News for Friday, 25 August 2006

For several weeks, we have reported and published news related to the Airport Express reliability issue. Yesterday, we noticed that Apple has LOCKED the topic dedicated to this issue on its own Apple Discussions Forum!
Is this meant to silent customer reports on this topic which has been viewed 14,819 times and collected 379 replies (here)?
It's difficult to imagine that Apple did not do it on purpose.
Of course such a decision will not improve relationships between Apple and its customers, and for sure will not calm down defective APX owners.
This manoeuvre is strategically irrelevant since this reliability issue has spread throughout the web and beyond. Indeed, the Sydney Herald Tribune recently published an article reporting the unfortunate adventure of an Australian citizen and his short-life APX, while pointing out the huge numbers of similar cases documented on the web via websites or personal webpages; while all those facts are denied by the Local Apple Representatives. Apple should learn to "Think Different".
From our last news related to this topic, we have noted a 20% increase in reports for defective APX submitted via our dedicated webpage.
Based on those data, the average lifespan of the reported defective APX manufactured by Foxconn in 2004 remains constant: around 16 months, as illustrated by the chart below.

The most impressive change concerns the defective APX manufactured in 2005; with a number of reports that more than doubled within 10 days. As shown on the chart below, it clearly demonstrate that the defective APX has an average lifespan around 16 months (first chart from recorded data on August 10th, second on August 23rd).


By the end of 2006, the number of reports of defective APX corresponding to mid-2005 production weeks should increase while the first cases of dead APX leaving Foxconn production lines in the second half 2005 should appear.
We expect Apple will quickly react to avoid altering its image as a "high quality standard company", especially in light of the recent reliability issues recorded for its products (see recent ArsTechnica article).
While Apple just launched a worldwide recall program for 1.8 millions notebook batteries for safety reason, it might have been better for customers, and for sure Apple would have reacted faster, if some defective APX had ignited fires instead of simply ceased working.
JCJ

Roland has contacted ATI and Apple concerning the "display rotation" feature of the graphic cards offered as BTO with the MacPro.
Here's his rather disappointing report:

I have just received a rather bad news for Pro users relying on display rotation feature of OSX.4.
I was on the way to order a MacPro from the AppleStore, but I had to stop the process for the following reason: I really need the display rotation feature.
As I was expecting it, the nVidia GeForce 7300 GT does not support it.
So I thought I had to invest 350 euros more for a Radeon X1900 XT...
No, this card does not support this crucial feature for my work.
As documented in an apple TechNote (302219):
"Some" video cards "may" include support for display rotation in Mac OS X 10.4.

One will probably have to wait for a driver update, if not a firmware update.
The good news in this story is the answer obtained by Roland when asking ATI for the future update of the Mac Edition models.

Apple has been releasing PCI Express based machines for a few months now and some do ship with ATI OEM cards.
There is no official announcement from ATI on retail PCI Express based cards for Mac computers, but I would expect cards to be announced and available by the end of this year.

JCJ

It is now official, after stopping business around its hard drive-based MP3 player models, Dell has ended flash memory-based MP3 players. The reason is probably linked to the rather lower than expected financial results of Dell, the computer giant has decided to focus on its original business (cheap PCs).
From this adventure, Dell has learned that offering an aggressively priced MP3 player by just assembling electronic components does not turn this product into a blockbuster.
Will Microsoft forthcoming MP3 player models be more successful in competing with iPods?