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Some MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and Mac Mini Models Will Become Obsolete Next Month, Lose Apple Repair Support (9to5mac.com)

Posted by msmash on from the going-obsolute dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Apple will add certain MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac mini models to its list of vintage and obsolete products starting next month, which means the products will lose official Apple repair support through the company's retail stores and authorized resellers. Kicking in on December 31, 2016, the MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011) and MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2011) will become vintage and obsolete in all markets where applicable, while the Mac mini (Early 2009) and MacBook (13-inch, Mid 2009) will become obsolete worldwide on the same date.

7 of 142 comments (clear)

  1. Not important by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Tim Cook said himself that PCs are dead and people should buy iPads.

    The Mac mini has not been upgraded since 2012, which is proof enough that Apple doesn't care about making computers anymore.

  2. Obsolete? by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 3, Informative

    will become obsolete worldwide on the same date.

    I have a 2006 MacMini. With iMovie '06 it's still the best front end to a Firewire camcorder I've found. The latest kdenlive dropped Firewire import.

    For basic video editing it still works rather well. Transcoding is slow so I export everything in .dv and convert it on a faster machine.

    Doesn't seem very obsolete to me.

    1. Re:Obsolete? by evilviper · · Score: 3, Informative

      dvgrab works on Linux but you can't view the tape as it comes in.

      That's not true at all. Linux has no file locking, so you can quite easily view the video file in real-time as they're being created and extended. A simple tail -F VIDEO.DV | mplayer - should work, though adjusting cache sizes might be necessary for some formats.

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  3. Re:That's nice by DogDude · · Score: 4, Informative

    Six years is considered "good" by Apple customers? Really? Do y'all only wear your clothes once and buy new cars every year? Just before posting this (insightful) comment, I just purchased a bunch of refurbished mission critical equipment for our business (workstations and servers), all of which are older than 6 years old, and running OS's that are more than 6 years old (Windows 7 for the workstations). Apple's lack of support is a big reason why we don't use their hardware/software.

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  4. Re:History will repeat itself by MachineShedFred · · Score: 3, Informative

    To be fair, Apple had a true professional market not too long ago. Then they started acting like they knew better than the professionals and started making software and hardware that is not suited to meet the professionals' needs. So the pros went elsewhere.

    At one point, the only two games in town for non-linear video edit were Apple and Avid. Then they dumbed down Final Cut Pro and made sure that it only runs it's best on inferior hardware. This has allowed Adobe Premiere back into the game, because they decided to go all-in with CUDA and Nvidia.

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  5. Re: That's nice by unixisc · · Score: 3, Informative

    They could have trade-in programs, w/ the replacement being heavily discounted. The price premium of the obsolete boxes should more than cover the discounts

  6. Re:That's nice by brantondaveperson · · Score: 3, Informative

    As much as I mourn the loss of USB-A ports, it's not quite the case that you need a bunch of dongles. USB-C is pin-compatible, and what you actually need are different leads. USB-C to USB-mini, for example.

    Unsubstantiated claim of seriously broken USB-C support.... or, maybe, it's actually more like this