CultCast #336 - Don’t buy a MacBook Pro until you hear this episode

The CultCast - A podcast by America's favorite Apple Podcast - Fridays

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Technology

Don’t buy any new MacBook Pro until you hear this episode—seriously.  
 
There are growing reports, tons of complaints, and a new petition claiming the butterfly keyboard in the new MacBook Pro has a critical design flaw that can’t be fixed.  This episode we explore the issue with Matthew Taylor, creator of the keyboard recall petition, who tells us what’s going wrong with Apple’s butterfly keyboard, why it can’t be fixed, and why almost 30,000 people are demanding it be recalled.
 
And stick around for a innovative new iPhone gimbal, a very cool throwback iPhone case, and the perfect green screen for your Twitch or Youtube streams in an all-new Under Review.
 
This episode supported by
 
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Thanks to Kevin McLeodfor the music you hear on today’s episode.
 
On the show this week
 
MacBook butterfly keyboard problems spawn recall petition [Update]
  • The butterfly keyboard in recent MacBooks draws frequent complaints. And these have now escalated to the point where an online petition is requesting that Apple recall every MacBook Pro released since 2016.
  • The “butterfly” name comes from the shape of each key’s internal mechanism. In the 2015 MacBook, Apple replaced the old scissor design with one reminiscent of a butterfly.
  • It’s supposed to more evenly distribute the pressure from tapping on the keys. As mentioned, it’s also 40 percent thinner.
 
Jason Snell:
  • “Apple’s relative silence on this issue for existing customers is deafening. If these problems are remotely as common as they seem to be, this is an altogether defective product that should be recalled.”
 
John Gruber:
  • “This keyboard has to be one of the biggest design screwups in Apple history. Everyone who buys a MacBook depends upon the keyboard and this keyboard is undependable.”
 
Marco Arment:
  • “Butterfly keyswitches are a design failure…. they are fatally unreliable.”
 
Casey Neistat:
  • Pic on twitter with caption: what am i supposed to do when the space bar stops working. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING WITH THIS FCKING KEYBOARD
 
 
Apple’s ‘butterfly’ MacBook keyboard problems bring class action lawsuit
  • A lawsuit filed in federal court claims that the keyboard used in all the MacBook Pros and MacBooks made for several years is defective. The plaintiffs request that this be made into a class action lawsuit, and that Apple be required to replace all the affected keyboards at no cost to users.
  • The lawsuit also requests punitive damages because, as they claim, Apple continued to build and sell laptops with the “butterfly” keyboard even though the company knew it was defective.
 
Keyboard petition on Change.org
 
Spiffy new iPhone X cases look like original iMac and iPhone
 
 
Under Review!
 
FreeFly Movi iPhone gimbal
 
Classic C1: iPhone X case inspired by iMac G3
 
Elgato Green Screen
 
Tiny Tower Laptop Stand