Apple used to have be the company that made the hardware and software that went hand in hand from day 1. What is going on these days? At lost of these posters have valid points- this is not to be expected from a company that's making both the hardware and its software to have major bugs.
Why is this so hard for you to understand? If it were a hardware bug, it would affect every device they shipped. Clearly that is not the case.
No need to get snarky. I design for a living, and I make a good living, which allows me to buy a whole lot of stuff like this I probably don't need. Mostly this stuff works as advertised. In the case of macbook pro, sold as having fantastic battery life and excellent graphics I expected better.
In this case I would guess there are some issues with the silicon. I have had to use silicon with similar problems. A combination of tolerances on supply voltage, tolerance on bypass capacitors etc., can all effect a percentage of production, not the whole. Interestingly, if you look at the errata for most complex semiconductors these days, you will see issues that may affect only some, even within the same silicon revision. Such a problem as this flicker will be hard to weed out during test, since it only occurs at lower backlight intensity, and not all/every time.
I could also not think too hard, and say 'clearly if this were a soft(firm)ware bug it would affect every device they shipped.
I hope it IS just soft(firm)ware, then I can live in hope that it will be fixed any day soon.
My 17-inch MacBook Pro has had no problems since installing the firmware update... but then it never exhibited this problem to begin with (which is odd, since I'm exclusively using the 9600 performance chipset, both on battery and on adapter). Another flawless fix for a problem I've never experienced, courtesy of Apple
You don't know what you're talking about. No mass produced product in the world can be assured of 100% lack of defects. It's not possible for Apple to extensively test every single one of the millions of computers they sell.
Since it is not effecting every single laptop, it is clearly not a "bug" of the design but rather some kind of manufacturing defect, which cannot ever be eliminated.
The fact that Apple had to release a patch because it affected so many people means it IS a bug.
The fact that Apple had to release a patch may only mean that the manufacturing defect can be circumvented by software. Or that it is a bug. Since Apple doesn't say it upfront, it's up to speculation on everybody's part. A post-modernist would say then that all speculations would be true. Or was it Schrodinger? Can't remember .
Bottom line - hardware problem requires replacement. If problem is of hardware origins (information Apple should come out with), I'm finding extremely unfair if Apple is buyin their time and trying to avoid proper fix by offering software updates. Specially to customers who have paid premium money for that product...
Hardware cannot be fixed by software but hardware problems can be circumvented by software updates.
Some people think only software is bugged but since complex hardware nowadaysis either built with help of software tools or contains software on it, as in 'firmware'. And by a rule of thum, since widespread usage of flash memory, firmware is upgradeable.
I had a really hard problem once, in an engineering project, with modems devices freezing after a fixed number of reading operationson an engineering project once... As it became clear that the problem relied on the hardware itself, we look to our options. We were able to eliminate the problem simply by switching to another init string. A really simple solution, but it took many hours of work...
Comments
Why is this so hard for you to understand? If it were a hardware bug, it would affect every device they shipped. Clearly that is not the case.
No need to get snarky. I design for a living, and I make a good living, which allows me to buy a whole lot of stuff like this I probably don't need. Mostly this stuff works as advertised. In the case of macbook pro, sold as having fantastic battery life and excellent graphics I expected better.
In this case I would guess there are some issues with the silicon. I have had to use silicon with similar problems. A combination of tolerances on supply voltage, tolerance on bypass capacitors etc., can all effect a percentage of production, not the whole. Interestingly, if you look at the errata for most complex semiconductors these days, you will see issues that may affect only some, even within the same silicon revision. Such a problem as this flicker will be hard to weed out during test, since it only occurs at lower backlight intensity, and not all/every time.
I could also not think too hard, and say 'clearly if this were a soft(firm)ware bug it would affect every device they shipped.
I hope it IS just soft(firm)ware, then I can live in hope that it will be fixed any day soon.
at least apple actually does fix things and sends out updates.
Can't think of many IT companies that don't to be honest.
If you want to be silly go ahead but won't get much attention from me at least.
Er ... but you replied to him ....
Clearly, some people are experiencing problems and that sucks, but there are also a lot of us who aren't.
That's some great insight -- look forward to your next nugget of wisdom!
I'm just sayin'.
You don't know what you're talking about. No mass produced product in the world can be assured of 100% lack of defects. It's not possible for Apple to extensively test every single one of the millions of computers they sell.
Since it is not effecting every single laptop, it is clearly not a "bug" of the design but rather some kind of manufacturing defect, which cannot ever be eliminated.
The fact that Apple had to release a patch because it affected so many people means it IS a bug.
Er ... but you replied to him ....
I know.. But I wanted to know if he was stupid or was acting stupid
I know.. But I wanted to know if he was stupid or was acting stupid
Can't say if he is stupid or not but with a degree of certainty I can say you are being petty.
Can't say if he is stupid or not but with a degree of certainty I can say you are being petty.
Thank you for your analysis Dr. Phil.
Just wondering...
Bottom line - hardware problem requires replacement. If problem is of hardware origins (information Apple should come out with), I'm finding extremely unfair if Apple is buyin their time and trying to avoid proper fix by offering software updates. Specially to customers who have paid premium money for that product...
Hardware cannot be fixed by software but hardware problems can be circumvented by software updates.
Some people think only software is bugged but since complex hardware nowadaysis either built with help of software tools or contains software on it, as in 'firmware'. And by a rule of thum, since widespread usage of flash memory, firmware is upgradeable.
I had a really hard problem once, in an engineering project, with modems devices freezing after a fixed number of reading operationson an engineering project once... As it became clear that the problem relied on the hardware itself, we look to our options. We were able to eliminate the problem simply by switching to another init string. A really simple solution, but it took many hours of work...
Thank you for your analysis Dr. Phil.
You're welcome NasserAE.