Oscar winner shreds Apple’s MacBook keyboards

(Image credit: Laptop Mag)

Yesterday at the Oscars, Taika Waititi destroyed Apple’s keyboards in a fun 1-minute rant after getting his Academy Award for best adapted screenplay for Jojo Rabbit. 

Waititi was answering a journalist’s question about the Writers Guild of America’s possible strike, asking what are the needs that writers should raise in the next round of talks with production houses. His answer in a nutsell: Get Apple to fix its keyboards.

After saying “Apple needs to fix those keyboards“, Waititi launched into a hilariously absurd rant about how Apple keyboards are terrible. Seemingly a Mac user, he said that the keys get stuck and the bouncing action is so bad that they almost make him want to get a PC.

”Those Apple keyboards are horrendous,” he continued. And of course he singled out the MacBooks. He mimicked the size of their keyboard, demonstrating how they force you into an unnatural writing position and caused him shoulder and elbow problems. He went on and and on, ending with “we just need to fix those keyboards.” The “WGA should step in and do something,” he finished to laughs in the Oscar’s press corps.

The MacBook keyboard debacle

Of course, someone could have told Waititi that he could buy a new $2,399 MacBook Pro 16-inch, which is the first Apple laptop in years with a decent keyboard that apparently matches the performance of the company’s desktop keyboards.

But until last year, every Apple MacBook had mediocre keyboards. And the fact is that Apple’s laptop keyboards are not good, like Waititi says. They're perhaps the worst in the industry, with bad tactile feedback, keys that stick, letters that repeat themselves, and continuous technical problems that forced Apple to admit the troubles and extend the MacBook’s keyboards guarantee

Apple has had a dodgy keyboard in the market for five years now. Apple introduced the butterfly keyboards in March 2015 — which instantly led to user complains. Then it tried to fix it in a second-generation in October 2016, but the complaints only continued as Apple continued to ignore users.

In May 2018, a Change.org petition asked Apple to recall all MacBook Pros with butterfly keyboards and, that same month, a class-action lawsuit was filed. Later in June, Apple tried to finally appease users by offering an extended free replacement program. which still didn’t fix the situation but offered a band-aid to an obvious faulty design problem.

Then in July 2018 Apple introduced a third revision of the butterfly keyboard, claiming that this was the good one. But, as we discovered on April 2019, the Basecamp chief technology officer claimed that almost half of the company's MacBook Pros with third-generation keyboards were reportedly failing

Surprisingly enough, Apple still sells MacBooks with these keyboards, which still get stuck keys, just like the replacement that Apple claimed were going to mitigate these issues. The company will allegedly kill the faulty butterfly keyboard by mid-2020, according to rumors.

No wonder Waititi is pissed off enough to slam Apple after his Oscar win, albeit in a cheeky tone designed to deflect the journalist’s question. 

TOPICS
Jesus Diaz

Jesus Diaz founded the new Sploid for Gawker Media after seven years working at Gizmodo, where he helmed the lost-in-a-bar iPhone 4 story and wrote old angry man rants, among other things. He's a creative director, screenwriter, and producer at The Magic Sauce, and currently writes for Fast Company and Tom's Guide.

Latest in MacBooks
MacBook Air M3 15-inch in hand with Tom's Guide Lowest Price badge
Hurry! MacBook Air M3 just crashed to lowest price ever on Amazon
MacBook Air 15-inch M4
I used Apple's 15-inch M4 MacBook Air for a week — it's like last year's model, but with an extra shot of espresso
MacBook Air M4
MacBook Air M4 benchmarks are here — here's how it compares to the MacBook Pro, Windows laptops and more
MacBook Air M4
MacBook Air M4 just finally solved a keyboard problem after 25 years — here's what's fixed
MacBook Air M4 vs. MacBook Air M1
MacBook Air M4 vs MacBook Air M1: 7 biggest upgrades
MacBook Air M3
Holy smokes! The MacBook Air M3 just fell to its lowest ever price at Amazon
Latest in News
Intel CPU
Intel's Panther Lake appears in public for the first time — what we know about the new chip
OnePlus Pad 2 with keyboard
OnePlus Pad 2 Pro specs leak — this tablet is a beast
Josh Hartnett in Trap
Netflix top 10 movies — here’s the 3 worth watching right now
Gemini logo on smartphone
Google is giving away Gemini's best paid features for free — here's the tools you can try now
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
Older Samsung phones are finally getting One UI 7 — here's all the devices
A photo of Apple CarPly in use
Apple CarPlay just got a welcome upgrade in iOS 18.4 — what you need to know