Apple shares MacBook break-in tips
Easy no more
Apple has published instructions for upgrading hard drives and RAM in its MacBook and MacBook Pro lines, and user-friendliness took another step backwards.
Before the "unibody" MacBook and MacBook Pros were introduced last October, memory replacement in both was a breeze. The MacBook in particular was an upgrader's delight, with both its RAM and its hard drive easily accessible by even the least handy of users.
No more.
Whereas a RAM upgrade on the older MacBook Pro was a three-screw affair, you now need to remove eight screws of three different lengths to gain access to the RAM slots of both the MacBook and the 15-inch MacBook Pro.
Apple's flagship 17-inch MacBook Pro ups the screw count to 10, also of three different lengths. Instructions for upgrading its RAM or hard drive include the helpful suggestion of "note the screw lengths and locations so you can replace the screws correctly. Put them aside in a safe place."
Battery-replacement instructions for the big boy are simple: don't. As we noted earlier, an ailing battery in a 17-incher requires a trip to an Apple-authorized service provider.
Clearly, Apple doesn't want everyday users mucking about inside of its precious machines. For example, although the Mac Pro remains easily user-serviceable - at least at the drive, RAM, and card level - replacing an iMac's hard drive is not a job for mom nor pop.
Upgrading your Mac has never been easy. And it just got harder. ®
COMMENTS
Careful there Asus N10 overhype ahoy!
On that Mac I am sure he'll run Windows at the same time as OS X and at faster speed than on a N10. Crysis on a Nvidia at 1920 by 1200 at full speed on his NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT with 512MB of GDDR3.
Enjoy your lowest possible settings in Crysis just to barely make it playable. if you buy this for crysis/crysis warhead..
i think you should go get other notebook instead.
Crysis warhead will not. run much better then barely playable..at lowest setting.
especially if you play in multiplayer... , unless you just want to join the game then get kill right away.
@AC "get angry, be cheaper and buy a netbook"
I did.
I bought a sweet little Assu N10, which plays Crysis at respectable rates for a micro-portable. Oh, and running W7 too.
What's that game the you can play on Mac again? Shufflepuck cafe or something? I guess at least with a MAc you never find crowded games servers, there's enough out there for all three of you!
Batteries
Nearly every laptop I've encountered has a swappable battery - many even hotswappable as long as you're on AC. It's ludicrous that one has to take a laptop into the shop to get a battery replaced.
With many PC laptops, it's usually just a couple of lock switches and it slides out. 0 screws. You can then take the battery to the shop and get a new one, and even if they don't have a new battery immediately, you can still run your laptop on AC meanwhile.
Whereas with Apple laptops as it seems, You have to take the whole unit into the shop and have your laptop inaccessible while you wait for it to be "repaired" whereas if it was properly designed, you could self-replace the battery.
This isn't an operating system or platform debate. this is a practical design debate.
Say what you want
but I get tech support for life on my apple laptop over here
--small difference between that and my Dell where I had to learn Indian-English and learn ultra-patience waiting on a long distance call while someone read off list items on a screen that I learned about when I was 3 years old about what troubleshooting steps to do... then the laptop died (no upgrade, no nothing just sat on desk and used all the time) after 1 1/2 years. Then when opened it found out hard drive was smaller than ordered....
be cheap, by a PC,
get angry, be cheaper and buy a netbook,
then get angry at the SOD with an apple laptop without issues or has things taken care of for lifetime ownership, get free training on how to use their laptop, OS, and applications to their full advantage....
sit back and smell the Dell
Paris because she prefers the simple life ;-)
I just realised something...
Mac users are like the religious people of the world. PC users are like the atheists.
Mac users get riled up when anyone attacks their precious brand belief.
PC users have NO brand beliefs (if they do, they also apply to Mac hardware. NVIDIA vs ATI, Intel vs AMD etc.) and as such can't really be insulted.
An atheist can offend the religious with their very existence. The religious are nothing but an illogical phenomenon to atheists and not really worth getting riled up over. Until they start killing people in the name of "Love".
In the same way, generic PC users can offend the Mac people of the world, but Mac users are just an illogical phenomenon to the generic PC users of the world.
Alien 'cause I like to probe ;-)
