Time for MacBook owners to rejoice, at long last your troubles are at an end. Well, one of them, maybe. According to a patent application made public on Thursday, March 8, Apple could be developing a new MacBook keyboard designed to prevent crumbs and dust from getting those super-shallow MacBook keys stuck.
“Liquid ingress around the keys into the keyboard can damage electronics. Residues from such liquids may corrode or block electrical contacts, getting in the way of key movement and so on,” the patent application reads.
The application goes on to describe how those problems might be remedied: With the careful application of gaskets, brushes, wipers, or flaps that block gaps beneath keycaps. One solution would include a membrane beneath each key, effectively insulating the interior of the keyboard from the exterior, while another describes using each keypress as a “bellows” to force contaminants out of the keyboard.
“A keyboard assembly [could include] a substrate, a key cap, and a guard structure extending from the key cap that funnels contaminants away from the movement mechanism,” the patent application reads.
Apple’s engineering is notoriously exacting, it’s why products like the MacBook Pro and iPhone command such high prices compared to their competitors. Whether or not those prices are warranted is another matter entirely, but Apple’s brand is built upon the promise of premium and highly engineered user experiences.
When a stray piece of dust can ruin one of those experiences, it’s no wonder Apple is investing in keeping those crumbs out of its keyboards. As with all patent filing news, it remains to be seen whether or not this particular change to the MacBook design will make it out into the real world, but it’s an improvement that solves a very real problem.
It might seem like a small issue, but for owners of the latest MacBook Pro, it’s been a bit of a sticking point. On a laptop that can run you around $3,000 depending on specs, losing keyboard functionality because of a stray crumb is a big deal. There is even a song about it. With the MacBook line slated for an update in 2018, we might see crumb-resistant keyboards sooner rather than later.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.