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Apple Has Been Gaslighting Us for Years

The company says it created a new Magic Keyboard for the 16-inch MacBook Pro because it’s ‘listening,’ but customers have been complaining for years

Owen Williams
OneZero
Published in
3 min readNov 15, 2019

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The new 16-inch MacBook Pro. Credit: picture alliance/Getty

The new 16-inch MacBook Pro debuted earlier this week with an unexpected key feature: a working keyboard.

Ever since 2016, when the “redesigned” MacBook Pro first shipped, users have complained that its butterfly keyboard is flaky and failure-prone. Mere food crumbs or specks of dust could apparently render a $3,000 computer all but useless. The keys slowly died, one-by-one, requiring a time-consuming repair before the keyboard was usable again.

Apple’s marketing chief Phil Schiller, told the Independent that these sorts of customer complaints factored into Apple’s decision to make what it calls a “new Magic Keyboard” for the recently announced MacBook Pro. The new laptop model incorporates the scissor-switch design of Apple’s stand-alone Magic Keyboard. Schiller said that “customers don’t realize the power they have — to influence our direction and what we do with their feedback.” However, he stopped short of admitting fault, or offering an apology.

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OneZero
OneZero

Published in OneZero

OneZero is a former publication from Medium about the impact of technology on people and the future. Currently inactive and not taking submissions.

Owen Williams
Owen Williams

Written by Owen Williams

Fascinated by how code and design is shaping the world. I write about the why behind tech news. Design Manager in Tech. https://twitter.com/ow