Warped Macbook Pro :(

[Pick Holder]

Even going back to 386 days, PCs are notoriously unreliable. They are built from these days bits from different manufacturers and you get incompatabilitly issues. This is a fact. You can build two PCs from scratch with the same hardware and the same installation program and both will not configure the same. In my visual pinball cabinets I sometimes need to reinstall windows 2 or 3 times to get them all working. I am sorry, but that is not isolated - it is on every build. Yes, I do know what I am doing, I actually used to be Microsoft certified back in the early 2000s when the millenium bug earnt me a small fortune.

I do not buy NEW mac products - I can not afford them. I go for ones a minimum of 4 years old and thenI sell them when the new OS stops working so generally about 8 years old. In that time I maybe loose 20% of what I originally paid. If that was a PC you would throw it away or maybe repurpose as a jukebox or mame machine as they are worth maybe £20-40.

In all my years on a mac I have only ever had to reload the OS once. It is not like a windows machine that goes slow after 6 months or anything like that. I switch this machine on every morning - and it comes on.

For what I do (a lot of audio recording and watching porn) a Mac is fantastic. I can run windows 7, windows 10 and linux in Parallels desktop easily as well if I wish - but I now only use an old jukebox label software that is windows based.

Anyway - this thread is going to turn into a MAC vis PC thread soon, so I will shut up - as a lot of you will disagree and a lot will agree with my opinions.

Lets talk about:

Revenge from mars original monitor vs LCD?

How about old fashioned lamps vs LEDs?

CGC remakes vs originals?

Colordmd vs Pin2dmd?

 

[PBrookfield]

Problem with that being that Macs have been PCs for a very long time now. They're built from the same parts pool. You can install Mac OSX on any PC you want, provided you defeat a couple of lockouts put in by Apple, and provided that Apple ever shipped a machine with those parts in it (which means there's a driver out there already.)

I also disagree with some of the other things you're stating as fact - but I'll agree that it's probably not productive to continue this holy war when you mention a few other good ones that are more topical for the site!

 

[strobey]

Lets talk about:

Revenge from mars original monitor vs LCD?

How about old fashioned lamps vs LEDs?

CGC remakes vs originals?

Colordmd vs Pin2dmd?

Original monitor. Gomez designed the whole pin around that CRT. The contrast is far better and the scanlines are more visually pleasing and as they intended. Hotter, heavier, louder, more dangerous.. i mean why not put a battery motor in an old VW camper?

Lamps are better. They run hotter and use more power, but these are the only downsides and are perfectly managable in a home environment. If operating then i agree, but not **** ones that give you glorcoma.
Coloured LEDs are just a no. Never. There's no need for them, the insets are already tinted and they're designed to have a warm coloured light behind them. Coloured GI and translights don't get me started. Williams may as well have employed blind artists and given them a paste brush...

CGC done a great job, but the originals will always be best. My MM is as good as the day it rolled off the line and all original boards / parts.


Tim

 

[Deleted member 2463]

Apple are definitely against people fixing their stuff, they would rather sell entire new items than service them. That's much better money for them, it is obvious.

They go far beyond the valid reasons Neil suggests for changes in design - increasingly with newer models they make decisions that are bone-headed at best and malicious at worst; things that neither make a more reliable or cheaper product, but just makes it harder to fix. Including for themselves.

It's also quite hard to justify being against chinese copies of parts if it is deliberately made as hard as possible to source OEM parts from Apple themselves. Reason for that of course is that they don't want anyone to fix their stuff except themselves, in which case they're quite happy to tell you to go jump, or tell you that you need <x> and <y> parts. In believing all of that, I'm happy to go with the words of someone whose entire business is based on repairing Apple products (why Apple products if he seems to dislike them so much? It's because Apple users are the only ones that are overwhelmingly prepared to pay for repairs to their stuff instead of buying new.)

As well as - y'know - outright griping that repairs cost them money https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/technology-50505342

complete and total utter codswallop. nobody at apple is designing something based on the repair cost of it. they are designing it on the desirability and ease of use and profitability of the product including reliability thats why Apple's products sell like ****ing hotcakes.

Apple's MacBooks Are the Most Reliable On the Market: Study ...fortune.com › 2018/03/12 › apple-macbooks-most-reli...

Its not hard to source OEM parts form Apple. just be an authorised service dealer and they will send you want you want all day.

Apple's entire design team are bonused on product reliability! Do they get everything perfect? Hell no, but they get it a lot more perfect than just about every manufacturer on the planet!

Have you ever tried to get a Samsung or dell product repaired? The reason apple customers are willing to pay for repairs is because Apple make it easy and painless to get stuff repaired. If they made it hard, nobody would bother and they'd all just buy a new laptop. Pay £240 quid and we will replace your screen to day sir and you can collect it at 5pm. Hell yes. Or with Dell or just about anyone else, pay £240 quid and you'll get it back in two weeks if you are lucky.

and for just about every apple platform, there are companies that sell parts for battery replacement, screen replacement, disk replacement

Neil.
(who works for the largest seller of Apple stuff in the country (after Apple obvs)).

Here is my work MacBook, still running as good as the day I got it.

 

[Wizcat]

If you got a flat tyre on your BMW, and the only option to get a new tyre was to take it to an authorised BMW repair centre. That would suck.

If once you got to the authorised repair centre they said 'well we can't replace the tyre, we have to replace the entire axle which comes with two wheels and new tyres, discs etc. That's just the way BMW supplies them to us. Oh, and that's £5,000 please'... That would suck

Yet this is what Apple are doing with their repairs. And people just accept it

 

[PBrookfield]

Let's just agree to completely and totally disagree Neil.

If you got a flat tyre on your BMW, and the only option to get a new tyre was to take it to an authorised BMW repair centre. That would suck.

If once you got to the authorised repair centre they said 'well we can't replace the tyre, we have to replace the entire axle which comes with two wheels and new tyres, discs etc. That's just the way BMW supplies them to us. Oh, and that's £5,000 please'... That would suck

Yet this is what Apple are doing with their repairs. And people just accept it

It runs deeper and more complex (less straight-forward) than even that, but this forum really isn't the place for it, I'm seeing. Fair enough, it's truly off-topic after all...

 

[cyberkryten]

If you got a flat tyre on your BMW, and the only option to get a new tyre was to take it to an authorised BMW repair centre. That would suck.

Clearly you've never tried to get the warranty renewed on a Porsche!

P: Sir, I'm afraid the tyres aren't the Porsche fitment, so we cannot renew the warranty
Me: But there were none available worldwide and the lead time was 12 weeks, so YOU supplied an alternative
P: Well, they're available now, so I can get you a quote...

 

[Matrixnetuk]

My old emac still going 18years later lol

 

[Durzel]

If you got a flat tyre on your BMW, and the only option to get a new tyre was to take it to an authorised BMW repair centre. That would suck.

If once you got to the authorised repair centre they said 'well we can't replace the tyre, we have to replace the entire axle which comes with two wheels and new tyres, discs etc. That's just the way BMW supplies them to us. Oh, and that's £5,000 please'... That would suck

Yet this is what Apple are doing with their repairs. And people just accept it

This is the closest to the truth.

I pretty much exclusively use Apple stuff now, got a latest gen fully loaded MBP, use(d) an 5k iMac at work, have got iPhone and Airpods, and I'm typing on a Magic Keyboard, etc.

But, Apple are not infallible. I had the previous gen MBP (the one @myPinballs has) and if you had a sticky key problem (common) or some other problem with the keyboard then the whole top cover has to be replaced. There was no option to replace individual keys. if anything bigger than dust got under the key you were screwed.

Apple redesigned the keyboard more than once during its life, but never solved the issue they created themselves by making the keys have like 0.1 micron of travel. They didn't have to design it like that, they could have made the whole thing 1mm thicker and no one would have noticed or cared. It would've still been svelte, and people - particularly professionals who buy MacBook Pros - would have had a functional, tactile keyboard. Don't take my word for it, there's plenty of evidence around the Web.

The current gen MBP has a redesigned keyboard with more travel. So Apple knew their previous design was flawed, and fixed it, but to listen to some they are without fault.

They make great looking stuff, for sure, but let's not pretend that having to spec the amount of memory and HDD space you think you'll need for the whole lifetime of the device, at exorbitant prices relative to the cost of the parts, is anything but anti-consumer.

 

[Big Phil]

I keep reading MBP as Man Bear Pig.

 

[Deleted member 2463]

If the tyre went on my BMW I’d probably buy a new car LOL!

Apple aren’t perfect for sure but they are way better than anyone else in the market so whilst you say people just accept it - compared to others that’s a tiny minority. But I reiterate my point - Apple aren’t building it to make it hard to fix they are building it to sell and make money. NOBODY in Apple wakes up and goes to work with the objective “lets make it hard to fix”.

People accept it because they see the value! Hey if they didn’t Apple wouldn’t have the one of most loyal bases in the world.

There is value in outstanding customer experience and clearly given they are the biggest company in the world it’s working.

Tell me one other electronics company where you can take your device in the morning and have it fixed an working by the same or next day. People value it, Apple know it, and they design to deliver it.

Cheers,
Neil.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[PBrookfield]

Ah, it's been a while since I've seen a full-blown Apple-related Reality Distortion Field. Takes me back.

Someone should tell Louis Rossmann that his entire business model is impossible because there's no market for his services! I wager he'd be somewhat shocked.

 

[Deleted member 2463]

I love it when someone claims there is Apple reality zone but then puts words into people’s mouths. Nobody said there isn’t a market-

Rossman business lets be generous and say its worth a million?

Apple’s worth is how much?

Cheers,
Neil.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Deleted member 2463]

Durzel - I do agree on MacBook Pro they made some ugly mistakes on it and the ****ing dongles are a **** show but that wasn’t to make it un-repairable- it was to make the thinnest lightest laptop.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[PBrookfield]

If I thought you were looking at things with a neutral point of view, I'm sure you'd not say half of the things you've said. So I'm not sure there's any point me arguing.

Perhaps it was daft of me to expect someone that works for a company that has a hand in selling Apple hardware, to publicly say anything against them. My own fault there.

 

[myPinballs]

For anyone interested I have now got an appointment at the apple store in leeds next thursday afternoon , so i dont need to go to sheffield. Thanks god for that! Would have been almost a full day written off to sort it out. Pinball repairs can continue uninterrupted mostly. Now we can wait and see what apples support is like.

Now you can go back to the mac vs pc debate.... I really couldn't give a **** what people use!!!

 

[PBrookfield]

Hopefully it's good news they have for ya, mate

 

[Kenny Taylor]

Apple customer care is second to none.

 

[Dave Bishop]

If you pay for it!

 

[Big Phil]

 

[myPinballs]

Faith in Apple restored.

Just returned form my appointment with the tech guy at the apple store. Its getting repaired for Free.

New Battery, Top case, Keyboard & Speakers

I also had a good old chat with the MacBook Pro tech guy regarding classic pinball and arcade repair! Top bloke My business name and email address always starts a conversation!

Only down side is it will take a week to fix, but thats due to the pandamic.

Typing this on my trusty Mac mini (2011) Strange being without your main business machine though

 

[Pick Holder]

Faith in Apple restored.

Just returned form my appointment with the tech guy at the apple store. Its getting repaired for Free.

New Battery, Top case, Keyboard & Speakers

I also had a good old chat with the MacBook Pro tech guy regarding classic pinball and arcade repair! Top bloke My business name and email address always starts a conversation!

Only down side is it will take a week to fix, but thats due to the pandamic.

Typing this on my trusty Mac mini (2011) Strange being without your main business machine though

Good news there!

I once had a failed 5 year old wired keyboard and they swapped it for a brand new one....

Also when I dropped my iPhone 4 a week old, smashed the screen - they replaced the phone.

The way I look at buying apple to another brand.
1. I like macs - they work!
2. It is like buying a pinball NIB from Phil Palmer vs Europe - you pay for the service element.
3. Even after 7 years - it still has a decent value when you sell it.

Like Jim - I do not really give a rats chuff if you want to use a windows PC, a linux machine, an Atari ST (which I still have and use as a master clock for recording). I like what I like.

 

[Durzel]

I do like the Apple ecosystem. I like the fact my watch unlocks my laptop as soon as I wake it in the morning when I start work. I like the fact I can find something on my iPhone in Safari and then open that page on my MBP the next time I'm on it. AirPods "just work" for video conferencing, and work as soon as I put them in my ear. There's a lot of nice quality of life stuff if you buy in to it all.

That said, you pay a kings ransom for this, more - I think - than the products are strictly worth from a "bill of materials" point of view. I could never justify Apple charging £hundreds for memory and SSD upgrades on MBPs, and consumers having to overspec their laptops because neither of these things can be upgraded.

Being able to walk into an Apple store and get a sympathetic beyond warranty repair with no hassle is great. In terms of @myPinballs situation though I should damn well hope they would replace an obviously failed battery on a laptop where users can't replace the battery.

To add some counter-balance - I took a work iMac in to Apple which had a known fault that affects 27" iMacs around that age, and they tested it and said they couldn't replicate the problem and basically sent me on my way. Ended up having to pay for a third party to fix it.

I'd love to know why they replaced your iPhone 4 after you dropped it!

 

[Pick Holder]

I'd love to know why they replaced your iPhone 4 after you dropped it!

I literally went in and told the guy that I was a dick and had not bought a case and is there anything he could please do.
ie - I was nice - admitted my mistake.
He then said 'if you tell me you arent happy with the battery life I can give you a replacement' - then he smiled.
So it was a warranty replacement down to the battery life problem.....

 

[BigIan]

I find it hilarious the guys on here that tell people they are idiots for buying into Apple ecosystem but don’t bat an eyelid at spending £7k+ on a toy and thinking it’s great value, with half written code.

 

[PBrookfield]

I find it hilarious the guys on here that tell people they are idiots for buying into Apple ecosystem but don’t bat an eyelid at spending £7k+ on a toy and thinking it’s great value, with half written code.

Anyone in particular you're thinking of with that? I've never spent even a grand on a pinball, and none of the other guys I'm seeing in the thread are that sort of Stern/JJ/etc buyer. If anything, the people that are sometimes in that demographic, are Apple supporters...

 

[Monkeyboypaul]

AirPods "just work" for video conferencing, and work as soon as I put them in my ear.

I was a bit sceptical, but bought some AirPods for running and now I’m thoroughly impressed with them generally. Listening into Webinars or whatever while doing a cheeky 5k is so easy and handy (stop, catch breathe, speak, continue...). They just needed some cheap in-ear silicone mould adapters to avoid dropping out [of my ears].

 

[BigIan]

Anyone in particular you're thinking of with that? I've never spent even a grand on a pinball, and none of the other guys I'm seeing in the thread are that sort of Stern/JJ/etc buyer. If anything, the people that are sometimes in that demographic, are Apple supporters...

Not really aimed at anyone in particular, just an observation...

 

[C&C]

FWIW, I used to be a fan of PCs and worked with them for many years (from 80386 onwards). Since then, I'd always had a PC from work at home.

First experience of Apple was using an iPhone and iPad at work in around 2011.

I actually bought my own first computer in 2014 when I left the place I'd worked at for years. It was a Macbook Pro Retina (mid 2014 model). I bought my very first mobile at the same time (always had had a work one up until then) - that was an iPhone 6. I still use both products every day for both work and home use. The only fault I've had was the cable for the macbook power supply wore out, oh, and the letters have worn off a couple of the most used keys. The phone battery is still at 83% health and still lasts me all day, which I think is good for a 6 year old phone.

I cannot fault the Macbook - just open it and it's instantly ready for use. Also I love not constantly getting hassled about updates.

The one thing that is a pain (as someone already mentioned) is that you cannot easily upgrade. The Macbook, I went for 8Gb and 500Gb SSD, and the phone 128Gb memory. Whilst both devices are still perfectly usable, it would be much better if they were upgradable. I'd like more memory in the Macbook - especially for quite complex Photoshop and some video editing. Also why do iPhones not come with a micro SD card slot?

A couple of years ago, specifically for the additional capacity (and upgradability if needed), I also bought an old Mac Pro (early 2009 model - the last model that can be easily upgraded), which is great for photoshop etc.. 32Gb RAM, 2 x 6 core Xeon processors, 2Gb NVidia GTX graphics, 4Tb HDD and 2 x 500Gb SSDs (the 2nd I added after buying it). It's now set up to dual boot - Mac OSX High Sierra from one SSD, or Windows 8.1 from the other. 95% or more of the time, I boot into OSX, and only use Windows for a couple of work things, and to run the occasional game that's not available on OSX. I find Windows very annoying - I mean, it works ok, but every time I use it, there seem to be more O/S updates, which often take quite some time to apply. I just find it a pain.


TL-DR
Apple hardware is expensive and limiting with no easy upgradability, but is generally pretty reliable.

Apple operating systems and the general ecosystem is great - it just works, and enables you to get on and do whatever you need to do.

All obviously IMHO.

 

[Durzel]

I was a bit sceptical, but bought some AirPods for running and now I’m thoroughly impressed with them generally. Listening into Webinars or whatever while doing a cheeky 5k is so easy and handy (stop, catch breathe, speak, continue...). They just needed some cheap in-ear silicone mould adapters to avoid dropping out [of my ears].

Would be keen to know which ones you got. I bought some AirPods Pro for my niece but she doesn’t get on with them as they don’t sit securely in her ears at all. Have tried all the different tips supplied.