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00:00There was a report this morning from Ming-Chi Kuo of a new keyboard being developed for Apple's new MacBooks, or upcoming MacBooks.
00:10And, I mean, this is something we've been waiting for for a really long time.
00:14For the past four years, we've been dealing with janky keyboards from Apple on their MacBook lineup,
00:18and to hear this was just, like, it was big news for me.
00:22So, what this keyboard is, it's a shift back to the original style of keyboard switch.
00:28In 2015, they introduced their new switch, the butterfly mechanism, and we've seen it pan out over the past few years.
00:34It is not a particularly reliable design, they're on their fourth iteration or something like that,
00:39but this new rumored switch uses that traditional scissor mechanism.
00:43So, the way this thing works is it uses two pieces that interlock to make this scissor-like mechanism,
00:48but what makes this Apple variant special or unique is the material that they're using to develop this.
00:54Instead of using, like, a traditional regular plastic, they're using a glass fiber material, supposedly.
00:59Now, they've used this material before.
01:01When they originally announced the butterfly mechanism in 2015,
01:05you can see that they've used glass-reinforced plastics before,
01:08and the reason why they use this stuff is for strength, right?
01:11You're able to make these components thinner and smaller while retaining strength.
01:15So, these new scissor switches should be able to be a lot thinner than your traditional scissor switch,
01:20while also being quite durable.
01:22When Apple switched over to the butterfly switches originally in 2015 and 16,
01:27the main reason why they did it was not just to be different,
01:30they did it because the butterfly switches allowed their MacBooks to just be a little bit thinner.
01:34They probably shaved one or two millimeters off the total Z height, like the vertical height of the device,
01:40so they could make thinner laptops.
01:42But the issues that have popped up in light of using that butterfly switch have,
01:46I mean, there's lots of them, to the point where they now have a keyboard replacement program
01:49that covers the entire MacBook lineup for the past four years,
01:52and it's going to cost them quite a bit of money.
01:54So, if the supply chain report is true, that's great.
01:57We're going to see some new keyboards in the upcoming MacBooks,
01:59which will hopefully be more reliable and more durable than the existing ones.
02:04But I find it more interesting that they're switching back,
02:07I use the word switch, but they're switching back to a more traditional switch.
02:11It's like they built up this whole marketing hype,
02:14and they had some cool videos to showcase how these switches work,
02:17and why they're better than your traditional scissor switch.
02:19But it's weird and just interesting that four and a half or five years later,
02:23they go back to a more tried and tested design, the scissor switch.
02:28It's cool that Apple is essentially recognizing faults here,
02:31or admitting that what they built four and a half, five years ago is not an ideal keyboard,
02:36because clearly, there's stuff that's wrong with it.
02:39Now, in terms of the devices that are getting this new keyboard,
02:42Ming-Chi Kuo mentions that the first device to get this will be the upcoming 2019 MacBook Air.
02:48Now, interestingly, that was a device that just got a redesign last year,
02:51and this report is saying that these new keyboards should appear in this 2019 variant,
02:56and I don't think they'll be changing the design of that newly redesigned MacBook Air, right?
03:01So that means that these new keyboards, these new scissor switch keyboards,
03:06should be able to fit into the existing MacBook Air chassis.
03:11Now, granted, that's not a super thin MacBook,
03:12but the fact that they don't have to redesign an entire new chassis to house these new keyboards
03:17is, I mean, it's cool.
03:18Like, maybe, this is just maybe, but maybe,
03:21they would be able to take those new keyboards and retrofit the existing MacBook Pros with them,
03:26like in the keyboard replacement program.
03:28Who knows? But the idea of a new keyboard is really cool.
03:31Now, one thing to note, this is a rumor, right?
03:34Ming-Chi Kuo is usually pretty accurate with this stuff,
03:37but there's no way for me to judge the validity or accuracy of this.
03:40There was one thing about this report that kind of made it seem questionable.
03:45It was the fact that this new keyboard wasn't mentioned along with the 16-inch MacBook Pro.
03:50Like, that's supposedly going to have a regular butterfly switch, maybe?
03:53I don't know. Like, this is all just rumored material,
03:55but, I mean, this is great news.
03:58And I love the fact that Apple is addressing this.
04:01Like, they had to do this.
04:02This was eventually going to happen, and I'm glad that it's happening now.
04:05But, despite all this praise and happiness that I have about these upcoming keyboards,
04:10there's still part of me that's like, I'm surprised they took this long.
04:13They let a product line ride for four years.
04:16Like, there's so many MacBooks out there, MacBook Pros out there,
04:19with just bad keyboards that they can't really do anything about.
04:22But the other thing is that they claimed only a small number of users
04:26were actually having issues with the existing MacBook keyboards,
04:29which is honestly, like, that sounds really misleading.
04:32Because if that were the case, if it was only just a limited number of people
04:35with problems with those MacBook keyboards,
04:37number one, we wouldn't see a keyboard replacement program as extensive as it is right now.
04:41And secondly, they wouldn't be switching to a new style of keyboard switch.
04:45Like, if that old one was so good, why switch, right?
04:48Okay, hope you guys enjoyed this video.
04:50Thumbs if you liked it, subs if you loved it.
04:51See you guys next time.