Apple has lied about the MacBook Air and we now have a problem

I had heard the stories.

I've read some too.

According to the stories, Apple's latest MacBooks were clearly designed by a drunken Beelzebub group that was fed up with back-end customers who thought laptops were still relevant.

Or could it just be the summer design project of the trainees?

We did not really have time for that. Maybe you can solve it.

After all, Apple has always insisted that the iPad Pro was a computer, so why do all your retrograde guys claim a new MacBook?

I am one of those arrears guys. I've been using Mac laptops since I saw them for the first time. Their simplicity and efficiency have made it possible to stay at work and stay in the limelight for more years than some readers.

So, when the hubbub around the MacBook's butterfly keyboard began, I wanted to believe that it was only an isolated design flaw that Apple had now solved.

Yes, it was the third time that Cupertino was trying to solve it, but the third time, charm, etc.

So I bought a new MacBook Air at the end of last year. I did not love it. It was a little noisier and, on the contrary, it seemed a little cheaper than the previous ones.

Yet I did not have real problems of the sort that some had described. Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal, for example, had big problems with her E's and her R. She was not alone.

Apple started to make a muted apology. He insisted that this keyboard malfunction only affected very few users.

I took an extra precaution. I went to a few Apple stores to see if the employees would follow the line of the company or would let it be known that it was a much bigger deal.

A conversation took place like this:

Me: "I hear people complaining that these keyboards are not working very well.Has there been no dust problems?"

Apple Store salesperson: "It's the opposite."

She explained what she meant by the opposite: "It is impossible for the dust to get inside because they put an extra layer of plastic underneath to prevent this from happening. occur. "

My heart jumped a beat of joy.

In another Apple Store, a salesperson said no, no, she had never even heard of such keyboard issues. She added that her own MacBook worked perfectly.

The. I had my answers. It was an isolated affair. I could now take a long trip, confident that my Air would not deflate under me.

Welcome to Heathrow. Or should it be Welcoe?

Sometimes I write just to stay awake.

So, having landed at London's Heathrow Zoo, I thought I'd spend a few minutes in the jet lag before my connecting flight by writing complacent words on, oh, nothing immediately came to my mind but I hope to be able to think about it.

I started writing, hoping to find a meaning soon. What I found was that my M key endured a difficult flight.

Suddenly he refused to be depressed. C & # 39; was on strike.

I pressed the key and my screen was M-minus. I pressed a little harder and the M-less seemed hopeless.

It was only when I pressed very firmly, in the middle of the key, that the chosen letter appeared on my screen.

Yes, despite Apple's third attempt to solve this problem, I was another keyboard victim. Or, as some would surely prefer, losers.

Maybe dust or dust crumbs had gotten under this key. Was it a butter croissant or a chocolate cake? Could it have been ordinary wheat toast?

Maybe it was an eyebrow, an eyelash, or one of my last hair.

And now it was my problem. A problem of the first world, of course, so please forgive the moans. It is simply a sad and existential complaint, caused by a faith that goes wrong.

Welcoe in Lisbon.

All this happened a little more than a week ago. Since then, my M has offered increasing resistance and I have proposed increasing aggression. I did not bring my can of compressed air with me, so I have not tried any of the remedies recommended by Apple yet.

In addition, I am now in Lisbon where there is no Apple Store, only authorized Apple resellers. Did I want to disturb them? No, I bothered them? Of course. I had to check if the repair promise of a day made by Apple was valid.

"As a reseller, I have to send your MacBook to an authorized service provider," said the very helpful Apple Authorized Reseller.

"How long will that take?"

"I have to tell you the number of days it can be, it's 30. It could be less, of course, but it's better to have it repaired in America."

"I've only had my MacBook for a few months," I said.

"It's very bad," he replied. "You pay your money, so you should get something for that – it's a terrible design."

So now I am determined.

In fact, I'm determined to see how long it will take before my M becomes completely inoperative. I want to know if other keys will succumb to this obvious and desperate design flaw. I want to see how this third generation keyboard is really useless.

This MacBook Air is less than six months old.

Not only is the M key two-thirds of its coffin, but the letter A of the A key is already degraded to the point of being almost completely blurred.

I can not help but conclude that this thing is done cheaply, myopically done.

When does a question become a total embarrassment? Oh, are we there already?

The MacBook Air. The biggest shame of Apple?

I've owned about 20 or more Apple products over the years.

Not once, none of them started to malfunction during the first six months.

Many of them have never worked badly.

Yet, here is one of the most reputable and stable Apple products, the one that I once described as the best product of the business, reduced to a pathetic clutter by a combination of the two. arrogance and inattention.

I wonder what they will say if I go back to any of the Apple stores that are trying to reassure me.

It serves me of course, of course. I'm crazy here. I should have realized that my Air could be as vulnerable as another.

Even worse, I was so confused that I did not even bother to bring my usual backup copy.

This is what is called an iPad Pro.

You see, on this machine, nothing can ever go under the keys.