8 Months After a Surge of Complaints, Apple Announces a Repair Program For Its Flawed MacBooks and MacBook Pros (theoutline.com) 127
Casey Johnston, writing for The Outline: At long last, Apple admitted to its customers that its MacBook and MacBook Pro keyboard designs are so flawed and prone to sticking or dead keys, as originally reported by The Outline in October, and that it will cover the cost of repairs beyond the products' normal warranty. The admission comes after the company has been hit with no fewer than three class action lawsuits concerning the computers and their ultra-thin butterfly-switch keyboards. While the repair and replacement program covers costs and notes that Apple will repair both single keys as well as whole keyboards when necessary, it doesn't note whether the replacements will be a different, improved design that will prevent the problem from happening again (and again, and again).
Re: Refunds? (Score:1)
I have had a 2016 MBP and a 2017 MBP. I've read a ton about the keyboard issue and haven't experienced it at all. I use my laptop outdoors on job sites a lot, and when I fly a DSLR drone I get dust everywhere. My MacBook Pro get high usage and high mileage. I'm not sure if it's a defective batch or something, but surely it isn't a design problem. Not every one has the issue?
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Dust is absolutely the issue. Dust gets under the keys. Apple's previous recommendation to "fix" the problem was to hold the laptop at a 75 degree angle and blow air into it [apple.com].
Re: Refunds? (Score:4, Funny)
I am an astronaut and I use my 2017 MBP in outer space, where no one can hear you scream. I also have not experienced the problem even though I have been using the 2017 MBP for five years now and it gets high mileage (literally, since I'm in orbit around Earth at a speed of roughly 17,150 miles per hour).
Re: Refunds? (Score:1)
I am just trying to figure out the utility of a single lens reflex mechanism on a drone. I figure it must just be marketing jargon, acronym goo that people who preen over their appearance gobble up off sales brochures. The kind of stuff that people who always have the latest Apple gear concern themselves with.
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I am just trying to figure out the utility of a single lens reflex mechanism on a drone.
How about not all cameras and lenses are created equal?
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Yeah, but why would you need the reflex mirror and viewfinder if it's on a drone? Perhaps something like a Sony with an electronic viewfinder would be just fine, without the additional mechanical complexity and weight for something you're not using. Good interchangeable lenses don't necessarily require a reflex mirror.
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But what is the single lens reflex viewfinder component on the drone for? It sounds more like a 'buzzword' for 'more expensive camera price' to me. It sounds like there isn't a viewfinder at all on the drone. DSLR on regular cameras usually just means 'changeable lenses' and a higher price.
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Will we ever get real macbooks ever again (Score:2, Informative)
Re: Will we ever get real macbooks ever again (Score:1)
The A1278 is quite possibly the best computer model ever made. Over a decade on and there has never been a PC laptop with a touchpad anywhere close.
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That's because Apple bought out the company that made the touchpads. PC users had to live with the crappy ones from Synaptics.
Synaptics touchpads aren't bad, as long as they retain the physical buttons. The ones with the virtual button zones are invariably crap, but Synaptics does have a pretty good feature set. They can be set to emulate most of the multitouch gestures of the Macbooks, or they can be set to turn all of that off. My favorite feature of theirs is Chiral scrolling, that allows an edge scroll to be performed infinitely by using a circular motion once the top/bottom edge is reached.
If you want the textbook definition
Re:Will we ever get real macbooks ever again (Score:5, Funny)
Ah, yes... The Macbook Bro, I remember it fondly.
Nearest Approximation (Score:2)
Will we ever get real macbooks ever again
No, sadly the nearest you can get now is a Dell or MS Surface Book in a tartan case.
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Re:Will we ever get real macbooks ever again (Score:4, Informative)
Spoken like someone who never owned an Aluminum-era laptop. I had one PPC and two Intel of those, all 17", so I know all about them. Those cases were shit, they came loose internally, and the worst part was when the optical drive would go out of line with the slot, you would have to take it apart to remove the disk. The metal surface in front of the keyboard reacted badly with the skin oils in my palm and pitted like crazy. The latch was weak and would barely hold the lid shut. One of them I took in to be repaired when the screen freaked out few months before the warranty expired, they replaced it with a full HD screen (obviously having run out of the regular screens), and even replaced the keyboard. And that replacement screen developed a bad column.
The best were from 2010-2012, at the end of the optical drive Unibody era, I'm still using one of those, and have spares set aside.
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I had one of these too. Most expensive laptop I ever paid for on my own. Beautiful computer
Also a consistent stream of varied malfunctions. Most of the problems stemmed from the way it was built and the way that all the screws would slowly wiggle their way out as the machine flexed this way and that. Most problems went away after I started regularly tightening it's aesthetically pleasing screws. But the remaining problems were varied in causes. Not only that but there were several other reported commo
Freakin' Eye Candy (Score:1)
but...
Apple has seriously fucked up priorities. I have never liked their eye-candy. Hating the keyboard seems to make the eye-candy worse.
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I had the same models, well, still have the intel one, and had no single problem with them.
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Ditto. Even 2008 worked decently. I wished Apple still sold these as new. :(
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Unlike steel, aluminum cracks with repeated flexing over time, and is totally unsuitable for laptop cases. Plastic, contrary to popular belief, is way better (as long as you use a high quality plastic).
Life cycle of a modern Apple product (Score:5, Insightful)
2) A few owners start complaining about a defect in the product. Other owners tell those owners to shut up and stop drinking the Hatorade or buy a Windoze product instead.
3) The owners who told the original owners to shut up start complaining about the defect themselves.
4) Apple tells owners there's nothing wrong with the product and that they must be using it wrong
5) Apple releases instructions on how to owners can avoid the defect by buying a piece of plastic or an air blower
6) More owners complain about the defect. Apple goes silent.
7) A class-action lawsuit is announced
8) More class-action lawsuits are announced
9) Apple announces they a very few number of products are affected by a defect and will be fixed by Apple on a per-case basis
Re: Life cycle of a modern Apple product (Score:1)
Above all, Bring it to the Apple Store for our geniuses to look at. Do not show it to any technically adept person who is not an Apple employee.
Re:Life cycle of a modern Apple product (Score:5, Funny)
you forget 10) all apple zealots rejoice and claim how amazing apple service is.
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And last: they 'fix' the machine by replacing a part with the exact same design part, which will fail again.
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Hardware issues and out-of-warranty defects are hardly unique to Apple, but what is unique is the premium Apple charges for their products, along with the giant hoards of cash. Yet the Apple myth of quality hardware or treating their customers right persists for those in the Reality Distortion Field.
In a phrase, "You're holding it wrong."
Flawed equipment!!! (Score:2, Insightful)
So much for Apple's so called "best design" in the business.
You sometimes wonder whether technology writers are in Apple's pockets.
The question is: Have they all drank Apple's KoolAid?
Re:Flawed equipment!!! (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd like to believe that someone at Apple learns from this debacle, and makes some significant design changes to the next generation of professional laptops. But I'm not hopeful. The latest generation of MacBook Pros has gone so far off the track that I continue to use my mid-2012 model despite the fact that I am very much in need of an upgrade just due to normal wear-and-tear.
I'd love to see the return of a professional Apple laptop with user-upgradable SSD and DRAM, a decent keyboard, a MagSafe power connector, and more ports than just USB-C. But the people in charge at Apple simply don't think that way any more. To them, appearance trumps every rational design decision.
If Google as a corporation didn't suffer from Attention Deficit Disorder, they might be able to focus long enough to build a decent laptop with a UNIX-style OS, and grab marketshare (and mindshare) away from Apple with working professionals. But as it is, Apple (as bad as they have become) have no real competition. Until they do, or until there's a change of upper management at Apple, I have little hope that the situation will improve.
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I'd love to see the return of a professional Apple laptop with user-upgradable SSD and DRAM, a decent keyboard, a MagSafe power connector, and more ports than just USB-C.
But how are they supposed to make it 3 mm thick if they do that??
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To them, appearance trumps every rational design decision.
And even there they fail, the only thing that somewhat looks good on the recent Mac models are the colours of the casing.
When I have more time I will dig into HacIntoshs (with touch screen) or running a OS X/macOS VM on a decent linux box.
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I'd like to believe that someone at Apple learns from this debacle, and makes some significant design changes to the next generation of professional laptops.
What has Apple got to do with "professional laptops"?
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Apple seems to have a history of not properly testing new hardware under realistic conditions.
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The question is: Have they all drank Apple's KoolAid?
Can we refer to that as Apple Juice?
It is a great design - except for the keyboard (Score:2)
The new laptops are actually really well designed, hardware wise. The storage is great, the screen is great, the hardware itself is really durable... but the keyboard is just too sensitive to small particles which are sadly all to much a factor in everyones laptop life.
Supposedly the 2017 keyboards improved on that aspect, though I'm not sure how much. At this point though enough people are wary of the keyboards that Apple has to make some significant change there, maybe this program is a first step that m
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Link to Apple support page (Score:4, Informative)
Keyboard Service Program for MacBook and MacBook Pro
https://www.apple.com/support/keyboard-service-program-for-macbook-and-macbook-pro/ [apple.com]
oh my (Score:2)
My experience with Apple products (Score:2)
As somebody who only ever builds their laptops it h
Still very inconvienent (Score:2)
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Are MacBooks even worth Apple's while? (Score:2)
I bet Apple halfway wishes they could just do away with laptops and desktops. The real money is in the phones.
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that's why every one of their products is transforming to a phone-like device but with bigger screen and a physical keyboard.
Not just a wish (Score:2)
I bet Apple halfway wishes they could just do away with laptops and desktops.
It's not just a wish, it is effectively what they are doing! The Mac Pro model they sell as new is now 4-5 years old and the mac mini has half the computing power of a laptop and their laptops are slowly morphing into tablets having already lost the function keys and all but one port.
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Well, the Mac Pro and Mac MIni are Apple's worst selling Macs. Apple invests as much R&D into a product as they make from the product - thus low s
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You get (Score:1)
what you pay for.
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You will get a new defective keyboard (Score:2)
Apple needs more class action lawsuits (Score:3)
We shouldn't allow Apple to get away with this shit. Just cause they *finally* introduce a repair program, doesn't negate all the hell people have had to go through. Those class action lawsuits should continue on. And the lawsuits need to stop being so stupidly toothless. If Apple doesn't get hit with a bill that's at least 5 billion, they will just treat these as the cost of doing business.
IMO Apple doesn't face enough class actions considering how breathtakingly shit their entire product lineup has become. It's very frustrating how their hardware used to be absolutely second to none, and justified their premium, but in the last decade or so they've turned into nothing but a train wreck running on momentum.
I'm so livid with the entire computer industry today. Your choices are: Buy Apple and pay extra for shit, gimmicky hardware, buy Microsoft and get ok hardware but an OS so offensively managed that your machine can stop working through no fault of your own, or buy Google and have a spy camera shoved up your ass. (Or get Linux and be prepared to put your sysadmin hat to perform an operation that every other OS has been able to handle easily for the past 2 decades)
There are literally NO good options today. It's really depressing.
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Good options, hardware:
* Thinkpad X-series.
Software:
* Windows 7 -- easy enough to get a license.
* Ubuntu -- runs (mostly) without needing sysadmin skills.
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It's very frustrating how their hardware used to be absolutely second to none
Did it though? How far back are we talking?
If we only consider the modern 2nd coming of Job era then the old CRT iMacs had a flaw that could get a CD stuck in them, requiring disassembly to remove. I seem to recall they were a bit marginal on the cooling too. First gen iPods had terrible screens, right up until the colour one really, and of course started the glued in non-replaceable 18 month battery trend.
Hinges, overheating, electrical problems, wireless problems, bad design... Apple products have always
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IMO, around the mid-late 2000s when they first moved to intel and commoditized hardware, was peak Apple.
Sure, there were issues, but by and large the sum of their parts was excellent. Their prices had only a relatively tiny margin compared to identically speced other laptops (couple hundred at worst). They were also easily repairable. They supported the majority of important ports at the time, with the exception of their video dongles. Also, their peripherals were crap but you didn't necessarily have to
I ike Myy MacBok (Score:1)
Now, for a quick "My two cents worth."
They keys ae (<--- REALL MISS) too close together. That means if you miss one, even slightly, you are going to type something lile thjis.
They sometimes miss characters. That means that I have to pay close attention to my touch typing or I will make an error.
It randomly repeats characters.
The touch pad is too close to the keyboard, which increases err
Translation (Score:2)
Their lawyers determined they would lose all the class action lawsuits and this is the cheapest option.
Will it happen again? (Score:2)
While the repair and replacement program covers costs and notes that Apple will repair both single keys as well as whole keyboards when necessary, it doesn't note whether the replacements will be a different, improved design that will prevent the problem from happening again
If Apple covers the cost, it would be a stupid idea from them to make partial fixes that will break again, and cost them again.
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It's a trap!