Macintosh Tidbits
Wireless keyboard squeaking — comical cause
Apple's new 2018 Mac product "Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad" was a welcome
addition to the Mac offerings, as it provided full-size arrow and Escape keys
in a wireless keyboard.
I started using it regularly.
After a while, however, I was hearing a squeaking-creaking noise whenever I
pressed the arrow keys. Were they, like, drying out inside or exhibiting wear?
I finally realized the cause of the noise:
I have a Magic Keypad 2, placed naturally to the right of the keyboard, right up
against the keyboard. Both have aluminum frames.
What was happening is that aluminum was rubbing up against aluminum and
generating that noise.
Why would that happen only when I pressed the arrow keys?
If you pick up that Magic Keyboard and sight down the length of its bottom edge,
you will notice that it is not flat: it bows upward at the ends.
I don't know if this is a production defect or that way by design.
The slight curve means that the right edge is "up in the air" by about a millimeter.
With that, when you press on a key toward that right end, the whole keyboard end
goes down slightly. That results in the rubbing with the adjacent Magic Trackpad.
So, either leave a tiny gap between the keyboard and trackpad, or peraps wax the
two abutting edges.
Note: As of later 2018, the keyboard and trackpad are available in space gray color, as
complements the new Mac Pro computers.
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