New Macbook special feature: the QWERTZ keyboard

lol – not eyactlx what you’d eypect!

bloodz hell.

Not verz good. Not verz good at all.

But at least it looks like the z=y, y=z transpositions are catching on quick! Prettz soon zebra will be yebra, yellow’ll be zellow and we’ll all be laughing at just how old-fashioned ‘qwerty’ was anzwaz …

Hope they fix it!

lol eycept on my mac it seems maybe the x is broken too

I think that’s why I caution against buying version 1.0 of anything

Or maybe you could just learn to blog in German?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTZ

Looks like all the gags have been taken so….

no, can’t do it

I’m glad you’re all so amused!

Interesting about that German keyboard. A few people pointed that out on Twitter too. But this isn’t a modified QWERTZ keyboard sent to me in error, as the keys still type the expected letters (strike the X key, where the Z key usually is, and you get a Z).

I was tempted to keep it for a while, just for the sheer quirkiness. But you don’t pay over £1000 for something to be wrong.

So I got on the blower. Applecare were less than helpful, and Apple Regent Street can’t offer a repairs appointment for at least 3 days because they’re fully booked and their “system” doesn’t schedule further than 3 days away (and apparently you *have* to have an appointment, and even then they can’t swap an item that was bought from the online store…)

But next I called the online store and they are sending a new one, and collecting the dud one – simultaneously. Much more like the service you’d expect from Apple. Even so, I am Macbookless until about a week on Friday. Grrrr.

Apart from the keyboard problem and this frustrating delay, it’s a gorgeous machine. The new glassy trackpad feels very intuitive.

I’ve experienced that before from Apple – I did manage to get a replacement eventually though because as far as I understand it doesn’t matter whether you buy it online or offline if you take it to the official Apple retail store they legally have to either provide refund or replacement. The only thing you can’t get past is that in the stores they only have standard models so if you ordered extra memory etc. they can play the ‘we don’t have those in stock’ card – otherwise I’m pretty sure legally you can insist on an immediate replacement or refund at the store.

[...] WTFZ? from: Mission Creep | Neil Williams [...]

Epic fail, this is german keyboard layout.

Pah: I think you just need to get into the swing of Apple hardware. It’s lovely but it has its quirks.

Keyboard layout is entirely software controlled and pretty much always has been: you can switch between UK and US English, Polish or Kanji whenever you want: whatever it says on the keys. I had a lovely PowerBook G3 imported from the US which had the # and £ signs transposed – but still worked very nicely. How often do you look at the keys, anyway?

Wait till you get some dead pixels, overheating CPU, fading wifi reception or cranky hard disk: then you’ll have something to complain about!

Oh NOW you tell me.

are you too lazy or to stupid to switch two keys?
I agree that its a shame that this happens and its a shame how the customer service reacted.

But hey, it can be done in less than a minute so stop complaining, its your own fault to be so stupid to bring it to customer service instead of switching two keys by yourself.
As said, the right keyboard layout is just three clicks away.

Oh and by the way are you sure you know which keys are switched at first you write Over the Laxy Dog? so I guess somethings wrong with z and y then you write the z is switched with Y as it is normal with a german layout and then I see that you seem to think you have a qwertX layout when looking at the url of this blog.
Are you sure you know what your Problem is or did you just found a german Mac pic at Google and wondered about the layout?

*sigh*. I shouldn’t rise to this nonsense, but… I wrote the blog post in a hurry in the 10 mins I could find between putting my son to bed and eating my tea, without the picture in front of me. Yes I have muddled the Z and X (now edited). I am not familiar enough with Mac hardware to start taking a new ‘Brick’ machined Macbook to bits. And in answer to your main question, I am stupid AND lazy. Who isn’t?

thats Jens from Apple Customer Service

[...] What’s wrong with Neil’s new MacBook? [...]

All’s well that ends well, by the way. I have been using my Macbook for a week as of today (came much quicker than Jens and friends’ projection). It’s the 8th wonder of the world, I am a born agan Mac evangelist.

Congrats on owning your very own macbook! I know I was excited when i first received my macbook. How do you enjoy your Qwertz keyword? Did you get a good deal on it? In any case the look pays for itself =)

its a german laptop.

most of the keys on those are the same as a us keyboard, the strangest switch is the yz one. try changing your input mode to german and you’ll see.