New MacBook Features Dust-Repelling Keyboard

Apple’s new MacBook Pro keyboards are slightly quieter than the ones found in the previous versions of the laptop. But the company’s silence on the mechanism’s widespread mechanical issues, which Apple first acknowledged with a repair program last month, has left many scratching their heads and wondering if the new laptop’s largely unchanged keyboard is susceptible to dust and crumb contamination under the hood. Now, iFixit says it has uncovered something that indicates that the new MacBook Pro keyboards use a silicone membrane underneath each individual key to keep dirt and other unsavory particles from finding their way under the keyboard and locking it up. The repair organization dismantled a new 15-inch MacBook Pro keyboard to discover the new mechanism, the Verge reported. It bears a remarkable resemblance to an Apple patent that went public back in March. It described various methods for keyboard design that would prevent crumbs and dust from getting underneath the keys and causing mechanical issues. The methods describe using a “guard structure extending from the key cap” that would “funnel” contaminants away from the sensitive portions of the keyboard.