Evidence mounts that Apple will kill the MacBook’s butterfly switch keyboard

Apple MacBook 13-inch Touch Pad
It’s no secret that Apple’s butterfly keyboards are something of a problem for its MacBook Pro laptops. They’ve been subject to three revisions, untold numbers of complaints and even an apology from Apple since making their debut in 2016, and rumors have been increasing that Apple is ready to throw in the towel.
That idea has gained more traction with the news that Apple has recently taken out two keyboard patents, including one on a new scissor-switch mechanism that could make it into future keyboards.
The first patent, for “Keycaps Having Reduced Thickness,” was filed by Apple on February 22. The second, for a “Low-Travel Illuminated Key Mechanism,” was filed on March 14. Both were published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday, July 11.
The former features a scissor-key mechanism, something Apple has tried to abandon in favor of its own butterfly switch. The patent explains that keys may be tapped “several hundred thousand times, if not millions of times, over the life of a device,” and that it is often difficult to pair a “pleasing exterior appearance of an electronic device” with “the market demand for advanced functionality, improved durability, and reduced thickness and weight.”
With that in mind, Apple’s patent describes several ways of creating a durable keycap that comprises various layers, including a glass surface and light-emitting substances. In this case, Apple explains that the “glass” element could also be made of sapphire, ceramic or another scratch-resistant surface.
The second patent appears to describe refinements to Apple’s butterfly mechanism — the same switch used in the company’s failure-prone MacBook keyboards.
That Apple is reconsidering the scissor switch is an interesting thing to note, given its previous assertions that the butterfly switch provides “four times more key stability than a traditional scissor mechanism.” But it’s also not surprising, given the many, many times Apple has tried and failed to correct the problems plaguing the design.
Still, if the second patent is anything to go by, the company is not ready to completely abandon the butterfly switch and is still willing to consider ways it can be improved. Given how much time, effort and money Apple is likely to have poured into the butterfly switch project, that is perhaps not too surprising.
Whether or not these patents ever make it into future Apple products like the rumored 16-inch MacBook Pro is anyone’s guess — the company often patents ideas that never see the light of day — but they provide a useful insight into Apple’s thinking. If we learn any more about them we’ll keep you updated

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Linktree’s free workaround lets you add multiple links to your Instagram bio

Image
Instagram only gives you one opportunity to link to outside resources inside its photo sharing platform. This might not be a problem for a majority of the users, but for those wanting a little more customization and even more options, it leaves much to be desired. Enter  Linktree , a free tool for Instagram designed to improve traffic to your outside link, be it a blog, portfolio, or store. How it works is fairly straightforward. After connecting Linktree to your Instagram profile, you’ll receive a single link to place in your Instagram bio. Once that link in place, you can customize what it’s linked to within your browser, be it a single website, or a collection of sites you’re looking to direct followers to Say you’re a photographer who’s using Instagram as a marketing tool for your wedding photography. Using Linktree, you can direct Instagram followers to your blog, your portfolio site, and even your other social media accounts. Until now, you would’ve been stuck c...
Read more

EVERYTHING WE KNOW ABOUT THE PIXEL 4, THE MOST-LEAKED PHONE EVER

Image
Google’s  Pixel 3 might have been the  most-leaked phone in history . Long before its unveiling, we knew practically everything about it from unboxing videos, photo comparisons, even a full review of the device. Surely, for the Pixel 4, Google would clamp down on leaks to leave some surprises for its debut on  October 15th , right? Let’s just say, if that was the plan, it didn’t exactly work out. We’ve now seen the Pixel 4 XL from every angle and in three different colors. At least seven different sources have touched this phone, many of them confirming the same specs. We not only know which cameras it’ll have, but also what they may be capable of, including air gestures (go figure). That doesn’t even count information Google has already shared  on purpose. So if you want to know almost everything about the Pixel 4 nearly a month before it’s announced, buckle up. We’ve sifted through all of the rumors and information we can find to compile everything we know —...
Read more

Stable Android 10 starts hitting the Galaxy Note10 and Note10+ (Update: Canada)

Image
UPDATE  1 : 2019/12/16 4:35AM PST Previous rollouts UPDATE  2 : 2020/01/06 2:15AM PST Canada Two weeks after the  Galaxy S10 line received its stable One UI 2.0 build , it’s time for the Galaxy Note10 and Note10+ to get the latest Android flavor. According to a report by  SamMobile , the two late-2019 Samsung flagships are receiving the Android 10 update in Germany, although the rollout is limited to a small group of beta testers. This stable release follows a  five-round beta testing  that concluded just a couple of days ago. Samsung is rolling out the stable build only to its beta testers in Germany to possibly look out for any major bug. Besides SamMobile, the confirmation also comes from  some Redditors  who got the update in Germany just a few hours back. The same Reddit users also mention that Google Pay remains broken even after installing this final Android 10 firmware, although it wasn’t immediately clear how widespread t...
Read more