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I remember in the old iBooks back when WiFi was a new thing you could order without it and install your own card later in about 15 seconds. There were little s

I remember in the old iBooks back when WiFi was a new thing you could order without it and install your own card later in about 15 seconds. There were little sprung pull tabs between some of the function keys, pull them back, lift the keyboard out, AirPort card slot was right there. RAM slots too. And the removable keyboard, gosh! Those keyboards didn’t just shit the bed if a piece of dust got in them, but even if they had it was a separate part that you could swap out without replacing half the computer. Good times. I have a 2016 MBP now. Betting the resale value when the 4-year keyboard warranty runs out is going to be about what the rest of the computer is worth for spare parts.

jandrese 8y ago
Yeah but it was half a centimeter thicker, and therefore useless to today's Apple.
- mgkimsal 8y ago
  half a centimeter thicker? .04 pounds heavier? how did people even use machines that heavy and thick? did they come with medical insurance to help with the back strain?! /s from an annoyed-with-the-touchbar-mbp-users
  - widowlark 8y ago
    to be fair, its like 3 pounds lighter - and doesnt need to be
    - darkpuma 8y ago
      I think that's about the weight of a typical american soft drink. Surely even the least fit among us can cope with such a hardship.
      - voltagex_ 8y ago
        I carry a 1.1kg Dell XPS in my bag, if I went up to 2 or 2.5kg my wheelchair would be a bit more unbalanced and more difficult to push uphill. The soft drink fits in my cupholder.
  - PorterDuff 8y ago
    I became one of those eBay Thinkpad + Linux guys purely to build bigger arms.
- threeseed 8y ago
  You make it sound like Apple is doing this despite their customers. But nobody other than a handful of people would rather have a much heavier device in exchange for being able to replace their WiFi card or keyboard.
  - Ygg2 8y ago
    I suspect it is less of people want lighter appliances and more the case of what can we get away with?
  - wlesieutre 8y ago
    Maybe not, but there's a middle ground somewhere between "keyboard replacement takes 30 seconds" and "keyboard replacement means replacing the entire top case assembly because it's all glued together." Borrowing some comments from MacRumors forums for price: > If a repair, the invoices I have from top case replacement due to failed keyboards show a parts cost of $695 and a flat rate labor cost of $100, for a total of $795 plus any applicable tax. At last count, I have six such invoices from failed keyboards. > That's what it shows on my invoice as well, thank God for AppleCare. I have only had the one, I hope I don't need it again. By chance, did you discuss replacement with that many failures? I would hope that's an option at some point. (These are from January last year, a few months before Apple admitted they had a problem and extended the keyboard warranty to 4 years) For a keyboard a higher failure rate than their previous models, that's not a good trade-off. People have other reasons to want a Mac laptop, maybe they don't know what they're getting into, so they're still buying it. But the longer this continues the more lasting damage it does to Apple's laptop reputation. https://www.wsj.com/graphics/apple-still-hasnt-fixed-its-macbook-keyboard-problem/ https://www.wsj.com/graphics/apple-still-hasnt-fixed-its-mac... Right now people can talk themselves into buying a more expensive laptop from Apple by saying "it's a good computer and it'll last for years." What happens when you can't justify that anymore?

jandrese 8y ago

Yeah but it was half a centimeter thicker, and therefore useless to today's Apple.

mgkimsal 8y ago
half a centimeter thicker? .04 pounds heavier? how did people even use machines that heavy and thick? did they come with medical insurance to help with the back strain?! /s from an annoyed-with-the-touchbar-mbp-users
- widowlark 8y ago
  to be fair, its like 3 pounds lighter - and doesnt need to be
  - darkpuma 8y ago
    I think that's about the weight of a typical american soft drink. Surely even the least fit among us can cope with such a hardship.
    - voltagex_ 8y ago
      I carry a 1.1kg Dell XPS in my bag, if I went up to 2 or 2.5kg my wheelchair would be a bit more unbalanced and more difficult to push uphill. The soft drink fits in my cupholder.
- PorterDuff 8y ago
  I became one of those eBay Thinkpad + Linux guys purely to build bigger arms.
threeseed 8y ago
You make it sound like Apple is doing this despite their customers. But nobody other than a handful of people would rather have a much heavier device in exchange for being able to replace their WiFi card or keyboard.
- Ygg2 8y ago
  I suspect it is less of people want lighter appliances and more the case of what can we get away with?
- wlesieutre 8y ago
  Maybe not, but there's a middle ground somewhere between "keyboard replacement takes 30 seconds" and "keyboard replacement means replacing the entire top case assembly because it's all glued together." Borrowing some comments from MacRumors forums for price: > If a repair, the invoices I have from top case replacement due to failed keyboards show a parts cost of $695 and a flat rate labor cost of $100, for a total of $795 plus any applicable tax. At last count, I have six such invoices from failed keyboards. > That's what it shows on my invoice as well, thank God for AppleCare. I have only had the one, I hope I don't need it again. By chance, did you discuss replacement with that many failures? I would hope that's an option at some point. (These are from January last year, a few months before Apple admitted they had a problem and extended the keyboard warranty to 4 years) For a keyboard a higher failure rate than their previous models, that's not a good trade-off. People have other reasons to want a Mac laptop, maybe they don't know what they're getting into, so they're still buying it. But the longer this continues the more lasting damage it does to Apple's laptop reputation. https://www.wsj.com/graphics/apple-still-hasnt-fixed-its-macbook-keyboard-problem/ https://www.wsj.com/graphics/apple-still-hasnt-fixed-its-mac... Right now people can talk themselves into buying a more expensive laptop from Apple by saying "it's a good computer and it'll last for years." What happens when you can't justify that anymore?