A federal judge in the state of California (USA) has provisionally approved a compensation plan proposed by Apple in connection with user complaints about butterfly keyboards. A class-action lawsuit against Apple was filed back in 2018 by users from California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York and Washington. The plaintiffs alleged that the company was well aware of a faulty keyboard mechanism used in MacBook laptops between 2015 and 2019, but withheld the details from consumers in order to continue selling the devices.

The butterfly keyboard was introduced to MacBooks, MacBook Airs, and MacBook Pros in 2015-2016, when it was claimed to provide “superior feel” and stability, as well as thinner body designs. However, soon after the launch of the first MacBooks with such a keyboard, users encountered problems with sticky keys and breakages when dust and other particles got into the mechanism. In June 2018, Apple even launched a butterfly keyboard repair program, but keyboards with the same mechanism were offered as replacements, which again led to breakdowns. The company also tried to improve the mechanism, but the failures continued. As a result, Apple abandoned this type of keyboard and returned to the scissor mechanism, the last butterfly keyboards were on MacBooks in 2020.

Apple offered its compensation plan for this lawsuit back in the middle of this year, and now it has been approved by a federal judge. The $50 million total payment will include $13.6 million attorneys’ fees, up to $2 million in legal fees and $1.4 million in administrative expenses, with the remainder distributed to the victims. The amount of the payout will depend on the number of repairs that the laptop required, and can reach $395.

Asus has introduced a new generation of business laptop ExpertBook B9, which is primarily impressive for its weight.

We are talking about a 14-inch laptop that weighs only 880 g! Asus says it’s the lightest 14-inch business laptop. It was possible to achieve such a mass thanks to the use of a magnesium alloy case and the small thickness of the device. The dimensions here are 320 x 203 x 14.9 mm.

At the same time, for some reason, Asus did not wait for the announcement of new Intel mobile processors, but installed a one-year-old Core i7-1255U in the new product. Recall that this is a 15-watt CPU with 10 cores, of which only two are large.

The 14-inch screen is characterized by Full HD resolution. It occupies 94% of the lid area. The laptop also offers 16 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD. The set of ports includes USB 3.2, a pair of Thunderbolt 4, HDMI 2.0b, as well as micro-HDMI, through which a network connector is implemented. It is important to note the lack of slots for memory cards.

The battery capacity is 66 Wh, which, according to Asus, should be enough for 16 hours of work. Other highlights include Wi-Fi 5, noise-canceling microphone technology, and an AI camera.

The laptop is already available for purchase at a price of $1,840.

The first laptop based on the GeForce RTX 40 line of graphics cards has appeared on the Web. The model is called the Asus ROG Zephyrus M16.

Judging by the photo, the new M16 looks little different from its predecessor. In particular, the same thin frames have been preserved, which not every gaming laptop can boast of. For the current model, Asus is talking about 94% display space.

The current ROG Zephyrus M16 is equipped with a Core i9-12900H CPU and offers graphics cards from RTX 3050 Ti to RTX 3080 Ti. We can expect that the new model will have approximately the same configuration, but with new CPU and GPU.

Recall that the announcement of the mobile GeForce RTX 40, as well as the Raptor Lake mobile processors, is expected at CES 2023. A laptop will probably also be presented there.