People used to knock Detroit for "planned obsolesence", cars would be slightly changed each model year to keep making people buy the new models. Now some cars are unchanged from year to year (remember the pt cruiser? the Ford e-series van and Ranger went unchanged for-ever), and the average car on the road is 10 years old and is only half-way through life at 100,000 miles, instead of being delivered with odometers that used to roll-over at 99,999 like the 1987 Plymouth I test drove last week.
Now the guys at Wired have torn down the latest "New MacBook Pro" and they pronounce it" Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable" They still give customers the choice of a really super cool thin computer that can't be fixed or upgraded or something slightly less cool that you can mess with, but the market keeps buying the stuff you can't fix. I've always hated apple stuff because it's the only company that makes phones and computers that you can't change the batteries, even though you know rechargeable batteries wear out after only a year or so of use, and they know most users will just toss their device after a year or two and get the latest one anyway instead of going on ebay and buying whatever 3 hours of sheer-hell battery replacement kit and pry-open tool and doing it yourself which I tried once and found that battery only lasted for about 6 more months.
some of the more egregioius stuff:
The 2008 Air went in a new direction entirely: It sacrificed performance and upgradeability in exchange for a thinner design. Its RAM is soldered to the logic board (as in the Retina MacBook Pro), so upgrading it means replacing the entire expensive logic board. And like all laptops, the Air has a built-in consumable. The MacBook Air’s battery was rated to last just 300 charges when it was introduced. But unlike laptops before it, replacing the Air’s battery required specialized tools and removing some 19 screws.
Now the guys at Wired have torn down the latest "New MacBook Pro" and they pronounce it" Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable" They still give customers the choice of a really super cool thin computer that can't be fixed or upgraded or something slightly less cool that you can mess with, but the market keeps buying the stuff you can't fix. I've always hated apple stuff because it's the only company that makes phones and computers that you can't change the batteries, even though you know rechargeable batteries wear out after only a year or so of use, and they know most users will just toss their device after a year or two and get the latest one anyway instead of going on ebay and buying whatever 3 hours of sheer-hell battery replacement kit and pry-open tool and doing it yourself which I tried once and found that battery only lasted for about 6 more months.
some of the more egregioius stuff:
The 2008 Air went in a new direction entirely: It sacrificed performance and upgradeability in exchange for a thinner design. Its RAM is soldered to the logic board (as in the Retina MacBook Pro), so upgrading it means replacing the entire expensive logic board. And like all laptops, the Air has a built-in consumable. The MacBook Air’s battery was rated to last just 300 charges when it was introduced. But unlike laptops before it, replacing the Air’s battery required specialized tools and removing some 19 screws.
...It was up to us: Did we want a machine that would be stuck with 2GB of RAM forever? Would we support laptops that required replacement every year or two as applications required more memory and batteries atrophied?...empowered Apple to release the even-less-serviceable iPad two years later: The battery was glued into the case. And again, we voted with our wallets and purchased the device despite its built-in death clock. In the next iteration of the iPad, the glass was fused to the frame.
No comments:
Post a Comment