[albertw]

spinoza2 said:

What bothers me is when people with bad judgment, mediocre education, and poor writing skills get into influential positions as technology journalists. Fortunately sites like Macworld allow readers to post comments to straighten out what such journalists butcher...

Heh? Are you referring to Andy Ihnatko? Andy Ihnatko!? THE Andy Ihnatko!? The GREAT Andy Ihnatko!? One of the original Mac Gods!? If so, you need to do a little more research. My first Mac book was written by Andy Ihnatko - and I ain't saying how long ago that was. ---- Read the article again. The advice (wrapped in humor) is excellent.

[clintbradford]

>> ... Apple has a reputation for screwy hardware ...
Yeah. I know. I have the ONLY 17" MBP on the planet whose three AC MagSafe adapters haven't frayed and burned up. Nor have either of my two battery packs swollen up and exploded, injuring my indoor pets. My screen is perfect, too - no problems there. And Apple Updates? ALL have installed painlessly. And I stupidly use a Pelican 1495CC1 bulletproof case when I take the MBP to presentations, or if there's ANY possibility of anyone else handling my MBP.
I dunno ... If I believed all I read in the forums (and now in MacWorld), I would tend to look towards purchasing an abacus instead of a new computer .... -Clint Bradford

[spinoza2]

? Are you referring to Andy Ihnatko? Andy Ihnatko!? THE Andy Ihnatko!? The GREAT Andy Ihnatko!? One of the original Mac Gods!??

Sorry, David Pogue he is not. I'm not familiar with his books, but I do hope they are better than this article, at least for the sake of all those who purchased his books. Then again, I just checked the Amazon reviews of his Tiger book, and the following reader review seems to reflect a common thread (both with his books and the comments to this article):

?For people who buy this book as a reference tool..., its just frustrating to use. Too many unneccesary words to sift through to get to the meat of it... I guess for some people it could be comic relief if you're frustrated about your computer messing up, but to call this book helpful, you'd have to be the computer geek type that reads manual after manual for entertainment (which I'm not), but maybe they might be able to find something in this book. To me, it was a waste of money.?

[jsarsero]

Wow! You guys in the discussion forum really have the knives out for Ihnatko. You would think he had slept with your spouse... :-) Any serious Machead knows that Andy is a devoted but fair Mac evangelist. Some may not like his writing style, but that's a matter of taste. I find it mostly humorous. I've been a Mac-only user for >20 years and wouldn't use anything else. Having said that - yes, I have had major issues with my last three laptops. PowerBook G3 (1999) started freezing up after four years. Reformatted HD but no change. Had the logicboard replaced and still no luck. Maybe I shouldn't expect more than four years from a US$ 4000 laptop. PowerBook G4 (2005) developed narcolepsy syndrome after less than three years. Google it. It's a known issue with this model. Defective heat sensor causes laptop to suddenly go to sleep. Then last month the graphics card in my MacBook Pro (2008) died. Yes, another known issue. Nvidia's fault. Out of action for 22 days while the logicboard was replaced. My wife asks how I can defend/support Apple after all of these isues. But I continue to do so because I believe that the experence of using a Mac far outweighs using Windows even with these occasional problems. Take it easy on Ihnatko.

[degrees_of_truth]

With the original 2006 MacBooks there was a flurry of posts on the Apple discussions forum about what was mostly referred to as "random shutdown syndrome". Some went for hardware repairs and eventually there was a firmware update. Obviously the firmware update shouldn't be a fix for a later model. My machine was fixed by replacing the heat sink and top case. Also, you might search the system logs for "previous shutdown cause" (as I recall) messages.

[jnwassi3]

I agree with the author. I am now on my third mac. My first mac titanium powerbook had the mother board replaced twice screen replaced, top case, battery, and optical drive. I took very good care of it. It sat on my desk on a pedestal and I used an external keyboard and mouse for much of its life. i also turn off or put to sleep my computers when not in use. This reduces unneccessary wear and tear aside from saving energy. My second mac was a white macbook. It had the flickering screen problem besides the optical drive breaking on that too. Apple replaced the screen and some other parts (i don't remember what they were) to try to fix the problem which always came back after a few months of use. After being in apples care 4 times in one year, they offered to replace it with my present white macbook. This one, beyond bugs like safari or mail crashing now and again, has been pretty good the year that I have had it. It has also been in once to replace the top case which had cracked. That is apparantly also a commen problem according to apple! Their extended warranty is also way too expensive. A computer should last three years. You should have to pay an arm and leg extra for that. I still use them because they have a better hardware and software design, not that they are more reliable.

[tonyinosaka]

Well, in this world, stuff happens. And, Andy, when machines get used hard, as yours and mine do, stuff is gonna happen more often. Like many commenting above, I have been very lucky. Lots of others, too, I guess, since Apple is tops again in customer satisfaction . So maybe it's more than luck. Maybe it's just computers, and not Apple. Or entropy. Dunno. But thanks for the great job with the diagnostic steps...and good luck with your next machine. ;-)

[GaryPDX]

I don't get this article. Usually Andy is entertaining and informative. Sometimes the entertainment becomes so hyperbolic that it skips right over the general truth, which is that Macs are known for being great machines. Don't believe it? Ask JD Powers or whomever. Actually, I don't think Andy believes it either, so this article is a rare dud. Also, I was intrigued by the reference to website "appledefects.com" as I had never heard of it. It turns out this is a ghost site with the latest post to the forums there dated 6 January 2009 and the last article dated 12 July 2007.

[nehalem]

Another great ihnatko article.
While we all love our Macs, with good reason, they are not perfect, hence the existance of all the help sites and the lines at the genius bar.
just as your machine breaking doesn't mean that they all break; your lack of problems doesn't mean that problems don't exist.


"Sorry, David Pogue he is not." Exactly. We get real world info from Andy, instead of cheerleading. And I tend to trust Andy Ihnatko's many years of mac experience more than people who claim to never have any problems ever

[kitko]

Andy, a word of advice - treat your computers like computers not like toasters.
Friend of mine replaced a Beige G3 about a year ago... he felt like, that machine is still working.
Early 2000 Tangerine iBook - still working, not problems
Early 2006 PowerBook - (Apple refurb) sold to a friend for half the original price in 2008 - still working, no problems
2005 PowerMac G5 - no problems in recording studio setup
2008 MB Pro - (Apple refurb) - left speaker DOA, replaced within 24 hours at Authorized Reseller.
A journalist friend of mine is still using his 2004 G4 iBook
I could go on with 2000 iMac I bought as a collector's item and two late 80s Mac II SEs that are still capable of doing DTP...

[k2director]

I may be wrong, but isn't Andy the guy who publicly confessed to intentionally breaking a display model Mac being sold by the retail store he worked for back in 1984, just so he could later buy the same machine from the store at a "defective merchandise" discount?
If I'm wrong, apologies to Andy! If I'm right...well, then we might just have to credit his current tech problems to karma. ;-)

[leskern]

That's the guy.

John Lennon was a genius... except for the "instant" part I guess.



Hey Andy, Netbooks run under 300 bills. Perhaps load up on a crate or two. They are disposable.

[albertw]

spinoza2 said:

Sorry, David Pogue he is not.

I'll bet you're one of those humorless WinDoz Switchers. Not a REAL Mac person. If you were a REAL Mac person, you'd know who Andy was. You wouldn't need to look him up on Amazon.

[spinoza2]

?I'll bet you're one of those humorless WinDoz Switchers. Not a REAL Mac person. If you were a REAL Mac person, you'd know who Andy was. You wouldn't need to look him up on Amazon.?

Na, I'm more ur-Mac than you could ever imagine: with a NeXT slab as my main machine for most of the 90s, I was using OS X before you even knew what it was. I even had OS 7 running on my NeXT with an emulator. When I got my first PowerBook with OS X a bit later, I didn't skip a beat, and I certainly didn't need a book from Andy of Skewed-Humor-Fame. Speaking of manuals, I'd suggest he read his countryman's Eats, Shoots, & Leaves, he could use it.

Now, I do know Guy Kawasaki, who possesses a much better sense of style and humor, and from whom Andy could learn a few things as well (and who personally introduced me to my Newton back in '94...).