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Apple may have secretly fixed the MacBook Pro keyboard that's driving people crazy
Modder finds and fixes typo in Aliens: Colonial Marines that caused bad Xenomorph AI
Xbox One X And S Dolby Vision Update: Things Just Got Even Better

Apple may have secretly fixed the MacBook Pro keyboard that's driving people crazy

Posted: 14 Jul 2018 06:00 AM PDT

A MacBook Pro with Apple's butterfly keyboard.Hollis Johnson/Business Insider

Many of Apple's recent laptop models have a keyboard that many people say can be paralyzed by even a spec of dust.
Apple was forced to offer free repairs to people who have had issues.
Apple released new laptop models with a "third-generation keyboard" this week that was designed to be quieter.
We still don't know if Apple fixed the reliability issue.
Apple won't say if the new models are covered under the free repair program.

Apple released new high-end laptops earlier this week.

The new MacBook Pro models got faster chips, improved displays, and the option to pack more storage space and RAM.

But there's still one big question: Did Apple fix the MacBook Pro keyboard that's spurred thousands of complaints, a mea culpa repair program, and several class action suits?

We don't know.

Apple did make changes to the keyboard, but described them in only 10 words:

"Additional updates include ... an improved third-generation keyboard for quieter typing."

A tough choice

Macbook Key USPTO

This makes buying a new MacBook Pro a more difficult choice for consumers. The 2016 and 2017 models suffered from a pretty bad flaw: dirt or dust could get stuck inside the keyboard's "butterfly" mechanisms and make them unreliable and "sticky."

As Kyle Weins, founder of independent repair guide iFixit, wrote:

"The basic flaw is that these ultra-thin keys are easily paralyzed by particulate matter. Dust can block the keycap from pressing the switch, or disable the return mechanism. "

It's a real problem!

Earlier this month, Apple acknowledged the problem by extending free service for the issue to pretty much all MacBooks with the "butterfly" keyboard for four years.

Here are the symptoms, according to Apple:

Letters or characters repeat unexpectedly
Letters or characters do not appear
Key(s) feel "sticky" or do not respond in a consistent manner

Those are pretty annoying problems! I personally have experienced the "sticky key" problem on my personal MacBook Pro, and while it's not a deal-breaker for me, it's still infuriating.

The new keyboard still uses a butterfly mechanism, and Apple representatives have said that the new "third-generation keyboard" wasn't "designed to solve those issues," according to journalists who got hands-on time with the new laptops before the announcement. Apple says the sticky key problem only affects a "small" number of laptops.

But it's entirely possible that Apple quietly fixed or improved the problem with the new design. It has engineers working on patents to prevent dust or crumbs for improving keyboard reliability. And when iFixit bought one of the new laptops and took it apart, it found a change to the design that includes a plastic film that protects dust or crumbs from getting in the key.

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This might fix the issue. Or it might not. We probably won't know for sure for a while, or until enough laptops go out into the wild to assemble anecdotal data.

It would be in Apple's financial interest to improve the keyboard — it costs Apple money when it has to fix one of these keyboards under warranty because it has to replace the glued-in battery, trackpad, and speakers at the same time, according to iFixit.

But still, we don't ultimately know if the new keyboard has fixed the "sticky keys." Apple's not saying — it didn't return a request for comment about whether the new MacBook Pro models are covered under the service program.

All Apple laptops have a year-long warranty, so it will be a year before Apple has to make a decision on the service program, and it can probably rely on repair data to guide it.

Why Apple can't say anything

macbook keyboard Apple's butterfly keyboards have thin keys.Rafi Letzter/Tech Insider

Even if Apple did end up improving the keyboards to address the "sticky" issue, there are lots of reasons why it might not tell people, speculates plugged-in blogger John Gruber.

He writes that it's not in Apple's best marking interest to say that keyboards it's still selling have issues. (The low-end MacBook Pro without the Touch Bar didn't get an update this week.)

But a bigger issue is that admitting a mistake might give the lawyers filing class-action lawsuits over the keyboard more ammunition.

Gruber writes:

"Marketing-wise, I don’t think they would admit to a reliability problem in the existing butterfly keyboards (especially since they’re still selling second-generation keyboards in all non-Touch Bar models), and legal-wise (given the fact that they’re facing multiple lawsuits regarding keyboard reliability) I don’t think they should admit to it. So whether they’ve attempted to address reliability problems along with the noise or not, I think they’d say the exact same thing today: only that they’ve made the keyboards quieter. I have no inside dope on this (yet?), but to me the reason for optimism is that they’re calling these keyboards “third-generation”, not just a quieter version of the second-generation butterfly-switch keyboards."

Apple keyboard Apple's recommended troubleshooting method for its butterfly keyboards.Apple

But while silence may be a good move for Apple, it punishes customers who want to buy a new MacBook Pro. These aren't inexpensive machines — the 13-inch version starts at $1,799 and the 15-inch model costs anywhere between $2,399 and $6,669 — and for most people who buy them, they're a major purchase that only happens once every handful of years.

So if you're thinking about buying a MacBook Pro right now, or you need one, you're faced with a scary possibility: If Apple has not improved the overall reliability of the keyboard, that in a year, you may have a keyboard that doesn't type certain letters, and getting it repaired could cost a lot of money.

It's a question consumers shouldn't have before they plunk down $2,000 on a new laptop, and it's a question that Apple should be able to answer.

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Modder finds and fixes typo in Aliens: Colonial Marines that caused bad Xenomorph AI

Posted: 14 Jul 2018 08:03 AM PDT

The only good bug is a dead bug

History has not been kind to Aliens: Colonial Marines, and today's story doesn't exactly improve its shoddy reputation. As spotted on ResetEra, a modder attempting to overhaul Colonial Marines found an issue in the game's .ini file causing Xenomorphs to act, well, stupid. You remember the reviews. You remember that infamous gif. The aliens' behavior was a big sticking point back in 2013.

It might sound wild, but fixing a typo in a text file is seemingly all that's needed to improve how Xenomorphs act in Colonial Marines. Here's how modder jamesdickinson963 summed up the situation:

Inside your games config file (My Document\My Games\Aliens Colonial Marines\PecanGame\Config\PecanEngine.ini) is the following line of code :
ClassRemapping=PecanGame.PecanSeqAct_AttachXenoToTether -> PecanGame.PecanSeqAct_AttachPawnToTeather
I'm sure you'll notice the spelling mistake.
ClassRemapping=PecanGame.PecanSeqAct_AttachXenoToTether -> PecanGame.PecanSeqAct_AttachPawnToTether
If you fix it to look like the above and then play the game, the difference is pretty crazy!

Why is this line important? There are two reasons:
1) AttachXenoToTeather doesn't do anything. It's basically empty or stripped.
2) AttachPawnToTether does ALOT. It controls tactical position adjustment, patrolling, and target zoning.

When a Xeno is spawned, it is attached to a zone tether. This zone tells the Xeno what area is its fighting space and where different exits are. In Combat, a Xeno will be forced to switch to a new tether (such as one behind you) so as to flank, or disperse so they aren't so grouped up, etc. (*disclaimer* this is inferred opinion, I can't see the actual code only bits)
Whenever the game tried to do this, nothing happened. Now it does!

Of course, the tweak isn't some silver bullet that automatically fixes the entire game and flips the script, but the results are noticeable. Times like this remind me why I never got into coding.

Aliens: Colonial Marines AI fixed by a single letter [ResetEra -- Thanks, Kristofer]

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Xbox One X And S Dolby Vision Update: Things Just Got Even Better

Posted: 14 Jul 2018 05:00 AM PDT

Last week Microsoft answered the prayers of AV fans by announcing that it would be adding support for the premium Dolby Vision high dynamic range format to its Xbox One X and S consoles.

Now it’s doubled down on that great news by revealing that the Dolby Vision support is going to be expanded to cover the consoles’ 4K Blu-ray drives (reviewed here).

The catch with the initial announcement was that it only confirmed Dolby Vision support for streamed sources - just Netflix, in fact. I speculated then, though, that if DV could be added for streaming, it seemed likely that it could also be rolled out across other parts of the consoles’ ecosystem.

Now a Microsoft spokesperson has confirmed to CNET that Dolby Vision is expected to be added to Xbox One X and S 4K Blu-ray playback via a further update in the Fall.

Dolby Vision: Will work on your Xbox One X or S 4K Blu-ray drive from the Fall.Photo: Dolby

This makes perfect sense, of course, given that 4K Blu-ray delivers the current last word in AV quality, and that Dolby Vision’s extra scene by scene data has proven consistently capable of boosting the dynamism, color finesse and even sharpness of the vast majority of 4K Blu-ray discs it’s been applied to.

As always with Dolby Vision, you will need a TV or monitor capable of handling the Dolby Vision format to enjoy the extra picture quality it can bring.

Microsoft has yet to confirm if support for Dolby Vision will also extend at some point to games. But it seems more than possible - especially given that a few PC titles have supported Dolby Vision for some time now. Maybe Microsoft is waiting for a developer to get a DV Xbox One X/S title in the works before making any announcements on that front.

It also remains to be seen if Microsoft will follow up its support for Dolby Vision by adding playback of the rival new HDR10+ ‘dynamic’ HDR format.

But for now let’s just celebrate what’s already confirmed as coming, as it really is a great achievement on Microsoft’s part.

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