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Apple has taken a big step forward in fixing its very drawn out keyboard issue with its MacBooks.
Today, the company announced it will replace all of the faulty butterfly keyboards on its newer MacBooks for free.
Now Apple was already doing this kind of but this is a big deal because this now includes first gen, second and third generation butterfly keyboards.
Plus, Apple has promised to get your repair done faster.
They've also come close to acknowledging that maybe their old way of making keyboards wasn't exactly working out because they've announced that they are changing the material in the actual keyboards of the Mac books going forward.
This now includes the new MacBook Pros.
Apple just announced today and some qualifying repair keyboards.
Okay, so is this gonna fix all of Apple's keyboard problems, or is it too little, too late?
If you haven't heard about this issue, let me explain.
In 2015, Apple switched from the traditional scissor mechanism on its MacBooks to its butterfly switch keyboard that debuted first on the 12-inch Retina MacBook.
This allowed the keys to lie flatter on the keyboard And it made the computer slimmer, and it was actually supposed to make the keys more responsive.
However, it didn't quite work out that way.
Almost immediately after Apple released this new keyboard, users started complaining of unresponsive keys.
Letters and characters that would repeat unexpectedly when typing or would just flat out or refuse to work.
But I think the best way to explain this is to show you on my laptop over here I have a 2017 Macbook pro with the button like keyboard and you'll notice, it looks really sly.
With the keys just so close to the actual computer, but it's just not as responsive.
And you get anything on the keys and it just stops working, so you have to keep it really clean.
And then on my right, I have my old beat up MacBook Air that I still love, and it just has that traditional switch keyboard that's just so satisfying, and honestly one of the reasons why I still use it.
Now for the longest time, for almost three years, Apple refused to acknowledge there was a problem at all.
In fact, it was kind of blaming the users in a sense because the company proceeded to publish this very drawn out explanation of how you should clean up your Macbook Pro or Macbook keyboard with a compressed can of air, actually detailed like step by step how to use this compressed can of air To clean out your keyboard and to make it start working again.
It was kind of reminiscent of the whole [UNKNOWN] when Apple was pretty much saying users users were holding the phone wrong.
So Apple doesn't have the best track record of acknowledging when they have a problem which is why it makes it such a big deal this time around.
Now this went on for about three years Even after multiple reports, lawsuits, and some pretty high-profile complaints.
My favorite of which was Joanna Stern's commentary on the Wall Street Journal, where she typed the entire thing without using the E and the R key, which happened not to work on her Macbook, just to prove a point.
Apple was still hesitant to fully acknowledged that there was an issue in the first place.
Now their first attempt at redemption was about a year ago when Apple finally acknowledged that a small percentage of keyboards in certain MacBook MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models.
Were having these issues and they agreed to replace the [UNKNOWN] But they were subjected to inspection at the store.
And they seem to have quite a few disclaimers and they didn't actually cover all of the butterfly keyboard just the first and second generation.
Plus they will take forever to repair it.
But this time around, at least to me it thus seem like the real deal I hope [LAUGH] If you have a Mac book from 2015 or beyond, even if it's last year's model, you can take it in for repair for free.
And if you've already had your Mac book keyboard replaced, you can contact Apple for a full refund.
Now this is great news for consumers, obviously, but it still doesn't answer the question of why Apple took so long To finally make things right.
If you're still having issues with your butterfly keyboard we have way more information about how to get it replaced and about Apple's response on cnet.com so definitely go check that out after you've watched this video.
