a much needed facelift while they are at it.

Multi-Touch

Apple has been slowly adding Multi-Touch to the Mac over the years. Mostly, this has remained exclusive to Mac portables, but recently came to the desktop with the advent of the Magic Trackpad (which I love, by the way).

I think Apple will eventually bundle the Magic Trackpad with the iMac as the default pointing device, likely around Lion’s release, as I am sure it will utilize a fair amount of Multi-Touch interaction.

I am unsure how extensive Multi-Touch will permeate within Lion, but I’d wager it will be a foundational release to eventually move away from the traditional mouse for good.

iOS Integration

One thing I appreciate about my Mac apps that have iOS counterparts is the ability to sync their data via WiFi. The problem is that this is cumbersome. You have to launch the Mac app and the iOS app and have both devices on the same network in order for them to sync.

Some apps, such as 1Password have taken to using services like Dropbox to sync data cross device and cross platform, without requiring the user to do anything beyond the initial setup.

That is a much more fluid and transparent way of doing things. I hope Apple provides a method for developers to easily hook into a drop dead easy way to sync information from a Mac to an iOS device. Label this as hopeful.

MobileMe Included

Apple has been building a gigantic data center on the east coast for some time. I have long wondered if that was either for a streaming iTunes service, or for a free MobileMe. Overall, MobileMe is much better than .Mac, which it replaced, with one glaring exception – iDisk. It is slow and just plain doesn’t work all that well.

I’d really like to see iDisk get overhauled to be a lot like the aforementioned Dropbox. That would actually facilitate that iOS syncing integration pretty well.

My hope would be that MobileMe would move to being free with Lion, but I do actually feel like I get my $100 per year out of it. The advantage of making it free is that more users would adopt the technology, making for a leaner, cleaner experience. Also, iOS device owners on Windows may feel more inclined to have that seamless integration between Mac OS X and iOS.

UI Refresh

Undoubtedly, a major Mac OS X revision brings some fresh UI paint. Maybe I’m crazy, but iTunes always seems to be the forerunner for design choices that later find their way to Mac OS X. Particularly, I am think of the “traffic lights” going vertical, and the title bar possibly going by the wayside. It seems to work well in iTunes, though I am unsure how well the removal of the title bar would fare in other places, such as Safari (that is, unless, Tabs on Top finally made their reappearance).

I can definitely see the traffic lights going vertical. I’d bet a nickel on it.

iLife and iWork

Who knows, maybe we’ll see fully 64-bit updates and overhauls to Apple’s two famous software suites. I know I wouldn’t mind seeing both of these appear.

That’s my wish list and educated guesses.

Improving Memory

The other day I upgraded the memory in my unibody MacBook Pro from the stock 2 GB to 4 GB. The kit I selected was the Crucial 4 GB 204-pin PC3-8500 DDR3 1066 MHz. I bought it on Amazon for $58 (the price seems to fluctuate weekly between $55 and $70). This is much cheaper than the $150 Apple wants for a 4 GB upgrade.

The upgrade was drop dead simple. I just had to remove the battery plate, take out 8 screws, and pop the memory in. In fact, the biggest shocker when I opened up my MacBook Pro was that there was a fair amount of dust in the fans. This makes me think I’ll give the internals of my machine a visit every 6 months with the can of compressed air. Another note about the inside of this beast: Wow, it’s gorgeous in there. Geek heaven.

I made a little video for your enjoyment. The music is Audio Adrenaline’s Worldwide:One [iTunes] in honor of this being Worldwide Developer’s Conference week.

(As luck would have it, I shot this a couple days ago using my Canon G9, and two days later my wife gives me a Kodak Zx1 which shoots in high def. Oh well. Next time.)

Upgrading MacBook Pro Memory from Chris De Jabet on Vimeo.

WWDC 2009: A Parade of Awesome!

Three days ago, Apple held the keynote address of its Worldwide Developer’s Conference, and all I have to say is that it was a Parade of Awesome! That’s all I have to say. You can go about your regularly scheduled browsing now. I’m kidding! Of course I have the interesting highlights for you.

I waited to write this until I had time to watch the keynote video, as I prefer to get my source material first-hand, instead regurgitating all the other blogs. Call me old-fashioned.

The first thing that caught my attention was when Phil Schiller, Senior VP of Worldwide Product Marketing, said that the number of active OS X users in 2007 was 25 million people and that number in 2009 is 75 million users. That is a lot of growth. Apple’s doing pretty well.

This post got pretty long, so I’m inserting a jump here for visitors to the main page.