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Heat, Whine, and Now Yellow MacBooks
unPlugged-2.0 writes "It appears that Apple's woes with the new MacBook line continue as there have been reports on the forum that the finish on the new MacBook is flaking off or turning yellow.
An article on Daily Tech
summarizes this report saying:
'Some users have reported the palm rest area, touchpad and mousepad of their new white MacBooks has begun to discolor.' It goes on to say that 'some users on the Apple support forums are reporting moderate to severe discoloration near the palm rest and other locations of their new white MacBooks. At least one user has posted images of the problem to Flickr.'
Is this a case of just dirty hands or could it be another problem in Apple's new Intel saga?"
do these people smoke? Nicotine will stain white appliances.
Everytime someone says 'who cares what it looks like' Steve Jobs dies a little bit.
Seriously, though, this is a company that has made it's living on how things look. When they tried to put out standard PC-looking beige boxes, their sales went into the toilet. If it isn't pretty, it can't be an Apple product.
Just wash your freakin hands, people!
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And if your brand new car starts to discolor after a couple of weeks? Still gets you from A to B, right?
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Which is the philosophy of most IBM PC users. If it works, it doesn't need to be pretty.
However most Mac users are, by definition, more concerned about appearance than their PC counterparts. Apple products are supposed to be shiney. If the Mac in question is as aesthetically shoddy as most clone PCs, then why would you drop the extra money on it?
Of course, stingy PC-using heathen that I am, I don't see why you'd pay extra for a pretty interface and decorative casing in the first place, but that's beside the point.
From the summary: "Is this a case of just dirty hands or could it be another problem in Apple's new Intel saga?" Other than the computers in question having "Intel Inside," how does this relate to Intel? Then again, aren't Intel processors known for causing case discoloration? Apple should've known and used AMD instead. . .
I'm surprised that no-one's suggested the most obvious solution - clear film.
Just buy some Contact or some other sort of plastic clear film, cut it to shape - wrist area, trackpad, trackpad button, maybe even the keys too if you like - and thoroughly clean the surface where you're going to apply it, then stick the clear film there.
What's Contact cost these days? $2 a roll?
That should stop the oil and sweat screwing with the finish, and if you apply it to the keys too, it'll stop that fading that may happen to the letters as well - like my keyboard at the moment with missing A, S, D, E, and other letters faded visibly.
Te Quiero, Puta!
Which is the philosophy of most IBM PC users. If it works, it doesn't need to be pretty.
Oh I dunno. What about the popularity of windows? Does that fit the description of something that "works, but isn't pretty"?
Assuming you have two otherwise equal PC products and one has a more attractive interface, better marketing/branding, or is otherwise "prettier" than the other, which one wins in the market? Actually, I wouldn't even say that it has to be a question of equally functional products - appearance can triumph over functionality. Companies ranging from microsoft to AOL are proof of this.
I agree with most of your post, but your average PC user really isn't that different from your average mac user in this regard. It's just us hardcore geeks who care more about utility than appearance.
Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
Writing this from my not-discolored MacBook I can tell you that these are obviously idividual cases.
Let me finish one of your sentences for you.
"....this is a company that has made it's living on how things look, as well as how things work, their product reliability, and support."
I sell computers. Most pc customers are concerned with a)lowest price, b)hdd size, c)cpu speed, etc..... and still, many of them recognize what's up when shown the Apple option. Those who switch do it because of the software & support. No one has ever bought a mac from me, just because it was pretty.
As for the palm rest discoloration, it's happened on every ibook in the past. It even happens to pc notebooks. You just can't see it as well. It would be nice if Apple would abandon the white cases for notebooks altogether.
If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
I repair macs where I work. I see on average 5 ibooks per week, and just as many powerbooks. I have yet to see one of the macbooks in for service. (though I have fixed a couple pros) It's not uncommon to find an ibook with discoloration below the two palms, I see it on probably 1 in 15 ibooks. This number may be low because people clean up their computer before bringing it in.
The previous case top of the ibook was a fairly (but not completely) smooth surface and was a slightly off shade of white. It was also a very hard plastic and I suspect very chemically inert. When I do have to clean them, they are not terribly difficult to get the grime off from, though it does require some force and use of alcohol. On the ibooks its also somewhat common to see a circular area in the central region of the trackpad, colored slightly lighter than the surrounding area of the trackpad. That's caused by the less used area of the trackpad getting more grimey. Those can be a little more difficult to clean due to the texture of the trackpad. It's also possible to chip the trackpad's sensor surface if you are rough with it.
I also find that I have to clean the palm areas of my powerbook from time to time, usually about once a month as grime starts to build up under my palms and around the trackpad.
These stories about yellowing of the macbooks is somewhat of a surprise, but not really. This is not caused by heat. It's a combination of grime from the user's hands, possibly combined with a chemestry problem between the user's body oils and the plastic of the top case.
I would personally consider this a defect, since it's fairly clear that inadequate research was done by Apple to determine if there was going to be such an issue with their new case design. Also as others have pointed out, Apple makes quite a name for itself as a good looking computer, and issues like this do a lot more harm to the Apple brand than they would to say, Dell. The Apple users tend to be more demanding as to the cosmetic appearance of their computer, and react much more strongly when an issue develops.
This is not the first time a case design has been a problem. Owners of "titanium" powerbook G4s will remember the "tibook paint" issue, where the outer border of the case, a carbon fiber, had problems with the paint easily chipping off and sometimes cracking and flaking off under the user's wrists. There were also issues with watches worn on the wrist causing almost immediate removal of the paint from the CF border. To my knowledge Apple fixed their manufacturing process (new paint or primer?) but did not recall those units despite a lot of upset owners' complaints. With the tibook, the top case was the frame of the computer, onto which everything was assembled. To replace the top case of the tibook was extremely labor intensive. With the ibook, the top case is somewhat easier to replace. Not sure on the macbook. This will factor into Apple's willingness to issue a recall.
I am a former owner of such a tibook, but for me I care much less about appearance and more about performance, so it didn't bother me that much. I took a hard plastic blade and finished the job so the computer at least looked more balanced rather than have two isolated wear spots. My current computer, an "aluminum" powerbook, has to be cleaned periodically to keep the grime off the palmrests.
If the discoloration can be cleaned off with alcohol, it's probably just a grime issue. That discoloration is not the color I am used to seeing though - usually grime is very dark in color, but this appears to be a cream or light yellow. I would tend to suspect a chemical change is occurring in the plastic based on a combination of oils from the user's hands, accellerated by the heat produced by the computer. (this could not be removed with alcohol) Apple may have to change the composition of the plastic of the case, or coat the top deck somehow, to reduce or prevent this problem.
I believe the design of the new macbooks should b
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
I think he's got a good point- as far as the discoloration is a 'manufacturing defect' I'm also not on board yet. If it could be shown that apple's laptops exhibited disproportionately higher discoloration when compared with other light-colored laptops, then maybe it would be a different story. I presume there was a reason why textured beige was chosen as the typical computer casing as opposed to flat white- it simply hides cosmetic marring associated with typical use. Moreover, it's not limited to laptops:
white collar vs. blue collar (sebum strikes again!)
white cars vs black cars
etc...
The thing is, the Macbook *was* designed with longevity as a prerequisite. The polycarbonate exterior is there because its durable, doesn't dent under normal use, and hides scratches better than aluminum. The case entirely lacks all the moving parts, flaps, nubbins, etc that inevitibly get lost or break off on many portable devices. The hinge for the LCD is very thick and securely attached. The new keyboard is designed to make it easy to clean out the crap that gets between keyboard keys. The keyboard surface and palm rests are free of grooves and are rubberized, to make it easy to clean just by wiping it off.
If the keyboard discoloration is a real issue, as opposed to a localized problem (mine doesn't show any signs, though I've only had it for a little while), then its an oversight in the design, not a sign that it was designed without regards to durability.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
It works because of irradiation (not the irradiation most slashdotters would think of, but the color theory irradiation). This is the same reason that black is slimming -- it's just an optical illusion that takes advantage of how the human eye perceives color and dark/light contrasts.
This was actually a pretty annoying problem for me when I last painted the interior of my house -- blue painters' tape on the walls made an off-white ceiling paint seem brilliant white when I cut in the edges... when the tape came off, the ceiling seemed very beige, especially for the rooms with yellow-toned walls. I had to repaint the damn ceiling bright white.
Back to the bluing -- grain & feed stores are a good place to find it, it's used to make horses' manes and tails brighter, particularly grey horses. I spent many, many hours growing up rinsing Bluette solution out of horse tails...
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Yeah, curse those horrible chemicals! Do you know how many people die each year from the chemical DHMO? And they put that stuff in soft drinks!
Why can't they make these things out of non-chemicals, like plastic, or rubber? Chemicals are the devil, I say!
(For those without a sarcasm gland, the above is should be taken with a grain of salt. Warning: grains of salt should only be taken oraly.)
Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
I'm sitting in front of my white 2004 iBook G4 right now and I just tried your eraser proposal. You're right, the faint dark spots on the palm rests of my machine can indeed be brushed away with a rubber eraser.
But I have another problem: Over the course of the past two years, the keyboard has slowly lost its imprints. First on the "s" (where my ring finger rests during touch-typing), then on the "e", "a" and "c" keys (for the first two, it's probably the frequency with which they're hit, for the "c" it might be because of the angle at which my index finger hits it: with the nail). It doesn't seem to be a common problem, but Apple won't replace the keyboard (despite my AppleCare contract), because it is a standard usage effect, they claim. Granted, I don't need to see the keys during typing, but it sure looks ugly. Let's see how this problem turns out with the new machines.
Hmm,
Well I have a macbook pro as well and I just recently converted from a lifetime of pc's and windows. Some of what you say is absolutely correct. It is without fail a very versatile machine, I currently run Mac OSX and Windows via Boot Camp and Linux via Parallels. For what I need and the different OS's I need to test my products on it is absolutely without peer. Also it is the most stunning laptop ever made I think. I get compliments all the time.
However I do not agree with the rest of your reasoning. The reason people complain about Mac's and any defects is because you could have the same computer for much less. As a matter of fact my MBP is almost 1,000 more than a similarly configured Dell or IBM Thinkpad (I get an employee discount). Also it is marketed as being better than a regular pc in every way. It has a whole section devoted to design and they talk about how much R&D they spend on the actual hardware design and use of the product.
For that kind of money is it bad to expect things to work great. My MBP is very hot. Much hotter than any other laptop I have ever used to this day. My co-worker got an IBM thinkpad that runs so cool and it has the exact specs and components and runs just as fast. Also there are other issues as well that give you a slightly sour feeling when you realize that you spend so much more than you normally would have.
And also the reason that you hear so many complaints is because there are more people using the Mac than ever before. A little while ago the Mac was a niche product and everybody who used it knew exactly what they wanted and have probably used mac's all their life. So they would ignore the problems or not be so vocal about it.
But now the Mac's are selling better than they ever have. Also they are attracting a lot of PC geeks such as myself that are used to getting excellent value for the money. Also us geeks are a very tough critic and when we spend our hard earned money and feel slighted you better believe that we are going to tell the whole world.
That is why people complain now and that is why the issue of yellow macbooks is significant. After owning 12 laptops in my time I have never had an issue like this in years of use much less in a span less than a week. And I am a sweaty beast.
Apple finally has a product that can be judged fairly against the competition. They have always been able to say we are so different (Power PC etc) so that is why you pay so much for what you get. They can no longer do that and now they have real competition to compare to.
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