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Apple’s New Design Ethos: Making Gadgets Easy to Sell, Hard to Use

36 points by ProAm 9y ago

binarynate 9y ago
The MacBook Pro's key stick issue is extremely annoying when it happens, but it's easy to remove a key to blow dust out by using a guitar pick to pry on the side nearest the screen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yZsc6JnFcQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yZsc6JnFcQ
- eatfish 9y ago
  Don't do this to the space bar! I used the same trick as the video to fix/clean several keys out and had a pretty good feel for what I was doing. However the stress/weak points on the spacebar are quite different and you're more likely, as I did, to lift the entire butterfly mechanism out. You will not get this back in again. It's $700 to get the thing fixed at Apple but you can buy replacement keys for $100 per shot online.
- ProAm 9y ago
  Interesting, I hadnt heard of anyone successfully doing this on the latest MBP's without going to the genius bar. Makes it a little serviceable.
- kalleboo 9y ago
  I tried this and ended up destroying my caps lock key, because apparently that one is mounted upside down from all the other keys. Don't follow YouTube repair videos they are not comprehensive repair guides. Just use AppleCare and make Apple pay for their own mistakes.
ljw1001 9y ago
Apple has been living on their reputation for design for years now, rather than actually producing good designs. The #$&@^ headphone adaptors I constantly attach when I want to use my iPhone and detach when I want to use my MacBook Pro are the obvious case in point. Who really cared that the phone was ever so slightly thinner? And all the times I can't use my headphones at all because I'm in one place and the damn adapter is somewhere else. I have three adapters and it still happens. When I finally go over to Android, it will be because of Apple's designs, not in spite of them.
- millstone 9y ago
  How can that be a case in point? Apple has been aggressively removing ports for years. See the floppy drive, non-USB ports in the iMac, CD drive in the MacBook Air, 30 pin connector...
millstone 9y ago
Calling this a "new design ethos" ignores Apple's history. They've had their share of hard-to-use duds in the past, such as the puck mouse. And they have their share of extraordinarily well designed devices today: who would dare say that AirPods are "hard to use?" One thing that never changes is articles like this.

36 points by ProAm 9y ago

The MacBook Pro's key stick issue is extremely annoying when it happens, but it's easy to remove a key to blow dust out by using a guitar pick to pry on the side nearest the screen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yZsc6JnFcQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yZsc6JnFcQ

eatfish 9y ago
Don't do this to the space bar! I used the same trick as the video to fix/clean several keys out and had a pretty good feel for what I was doing. However the stress/weak points on the spacebar are quite different and you're more likely, as I did, to lift the entire butterfly mechanism out. You will not get this back in again. It's $700 to get the thing fixed at Apple but you can buy replacement keys for $100 per shot online.
ProAm 9y ago
Interesting, I hadnt heard of anyone successfully doing this on the latest MBP's without going to the genius bar. Makes it a little serviceable.
kalleboo 9y ago
I tried this and ended up destroying my caps lock key, because apparently that one is mounted upside down from all the other keys. Don't follow YouTube repair videos they are not comprehensive repair guides. Just use AppleCare and make Apple pay for their own mistakes.

ljw1001 9y ago

Apple has been living on their reputation for design for years now, rather than actually producing good designs. The #$&@^ headphone adaptors I constantly attach when I want to use my iPhone and detach when I want to use my MacBook Pro are the obvious case in point. Who really cared that the phone was ever so slightly thinner? And all the times I can't use my headphones at all because I'm in one place and the damn adapter is somewhere else. I have three adapters and it still happens. When I finally go over to Android, it will be because of Apple's designs, not in spite of them.

millstone 9y ago
How can that be a case in point? Apple has been aggressively removing ports for years. See the floppy drive, non-USB ports in the iMac, CD drive in the MacBook Air, 30 pin connector...

millstone 9y ago

Calling this a "new design ethos" ignores Apple's history. They've had their share of hard-to-use duds in the past, such as the puck mouse. And they have their share of extraordinarily well designed devices today: who would dare say that AirPods are "hard to use?" One thing that never changes is articles like this.