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![[F]](/Images/i7/site.gif) TidBITS  TidBITS TidBITS Talk
Cloggy keyboard on MacBook Pro?![[benr]](/webx/?30@@1) benr (apparently) - 09:08am Nov 8, 2007 PSTvia emailI've finally made the move from my faithful old Aluminium PowerBook G4 15" to
the equivalent MacBook Pro.
Apart from the crucial extra couple of millimetres which forced me to ditch my
old sleeve, the other unexpected issue is the keyboard. It seems quite heavy.
I'm currently mostly working at my desk, for a change, so I spend most of the
day using an external keyboard. But when I do work directly on the MBP, I
find I'm missing letters a lot. All the keys work; it seems they just need a
heavier touch than I expect. It seems like it's more on certain letters than
others - but that's as likely to be a difference in the pressure I exert on
certain keys.
Is this a generally noticed thing, that the current range of Mac laptop
keyboards is heavier than the ones they used to sport? Or do I need to be
concerned that I may have a faulty unit? (Or, as a colleague has suggested,
perhaps I was just used to the keyboard that I'd spent 30 months pounding into
submission, amd that this one is just 'fresh'?)
Obviously if it's the first or third of these, there's nothing for me to do
except get used to it (and/or pound it into submission). But if I might have
a faulty unit, I'd rather know sooner than later so I can do something about it.
(I did go into a shop this morning and type a few sentences on one of their
display MBPs, without any apparent problems. But I don't know how old that
MBP was (it was running Tiger, but I've no idea how you would tell eg which
version of the backlight it had); or how much traffic it might have experienced.)
Has anyone else noticed heavier keyboards on the latest models? Or has anyone
else noticed that a new keyboard needs breaking in?
TIA,
- Ben
Alexander Hoffman (apparently)
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Nov 9, 2007 4:54 am
(#1 Total: 10)
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Re: Cloggy keyboard on MacBook Pro?
At 8:08 AM -0800 11/8/07, Ben Rubinstein wrote:
>Apart from the crucial extra couple of millimetres which forced me to ditch my
>old sleeve,
Been there. What a pain!
> the other unexpected issue is the keyboard. It seems quite heavy.
Every new Apple laptop has a different feeling keyboard. Even the
AlBook and the MacBook Pro, which look so similar, have different
keyboards different feels. I just checked my old AlBook (living here
while my brother travels the world) and it DOES feel lighter than my
year old MacBook Pro's keyboard.
It's not just yours.
--
=Alex Hoffman
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JolinWarren (apparently)
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Nov 16, 2007 6:53 am
(#2 Total: 10)
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Re: Cloggy keyboard on MacBook Pro?
At 8:08 on 8-11-2007, Ben Rubinstein wrote:
> Has anyone else noticed heavier keyboards on the latest models? Or
> has anyone else noticed that a new keyboard needs breaking in?
I just switched from an original PowerBook G4 (500 MHz) to a new
MacBook Pro. The keyboard is definitely firmer, the keys less
'mushy'. I kind of like it, it has a nice click to it. But when I use
my PB G4 every now and then, I like that one too; partly because it's
familiar and partly because I don't need as much force. I think your
issue is unlikely to be faulty hardware and more likely to be just a
different keyboard. Which you'll hopefully adjust to after further
use.
_________________
=> Jolin
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Kirk van Druten
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Nov 16, 2007 7:01 am
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Re: Cloggy keyboard on MacBook Pro?
Yes, I think the MacBook Pro keyboard requires a bit more mashing. When I first upgraded from a TiBook to the MBPro, I really noticed it. After a while one gets used to it...
That is until the RSI symptoms appear...
;^)
Kirk out
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MichaelGibbs
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Nov 16, 2007 7:01 am
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Re: Cloggy keyboard on MacBook Pro?
I have the same problem on my year-old MacBook Pro and I, too, had been wondering if others had noticed the problem. Quite often it seems to miss keystrokes, even when I hear the mechanical action of the key being pressed.
I'm not so sure it is a problem with the keyboard, though. It seems to happen most frequently when I haven't touched the keyboard in a while, almost as though the keyboard has gone to sleep (or perhaps the process handling key presses has). I really have no idea what's going on, but it is certainly annoying!
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fannar
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Nov 16, 2007 7:26 am
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Re: Cloggy keyboard on MacBook Pro?
But when I do work directly on the MBP, I find I'm missing letters a lot. Me and my friend are having the same problem, missing letters A LOT. I'm almost unable to program on the machine without external keyboard, like the new Apple keyboard, which is the best I have ever used. :)
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Lewis Butler (apparently)
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Nov 17, 2007 5:03 am
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Re: Cloggy keyboard on MacBook Pro?
On 16-Nov-2007, at 07:01, Kirk van Druten wrote:
> That is until the RSI symptoms appear...
No one had RSI from typing when everyone used manual typewriters.
Maybe making you work harder is a attempt to forestall RSI problems?
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Mary Arthur (apparently)
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Nov 19, 2007 10:33 am
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Re: Cloggy keyboard on MacBook Pro?
On 17-Nov-07, at 05:03, Lewis  Gmail wrote:
> No one had RSI from typing when everyone used manual typewriters.
> Maybe making you work harder is a attempt to forestall RSI problems?
How do you know that no one had RSI with manual typewriters?
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johnbaxterlists (apparently)
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Nov 19, 2007 10:33 am
(#8 Total: 10)
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Re: Cloggy keyboard on MacBook Pro?
On Nov 17, 2007, at 4:03 AM, Lewis Gmail wrote:
> On 16-Nov-2007, at 07:01, Kirk van Druten wrote:
>> That is until the RSI symptoms appear...
>
> No one had RSI from typing when everyone used manual typewriters.
> Maybe making you work harder is a attempt to forestall RSI problems?
Well, at least no one was diagnosed with RSI back then. (Lots of nice
billable medical problems have been invented in the past 60 years--
some of them, like RSI, real.)
It wasn't, I think, the additional effort involved in typing on manual
machines, but the better typing position. Fingers curved above the
keyboard, arms and wrists resting on--nothing (which is how I use
computer keyboards today--my laptops don't have wrist rests except
when I'm actually resting).
Not to mention the hands having other things to do regularly--left
hand and arm doing carriage returns (it was actually the carriage
returning then) once a line while the right rested, then both hands
involved in paper changing regularly. (Including making multi-layer
paper/carbon sandwiches.)
--John (who did not enjoy cutting mimeograph masters on manual
typewriters)
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tekelenb (apparently)
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Nov 19, 2007 10:43 am
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Re: Cloggy keyboard on MacBook Pro?
At 04:03 -0800 UTC, on 2007-11-17, Lewis Gmail wrote:
> On 16-Nov-2007, at 07:01, Kirk van Druten wrote:
>> That is until the RSI symptoms appear...
>
> No one had RSI from typing when everyone used manual typewriters.
> Maybe making you work harder is a attempt to forestall RSI problems?
It's possible that that's the idea behind it, but that doesn't mean the idea
is correct :) Using 'more' force can result in RSI-ish damage just as well.[*]
The general assumption why typists didn't get RSI is that they had to make
one very different movement at the end of every line -- variation is healthy.
(Of course it may also be that in those days "RSI"-like problems were simply
not diagnosed or even registered as such.)
[*]
Whatever "RSI" is. I usually consider it 'something like tendenitis', which I
once took a year to fully recover from. I got it playing double bass, which
takes a *lot* of force.
--
Sander Tekelenburg, < http://www.euronet.nl/~tekelenb/>
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Lewis Butler (apparently)
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Nov 20, 2007 4:32 am
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Re: Cloggy keyboard on MacBook Pro?
On 19-Nov-2007, at 10:43, Sander Tekelenburg wrote:
> I usually consider it 'something like tendenitis',
But it's not. RSI is a catch-all group that includes some types of
tendonitis, but includes many other things as well. The type of RSI
that most computer typist get is a nerve/muscle issue, not a tendon
issue.
> which I once took a year to fully recover from. I got it playing
> double bass, which
> takes a *lot* of force.
Yep, completely different type of injury, resulting from using a lot
of force over an extended period of time. Has nothing to do with the
type of RSI someone moving their fingers and hands constantly over a
keyboard might experience.
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TidBITS TidBITS TidBITS Talk Cloggy keyboard on MacBook Pro?
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