For $50 million, Apple has settled a lawsuit which alleged that issues with the company’s infamous butterfly keyboard could result in characters typed being repeated unexpectedly or keys not responding in a consistent manner, among others problems.
Denny Jacob for The Wall Street Journal:
The tech giant denied all of the allegations made in the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court of Northern California in San Jose, and that the proposed settlement isn’t an admission of guilt or wrongdoing.
A final approval from the presiding judge is still required.
The settlement covers certain MacBook models from 2015 to 2019. It also provides four years of protection for future keyboard issues.
Certain groups in the settlement are estimated to receive between $50 and $395 depending on the number of valid claims received.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s new Magic Keyboard with a traditional scissor mechanism replaced the company’s butterfly mechanism fiasco. It’s about 0.5mm thicker than the butterfly keyboard models.
We’ve had to endure years of inferior keyboards in order to shave off half a millimeter about which no one not named Jony gave a rat’s ass. — MacDailyNews, April 2, 2019
Hey, Jony: Enough with the thin. Everything is thin enough. Sometimes too thin. Thinner isn’t the answer to everything, nor is thinness intrinsic to good design. We’d gladly take a bit more robustness and battery life over more unnecessary thinness, thanks. – MacDailyNews, June 25, 2018
The law of diminishing returns can also be applied to industrial design. Apple’s eternal quest for thinness eventually runs into issues such as bulging camera assemblies, battery capacity, strength (breakability), etc. – is Apple’s quest for thinness now bordering on the quixotic? So, is it “you can never be too thin” or is it “thin enough is thin enough?” — MacDailyNews, December 21, 2015
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Send the bill to Jonny Ive
Pocket lint to him.
Typical Democrat run company indistinguishable from the White House admit no wrongdoing. Next they’ll tell us not our product or problem, this is Putin’s recall. 🤪
Incompetence aside, NOT just laptops, I have a sleek wireless Apple keyboard with the same lousy sticking and repeating keys bought in the same time period.
Hmmm, wonder where I go to collect the bounty since Apple is refusing to take RESPONSIBILITY…
Sounds like GoeB is rightly peturbed, and says so with more passion, grace and intelligence than any blithering blatherings from typical Apple BaShers… 🙂
Totally appropriate. I’m upgrading from a 2017 MBP to a 2022 MBA, and the residual value for my MBP is garbage—something like $200 per Apple’s trade-in page. Not surprising, since an out-of-warranty machine will cost hundreds to repair. Why would anyone buy a computer that can be disabled by dust, and costs so much to fix?
I don’t expect a nearly 5-year old computer to be worth anywhere near what I paid, but I’ve never seen a residual so low. The market must be flooded with unwanted 2016-19 laptops.
I briefly considered buying a used 2016 MBP once but quickly decided against it once I considered that it wasn’t worth risking having to repair it. I’m interested in the 14″ MBP but I’ll wait a year or two to see if any issues crop up and what else Apple releases. One YT reviewer mentioned the SD card reader doesn’t always work, also it has the older HDMI 2.0 port which won’t support a 4k display at 120hz like HDMI 2.1 does.
Hey blokes, call me in ten years when your Apple products look like Lizzo!
I wonder if it is possible to add an upgraded scissor keyboard.
Expensive waste of space Mac tat.
I purchased a 13″ MacBook Pro in 2018 as a high school graduation gift for my son. Despite keeping his computer pristine, the keyboard has become stuck twice and needed repair. Apple replaced the keyboard for free but it was extremely inconvenient, especially during COVID because he had to go without a laptop for a week while the computer was sent out for repair.
Had my 2016 MBP keyboard replaced for free after getting the dreaded sticky “N.” It occurred a year or so after purchase and Apple was so good about replacing it at an Apple Store. I think that keyboard failed, as well, and they replaced it free of charge, plus I believe they gave me a refund of $100 or something like that because of a recent price drop. They have bent over backwards, so many times, to make me happy.
All I know is that Apple stood behind their product and made good on it. What other brand can match that experience? None (in case you were going to try and answer my question)
Apple quality is not perfect. But on the whole, where else are you gonna go? I will gladly take a settlement to offset the badly diminished value of my MBP, but I’ll probably keep it when I buy an M2 Air as an extra device in a downstairs TV room. It still in perfect working order, after 6.5 years of heavy use.