The worst MacBook Apple made.

[nwojdak]

I worked for Apple during the time the Butterfly keyboard and the Macbook 12" launched. We had SO MANY PEOPLE coming in with keyboard issues. Troubleshooting the keyboard issues meant we first had to remove the keycap and clean the mechanism underneath to see if it resolved the issue (Which worked about 1 in 50 times). Removing the keycaps was a terrible experience, as we had to take this weird, angled plastic stick, and put a sticky pad on it. Then we had to stick it to the keycap, and lift at an angle to remove the key. Then we had to do the reverse to install a new key. We broke so many keycaps and key mechanisms that we usually had to replace the whole keyboard. And the problem was, keyboard replacements necessitated a new topcase, which was what everything mounted to. Which means if we had to do a repair, we had to take EVERYTHING (motherboard, display, speakers, etc.) out of the old topcase and transplant it into the new topcase. And these things were so small, and so fiddly, they were terrible to work on. The bottom panel was so delicate to remove, and the retaining clips were very easy to break. What's worse, it had a freaking cable connected that only offered about 1.5" worth of travel before it broke, so you had to be careful removing it, or risk breaking the cable! In short, these 12" Macbooks were some of the worst laptops Apple ever made, and we literally cheered in the service department when we heard they were discontinuing them.

[evarsonstudios]

Wade yelling at a MacBook is peak Dankpods

[SalemTechsperts]

Oh God I wiped my memory of these from all the keyboard issues that came into my shop. At least you made me laugh while I cried.

[darrylsell]

My biggest issue was that they were USBc, not Thunderbolt 3. The number of adaptors and docks that people expect to work with them, and you just get a pop up saying ‘this accessory is not compatible with this device’

[nicolocatanese]

Wade typing on the pc complaining about the keyboard is the equivalent of him complaining of a nugget's microphone while using it to tell us about it

[rwberger]

"And its completely fanless"

I think I can begin to see the issue.

[ExtremeFootfacePotato]

I love how Frank is both a sweetheart and a menace at the same time

[frtzkng]

On a side note, I also wanna mention how macOS does some things amazingly well but also unnecessarily limits its own features: You all know this thing where you press and hold a letter key on your phone and a bar with different accented letters pops up. This is also a feature in macOS, enabled by default. You can also disable it. You *used to* be able to even edit the plist files and customize the letters you can select. I had it customized to support accented characters for most European languages and the IPA, as I conversed a lot in English, German, Dutch, Polish and Latvian and now didn't need to change keyboard settings ever.

And then they inadvertently made all this customization step by step frustrating to impossibly difficult by putting those plists in the System files:
- Starting with OS X 10.11 or so, System Integrity Protection would make all System files read-only to limit access for all programs including potential malware. You could disable it in Recovery mode, edit your plist, and re-enable it.
- Then with macOS 10.15 Catalina they made it so that you cannot change the System folder from read-only to anything else. You could still circumvent this with some terminal commands.
- With macOS Big Sur, the System folder is now its own, read-only volume, *and it cannot be anything but read-only* without some advanced terminal shenanigans that, if executed wrongly, may screw up your entire system and/or leave you vulnerable to malware.
- Some time later in Big Sur, every single System file gets its own SHA256 hash for a signature check. So, while insanely secure, even if you passed all the shit in place to prevent you from customizing your PressAndHold layout, *if you edit anything, the signature check will fail and your macOS volume will not boot up unless re-installed.* Your data won't be deleted as it's on a separate volume. There are still workarounds but the effort needed is IMO simply not worth it anymore.
And, to add insult to injury, *any* system update installed will reset the modified plist. This is very likely unintentional, and not with the goal of preventing customization in mind. There simply are very few people who are even aware that you could edit the plist files in order to customize the press and hold layout, and the settings files have been in System for over a decade, so nobody at Apple checked for this or judged it not worth it to change PressAndHold code. Hopefully they change that in the future.

[zumuvtuber]

As bad as it was, I wish Apple revived the 12 inch with an M series chip and updated keyboard. The portability of this form factor is amazing for working on the go.

[stevefoster]

I thought that was the same Macbook Air my girlfriend stubbornly refuses to let me replace, it astounds me how dual cores can trudge along like that.

[lian]

"Sir we cant keep the CPU cool with such a small frame and heatsink"
SHADDUP, I DIDNT ASK

[SilverDragonJay]

Frank was trying to close the laptop. She saw those numbers. She understood.

[channelofchannels]

why do all your macbooks have the same dent

[DUCKDUDE]

She may like phones as she may be able to see whatever wavelength of light is being emitted for autofocus. Spiders will react very obviously to it.

[porkypine]

its insane how the butterfly keyboard was so prone to failure but apple so stubborn to change that they had to do free keyboard assembly replacements after being hit with a class action lawsuit. they took a massive lost on each repair it wasn't just the keys that got replaced the assembly included the trackpad, top frame and battery that's hundreds of dollars of just parts per repair

[videocommenter]

Fun fact: Probably what killed those keyboards wasn't dust but heat. That, combined with Apple completely trusting Intel's TDP low balling plus their fan curves with phobia to fan noise (or lack of fans, like in this case) did the the death trick in all that line of keyboards.

[senzelian]

ASUS at the time had a competitor called the Zenbook U360, which was thinner, managed to have USB A ports and a 360° rotatable display.

[tredI]

4:52 "Chungus McDungus did the bimmy scringus on the tomorry waves."

[joeMW]

How Apple handled the the butterfly keyboard debacle renewed my determination to never give that company my money, no matter how tempting it may be.

[OtioseFanatic]

If it wasn't for that blasted keyboard I'd love one of those just as a portable typing device. It's HARD to find a small laptop that isn't plastic-y chrome powered e-waste anymore.