Apple Acknowledges 15" PowerBook Spots

zachlipton writes "Computerworld is running an interesting interview with Dave Russell, director of product marketing for portables and wireless at Apple. Russell comments on the white spot issues that have plagued the new 15" PowerBooks (Apple has been very responsive about fixing mine at least) and he has this to say about a G5 PowerBook: 'We certainly want to do that, but it's going to be a while.' Russell also comments on a lot of other ideas related to the PowerBook and iBook lines."

Comments

Capturing the elusive Spotted PowerBook

[danielsfca2]

> the company is aware of the white blemishes on some new 15-in. screens, but hasn't yet "captured" enough of the computers to figure out why the spots are appearing.

Funny choice of words. I can't help but picture a herd of beautiful wild PowerBooks, running free across the plain.

(it's a Daria reference.)

Easy way to check

[awtbfb]

1. Close/hide all open windows.
2. Control-click (or right click) on the desktop and select Change Desktop Background.
3. Change desktop to "Solid White" in the Solid Colors collection. It's the nearly invisible one to the far right.
4. Minimize System Preferences window and look for spots. Mine are along the vertical and horizontal centerlines of the screen.

And yes, my screen will be swapped out shortly under warranty.

Re:Easy way to check

[nullard]

More simply:

1. Open TextEdit.
2. Expand the window to fill the screen.
3. There is no step 3.

Excellent Test for 'the Spots'

[teamhasnoi]

PiXel Check. Fills your whole screen with Red, Blue, Green, White, and Black. Play with the brightness some and it's the best way I've found to see if my white spots are getting bigger (I'm lucky I guess, mine aren't that noticable...yet. I have two on the lower left.)

I'll be waiting to see if they get bigger, as I have a screen with no dead/stuck pixels and I don't want to tempt fate and/or be without my powerbook for some unknown amount of time.

Re: "G5 PowerBooks coming soon..."

[0x69]

Two independent lines of logic strongly suggest that the G5 PowerBook ain't coming any time soon:

- Apple just updated the PowerBooks. History says that they are very unlikely to update 'em again quick. (See MacRumor.com's Buyer's Guide page for dates of past revisions.)

- There is no G5 Xserve yet. If Apple can't get a G5 working within the Xserve's size/power/noise limits (with sales doubtless in the pits as folks wait for G5), then they're likely a *long* way from doing G5 within the PowerBook's (far tighter) limits.