The Henry Ford has a special exhibit that recently opened:
Crystal-clear plastics were born out of scientific research during World War II and were swiftly co-opted for creative applications in fashion, our homes, and technology. A car’s windshield is clear because we need to see through it to keep us safe as we drive. But a see-through telephone? That invites us to look inside an object and question how it works.
This Apple service document opens with some marketing copy about the MacBook Pro:
MacBook Pro is built on the revolutionary Intel Core 2 Duo — which packs the power of two processor cores (up to 2.4GHz) inside a single chip. It provides 4MB of Smart Cache, L2 cache that can be shared between the cores as needed. It delivers higher performance in 2D and 3D graphics, video editing, and music encoding. But the faster engine is only part of the story. MacBook Pro delivers up to 4GB of 667MHz DDR2 memory with a faster, 800MHz frontside bus and support for hard drives up to 250GB. Ultimate speed, performance, and connectivity. To go. That’s MacBook Pro.
I crashed Analog(ue) this week to talk to Casey about the start of his indie life and how it may evolve over time.
July 2008 was a very busy time for Apple. In addition to the App Store and MobileMe, Apple launched the iPhone 3G.
Speaking of the new butterfly keyboard, iFixit has put it through some testing:
We pumped this keyboard full of particulates to test our ingress-proofing theory. We started with a fine, powdered paint additive to add a bit of color and enable finer tracking. Lo and behold, the dust is safely sequestered at the edges of the membrane, leaving the mechanism fairly sheltered. The holes in the membrane allow the keycap clips to pass through, but are covered by the cap itself, blocking dust ingress. The previous-gen butterfly keys are far less protected, and are almost immediately flooded with our glowing granules. On the 2018 keyboard, with the addition of more particulate and some aggressive typing, the dust eventually penetrates under the sheltered clips, and gets on top of the switch—so the ingress-proofing isn’t foolproof just yet. Time will tell how long the barrier will hold up. Following the Mythbusters method of testing, we pushed the keyboard to failure with the higher-grit particulate we used last time: sand. And just like last time, a few poorly placed particles bring the mighty butterfly down to earth, never to click again.
A new Apple service document outlines changes to the new MacBook Pro keyboard. Text from the document was provided to MacRumors:
The keyboard has a membrane under the keycaps to prevent debris from entering the butterfly mechanism. Be careful not to tear the membrane. A torn membrane will result in a top case replacement.
This is good news; I hope that it works as intended.
The document also states that it is now much easier to replace individual key caps, and that full top case replacements should be less common now. If a key is stuck, feels uneven or soft, a technician should be able to safely remove and even replace it in store now. That wasn’t the case before, which blows my mind.
This week’s Connected was full of mini-topics, but was a lot of fun:
Federico bought an iPod touch, Nest and Instapaper both have new bosses and the world is finally getting the leg emoji it deserves.
My thanks to our sponsors:
On this week’s Query, I was joined by Mikah Sargent to discuss MacBook Pros, emoji, HomeKit and more.
My thanks to our sponsors:
Hans Island is a small uninhabited island between Canada and Greenland, and is the center of one of the oddest (and most adorable) land disputes in modern times.
If the back of your iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS becomes discolored, you may clean it with isopropyl alcohol.
Dampen a clean, soft, lint-free cloth with isopropyl alcohol. Rub the back of the device until clean.
Do not apply alcohol directly to the device. Avoid rubbing the display with the alcohol, and avoid getting alcohol in any openings.
I joined Jason Snell on this week’s episode of Upgrade:
Guest co-host Stephen Hackett joins Jason to discuss the new MacBook Pros and what they mean for Apple’s product line at large, adventures with the macOS Mojave beta, and the new Sonos AirPlay 2 update. And since this is the summer of fun, we cap it all off with a quick Mac OS X draft!
This was a lot of fun.