"Your pet peeve, technical or otherwise" Entry #2150 ... Apple Keyboards!
Despite their sleek design and Apple price tag, in my opinion, the Apple keyboard is one of the worse keyboard designs in town.
This from a few days ago. On the outside this A1243 was a gleam machine - almost factory mint. On closer examination though, this keyboard had been around the block a few times. Thus it required a strip and clean. Which is where my issue with Apple's design is revealed. Keys sit over a key well, which holds a delicate plastic scissor mechanism, a rubber contact, and sometimes a metal spring; unfortunately the key well acts as miniature garbage sump.
From skin cells to fast food, everything accumulates in these key wells. Over time, a biological record of the keyboard's life builds up as a layer of congealed sediment under the keys. Regardless of how clean and sanitised the keyboard is on the outside, a biological rubbish dump is lurking just under the fingertips. At some point, the debris can lock up the scissor mechanism, causing the infamous stuck key.
Of course, being an Apple product, keyboards cannot be dismantled like a PC keyboard with a screw driver and spudger. On a canteen wall in Cupertino California a neon sign must read, "screws are just not cool". Instead, to get at the key well, you have to pop each of the 102+ keycaps, which are held in place by Apple's own unique and obscurated engineering style. Styles, plural.
This A1243 keyboard is a venerable cocktail of human gloop, fluff, dog hair or eye lashes and, glitter! Okay, this is a bad one, but the problem with Apple keyboards is they will trap everything in the key well. Dust, crumbs, dirt, soot, drinks and all kinds of human fluids will fall in, mix and solidify. Only IPA and time can revitalise a gloop monster. Otherwise that's another $199 for a new clean one. Thinks, in sterile environments are Apple keyboards safe?
* Tip: When removing keytops, only ever use a plastic pry tool. Never use a metal pry tool, knife blade or flat screwdriver (as shown on many YouTube videos), as these will eventually break through the plastic scissor mechanism, indent the plastic key or, nitch the surrounding aluminium frame. It's Apple, so it's not meant to be easy.