Delay of service
Aug. 9th, 2007 06:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
urbpanSorry about the delay in posting yesterday's Daily Zoo Animal; I had a technical problem.
In related news, someone should sue Apple for their incredibly shitty MacBook power cords. I just bought my second replacement cord (60w MagSafe Power Adapter), you know--the thing that you plug into the wall? Eighty bucks. We bought the first replacement cord 8 months ago. Of course this nifty doodad connects to the computer with a magnet, so if someone trips on it or yanks it, it pops off without throwing your laptop across the room. Unfortunately the cable itself is a super thin (eighth of an inch or so) and normal use will cause it to bend and break. This thing is also patented, so you can't go to Best Buy or Target or something and buy a cheap knock-off, you have to find the one Apple store within 50 miles (or 100 miles or more, God help you people out there) and talk to one of their "geniuses" (that's what it says on their uniforms) who will explain that there is no warranty on the new one you are buying, so you buy it with the sick feeling in the pit of your stomach that you will have to go back to that wretched mall within a year and drop another 80 bucks on the damn thing. I think if we do that, we'll have spent enough that we could have bought a Dell laptop for the price of the crApple power cords.
Think different.
In related news, someone should sue Apple for their incredibly shitty MacBook power cords. I just bought my second replacement cord (60w MagSafe Power Adapter), you know--the thing that you plug into the wall? Eighty bucks. We bought the first replacement cord 8 months ago. Of course this nifty doodad connects to the computer with a magnet, so if someone trips on it or yanks it, it pops off without throwing your laptop across the room. Unfortunately the cable itself is a super thin (eighth of an inch or so) and normal use will cause it to bend and break. This thing is also patented, so you can't go to Best Buy or Target or something and buy a cheap knock-off, you have to find the one Apple store within 50 miles (or 100 miles or more, God help you people out there) and talk to one of their "geniuses" (that's what it says on their uniforms) who will explain that there is no warranty on the new one you are buying, so you buy it with the sick feeling in the pit of your stomach that you will have to go back to that wretched mall within a year and drop another 80 bucks on the damn thing. I think if we do that, we'll have spent enough that we could have bought a Dell laptop for the price of the crApple power cords.
Think different.
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no subject
Date: 2007-08-09 10:45 pm (UTC)That's incredibly annoying. I'm relatively sure that the flying saucers and AC adapters made for the previous generation of PowerBooks have a one year warranty from new.
I understood the advantages of having an AC adapter power cord that breaks when I tried to fix my dad's laptop, a Gateway, where the AC jack was soldered to the motherboard. The AC adapter held up fine, but the plug on the computer broke from the repeated stresses. I had to solder a new plug onto the motherboard of the laptop. Not fun. Much cheaper to just replace the AC adapter.
If Apple doesn't solve this problem soon, I bet that someone will show up on eBay who can repair a broken cable for significantly less than the cost of replacement.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-10 12:36 am (UTC)course, the trick with that one, is having say, 2-3 inch of good wire at the magic connector end. the other part? i'd cut it all the way back to the brick, and put in a nice thick cable, if possible, opening the brick, and connecting inside.
apple probably using some stupid special 5 conductor wire, but that's the game.
if enough of those break, apple will hear about it.
i know they just released a brand new model with a smaller form factor too.
at a guess, i wonder how many people buy a new one, put their old "like new" in the box, and return it as defective. mmm.
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no subject
Date: 2007-08-10 10:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-09 11:02 pm (UTC)The danged things also run really hot and probably should have been recalled for safety reasons ages ago. Shig and I currently share one, because after the first $80, we were damned if we were going to spring for another just so both of us could charge up at the same time (yes, both of our cords died at the same time :P).
no subject
Date: 2007-08-10 01:45 am (UTC)FWIW
no subject
Date: 2007-08-10 12:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-10 03:43 pm (UTC)I've had plenty of issues with power cords on my non-Mac laptops, but usually chalk it up to user abuse. And I can order new ones cheaply from eBay so it isn't as big a deal.