Grey Lines Mar MacBook Air Displays 288
adamengst writes "Numerous users have been complaining about grey lines that muddy the crispness of the displays of the recently updated MacBook Air. Doug McLean explains the problem in TidBITS, along with what Apple appears to be doing about it."
"Muddy the crispness"? (Score:5, Funny)
What, is this an audiophile forum now? I can only assume the lines fluff up the felty softness too.
Re:"Muddy the crispness"? (Score:5, Funny)
The problem is that these users are not conditioning their laptop displays before use. It's well known you need to play a very diverse video before any actual use so that the screen is "exercised" and ready for use. they get stiff after sitting off for a while.
Also using directional USB cables as well as cleaning the keyboard with a gold based cleaning solution will help enhance the crispness of the display.
Re:"Muddy the crispness"? (Score:5, Funny)
Also, marking around the edge of the display with a green felt-tip pen will keep all the pixels in proper alignment.
Re:"Muddy the crispness"? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:"Muddy the crispness"? (Score:5, Funny)
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I get stiff after playing my diverse videos for a while. Then my right arm gets exercised.
More you need to do (Score:2, Funny)
-Stroke the keys lightly as if to say, I love and want everyone to see me holding your hand as I walk down the street.
-Offer the CD/DVD to the machine with both hands. Don't force it in, be very gentle the first time. It needs to loosen up a little before you start inserting them more aggressively.
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>>>Don't force it in, be very gentle the first time. It needs to loosen up a little before you start inserting aggressively
Thanks you.
This is the sort of thing they don't teach in sex ed.
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Don't fall for that gold-infused keyboard cleaner bullshit. Nothing is more important than the pH of the cleaner, which should match that of the primordial seas.
If your keyboard is too acidic vowels will suffer from a lack of sensitivity, making a left circle-strafe difficult.
For this reason, I wear museum artifact restoration style cotton gloves whenever I use my keyboard, to keep my keyboard free of any possible pH imbalance.
That and a green sharpie are all you need and anyone who says otherwise is sellin
Re:"Muddy the crispness"? (Score:5, Funny)
Gold is passe now.
Platinum coated Low Oxygen titanium with iridium tips are what is needed now.
Also be sure that your Ethernet cables are of quality. http://www.usa.denon.com/ProductDetails/3429.asp# [denon.com] is the only cable that is worthwhile for any performance computing.
using a lesser cable will cause muddyness.
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OMFG, make it stop! That's a $499 shielded twisted pair cable. I'm sorry, but as far as data loss goes, I've pumped GigE and even 10GigE to the limit through ordinary, bargain basement unshielded CAT 5e and CAT 6 cables respectively with 0 data loss. Even ordinary STP cables aren't that expensive if you really need it.
These cables are ridiculous.
Re:"Muddy the crispness"? (Score:5, Informative)
Having a high-quality cable made sense in the days of Analog audio, because a poor-quality cable could distort the sound, but in this new era of Digital audio (1's and 0's) there's no longer any need. "The AK-DL1 will bring out all the nuances in digital audio reproduction" is just nonsense. The nuances come from the computer DAC chip's ability to turn 1's and 0's into sound, and that's where audiophiles should spend their money, not on a $500 gold-plated cable.
Fools and their money are easily parted.
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Re:"Muddy the crispness"? (Score:5, Insightful)
I like how at Best Buy the salespeople will tell you "We don't get commission." But I can guarantee you they get a bonus for selling the bogus "product protection service" crap. I have never seen more aggressive techniques to get you to buy the coverage. One time I was buying a $20 product, and was asked if I wanted to buy "protection" for it. Just for laughs I asked how much it would be. "$19.99 for 2 years" was the answer. I laughed in his face and told him if it broke anytime in the next 2 years, i would just come back and buy a brand new one for the same price, without the hassle of having to return the item and wait for them to decide to send me a new one. Or if in broke in 3-4 years, I would have already spent $40 on it and would have to spend another $20 to replace it. Now which plan sounds better?
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I do feel somewhat bad for the salespeople that have to ask about warranty on ever item. I just recently got a PS3 at EB and the girl had to ask me for every item if I wanted the warranty. After I declined it on the console and the first remote control I said I don't want a warranty
Re:"Muddy the crispness"? (Score:5, Funny)
The nuances come from the computer DAC chip's ability to turn 1's and 0's into sound, and that's where audiophiles should spend their money, not on a $500 gold-plated cable.
I believe you missed this particularly helpful feature:
Your 1's and 0's aren't getting anywhere without some directional markings to let them know which way they're going. Of course, Denon made a mistake by showing the directional marking (a double-sided arrow) in their product picture. Now all manner of hardware hackers will be simply using a magic marker to apply this wonderful feature to their bargain-basement cables. It won't work quite as well as the professional screen-printed version Denon provides. But then that level of quality is beyond the hardware hacker.
Re:"Muddy the crispness"? (Score:5, Funny)
>>>Thank you, Captain Obvious, for that enlightening post.
That's alright. Captain Obvious trumps Seaman Asshole.
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Well if you're trasmitting digital without any sort of error correction, say SPDIF over copper, then the quality of the cable does matter. Noise WILL cause a change in the received data, and your equipment won't know any better.
Yeah. Get back to me when you find a DATA-GRADE cable that's so crappy it can't transmit data at 1.5 Mbps. I think you'd have to fall back to doorbell wiring and get yourself some Cat 1 [hardwaregeeks.com].
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dude you're not looking closely.
it's only 4 wires! not even a full 8 wire pack. only the orange and blue pairs are in that cable.
It's the ultimate scam.
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you need all 4 pairs for gigabit ethernet.
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"OMFG, make it stop! That's a $499 shielded twisted pair cable. I'm sorry, but as far as data loss goes, I've pumped GigE and even 10GigE to the limit through ordinary, bargain basement unshielded CAT 5e and CAT 6 cables respectively with 0 data loss. Even ordinary STP cables aren't that expensive if you really need it." ...and still with a plastic tab that will inevitably snap off. Quality work(!).
Re:"Muddy the crispness"? (Score:5, Funny)
Gold is passe now.
Platinum coated Low Oxygen titanium with iridium tips are what is needed now.
Also be sure that your Ethernet cables are of quality. http://www.usa.denon.com/ProductDetails/3429.asp# [denon.com] is the only cable that is worthwhile for any performance computing.
using a lesser cable will cause muddyness.
Agreed. It is also very important to ensure you use teh uni-directional Ethernet cable properly. It uses a special extruding and annealing process to line up all the electronic data pipes properly so that you get maximum data throughput in the download direction while limiting upstream traffic within ISP limits. If you install it backwards, as one of my cow orkers did, you'll severely limit your connection speeds since you are now throttling the download speed. His connection went from 2400 baud dialup speeds to past T1 after I simply reversed the cable. Don't bother to buy any of the special oxygen blocking gels that people tout for covering the connectors to prevent corrosion and maximize conductivity. They actually are harmful - you need a little bi-metallic corrosion between the connectors to ensure a nice, tight electrical bond; that's why your speeds go up after you've warmed up the cable and let it break in. I never disconnect my Ethernet cable from my MacBook for that very reason. I always disconnect at my router and carefully wrap the cable around my MacBook for travel. I hope this helps. HAND.
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>>>If you install it backwards, as one of my cow-orkers did, you'll severely limit your connection speeds
Wow. I flipped my telephone line around this morning, and my modem speed increased from 14k to 53k! I've had my line backwards for the last twenty years. I feel so dumb. Maybe if I hadn't wasted my youth orking cows I'd have noticed this flaw earlier.
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using a lesser cable will cause muddyness
Not to be confused with warmth, of course.
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Re:"Muddy the crispness"? (Score:5, Funny)
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Too bad for her, she is not going to enjoy the benefits of mortgage bailout you gonna get :)
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There's always HP DreamColor (Score:3, Interesting)
HP came out with a new LCD display and (also in notebook form) that displays billions of colors.
This beats even apples cinelerra displays:
http://www.macobserver.com/review/2008/06/17.1.shtml [macobserver.com]
HP press release (on the notebook):
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2008/080811xa.html?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN [hp.com]
Many people don't know about it yet but it appears to be making waves..
Possibly apple is getting to comfortable with it's new marketshare.
Personally I will be looking at the displays as an alternative, when
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Actually it's more like a church revival meeting.
"WE know the truth. WE have the answer. While 'they' wander in darkness, WE have found the light! Can I get an Amen brothers?" "Amen!"
"We don't have to worry about viruses. We don't have to worry about drivers. We have the crispest displays in the industry. We have the best-built computers in the world. Am I right brothers?"
"Yes sir!"
"Praise be to Apple!"
"And the Macintosh!"
Actually this kinda reminds me circa 1990 with my Commodore Amiga. Fortunatel
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
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Step 2: Start another ad with an undergrad making fun of his computer science professor.
Step 3: Profit!?
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Step 1: Make expensive laptops with a shitty display.
Step 2: Start another ad with an undergrad making fun of his computer science professor.
Step 3: ????
Step 4: Profit!
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Smart! (Score:2)
Cool transparency effect, without any CPU cycles involved! I am not a Mac user, but this brilliant trick makes me want to... uh...
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...enjoy some solo sex?
No surprise (Score:5, Interesting)
LCD panel quality in general has been on the slide for a couple years now. Pretty much every LCD sold today has a trashy TN panel (6-bit colour and awful viewing angles), instead of mostly just the cheap ones like a couple years ago.
Re:No surprise (Score:5, Interesting)
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Your description reminds me of my old Windows 98 Compaq Presario laptop. Absolutely terrible display, because it's impossible to see the entire image at once... even just 1 degree off perpendicular and the image fades. As a result I can see either the top half or the bottom half of the screen, but not all at the same time. Junk.
IMHO they should forget LCDs and use Plasma displays instead. Almost as bright and colorful as a CRT (big and bulky but still the best display ever made; plus it can handle multi
Re:No surprise (Score:5, Informative)
It's all how you look at it (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It's all how you look at it (Score:5, Funny)
Clearly, they are speed lines to make the Mac even snappier!
Re:It's all how you look at it (Score:5, Insightful)
You, sir, are obviously not a Mac user.
"Snappier" is a term which is reserved for talking about Safari, after an update (no matter if it's faster or not).
ex: Wow, Safari 4.0 is snappier!
Re:It's all how you look at it (Score:5, Funny)
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I for one, think that a few grey lines make a display look distinguished.
True. It least their displays aren't going bald like the PC guy.
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I suspect the 20-something women of the world would disagree. Nobody wants an old machine when they can get some young stud with no grays.
Not just for the new ones... (Score:5, Informative)
I've had an intermittent graphics card problem with an '06 MacBookPro for a while now... it leads to occasional system freeze, maybe once a day, sometimes recently a lot more. One warning that a freeze may be imminent is the appearance of thin horizontal light blue lines during what appear to be block-copys of graphics (like scrolling a browser page) - freezes often come during intense operations like a Genie style minimize, but even turning all these off, the freezes still come. There are scattered [macrumors.com] reports of similar problems, mostly when new, and my experience tracks with these (more frequent when external monitor is connected, etc.)
Bottom line - I didn't pay the 15% AppleCare tax, so I'm SOL in terms of support from Apple, they haven't admitted to anything systemic, though it obviously is at least somewhat reproduceable. What I'd really like them to do is publish a kind of tech bulletin telling how to correct the problem if you have it, but I suppose that might take business away from their Genius bars (nearest one being 2 hours drive from here.)
If they wanted a reputation as a truly awesome company, they would develop and release that kind of info instead of suppressing it to affect the (false, and repugnant) air of perfection.
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The answer is to buy a new MacBook like a good consumer. Ask Steve! [today.com] He can display your captured and tormented soul perfectly on the new MacBook Air. If you can't, you just need more Apple products and probably a tattoo.
I'm trying to imagine what a Google laptop would look like. Tasteful understated text ads subliminally woven into the display, probably. Free but doesn't have a hard disk.
Re:Not just for the new ones... (Score:5, Informative)
Good news: Apple have acknowledged this as an issue and are fixing out of warranty. See http://apcmag.com/apple_acknowledges_macbook_pro_graphics_glitch_offers_fix.htm [apcmag.com] for details.
Mine's in the faulty date of manufacture range so I'm just waiting to get hit with it too. Ric
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A thousand thanks... (actually, more like 2400 thanks if I was going to replace with a similar product).
Next gut wrenching life decision, during what 6-12 week period do I wish to sacrifice access to my laptop to take advantage of this "free" repair? (just hip-shooting on the repair time, but actual experience with a MacPro repair at the local shop was longer....)
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Well, the good news is that if you actually have the repair done by Apple, you'll probably only be out a laptop for a week or two (maybe less). They overnight a shipping container to you, which then usually is overnighted back to them. Basically,
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Double bummer:
First: the free repair offer only extended for 2 years from original purchase, and I find out about it here today, 30 months after original purchase, when I have been having the problem for the last 12 months (though, actually, only really badly for the last 6 months.)
Second: I have the ATY,RadeonX1600 graphics.
No more stress over when to send the thing in for repair, though. I'm just muddling through using the MBP less and less while a $400 Dell-Vista box picks up the things it can't do, l
Re:Not just for the new ones... (Score:4, Interesting)
who the hell are you people who are constantly having hardware issues (and just put up with it)?
if my video card or sound card breaks, and there's no way to fix it, i replace it. if my system is acting strange and affecting my productivity, i troubleshoot the problem and resolve the issue, or reformat and do a fresh install when necessary. there's no reason to put up with a system that is constantly crashing or that "goes black once a week." it's not a problem with technology; it's a problem of, either having the incredibly bad luck of consistently buying defective hardware, or simply being too undiscerning when shopping for a computer.
honestly, this idea that computers can never work properly for long periods of time is incredibly misguided. in my experience the only people who resign themselves to a fate of having a computer that never functions properly are generally people who aren't very computer savvy. otherwise, it shouldn't take more than 2-3 weeks to troubleshoot a problem and get it resolved one way or another. and you shouldn't be having computer problems all the time.
heck, even the computers i have to fix at work usually stay fixed for at least 3-4 months. and only very rarely do hardware problems crop up (maybe once every 1~2 years one of the 5 computers in the office will need something replaced). and we don't even get manufacturer warranties. honestly, there's no reason to settle for a less than fully functional system. after all, you paid good money for it. so fix it yourself, or find someone who can.
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For me, it's cost-benefit. The MacBookPro is bitch-worthy because it's reaching that nuisance cost exceeding cost of replacement threshold (5 minutes per day vs cost of whatever replaces it).
Fixing the Vista box just isn't worth it at this stage, I lose about 3-5 minutes a week to its flakiness - I could spend several hours with Dell for a 50% chance that they might do something about it with a further 50% chance that whatever they do won't really work. Add to that the risk that my system setup might be
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Sorry to hear about your problems. Given your comments below, it looks like your MBP is completely effed. I would look into getting a new mobo (I don't think you can replace the GPU on those boxes) and finding a good guide (look around here [lowendmac.com]). Otherwise, sell it to an enthusiast when it dies.
I had something similar happen with an iBook G4 many moons ago, and it taught me a very important lesson: buy the damn warranty, especially with a laptop. I've done it with every laptop I've bought since then, Apple or n
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I had something similar happen with an iBook G4 many moons ago, and it taught me a very important lesson: buy the damn warranty, especially with a laptop. I've done it with every laptop I've bought since then, Apple or not, and it's absolutely worth it.
I thought so, too -- then found out it wasn't worth the paper it was printed on.
Apple overnighted me a box, which was cool. I sent my Powerbook back. They took one look at it and said that since there was physical damage (a dent from dropping it a year prior to the display failing here), and because of this, any repairs were out of warranty. Furthermore, since my problem involved the display -- most likely the backlight was burnt out -- they would charge me the cost of repairing the entire laptop -- more th
Macbook air constantly broken by design (Score:3, Interesting)
DonÂt get me wrong die macbook air has so many things done right, but I get the feeling that it was released prematurely. I am not sure how it is with the current ones.
But I have one of the first generation, and you cannot run more than 10 minutes on 60% processor load after then the speed drops significantly due to excessive heat.
Which means since I mostly use ot for development I reach this stage after a few hours of work.
I called apple about this, and the support seemed to be rather dumb regarding this issue! Searching on the net revealed that others have the same problem. I assume this is a broken by design issue, since the heathing itself might be a problem in this formfactor.
Well maybe this problem is resolved with the current generation but seeing that they now have another problem with the otherwise excellent display.
Well to sum it up, if they aluminium macbooks would have been out back then I would have opted for a macbook instead of the air, but for now I live witht it and a handful of hacks installed to make the heating/venting issues more bearable!
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You see, that's what I don't get. No offense, but was the Air really the best machine for development?
I thought it was a neat little laptop, but I avoided it specifically because of my machine needs: a programmer's rig.
Now if I wanted a small laptop that I carried around with me to do minor things then I might consider it as it looks like it might travel better, but it would be a secondary machine to my coding ri
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In my case it was, i am constantly on the road due to being in a consulting business, and dragging around something more heavy is a major pain. Add to that the OSX is pure unix, and the formfactor of the air is close to being rugged, and you get the perfect roadwarrior machine. Not everyone who has to travel a lot is a salesman, I am sort of a wandering developer :-)
Re:Macbook air constantly broken by design (Score:5, Informative)
The new aluminum Macbook is a better Macbook Air. Seriously, it is almost as sturdy, it has DVD burner, better CPU, more and easily accessible ports, and stereo speakers (although totally useless on both models).
It's not as light, but it's not much heavier either.
On the other hand, my Macbook has no heat issues, it's actually amazingly cool for normal use.
Re:Macbook air constantly broken by design (Score:4, Informative)
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Actually I still have those things installed problem is that if you push the machine towards heavy load which happens if you do development no fan control can help the machine becomes hot. But fan control programs can at least help to keep the problem at bay. :-)
The entire macbook air design is an excellent idea but broken by design, probably if I had the choice nowadays I would opt for the macbook instead, which is the better air than the air
Dithering (Score:5, Interesting)
The picture [tidbits.com] posted of the problem looks like the dithering's gone wrong and it's just showing lines rather then the usual checkerboard pattern
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This is not entirely true. For example, Apple's cinema displays are 8-bit panels.
It's also not just an Apple thing; if you buy a computer from absolutely anyone, and don't go out of your way to make sure you're getting an expensive monitor, you'll end up with a 6-bit panel. Most people don't care. Gamers even prefer 6-bit panels, because they have better black levels and faster response times.
After careful study..... (Score:3, Informative)
However, I do notice that it takes longer to find wireless networks than my old PowerBook used to. Not sure why this is.
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Quit Complaining! (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, such behaviour would bother me... (Score:3, Interesting)
...considering I now use LCD wherever a visual display unit is required, I'm very fussy about the flaws I allow. I sent some Samsung panels back and had them replaced because two of them had ghost patches. One had a bug (a real bug!) sandwiched in between the LCD layer and the backplane. Yet another had a partially detached backplane (which resulted in uneven lighting). No good to me at all. I can deal with one or two hot or dead pixels, unless it's on a panel I use to do serious work on (read: graphics-intensive stuff) where the panel has to be pixel perfect and the backlight has to be even and of the right colour temperature. As for Apple's not very new problems: yes, their panel quality has suffered a huge amount over the years. I have a G3 Lombard with a perfect panel (no hot/dead pixels and the light is even), and a G4 iBook with a panel which has dark corners and four hot pixels right in the middle of the panel. Not hugely offputting unless I try and watch a DVD... and now the Airs have panel problems? Hardly surprising... tho don't try and pick one up by the top edge of the screen, I heard of a guy who couldn't wait to get home from the Apple dealer over here and took his MBA out of the box as he left the shop... snapped the notebook in half. ...sort of put me off from buying one...
This effect has been explained in C't recently (Score:5, Informative)
The article is in German and not freely available online, so I'll summarize it: The problem is in the display electronics. To prevent the liquid crystals from polarizing themselves (sort of a burn in effect), the polarity of the voltage is reversed after each frame. If the center voltage is not exactly between the low and high voltage, then the pixel is brighter or darker, depending on the current polarity of the control voltage. The display drives the lines with alternating polarity, so this deviation causes an alternating pattern of slightly darker and slightly lighter lines.
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It appears to be a calibration issue. Here is press release about a chip which obviates manual calibration: http://www.electronicspecifier.com/Industry-News/VCom-calibrator-reduces-manufacturing-costs-in-TFTLCDs.asp [electronicspecifier.com]
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The anti-glare coating idea is bollocks I think, because if it's a coating it would wear out
another 'blog' advertising via slashdot... (Score:5, Informative)
submitted by somebody at a blog, a vague summary about a 'story' at... that same blog!
Maybe it's not a blog - sure reads like one.
"Numerous users have been complaining about grey lines that muddy the crispness of the displays of the recently updated MacBook Air."
That line in the summary -is- the 'story'.
"Doug McLean explains the problem in [the advertised blog]"
No he doesn't. He just recaps what the supposed problem would be in some detail with an example image. Kudos for the image, but there's no explanation of the problem - what causes it, why it's only apparently in late 2008 models, etc. etc. you know.. explanation - whatsoever. There's wild guessing as to what's causing it...
"Theories about the lines are scant, but the main ones attribute them to the new anti-glare coating or the new Nvidia graphic chips. Many users seem suspicious, though hopeful, that a firmware update will resolve the problem."
But that alone should make you quirk an eyebrow... I do hope those 'many users' are on the side of 'the new Nvidia graphic chips [are the cause]", as I've got no hope whatsoever for those who think that a firmware update would fix an anti-glare coating.
"along with what Apple appears to be doing about it."
Well I guess including that information in the summary would mean even less people would click on the 'story', but the answer is "we don't know". As usual, with Apple, I know, but from the 'story'...
1. "Apple has issued no official statement on the matter"
2. "we hope Apple [...] takes [...] steps to resolve it"
i.e. "we don't know what Apple appears to be doing about it"
What Grey Lines? (Score:2)
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Double Standard. (Score:2)
I am wondering if we are giving Apple a double standard here. I think right now the MacBook Air is the only Ultra lightweight and Thin laptop that performs as well as a Mid to upper mid level PC. These lines while an issue, the question is do other laptops that use these displays have the same problem.
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I am wondering if we are giving Apple a double standard here. I think right now the MacBook Air is the only Ultra lightweight and Thin laptop that performs as well as a Mid to upper mid level PC.
Better replace that with it performs as well as an upper to mid level pc until the thing becomes warm then the processor is powered down to reduce heat...
Which appens always if you give it more load!
Premium laptop? (Score:3, Insightful)
[...] and result in a disappointing display, particularly for a premium laptop.
Since when is the MacBook Air a premium laptop? It sure has a premium price. And it looks stylish. But that's it. ;) (Apple fans, stay with me! :)
You know what else is like that? An expensive whore "girlfriend".
I think Apple has done some cool things. But this (or the iPhone) is not one of them.
The 18 bit display was the first hint.
It's more a EEE PC concurrent. Which means that it's useless for real full use, because of its slowness and lack of features (one example being Firewire).
This is fully ok, if the laptop is really cheap. Unfortunately, that's where the MacBook Air fails. It's not cheap. It's really expensive (compared to the real market. Not to other overprices Apple products.)
I really wonder, how cool Apple's products would be, if they had concurrency in their own domain. If for example MacOS XI would have a HAL that would allow other companys to do the same with their systems. They would have to look good and have more features to have a chance, so Apple would have to add even more, thereby lowering the price to a realistic market level.
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You're really comparing the MacBook air to an EEE PC? The MacBook air has a large display and a full-size keyboard, if nothing else.
What Apple appears to be doing about it (Score:2)
What Apple appears to be doing about it [yodaslair.com]
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Ok, I get to ask this question now: WTF does this "pants" meme means?
Re:tag: appleispants (Score:5, Informative)
Re:tag: appleispants (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:tag: appleispants (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, you have that precisely backwards.
in American English: Pants = Trousers or Slacks
in British English: Pants = Underpants. It's also where the word "panties" (aka: women's underwear) comes from.
So in America, "Underpants" became "Underwear". In Britain, "Underpants" became "pants"
In Soviet Russia.... well, I have no idea what they call their underclothes, but I'm sure it has something to do with the underclothes wearing YOU. Or something like that.
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In Soviet Russia.... well, I have no idea what they call their underclothes, but I'm sure it has something to do with the underclothes wearing YOU. Or something like that.
This is "trusiki" or "trusary" for you. And sometimes they do end up wearing you.
Re:tag: appleispants (Score:5, Interesting)
After WWII, Russia ended up with tons of German clothes as part of the spoils of war. Not being familiar with the styles of clothing worn in Germany, many women were seen using German undergarments as evening gowns. (e.g. going to the Opera, a ball, or a fancy party) For the most part no one noticed the difference, but those that were more familiar with German life were amused to no end.
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If someone was referring to the garments I wear under my 'pants', that would be 'underwear'. So, saying something is 'pants' doesn't make any sense to an American. As the parent to your post said, pants = trousers. You're going right back
Re:tag: appleispants (Score:5, Funny)
In California it means an evil baseball team.
Re:tag: appleispants (Score:5, Funny)
Note this only makes sense in English. In American, the phrase means 'x is trousers,' which is quite nonsensical.
Nope, it's not English versus American. You're thinking of British versus American. In the English dialect, the correct phrase would be "jolly bad show, old chap" or the alternate form "cor blimey, guv'nor, one is not amused".
Re:tag: appleispants (Score:5, Funny)
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In American, the phrase means 'x is trousers,' which is quite nonsensical.
Is it any more nonsensical than British peoples' apparent distaste for undergarments?
Re:tag: appleispants (Score:5, Funny)
And "x is rubbish" is a British phrase meaning "x sucks".
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x is rubbish
I disagree. I don't think that OS X is rubbish at all.
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The X Windows Disaster!
ajax has declared on the list that Xorg development involves lipstick on pigs. (Obviously Sarah Palin [today.com] is one of the XFree86 recalcitrants.)
Some of the stuff Xorg does is truly frightening. e.g. you know how it tries to autoconfigure as much as possible, so you won't need an xorg.conf? It does that by poking and prodding at the video card iteratively trying to reverse-engineer what the heck it is ... it works, but "elegant"'s not in it.
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Re:Not fair (Score:5, Funny)
You PC-using commoners just don't understand good design ascetics.
Some days, there just aren't enough words ...
Re:Suprise... (Score:5, Interesting)
I agree. My MacBook Pro has a really crappy display for such an expensive laptop IMO. From whichever angle I look at it, I never see the whole screen in the same brightness.