Ooof… Maybe Intel is infecting these things with some latent Windows virii because everyone we know is having MacBook troubles. Take the famed Dave Winer, por ejemplo:
I continue to have problems with all three of my Macs. The new black MacBook shuts down on its own in the middle of my work. The original G4 laptop is still blue-screening, and my dual CPU desktop G4 is blue-screening more frequently (on average once a day). I’m seriously thinking about shopping for a new computer, a Windows machine, fed up with the awful Mac hardware. In the meantime I’m using the old Sony Vaio as my mobile computer. The software isn’t as nice as the Mac, and the screen is much harder on my old eyes, but, knock wood, it works and the Macs don’t. Permanent link to this item in the archive.
He’s going Sony, people. This is serious. Steve? Wake up! Steve!
Guys like Dave crack me up. They complain just to complain. I don’t doubt he is having problems with his computers. I do doubt that he has gone through all the troubleshooting steps to track down the problems. Blaming the problem on Apple is just like a guy complaining about his car not working even though he has never changed the oil or done any maintenance. It is the manufactures fault.
He just likes to push peoples buttons. Wipe the drive install everything from scratch and start over. Have third party ram? Is that Apple’s fault? Running 50 programs at once? Must be Apple’s fault. Computers aren’t where they need to be for people like Dave and I. We do run dozens of apps and try out all kinds of new software. The other 90% of the world doesn’t work this way. Sorry about the rant.
Greg
I have to disagree with you Greg. I own PCs and Macs and love both. I had several problems with my G4 Powerbook where the backlight for my monitor malfunctioned.
I also just purchased a new MacBook and there is a known error of failing optical drives and auto shutdown/reboot/bars on the screen. My MacBook was in repair for 2 weeks!
Boo on intel..for now..apple should’ve went AMD!
“Curmudgeon Gripes! News at 11!”
Dave’s the center of his own universe and anything that doesn’t correspond to exactly his Almighty Will is clearly suspect and part of the Vast Conspiracy to Screw Dave Winer Out of His Fame and Glory.
One of his arch-nemeses, Mark “Dive Into Trendy” Pilgrim, threw a similar tantrum a while back. Apparently, once you rise high enough in the “blogosphere,” you acquire Jetson’s Myopia and forget that technology breaks even for the Godz 2.0 crowd and that there really isn’t a vast ecosphere of machinery grinding away to keep you and just you happy.
I really don’t think intel is the reason for Apple’s quality issues, as for as long as I can remember problems have always been common on Mac models.
I have a MacBook right now and love it, though it did come with that annoying mooing issue, that Apple “fixed” by telling the fans to run all the time with a firmware update. also got two dead pixels which annoyed the crap out of me, even though I know they are common, just weird since I have a 4 year old cheap Dell LCD that doesn’t have any
One guy going Sony is hardly serious, or reason enough to be personally summoning Apple’s CEO to take action. Take it easy there TechCrunch.
I ordered a MacBook Pro the day they were announced so I got the early EARLY versions. I have used it at least 15 hours/day in a variety of locations … I’m not easy on my computers. With the exception of a funky battery which was replaced, I had NO problems at all with the computer. It is one of the most reliable pieces of equipment I own.
I’ve just got my iMac back from the shop - busted power supply. That along with the busted iPod which were both in the in-famous 13 month period. I love the macs (my gen 2 ipod and 12″ powerbook are still going strong) but I do think they have been having quality issues in the last year or so. I know heaps of people who have busted ipods and ibooks.
He’s not along. The first intel Macbook that I bought had a faulty logic board. The laptop would come to full charge in 15 minutes after plugging in. I thought, wow, that’s kind of cool. I should have known it’s not quite possible to charge a notebook battery that fast.
At any rate, I used the Macbookf or about 10 days when it began to randomly power off. Plugged in or not, it just kept on doing so. It got so bad that the Macbook could not even complete the boot process.
Since this is a stock Macbook, with stock software, I took it into the Apple store. The genius immediately knew it was logic board problem. There was no way to repair it except for replacing the board. Since I had brought the laptop in on the 14th day (no restocking fee), I was able to swap for a brand new stock Macbook without much problems.
The new stock Macbook runs fine now. The batteries take a number of ours to recharge, which is in par with what I knew of PC laptops.
This was quite an experience for my first exposure to the Mac.
My Macbook moo’d . The firmware fixed it. Then it started randomly shutting down. Sort it out Steve! Something has gone wrong with quality control somewhere. My old powerbook had no problems at all…
I have a Macbook, and have no issues at all. This post is silly and clearly an intent to rouse the mac cult at the expense of attracting eyeballs.
What are you going to post next - Jessica broke up with Nick updates? Or will it positive posts for your advertisers?
I’ve actually been having some problems with the latest Tiger updates - poor USB handling, crashes, etc. so I’m with Dave on this. Something is rotten in Cupertino.
I also got my MacBook pretty soon after it came out. Got a new battery. Other than that, no problem. Frankly, I doubt Apple is having worse quality issues than other manufacturer (such as Dell or Sony). It’s just that many Mac users tend to expect perfection and then go on to complain on their blog and on everyone else’s blog. I don’t blame them. It’s just something to keep in mind.
And yeah, the plural of anecdote is not data. Just because your last three Macs died right in the first week of using them (or whatever) doesn’t mean that Apple has quality issues. Could just mean that you had bad luck. Somebody has got to be the one who gets three lemons in a row, I’m just glad it wasn’t me :-)
I’ve been experiencing the same problems..
http://paulstamatiou.com/2006/09/04/yay-my-macbook-randomly-shuts-down/