iBook users agree: iBooks suck - GoFuckYourself.com

MattO · 12-31-2003, 01:44 PM

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/39/34676.html

Dead iBook owners take protest to MacWorld show
By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco
Posted: 30/12/2003 at 21:38 GMT

Faithful Apple users plan to put Quality Control issues center stage at the MacWorld show in San Francisco next week, to highlight a problem that Apple refuses to acknowledge.

iBook owners have been plagued by display problems and logic board failures this year, with over three hundred signing up for a potential class action suit.

Apple insists there are "no known problems" with the iBook, despite hundreds of incident reports to the contrary.And we can vouch for this from our own experience, as both of The Register's US iBooks have died this year, one after only ten weeks.

Reader analysis over at MacFixit suggests that both cheap shielding materials and basic mechanical design flaws are to blame.

"It seems Apple really needs to improve Quality Control and more stringent review of design issues. If I put out a product with these flaws I would expect to lose Quality Assurance Certification," writes one sleuth. Here's a discussion on Apple's own boards that the company hasn't deleted yet.

Apple overhauled the iBook range this Fall, with a revamped motherboard that supports the G4 processor and DDR memory. But failures persist.

Apple's quality control has suffered an annus horribilis in 2003. Poor design of the 15 inch aluminium PowerBook led to white stress spots appearing on many models, although Apple has at least acknowledged the problem. Of six PowerBooks sampled by MacWorld magazine, three had to be returned. The problems aren't simply confined to hardware. A catastrophic OS update, 10.2.8 was yanked after only a few hours after many users lost their networking. 10.3 Panther was rapidly updated to fix two severe bugs, one of which trashed data on some FireWire hard drives, while the other caused issues when using the encrypted home directory feature, FileVault. And a Bluetooth update in June which trashed users' address books could easily have been averted with a minimum of public beta testing. Opting for a closed, secretive testing program failed to detect the elementary bugs.

D'oh!

quantum-x · 12-31-2003, 02:19 PM

Mne died, just outside of warranty. They wanted $1000 jsut to OPEN the case and start looking.

What was worse was that I'd saved for that computer with my fast-food job at the time.. such a terrible waste of really hard earned money

reynold · 12-31-2003, 02:21 PM

You'd think Apple would just outsource everything to china except sales. Plus, killing clone licenses was a stupid move.

AdultNex · 12-31-2003, 03:02 PM

iBooks are for people who merely purchase products based on the cuteness factor.

In the PC forum world, it's well known that "If you see a man with an ibook, run away, for he is gay".

12-31-2003, 01:44 PM	#1
MattO The O is for Oohhh Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: AUSTIN TEJAS Posts: 10,861	iBook users agree: iBooks suck http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/39/34676.html Dead iBook owners take protest to MacWorld show By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco Posted: 30/12/2003 at 21:38 GMT Faithful Apple users plan to put Quality Control issues center stage at the MacWorld show in San Francisco next week, to highlight a problem that Apple refuses to acknowledge. iBook owners have been plagued by display problems and logic board failures this year, with over three hundred signing up for a potential class action suit. Apple insists there are "no known problems" with the iBook, despite hundreds of incident reports to the contrary.And we can vouch for this from our own experience, as both of The Register's US iBooks have died this year, one after only ten weeks. Reader analysis over at MacFixit suggests that both cheap shielding materials and basic mechanical design flaws are to blame. "It seems Apple really needs to improve Quality Control and more stringent review of design issues. If I put out a product with these flaws I would expect to lose Quality Assurance Certification," writes one sleuth. Here's a discussion on Apple's own boards that the company hasn't deleted yet. Apple overhauled the iBook range this Fall, with a revamped motherboard that supports the G4 processor and DDR memory. But failures persist. Apple's quality control has suffered an annus horribilis in 2003. Poor design of the 15 inch aluminium PowerBook led to white stress spots appearing on many models, although Apple has at least acknowledged the problem. Of six PowerBooks sampled by MacWorld magazine, three had to be returned. The problems aren't simply confined to hardware. A catastrophic OS update, 10.2.8 was yanked after only a few hours after many users lost their networking. 10.3 Panther was rapidly updated to fix two severe bugs, one of which trashed data on some FireWire hard drives, while the other caused issues when using the encrypted home directory feature, FileVault. And a Bluetooth update in June which trashed users' address books could easily have been averted with a minimum of public beta testing. Opting for a closed, secretive testing program failed to detect the elementary bugs. D'oh!

12-31-2003, 02:19 PM	#2
quantum-x Confirmed User Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: ICQ: 251425 Fr/Au/Ca Posts: 6,863	Mne died, just outside of warranty. They wanted $1000 jsut to OPEN the case and start looking. What was worse was that I'd saved for that computer with my fast-food job at the time.. such a terrible waste of really hard earned money

12-31-2003, 02:21 PM	#3
reynold Too lazy to set a custom title Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Global Traveler Posts: 51,271	You'd think Apple would just outsource everything to china except sales. Plus, killing clone licenses was a stupid move.

12-31-2003, 03:02 PM	#4
AdultNex Confirmed User Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Bostonnnn Posts: 8,985	iBooks are for people who merely purchase products based on the cuteness factor. In the PC forum world, it's well known that "If you see a man with an ibook, run away, for he is gay".