With the removal of the Touch Bar from top-of-the-line MacBook Pro models–and make no mistake, the grim reaper is coming for the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, too–Apple’s era of experimentation with the keyboard is over. Out with 2015’s “butterfly” keyboard, out with 2016’s Touch Bar, in with the Magic Keyboard and a row of full-height function keys.
For some reason, in the middle of the 2010s, Apple decided it was ready to reinvent how keyboards on laptops work. It was a bad decision that the company has spent years trying to fix. Of all the innovations from that period, the only one that remains intact is the Touch ID sensor on the power button. The rest of the changes are just a bad memory. So now what?