Apple Suspends Sales of LG's UltraFine 5K Monitor Over Hardware Issues (appleinsider.com)

Roger Fingas, writing for AppleInsider: Apple has temporarily stopped sales of LG's UltraFine 5K monitor, due to technical problems associated with a lack of proper shielding from wireless interference. Over the weekend, Apple retail staff were told to keep the product on display yet not sell any units if people asked, according to a Business Insider source. The site added that it heard the same from a representative at a New York Apple store. Separately, AppleInsider has confirmed the organized removal from sale of the Thunderbolt 3 display. Sources inside Apple not authorized to speak on behalf of the company indicated that retail locations are retaining demonstration displays, but not selling any stock on-hand that it may receive that may actually have the shielding fix, nor filling any pending orders until otherwise informed. Big blow to Apple, which has given up on external monitors business. But at least, it's comforting to know people who wish to purchase a new display for their MacBook or MacBook Pro have several company-approved alternatives. Oh wait, they don't.

Comments

doing the right thing

[XXongo]

It's actually quite responsible for them to stop selling the unit, rather than continuing to sell product that they know has a problem, which is what many companies in the past have done.

Big blow to apple?

[berj]

Why is a third party monitor having problems a big blow to apple? Why would mac users need an apple approved monitor? I've been using macs for the better part of 15 years and I don't recall ever using an apple branded monitor let alone some mythical "apple approved" one.

Re:Big blow to apple?

[AmiMoJo]

It's a blow because they decided to discontinue their own line of monitors (the "cinema" range) and instead nominate LG's display as the official successor. This monitor non-standard in a number of ways, similar to the old cinema displays, and somehow worse is better. For example, there is no OSD, all adjustments must be made from within MacOS.

Apple were clearly hoping that they could sell this monitor as the new "recommended" one, i.e. charge well over the odds for it.

Re:Big blow to apple?

[MassacrE]

If it were an 'official' successor, it would have an Apple logo on it. Apple pushed LG to make a thunderbolt 3 monitor, in turn for carrying them at apple stores and mentioning them during a keynote. Hardly 'official'.

Comforting?

[thegarbz]

What's more comforting is that Apple don't have an "approved" display. What would be even more comforting is if they never did and if consumers didn't need such arbitrary "approvals" to plug a display into a computer.

What an absurd idea that is.

Re:Comforting?

[DontBeAMoran]

I never connected an Apple-approved display nor an Apple-made or Apple-approved mouse into any of my Macs.

I do use made-for-Apple and made-by-Apple keyboards, if only to get the proper labels and function keys for OS X*.

* my Mac stills runs 10.9.5, fuck off with your "It's called macOS now" reply.

Re:Comforting?

[MachineShedFred]

Too bad - the 27" Cinema Displays are actually really good products. I have two of them on my desk - one LED Cinema Display, and one Thunderbolt version, chained together.

One cable plugged into the side of my laptop gives me two 27" displays, external SSD, gigabit ethernet, the four speakers in the displays, camera, mic, USB keyboard, USB mouse. And there's a MagSafe connector coming off the same cable, which powers the MacBook Pro.

Add to that the Mini-DisplayPort version is on a KVM switch for my desktop PC, so the mouse, keyboard, and that one display switch when I hit a button. It all works brilliantly, and you can't do it anymore because Apple decided to ruin their notebooks by stripping off all ports that aren't USB-C, and discontinue the Thunderbolt Cinema Display in favor of the fault piece of shit in TFA.

Re:Comforting?

[ilsaloving]

You do realize that if Apple is selling it directly, then it is defacto "Apple Approved" whether they explicitly say so or not.

The whole point of buying something directly from Apple, is that an average consumer has the reasonable expectation that Apple specifically vetted the device in questions as being fit for purpose against Apple-made hardware.

Re:And yet...

[berj]

The FCC is interested in the emission of interference, not being affected by it.

Re:And yet...

[AmiMoJo]

Problems with interference are not the only ones this monitor has. It's supposed to be able to charge your MacBook at 85W, but it actually only delivers about 60W. People are finding that if they are doing intensive tasks the laptop's battery slowly drains while it supposed to be charging. MKBHD covered it in his review recently.

Re:The note at the end is very impartial...

[DontBeAMoran]

It's so impartial that you'd think msmash was an idiot who's never used a Mac in his life and doesn't know that Macs have used VGA, DVI, HDMI and DisplayPorts for over a decade now. And their keyboards and mice connect via USB or Bluetooth, just like a "PC".

Re:Tim Cook is sad

[backslashdot]

Yeah i see the sarcasm. You seem to know who all these companies should hire. Yet none of you geniuses who say Google, Apple, Microsoft and others don't need to hire foreigners have ever made a billion dollar technology company (real estate, oil, and businesses profiting off monopolization of resources don't count).

There is a reason many of the patents on the original iPhone have foreign names.

We aren't turning away PhDs

[zerofoo]

The H1B visa was designed for the best and the brightest - no one is suggesting that we turn away brilliant people.

We need more PhDs - not code monkeys and run-of-the mill sysadmins. The H1B system is being abused to flood the market with cheap imported labor.

Easy interim fix

[Solandri]

Just connect to your router with an ethernet cable.

Oh, that's right. They courageously got rid of the ethernet port because wireless networking is the future.