Me too, I'm certain that most of the PowerBooks that Apple sell don't have half as many problems as mine. I'm not trying to suggest that Apple rampantly sell crap as a matter of course.
What I'm saying is that my Powerbook is not up to scratch, that Apple have had their chance to try to repair it, and that I think it's only fair that I get a replacement machine, so that I can get the same experience that most other Powerbook G4 owners have had.
The problems have occurred in different places, under different conditions, but always with a voltage conditioner protecting the computer.
The device in question is a laptop, so it travels from place to place, and appears to be engineered for that. I'm not suggesting that there is anything wrong with the design or any other problem directly attributable to Apple other than poor customer service.
But it seems that when a machine has had as many visits to the Apple service centres as mine has, and is still not working correctly, it's reasonable to ask for a replacement unit. I have given them a reasonable chance to repair this machine and it is still not functioning correctly. It has been in and out of service centres for months now. I, as a high paying customer feel it's time for Apple to issue me a new unit.
I shouldn't have to try to establish what part of my machine is causing the ongoing problems, that is the job of a service technician, it's not like they don't know that I'm coming back for another repair so soon after the last one.
Apple Australia feel differently, and I would like to change their mind, I feel (or felt at the time I posted this article a couple of days ago) that I have exhausted all my options, and cannot go any further by dealing with Applecare.
Yes, the replacement power supply is an Apple 65W power supply, it has an earthed plug with a surge protector secured to it with two cable ties so that it cannot be removed.
The original power supply was not earthed, this one is. The shielding around the edge of the power supply connector that goes into the computer is now earthed. I can only assume that this is the reason my computer no longer electrocutes my genitalia when I use it in my lap.
I'm not an electronics engineer, so this is all speculative, and could be completely down to superstition. Maybe all the electric shocks killed the nerves in my legs and thigh area, and that event just happened to coincide with my buying the revised Apple adaptor... But I doubt it and suspect it is, in fact, the earth wire that Apple added to the revised power supply design.
I don't know how I would check if the surge protector was any good. Do you have any suggestions?
I went to a computer shop, and asked for a surge protector, and then brought it back to the office, and used two of the biggest fattest cable ties I could find to bind it permanently to the plug, after I tested that it worked.
I'm not an electronics engineer with a lab full of test equipment, so how do you propose I test my surge protector?
I'm being deliberately vague about exactly what it was that was said because it is really a matter between Renaissance and Apple, and I don't want to publicly go around saying things that might have legal repurcussions.
For the record though, someone at Renaissance accidentally typed "including" instead of "excluding" when talking about what would constitute a "replaceable" repair.
No offense to the original poster, BUT THE MACHINE IS OVER 2 YEARS OLD. I've dealt with Apple, Dell, HP, over similar issues and none of them want the machine back, and they will each make you jump through hoops to get the machine taken back.
Offense taken!
As I've mentioned, this machine cost nearly ten grand. I'd expect a bit better service when my machine has suffered (since the battery) a string of debilitating failures that have rendered it unsuable, or unportable for nearly four months now. I'd expect any vendor to come to the party after this amount of time.
Surely my experience is not typical of what most PowerBook owners with the same model have had. I'm not looking for an upgrade or a repair. I'm looking for a replacement. The "environmental issues" you speak of have not affected any other delicate and expensive electronic equipment that I have here.
Do I not have a right to expect the same experience as anyone else who paid the same price for a machine?
Mate, if I had a digital camera I'd show you a picture of my power supply. It has a surge protector cable tied to the plug because people kept nicking them whenever I went out anywhere. So in answer to your question, YES. ALL THE TIME.
Luckily poor defenseless Apple have people like you to rally around them and protect them from merciless trolls like me.
The problem is that when I pick the machine up, or move it, or sometimes ever just unplug it from the power it crashes. Apparently it's the battery connector inside the computer.
I've removed the battery maybe ten times in the life of my PowerBook, mostly to quote the serial number to Apple techs, or to write my name on the inside of the battery compartment and the battery with an indellible marker, so the wear-and-tear argument doesn't wash.
I don't have an agenda. I want a machine that works, it's something I have a right to. A right that I purchased from Apple at considerable cost.
They have had their chances to get this machine working correctly. It's been four months since the latest string of hardware problems started. This machine is still suffering problems that render it either unportable, or unusable. It's time to replace it, surely?
This laptop is two years old. Did you not read the post?
It is a standard 667/512Mb/Combo, I ordered it they day they became available and recieved it about a month later.
My receipt states the price of the unit as $9,617.88. The AppleCare agreement I bought was $606.38, the replacement battery I had to threaten legal action to get because Applecare suck cost MagnumMac $239.00 +GST, and the replacement power supply I bought to stop the machine electrocuting me through the corners of the case cost around $250.
Stress caused by trying to get Apple to replace my cursed PowerBook: Priceless.
Since I submitted this story Apple have agreed to replace my PowerBook because of what appears to have been a typo in the email I recieved from Renaissance, Apple's NZ distributor.
They still do not accept that nine failures in little over two years (25 months) is enough to warrant the replacement of my Powerbook. They agreed to do this before this article ever saw the light of day.
Apple were supposed to be contacting me today to inform me of what machine they would be offering as a replacement, but as yet I have not heard. Perhaps they changed their mind about offering a replacement after recieving bad publicity. I'll keep everyone posted.
I know how I used the system and I'm relatively sure my friends would attest to how I have babied this laptop in the time I've owned it.
It has never travelled in anything but either my hands or a properly secured, purpose made and specially prepared laptop bag.
The power supply has a surge protector cable tied to the plug since simply using a surge protector at home does not seem to have been enough to protect it from voltage surges. The point is that the the dozens of laptops that I have owned or been given for work have not suffered any ill effects from the power here.
Strangely, Outlook Express is the most prolific propagator of email viruses, yet it has significantly less features than Eudora.
It's not Outlook's PIM features that make it a handy target for virus makers, it comes down to a few 'features' of both Outlook and Outlook Express that virus makers use to their advantage.
Microsoft do seem to be slowly catching on, and making modifcations to their applications, but it doesn't stop people using old versions.
Handy features of Outlook & Outlook Express for virus makers:
* Storing every email address in a handy database
without any way to disable the feature
* Not properly protecting the email address cache
with encryption or any other method
* Providing the ability to view rich HTML content
including scripts and ActiveX inside the email
program
* Conveniently truncating file extensions from
incoming attachments
I'm aware that things have been done recently to prevent these kinds of attacks, but some of the misfeatures mentioned above are still in the latest versions of Outlook & Outlook Express.
The reason that people pick on OE and Outlook is that they are the sort of mistakes that wouldn't have been made if security had been a priority when the applications were created.
Simply put, in my experience Outlook and Outlook Express have demonstrated their lack of security by having features useful to virus makers, and by propagating email viruses with the help of clueless users. Many of the email viruses I have seen wouldn't have been spread if one or more of the features I mentioned was not present in the email clients used.
This sounds like one of those trolls where you change the problem and computer model to reflect the story you're posting about. Like the 'freelance gig' one.
Well done, mister tar-everybody-with-the-same-brush. I fucking hate people trying to categorize me based on the fact that I use a Mac.
I don't own one because I want to join some elitist club of "creative professionals", I don't own a Mac because I think that it's somehow screwing Microsoft, I don't own a Mac because it has a candy-coated GUI, I own it because it has a solid and proven operating system derived from openstep and because it came properly set up for the hardware inside. Which for me is a prime consideration when buying a laptop.
Maybe the next laptop I buy will be x86 and Linux based again (this machine has had more than it's share of hardware failures) but OS X has always been rock solid for me, and the drivers and power management have always worked as they should, which is more than you can say for most x86 laptops even when running the OEM setup.
To me, it's just another Unix system on another flavour of hardware. Would you be telling me that I shouldn't be playing with the command line if I'd bought a SPARC laptop?
Wow, you're about as insightful as Enderle, I don't know what the fuck the mods who marked you as interesting were smoking, but I wish I could get some. Linking your post to the whole Apple Zealot vs. PC Muckraker thing is low, and that alone should have triggered troll alarms. Some people will never learn I guess.
The fact that Intel don't support bluetooth is about as relevant to Bluetooth's survival as if General Motors support McDonald's. It's not going to stop me putting a McDonald's soft drink in the drink holder in my gas guzzling SUV, nor is Intel's bitching about Bluetooth going to stop anyone plugging in a USB or PCMCIA bluetooth adaptor to any Intel computer.
Your understanding that Bluetooth sucked is obviously because you have no clue and have just been reading the crap that so-called pundits like this dickhead Enderle who sells his opinion to anyone who plies him with shiny things. I haven't had any problem syncing my phone to my computers using bluetooth, haven't had any problem with the range (hint: It's a PERSONAL AREA network) since it's only supposed to work while I'm right next to the computer, and haven't had any trouble syncing my phone to other phones.
I'm not sure where you get the idea that Bluetooth was dead on arrival, and because you're trolling as AC you likely won't be able to respond with a source. I know I'm feeding trolls here, but this response is so that hopefully you'll get modded into the depths of obscurity where your misinformed post belongs.
You finish off your post by saying that you don't think Bluetooth will die an immediate death. No shit sherlock, there are millions of bluetooth phones, bluetooth adaptors, and bluetooth compatible laptops out there, of course it's not going to disappear, but it will be superceded someday.
As for your comments about firewire, who gives a fuck if YOU personally don't use firewire? Practically every digital video camera uses firewire, so that's also on millions of devices and won't be going anywhere soon either.
Nonsense. Microsoft's market dominance is as a result of a bundling deal signed in 1982 with IBM, and since that time, dirty tricks to ensure monopoly control.
Microsoft have killed all competitors to come along by offering a favourable OEM price on windows/DOS only to vendors who ship every computer with a Microsoft OS installed.
Even IBM wouldn't bundle their own OS/2 on their computers because it would mean adding more than a hundred US dollars to the price of each machine they sold with windows on it.
At a guess, the reason for using Linux would be that they can easily migrate the render farm to whatever architecture provides the best bang for the buck at the time.
The same could hardly be said for using OS X, I expect that Steve Jobs would be more worried that his animators are able to get their job done on time and/or under budget than pushing Apple's agenda.
Especially since they could easily migrate the render farm to Xserve should Apple be able to provide the technology at a competitive price. (Think Xserve G5 cluster node for example)
You could make a program in QT in Linux, and send it to a friendly Mac owner to compile it... or alternatively next time you see a stylishly dressed yuppie using a PowerBook in starbucks, tell him that you saw a guy in blue jeans, black polar neck, and glasses signing autographs outside, and grab the Mac when he runs off looking for him.
This article seems to show that Sun have made a very strong commitment to support Opteron based servers.
To quote; "The move does send a message, though, said Illuminata analyst Gordon Haff. "It certainly shows they're bloody serious about Opteron," he said, adding that it's likely Kealia's 59 employees are probably the largest concentration of Opteron specialists outside AMD."
I'm not going to argue about it being a good idea to wait until Sun have sorted out their operating system on the new platform though.
Well I'd certainly pass up the powerbook if I was planning to play games on it. This system would offer superior performance for games than anything that Apple are offering at the moment.
But since I don't plan to play many games on my laptop, I'll keep using my powerbook, and take pleasure in the fact that I saved lugging around those few extra pounds, and people who buy these things can feel smug about how many more frames per second they can't see on their Dell.
I find it impossible to believe that you've never seen a broken TiBook power supply when I've seen four myself.
My machine is a Rev B. TiBook I believe. 667Mhz/16Mb Radeon (1152x768)/Combo Drive. I certainly didn't feel I was buying a first generation product, as the PowerBook G4 range had undergone two revisions (speed increase, combo drive & gigabit ethernet). I did quite a lot of research on the net, to find out potential problems, and aside from power supply issues couldn't find many complaints.
As an aside, Being an Apple tech, perhaps you can suggest an avenue by which I might be able to approach Apple U.S. directly to let them know how I feel about their product and service standards?
Slashdot Mirror
And this is, of course exactly what I have done.
Applecare Australia said no.
Now what do you suggest?
Me too, I'm certain that most of the PowerBooks that Apple sell don't have half as many problems as mine. I'm not trying to suggest that Apple rampantly sell crap as a matter of course.
What I'm saying is that my Powerbook is not up to scratch, that Apple have had their chance to try to repair it, and that I think it's only fair that I get a replacement machine, so that I can get the same experience that most other Powerbook G4 owners have had.
The problems have occurred in different places, under different conditions, but always with a voltage conditioner protecting the computer.
The device in question is a laptop, so it travels from place to place, and appears to be engineered for that. I'm not suggesting that there is anything wrong with the design or any other problem directly attributable to Apple other than poor customer service.
But it seems that when a machine has had as many visits to the Apple service centres as mine has, and is still not working correctly, it's reasonable to ask for a replacement unit. I have given them a reasonable chance to repair this machine and it is still not functioning correctly. It has been in and out of service centres for months now. I, as a high paying customer feel it's time for Apple to issue me a new unit.
I shouldn't have to try to establish what part of my machine is causing the ongoing problems, that is the job of a service technician, it's not like they don't know that I'm coming back for another repair so soon after the last one.
Apple Australia feel differently, and I would like to change their mind, I feel (or felt at the time I posted this article a couple of days ago) that I have exhausted all my options, and cannot go any further by dealing with Applecare.
Yes, the replacement power supply is an Apple 65W power supply, it has an earthed plug with a surge protector secured to it with two cable ties so that it cannot be removed.
The original power supply was not earthed, this one is. The shielding around the edge of the power supply connector that goes into the computer is now earthed. I can only assume that this is the reason my computer no longer electrocutes my genitalia when I use it in my lap.
I'm not an electronics engineer, so this is all speculative, and could be completely down to superstition. Maybe all the electric shocks killed the nerves in my legs and thigh area, and that event just happened to coincide with my buying the revised Apple adaptor... But I doubt it and suspect it is, in fact, the earth wire that Apple added to the revised power supply design.
I don't know how I would check if the surge protector was any good. Do you have any suggestions?
I went to a computer shop, and asked for a surge protector, and then brought it back to the office, and used two of the biggest fattest cable ties I could find to bind it permanently to the plug, after I tested that it worked.
I'm not an electronics engineer with a lab full of test equipment, so how do you propose I test my surge protector?
I'm being deliberately vague about exactly what it was that was said because it is really a matter between Renaissance and Apple, and I don't want to publicly go around saying things that might have legal repurcussions.
For the record though, someone at Renaissance accidentally typed "including" instead of "excluding" when talking about what would constitute a "replaceable" repair.
My machine's not working fine at the moment, and that has been verified by Renaissance (Apple's NZ distributor) at their service centre.
No offense to the original poster, BUT THE MACHINE IS OVER 2 YEARS OLD. I've dealt with Apple, Dell, HP, over similar issues and none of them want the machine back, and they will each make you jump through hoops to get the machine taken back.
Offense taken!
As I've mentioned, this machine cost nearly ten grand. I'd expect a bit better service when my machine has suffered (since the battery) a string of debilitating failures that have rendered it unsuable, or unportable for nearly four months now. I'd expect any vendor to come to the party after this amount of time.
Surely my experience is not typical of what most PowerBook owners with the same model have had. I'm not looking for an upgrade or a repair. I'm looking for a replacement. The "environmental issues" you speak of have not affected any other delicate and expensive electronic equipment that I have here.
Do I not have a right to expect the same experience as anyone else who paid the same price for a machine?
Mate, if I had a digital camera I'd show you a picture of my power supply. It has a surge protector cable tied to the plug because people kept nicking them whenever I went out anywhere. So in answer to your question, YES. ALL THE TIME.
You're calling me a troll?
Luckily poor defenseless Apple have people like you to rally around them and protect them from merciless trolls like me.
The problem is that when I pick the machine up, or move it, or sometimes ever just unplug it from the power it crashes. Apparently it's the battery connector inside the computer.
I've removed the battery maybe ten times in the life of my PowerBook, mostly to quote the serial number to Apple techs, or to write my name on the inside of the battery compartment and the battery with an indellible marker, so the wear-and-tear argument doesn't wash.
Customer Relations are the ones who refused the replacement in the first place :D
I don't have an agenda. I want a machine that works, it's something I have a right to. A right that I purchased from Apple at considerable cost.
They have had their chances to get this machine working correctly. It's been four months since the latest string of hardware problems started. This machine is still suffering problems that render it either unportable, or unusable. It's time to replace it, surely?
This laptop is two years old. Did you not read the post?
It is a standard 667/512Mb/Combo, I ordered it they day they became available and recieved it about a month later.
My receipt states the price of the unit as $9,617.88. The AppleCare agreement I bought was $606.38, the replacement battery I had to threaten legal action to get because Applecare suck cost MagnumMac $239.00 +GST, and the replacement power supply I bought to stop the machine electrocuting me through the corners of the case cost around $250.
Stress caused by trying to get Apple to replace my cursed PowerBook: Priceless.
Since I submitted this story Apple have agreed to replace my PowerBook because of what appears to have been a typo in the email I recieved from Renaissance, Apple's NZ distributor.
They still do not accept that nine failures in little over two years (25 months) is enough to warrant the replacement of my Powerbook. They agreed to do this before this article ever saw the light of day.
Apple were supposed to be contacting me today to inform me of what machine they would be offering as a replacement, but as yet I have not heard. Perhaps they changed their mind about offering a replacement after recieving bad publicity. I'll keep everyone posted.
I know how I used the system and I'm relatively sure my friends would attest to how I have babied this laptop in the time I've owned it.
It has never travelled in anything but either my hands or a properly secured, purpose made and specially prepared laptop bag.
The power supply has a surge protector cable tied to the plug since simply using a surge protector at home does not seem to have been enough to protect it from voltage surges. The point is that the the dozens of laptops that I have owned or been given for work have not suffered any ill effects from the power here.
Does that clear things up?
Strangely, Outlook Express is the most prolific propagator of email viruses, yet it has significantly less features than Eudora.
It's not Outlook's PIM features that make it a handy target for virus makers, it comes down to a few 'features' of both Outlook and Outlook Express that virus makers use to their advantage.
Microsoft do seem to be slowly catching on, and making modifcations to their applications, but it doesn't stop people using old versions.
Handy features of Outlook & Outlook Express for virus makers:
* Storing every email address in a handy database
without any way to disable the feature
* Not properly protecting the email address cache
with encryption or any other method
* Providing the ability to view rich HTML content
including scripts and ActiveX inside the email
program
* Conveniently truncating file extensions from
incoming attachments
I'm aware that things have been done recently to prevent these kinds of attacks, but some of the misfeatures mentioned above are still in the latest versions of Outlook & Outlook Express.
The reason that people pick on OE and Outlook is that they are the sort of mistakes that wouldn't have been made if security had been a priority when the applications were created.
Simply put, in my experience Outlook and Outlook Express have demonstrated their lack of security by having features useful to virus makers, and by propagating email viruses with the help of clueless users. Many of the email viruses I have seen wouldn't have been spread if one or more of the features I mentioned was not present in the email clients used.
Hope that helps to clear things up.
This sounds like one of those trolls where you change the problem and computer model to reflect the story you're posting about. Like the 'freelance gig' one.
Well done, mister tar-everybody-with-the-same-brush. I fucking hate people trying to categorize me based on the fact that I use a Mac.
I don't own one because I want to join some elitist club of "creative professionals", I don't own a Mac because I think that it's somehow screwing Microsoft, I don't own a Mac because it has a candy-coated GUI, I own it because it has a solid and proven operating system derived from openstep and because it came properly set up for the hardware inside. Which for me is a prime consideration when buying a laptop.
Maybe the next laptop I buy will be x86 and Linux based again (this machine has had more than it's share of hardware failures) but OS X has always been rock solid for me, and the drivers and power management have always worked as they should, which is more than you can say for most x86 laptops even when running the OEM setup.
To me, it's just another Unix system on another flavour of hardware. Would you be telling me that I shouldn't be playing with the command line if I'd bought a SPARC laptop?
Wow, you're about as insightful as Enderle, I don't know what the fuck the mods who marked you as interesting were smoking, but I wish I could get some. Linking your post to the whole Apple Zealot vs. PC Muckraker thing is low, and that alone should have triggered troll alarms. Some people will never learn I guess.
The fact that Intel don't support bluetooth is about as relevant to Bluetooth's survival as if General Motors support McDonald's. It's not going to stop me putting a McDonald's soft drink in the drink holder in my gas guzzling SUV, nor is Intel's bitching about Bluetooth going to stop anyone plugging in a USB or PCMCIA bluetooth adaptor to any Intel computer.
Your understanding that Bluetooth sucked is obviously because you have no clue and have just been reading the crap that so-called pundits like this dickhead Enderle who sells his opinion to anyone who plies him with shiny things. I haven't had any problem syncing my phone to my computers using bluetooth, haven't had any problem with the range (hint: It's a PERSONAL AREA network) since it's only supposed to work while I'm right next to the computer, and haven't had any trouble syncing my phone to other phones.
I'm not sure where you get the idea that Bluetooth was dead on arrival, and because you're trolling as AC you likely won't be able to respond with a source. I know I'm feeding trolls here, but this response is so that hopefully you'll get modded into the depths of obscurity where your misinformed post belongs.
You finish off your post by saying that you don't think Bluetooth will die an immediate death. No shit sherlock, there are millions of bluetooth phones, bluetooth adaptors, and bluetooth compatible laptops out there, of course it's not going to disappear, but it will be superceded someday.
As for your comments about firewire, who gives a fuck if YOU personally don't use firewire? Practically every digital video camera uses firewire, so that's also on millions of devices and won't be going anywhere soon either.
Nonsense. Microsoft's market dominance is as a result of a bundling deal signed in 1982 with IBM, and since that time, dirty tricks to ensure monopoly control.
Microsoft have killed all competitors to come along by offering a favourable OEM price on windows/DOS only to vendors who ship every computer with a Microsoft OS installed.
Even IBM wouldn't bundle their own OS/2 on their computers because it would mean adding more than a hundred US dollars to the price of each machine they sold with windows on it.
At a guess, the reason for using Linux would be that they can easily migrate the render farm to whatever architecture provides the best bang for the buck at the time.
The same could hardly be said for using OS X, I expect that Steve Jobs would be more worried that his animators are able to get their job done on time and/or under budget than pushing Apple's agenda.
Especially since they could easily migrate the render farm to Xserve should Apple be able to provide the technology at a competitive price. (Think Xserve G5 cluster node for example)
You could make a program in QT in Linux, and send it to a friendly Mac owner to compile it... or alternatively next time you see a stylishly dressed yuppie using a PowerBook in starbucks, tell him that you saw a guy in blue jeans, black polar neck, and glasses signing autographs outside, and grab the Mac when he runs off looking for him.
This article seems to show that Sun have made a very strong commitment to support Opteron based servers.
To quote; "The move does send a message, though, said Illuminata analyst Gordon Haff. "It certainly shows they're bloody serious about Opteron," he said, adding that it's likely Kealia's 59 employees are probably the largest concentration of Opteron specialists outside AMD."
I'm not going to argue about it being a good idea to wait until Sun have sorted out their operating system on the new platform though.
Well I'd certainly pass up the powerbook if I was planning to play games on it. This system would offer superior performance for games than anything that Apple are offering at the moment.
But since I don't plan to play many games on my laptop, I'll keep using my powerbook, and take pleasure in the fact that I saved lugging around those few extra pounds, and people who buy these things can feel smug about how many more frames per second they can't see on their Dell.
Whatever floats your boat, I say.
I find it impossible to believe that you've never seen a broken TiBook power supply when I've seen four myself.
My machine is a Rev B. TiBook I believe. 667Mhz/16Mb Radeon (1152x768)/Combo Drive. I certainly didn't feel I was buying a first generation product, as the PowerBook G4 range had undergone two revisions (speed increase, combo drive & gigabit ethernet). I did quite a lot of research on the net, to find out potential problems, and aside from power supply issues couldn't find many complaints.
As an aside, Being an Apple tech, perhaps you can suggest an avenue by which I might be able to approach Apple U.S. directly to let them know how I feel about their product and service standards?
Shut the fuck up idiot. Fink is free.