They've been the source of more laments than the fate of Taylor Swift music catalog[1].
They've driven some people to exhibitions of rage and rancor. (I've not been immune[2].)
They've even been called[3] "the worst products in Apple history." And that was by enthusiastically Apple-positive commentator John Gruber.
Yes, we return once more to the Apple MacBook[4]'s wayward butterfly keyboards.
They seem to have all the design finesse of a pomegranate hammer.
In the case of my own MacBook Air, it was the M key that went on strike. I bashed it and bashed it [5]until it came back to life.
Others haven't been so lucky.
It's one thing, though, to hear stories and quite another to see the evidence.
Recently, Washington Post journalist Dave Weigel tweeted an image of his MacBook Pro with this pained message[6]: "Today's newsletter will be brought to you by MacBook's keyboard, which I've started to dismantle because the keys simply don't stay on."
Today’s newsletter will be brought to you by MacBook’s keyboard, which I’ve started to dismantle because the keys simply don’t stay on. pic.twitter.com/ld2Dlnk6el[7]
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) June 23, 2019[8]
It's as if these things were knockoffs, rather than the real thing.
Oddly, the constant travails of the MacBook keyboard have coincided with the unashamedly gentle departure of Apple's design prince, Jony Ive[9].
Some say his obsession with making everything thinner was responsible for this debacle. But it now seems clear -- if you believe the Wall Street Journal,