Apple cancels Christmas... if you want a 27 inch iMac
All-in-one suffers multitude of problems
Apple has slammed the brakes on shipments of its much coveted 27 inch iMac after users were driven cross eyed by flickering screens and other problems with the machines.
The problems with the machines have been detailed on imac.squeaked.com, where Mac apostles have been forced to openly question their faith.
Now it seems that while Apple's UK store is offering the 21.5 inch machines within 24 hours, the 27 inch models are now attracting at least a two week wait.
The imac.squeaked website reports users have been experiencing problems including cracked glass, flickering displays, yellow tinged screens and noisy screens. It also mentions drive failures.
Flickering displays are the most popular problem, so to speak, with users reporting bars appearing across their screens, dead pixels, and blackouts.
However, the "noisy screens" issue seems even more bizarre, with users reporting "whistles", "high pitch noises" and a "high frequent [sic] noise f****ing up my ears".
A number claimed that running Windows made the noise disappear.
We called Apple to see what it had to say. Like anyone wanting a 27 inch iMac, we're still waiting.
However, Allthingsdigital did get a comment. Of sorts.
“The new iMac has been a huge hit and we are working hard to fulfil orders as quickly as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience or delay in delivery this may cause our customers,” a spokesman intoned.
But, Allthingsdigital added, the firm did not address the alleged problems or their relation to the stretched out shipping times. ®
COMMENTS
Punctuation
for the love of God man. Maybe the odd capital letter as well.
Out Source
Never underestimate how much out-sourced manufacturing can screw up a good design.
Because
People are reporting issues because, duh, there are issues.
Maybe it's a design flaw that didn't show up on the more carefully assembled prototypes but does show up when they go to mass manufacture. Maybe a bad batch of components got into the mix. Maybe a batch of finished machines was built where the cheap outsourced manufacturing department and cheap outsourced quality control department both managed to be asleep at the wheel at the same time and let a bunch of lemons escape to distribution. Either way, it happened. It happens quite often.
This sort of problem child product isn't the first from Apple. Apple isn't the only company to drop a truckload of faulty gear on it's unsuspecting customers. The computer industry isn't the only one which has these sorts of problems. Big companies are just as vulnerable, maybe even more so because they're more likely to be building mass-produced items to cost in a cheap semi-skilled labour market and the numbers involved are much higher when it all goes Tiger Woods. Apple aren't immune to it just because they're Apple. ;-)
These problems are nothing new either, though in days gone by you'd take the item back for exchange or refund and maybe moan a bit to your mates at the pub about it. Now, people get online on a dozen forums, Facebook and Twitter and moan about it, and other people who had the same problem join in until there's a big echo chamber effect where a typical product problem starts to sound like the company is deliberately churning out broken hardware.
P.S. I'm sure Apple will replace your keyboard with one that has working SHIFT keys if you ask them. :)
Noisy Screen
Bit specific to identfy its the screen thats at fault.. it is an all in one so there is more than just a screen in that box, or is that just the mac way of identifying components? the bit with light is called a screen no matter what it actually is...the box on the desk = hard driver whereas to another its called the CPU.
I have noticed some graphics cards squeal when displaying certain images/resolutions, not sure if its bad caps or just the cards.. but I can well believe that it happens on the mac but not when windows is installed! its a different screen image afterall!
Anyway as always: Bad components always = bad product.
sounds like these gold plated turds are still made of turd! what a surprise. I'm sure the gold plate is nice though. go on give it another polish..
51/2 inch FookUp
Tell my wife that you can get truly rogered by 5 1/2 inches.
