Grey Lines Mar MacBook Air Displays

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."

Comments

"Muddy the crispness"?

[Anonymous Coward]

What, is this an audiophile forum now? I can only assume the lines fluff up the felty softness too.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[Lumpy]

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"?

[LMacG]

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"?

[AdamPee]

You can't start out with too diverse video, your computer could pull a driver. Instead, start off gently, something like a screensaver, and move on to something a little more rigorous as it warms up.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[Lumpy]

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# is the only cable that is worthwhile for any performance computing.

using a lesser cable will cause muddyness.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[elrous0]

My wife flipped out and left me when I bought those instead of paying the mortgage last month. Too bad for her that she's not here to enjoy the cleanest USB signal I've ever seen!

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[Anonymous Coward]

I get stiff after playing my diverse videos for a while. Then my right arm gets exercised.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[morgan_greywolf]

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"?

[DrinkDr.Pepper]

For just $49.99 (+S&H) I will send you my patented green felt-tip pen pixel alignment tool. It's alcohol-free ink is designed maximize the pixel aligning properties associated with green felt-tip pens.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[theaveng]

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.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[theaveng]

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. Fortunately I went off to college and now I'm a bleeding-heart liberal just like all the other students. The answer lies not in cold steel and plastic, but in the ever-loving arms of Brother Government. Mmmm-hmmm.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[Registered Coward v2]

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# 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.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[Anonymous Coward]

Too bad for her, she is not going to enjoy the benefits of mortgage bailout you gonna get :)

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[theaveng]

>>>Thank you, Captain Obvious, for that enlightening post.

That's alright. Captain Obvious trumps Seaman Asshole.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[theaveng]

>>>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.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[Lumpy]

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.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[_Sprocket_]

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:

Additionally, signal directional markings are provided for optimum signal transfer.

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"?

[A440Hz]

I bet these folks having problems aren't using the recommended cone points on the bottom of their MacBooks. The cone points reduce vibrations, which in turn, result in more pure electron flow and computations which have more fidelity and life. 1s and 0s take on new oneness and zeroness that was heretofore only available on the largest supercomputers. Oh, and the grey lines go away, too.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[hjf]

you need all 4 pairs for gigabit ethernet.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[Vancorps]

You mean only four wires are required for 10/100 Ethernet. POE and GIGe both require all the wires in a standard Cat5e or Cat6 cable. They also don't tolerate interference over distance as well.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[default luser]

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.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[Mister Whirly]

Really? A salesperson who works on commission recommended you buy the much more expensive product rather than the cheap one? Gadzooks! That sounds almost *gasp* unethical! And from a salesman! They are usually the bastion of ethics and morals.

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?

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[IronChef]

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 selling you snake oil.

Wait, what were we talking about?

Excuse me, I need to go break in some ethernet cables.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[Zencyde]

Don't buy from him. I'll sell you a better one for $199.99 with free shipping. Trust me, the more expensive something is, the better it is.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[piltdownman84]

No, the scary part was I truly believe that he thought the cable was better. It didn't seem like the guy was trying to screw me, but more so that he was so brainwashed himself that he believed I needed the high end cable.


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 on anything, but she said it was store policy that she had to ask for every item and she would get in trouble if she didn't ask, so she had to ask on three more controllers, and a remote control.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

No surprise

[Mad Merlin]

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

[Constantine XVI]

LED-lit.  The display itself is LCD.

Re:No surprise

[TheRaven64]

A little while back the HD in my MacBook Pro died (shortly after completing the first full backup I'd done in almost a year, which was pretty incredible timing). While it was off being repaired, I switched back to my old PowerBook. The resolution of the screen was slightly lower, but the difference was amazing. With the PB I have massive viewing angles - unless I'm off at such a wide angle that the screen is almost a sliver, the image is still clear. With the MBP it starts to go as soon as I'm not flat-on to the display. You'd have thought that the 'pro' lines would still have decent technology, but maybe no one's making it anymore (and the newer ones have those horrible glossy screens, so I won't be getting one of them). If it wasn't for the fact that LaTeX documents that build in 10 seconds on the MBP take over a minute on the PowerBook, I'd be tempted to switch back to it.

It's all how you look at it

[iamdrscience]

I for one, think that a few grey lines make a display look distinguished.

Re:It's all how you look at it

[Rude Turnip]

Clearly, they are speed lines to make the Mac even snappier!

Re:It's all how you look at it

[Yvan256]

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

[je ne sais quoi]

No, you can use for the point releases for the OS and the finder too. For example: "Apple just released OS 10.4.x and even though the patch notes say there were only unrelated security and bug fixes, the finder feels snappier!" This is attributable to well-documented ability of the chips in Apple computers to overclock themselves by sensing the level of smug satisfaction and air of superiority of the user. :)

Re:Step 1: Deny everything

[Svippy]

Step 2: Start another ad with an undergrad making fun of his computer science professor.

Step 3: Profit!?

Not just for the new ones...

[JoeMerchant]

Only tangentially related:

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 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.

Re:Not just for the new ones...

[David Gerard]

The answer is to buy a new MacBook like a good consumer. Ask Steve! 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...

[RMH101]

Woah there. Want the good news or the bad news? Bad news: if you've got an Nvidia GPU, your MBP's fvcked. The GPU's almost certainly one of the very, very large number Nvidia managed to screw up. The ball array soldering is faulty, and it isn't fixable.

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 for details.

Mine's in the faulty date of manufacture range so I'm just waiting to get hit with it too. Ric

Re:Not just for the new ones...

[JoeMerchant]

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, like drive the 24" monitor on my desktop, play Pandora music, and run a web browser without (as much) fear of crashing - oh yeah, that Vista box goes black on me about once a week or so, but half the time it recovers within a few minutes, half the time not... ain't technology grand?

Re:Not just for the new ones...

[spiffyman]

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). 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 not, and it's absolutely worth it.

If it seems like it costs too much, there are two things to do:

1. Consider whether you need the laptop you're buying - would that last $200 be better spent on the warranty?
2. Remember that much of the time you're able to purchase the warranty up to a year after the purchase of the machine. This means you can distribute the cost of the warranty. Often it makes sense to go ahead and make the purchase and then buy the warranty 6 months later.

The one thing that's really not an option is to just bank on your laptop living through your use of it. You'll stress it, abuse it, maybe drop it one day - and you need some kind of support when that happens.

Re:Not just for the new ones...

[lysergic.acid]

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.

Re:Not just for the new ones...

[JoeMerchant]

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 hosed during the repair attempts and we're risking maybe 100 hours of re-setup against the possible repair; and, no, I don't trust (Windows based whole system) backup software to function properly, either - there's a time investment in doing that properly and a further chance that it still doesn't work even if you did it properly. There's the other possible solution of plumping out $400 for another box that might work right, but even with that option, there's several hours invested in transferring the system over, and a strong chance of new and worse weirdness than I've presently got.

The worst option of all is investing the time and effort required to learn and keep current in PC technology sufficiently to diagnose and cost-efficiently fix all little nuisances that crop up. Five minutes a week is small beer compared to that treadmill.

Macbook air constantly broken by design

[MemoryDragon]

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!

Re:Macbook air constantly broken by design

[kannibal_klown]

Which means since I mostly use ot for development I reach this stage after a few hours of work.

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 rig (be it a MB Pro or a Desktop)..

Re:Macbook air constantly broken by design

[mario_grgic]

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

[TheRaven64]

Google for 'fan control'. I had a fan control utility for my PowerBook that some apple techs accidentally left on the machine after a repair, which let me manually activate the fans, and there's a nicer one for Intel machines that lets you define the fan speed to temperature relation. When the MacBook Pros were released these values were wrong. The fans would not kick in early enough and the machine would become unstable. Tweaking them a bit made the machine a bit louder and shortened the battery life slightly, but stopped it crashing (the CPU was fine, but the memory chips got too hot). A subsequent update fixed the problem and I don't have the fan control or temperature monitor utilities installed anymore.

Re:Macbook air constantly broken by design

[MemoryDragon]

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:tag: appleispants

[David Gerard]

"x is pants" is a British phrase meaning "x is rubbish".

Dithering

[AC-x]

The picture posted of the problem looks like the dithering's gone wrong and it's just showing lines rather then the usual checkerboard pattern

After careful study.....

[rockout]

In my statistical study of one sample unit (mine), I've had my eye on the display since April, and I have no complaints with it.

However, I do notice that it takes longer to find wireless networks than my old PowerBook used to. Not sure why this is.

Quit Complaining!

[decalod85]

My Mac SE from 1988 had all grey lines! You kids and your 'color' monitors...

Yes, such behaviour would bother me...

[Tastecicles]

...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...

Re:Step 1: Deny everything

[Farmer Pete]

Wow, you totally got this one wrong. You missed the very vital step (see below)

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!

Re:tag: appleispants

[TheRaven64]

Note this only makes sense in English. In American, the phrase means 'x is trousers,' which is quite nonsensical.

This effect has been explained in C't recently

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:This effect has been explained in C't recently

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:This effect has been explained in C't recently

[je ne sais quoi]

That sounds like a likely possibility. Seems like if it's a calibration issue, you wouldn't have to replace the display, but you would have to recalibrate it. In the FTA, they suggest that:

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.

The anti-glare coating idea is bollocks I think, because if it's a coating it would wear out in circular patterns like spots, not horizontal lines. If it's NVidia's fault it'll be a bad year for them with their crummy vista drivers having come out as well.

another 'blog' advertising via slashdot...

[Animaether]

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"

Re:tag: appleispants

[foo fighter]

And "x is rubbish" is a British phrase meaning "x sucks".

Re:What Grey Lines?

[rockout]

If you click on the pic, a larger version comes up and you can see the lines on that one.

Re:tag: appleispants

[Lemming Mark]

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".

More you need to do

[gsgriffin]

All FanBoys also know that you must love on your machine. Unlike PC varieties that don't need to burn in a laptop display like a transmission on a new car (from 20 years ago), you need to love your machine.

-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.
-Speak lovinging. With your enthusiasm of buying an overpriced, sexy trophy computer, you might be tempted to do a cool dance and yell and scream. This can produce flying spit that may land on the keyboard and render it soft and cushy feel.
-Carry with a keyboard pad. Never close the lid without putting a soft pad over the keyboard. The display and keys with chafe. Don't use powder to reduce chafing.

Re:tag: appleispants

[d3ac0n]

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.

There's always HP DreamColor

[aqui]

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

HP press release (on the notebook):
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2008/080811xa.html?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

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 I buy yet a bigger monitor...

(disclosure: I work for EDS an HP company, as a consultant)

Premium laptop?

[Hurricane78]

[...] 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.
You know what else is like that? An expensive whore "girlfriend". ;) (Apple fans, stay with me! :)

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.

Re:tag: appleispants

[Freultwah]

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:Not fair

[value_added]

You PC-using commoners just don't understand good design ascetics.

Some days, there just aren't enough words ...

Re:tag: appleispants

[David Gerard]

In Modern English, one would throw in a few "faakin caarnt" as well, or risk not being understood.

Re:tag: appleispants

[AKAImBatman]

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.

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.

Re:tag: appleispants

[stewbacca]

It means, "I'm the typical slashdot hack who isn't nearly as clever as I think, so I'll just post some stupid meme to sound intelligent".

Re:Suprise...

[tsa]

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.

Re:tag: appleispants

[Anonymous Psychopath]

In California it means an evil baseball team.

...from apple bugzilla site

[mriya3]

bug #5464349

Description:
I get strange grey lines on the screen on my macbook air

idared.braeburn@support.apple.com ---2008-12-05 15:02:20 --- Comment #1
Changed status: NEW -> CONFIRMED

renette.cox@support.apple.com ---2008-12-05 13:05:25 --- Comment #2
The desktop cannot be displayed without grey lines because Steve thinks grey lines are cool. Could you please try not to think too different?

suntan.gravenstein@support.apple.com ---2008-12-05 15:02:20 --- Comment #3
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug #1 "Users may think differently from Steve" ***

renette.cox@support.apple.com ---2008-12-05 16:32:25 --- Comment #4
Hey suntan, for bug #1 we already have a patch "555-censor-messages-from-forums.patch"

granny.smith@support.apple.com ---2008-12-05 18:02:20 --- Comment #5
Changed status: NEW -> WONTFIX

Re:Apple only uses 6-bit

[Haeleth]

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.