[I]"Since lugging a full sized display is somewhat impractical, Mac Book Pros are used by photographers and art directors on location all the time.
?Madame DeFarge
Yes they are. Nevertheless, laptop screens cannot be relied on for critical editing for reasons already stated. If you are forced to rely on one, the results are a total crapshoot.
The point is, that Apple advertises a particular experience for the user, and it turns out that Apple may be stretching the specs to the point of falsehood.
Should they be allowed to get away with that?
BTW, as it turns out, the trackpad issue is now know as a major issue in all iBooks for that time frame. Apparently, this is not the first time that Apple has put a defective (or not as advertised) product out there and refused to take responsibility for it.
As to Apple's intimidation tactics with defect issues, I experienced that when I bought a MacBook G4. The track pad was defective but they claimed, rather strongly, that the reason it didn'y work was because I used hand lotion, and nearly every associate in the store was called upon to convince me that was true. Fortunately, I'd owned previous model Apple laptops that functioned just fine, with or without moisturized hands, so I didn't buy into that. I've also had posts deleted in their support section if I complained too strongly about an issue.
It's called a Powerbook G4.
I get a kick out of these people that complain that they've had threads deleted in the Apple Discussion Boards. DUH... it's Apple's Board on Apple's site, they're not gonna allow you to put anything you want on the discussions. It's also not the complaint department. If you want to complain, phone Apple or rant on some other Mac forum.
I'm upset about how much many of you are defending Apple on this blindly. I've gone through numerous Apple products and so far, Apple's products are the worst that I've experienced when it comes to reliability. Apple should pay more attention to 1. creating quality hardware and 2. selling what they're advertising.
2 out of 4 Apple laptops I've purchased had to be returned due to serious issues on arrival, and the two I've kept had "minor" but nontheless noticeable defects (bent hinge on PB and partially recessed power button on MBP).
1/2 iMacs I've purchased had to be returned because it randomly started making crazy sounds and freeze - deemed to be a logic board issue.
The Powerbook I've kept had its hard drive fail after 2 years and the display now disconnects when adjusting it - and I am by no means an abusive user.
Last but not least, my Airport Express just blew on me after I left it plugged in for a week! And I almost never used it!
I switched from a Powerbook G4 15 inch to a MacBook Pro 15 inch for my daily use and I noticed the "dithering" before I read about it on the posts. Once you use the computer a lot, you don't see it, but it is there, and I do feel like I got a sub-par display for a premium price.
I won't even mention the horror stories people have when attempting to "prove" to Apple that their products have a problem and need an exchange, or the number of faulty, "disposable" iPods out there.
Apple needs to see as many complaints / lawsuits as possible on this subject matter. As much as I respect the company and am an avid Mac-only user, I do not believe it is wise to keep on defending Apple and coming up with excuses for them if it's their fault.
I get a kick out of these people that complain that they've had threads deleted in the Apple Discussion Boards. DUH... it's Apple's Board on Apple's site, they're not gonna allow you to put anything you want on the discussions. It's also not the complaint department. If you want to complain, phone Apple or rant on some other Mac forum.
........
Again, though I'd never buy a PC, I do resent being taken for granted by Apple.
For a long time, they could count on Mac loyalists to stick with their product, because, not matter what kind of issues there might be, Apple turns out a vastly superior product. But it's a different story now that they are trying to woo PC users, as the they may be more likely to balk at defective computers or not as advertised issues.
Personally, I was seriously considering buying the next MacBook Pro that comes out, but I may wait a year, to see if this issue gets resolved. It's not in Apple's interest to fudge specs.
From Wikipedia....
iBook G4 (October 22, 2003) ? Major revision, processor switch
12-inch or 14-inch Active-matrix TFT Display (1024x768 max resolution)
Run out and show me a Display/TV/Projector that doesn't degrade as time goes on...
As a matter of fact... Why don't you show me **any** product that doesn't degrade over time... Pet rocks and sand don't count.
D
Uhh...show me ones that consistently degrade in a matter of weeks or months after purchase. The MBP has only been out for what..a year? Try reading and comprending what people are complaining about next time.
"Millions of Colors" and "More than 16 Million Colors" have become industry-wide terms. I'm almost certain that NEC and/or ViewSonic have used these in the past. Using these terms is a dead giveaway that dithering is involved and that there are truly only thousands of colors. Legally, I have no idea what the implications are, but Apple is certainly not the only one to do this. I'm not excusing Apple, but if Apple is held accountable, then so should all other manufacturers. Note that lots of manufactureres have stopped listing the color depth altogether, perhaps becasue this was a legal landmine.
Seems like 2 weeks is plenty of time to decide if you like the computer you just purchased...
Apple Store (online): "RETURN & REFUND POLICY - If you are not satisfied with your Apple purchase of a product, please call 1-800-676-2775 for a Return Material Authorization (RMA) request within 14 calendar days of the receipt of the product."
D
Yeah, and when the display degrades in two months or even THREE weeks, Apple won't take it back. Oh, and they'll dimiss your complaint too. Nice.
Quote:
Originally Posted by guest
The human eye can distinguish between over 200,000 colors, but not millions. The average persons eyes change as they age, which is why older people have different color preferences than younger folks. Color is totaly perceptive, and also associative. If you were to start to edit a photograph in one location and then looked at it in different light, it might look awful. What you had for lunch can affect your color perception.
No serious professional would consider color work on a laptop. But lot's of other image work can certainly be done, and that's why portables outsell towers 10 to 1.
This suit is just another waste of money, time, ink.
It's not about what people can tell the difference between. Most can't tell the differenc between 256kbps and 384kbps audio. Does that mean Apple can now sell 256kbps audio as 384? I mean, it's not that big a of a difference folks! Oh, and does that mean that when I point this out to them, they can tell me where to stick it?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Capt. Obvious
So glad you started that off with a gratuitous insult....
I have an MBP; if these "persons" actually *had* a case, mine would be subject to the same sub-standard screen they claim Apple is foisting off on their customers. It is not, ergo, no case - oh, what's that? they degrade? you mean, their performance suffers over time? you mean like everything else in the world? Sorry, Sparky: my MBP is nearing the 18-month mark, and I use it 8-10 hours a day, every day - my screen is, and has been ,crystal-clear, sharp and gorgeous.
In a true class-action situation, all or most MB/P screens would be subject to the claimed defect; not the case: just a couple monkeys fishing in deep pockets. *YAWN*
So remember. kids, jump on every bandwagon that goes by - who knows *where* you'll end up!
So yours doesn't have the issue. Neither does mine. So what? It's not about "all or most" friend..it's about a significant number. Seems like the complaint proves that outright. And I've personally heard of these same issues before.
And no, sparky, I'm not talking about performance degreading over a year or three. Jesus...try actually reading what the parties are complaining about, champ.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zlyden
Yeah. :-) Everyone knows that LCD/TFT displays loose about 1 bit of color per year and become useless after 6 or 8 years...
Ok outside the joke, probably, everyone also knows that Apple uses LG Philips screens in (*at least some of*) its notebooks, and LG Philips guys just do not produce laptop screens with more than 6-bit color -- see http://www.lgphilips-lcd.com/homeCon...prd300_j_e.jsp for LG laptop screen details -- except for some 20-inch model (did anyone see 20-inch notebook already?)
So, this is all another ridiculous money-srewing suite. Just wonder, how Apple would come out of it... :-(
(Pardon my English)
Perhaps the 8 bit thing is bunk, but not the durability/reliability issue nor false advertising claims. As for "everyone knowing" about LCD/TFTs losing a bit a year, I ask you and everyone else to try to comprehend that fact that the issue is NOT long term degradation...but short term degradation coupled with false claims and shitty service from Apple.
I get a kick out of these people that complain that they've had threads deleted in the Apple Discussion Boards. DUH... it's Apple's Board on Apple's site, they're not gonna allow you to put anything you want on the discussions. It's also not the complaint department. If you want to complain, phone Apple or rant on some other Mac forum.
Don't be an apologist. Sure they are Apple's boards, but it's dishonest for them to delete legitimate service/repair issue threads just to make themselves look better. Hell, they may have even been doing it to prevent the threads from being used against them in a lawsuit.
On that not, "I get a kick" out of watching 13 year old Apple apologists think that their favorite company can do no wrong. I love Apple products, but I also know Apple is an arrogant company with questionable service/refund and repair policies. It's just the way it is.
No serious professional would consider color work on a laptop. But lot's of other image work can certainly be done, and that's why portables outsell towers 10 to 1.
Portables do outsell towers, but nowhere near 10 to 1. In fact, in a recent quarter, Apple was still getting about 40 percent of its Mac revenue from... desktops.
And on the PC side, its even closer. It was only a couple of years ago that notebooks became more popular than desktops:
Not sure if this is the same problem, but I have a MBP and the screen is indeed grainy.
E.g. the transition of the interface in iTunes isn't really smooth. If I have a completely white page, it isn't smooth as well, but the pixels differ slightly in color. When I compare this to my BenQ TFT I can notice the difference a lot. I'm really sensitive to graphical details, so perhaps not everybody compains about this. It isn't a joke or whining, it's just true in my case.
However, I read some topics about this on the forum a few months back and since it's not just happening to me, I simply accepted the fact that my MBP screen isn't as good as some other screens .
"Millions of Colors" and "More than 16 Million Colors" have become industry-wide terms. I'm almost certain that NEC and/or ViewSonic have used these in the past. Using these terms is a dead giveaway that dithering is involved and that there are truly only thousands of colors. Legally, I have no idea what the implications are, but Apple is certainly not the only one to do this. I'm not excusing Apple, but if Apple is held accountable, then so should all other manufacturers. Note that lots of manufactureres have stopped listing the color depth altogether, perhaps becasue this was a legal landmine.
That's true, and I'd expect similar lawsuits to be leveled against PC notebook makers.
I'm just surprised that stuff like this hasn't come up before in a major way in other hardware. Remember the old graphics cards that used to claim '22-bit' color, but it really was 16-bit color, dithered? The computer and tech industry has been using dishonest lingo to describe color depth for a LOOOOONG time now. \
No serious professional would consider color work on a laptop. But lot's of other image work can certainly be done, and that's why portables outsell towers 10 to 1.
This suit is just another waste of money, time, ink.
"Promote your ideas on the MacBook Pro’s dazzling display. An aggressive ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics processor under the hood coupled with up to 256MB of GDDR3 SDRAM powers the mobile visual studio you’ve been waiting for. Retouch color, edit on location, video conference with colleagues: Do it all, anywhere.
MacBook Pro makes your ideas more enlightening, with a sharp, high-resolution screen. See blacker blacks, whiter whites, and many more colors in between on a brilliant 15.4-inch, 1440-by-900-pixel or 17-inch, 1680-by-1050-pixel digital display. Enjoy a nuanced view simply unavailable on other portables."
I do not have time to go through the 50 odd messages here but there are lots of other major flaws in the Intel laptops Apple has produced, and that they will not acknowledge. The random shutdown issues, flawed logic boards, and screen flickering. I have experienced all 3 of these on my original Macbook.
It was hell trying to get them to repair it. I use it every day for school and work and had to send it in to Apple, after much arguing in their store, to have them "fix" it. I went through this 3 times for the random shutdown issues and once for a bad logic board. Each time it was sent out, it was gone for over 2 weeks. Very ridiculous.
Now my screen is flickering a ton, like a loose connection or something. I've looked online and there seems to be thousands upon thousands of other similar reports so obviously mine isn't an isolated incident. This thing is only about 10 months old, no excuse for so many problems like that and the bad service. I imagine trying to battle in the store about the display issue will be just as painful, especially since it doesn't happen all the time and I haven't found a particular way to reproduce it. With only 2 months left of my 1 year warranty, I wouldn't put it past them to just meddle around with it for 2 months and then say my warranty is up, tough.
Not happy with Apple's quality on their laptops at all, if you couldn't tell.
That's true, and I'd expect similar lawsuits to be leveled against PC notebook makers.
I'm just surprised that stuff like this hasn't come up before in a major way in other hardware. Remember the old graphics cards that used to claim '22-bit' color, but it really was 16-bit color, dithered? The computer and tech industry has been using dishonest lingo to describe color depth for a LOOOOONG time now. \
.
And how about some of those older 15 inch CRT monitors with viewable screens smaller than 14 inch monitors? It took a class action lawsuit back in 1995 to get monitor manufacturers to start being honest about the true viewable size of their displays. And I bet Apple fans back then were also saying the same "useless lawsuit", "damn lawyers" comments. But on the other hand, when Apple's lawyers sue someone, it's always "Hurray Apple! Go get em!"
Y'know, I'm proud that I've never joined a class-action lawsuit against any company. The net result is that you'll receive a check in the mail for 12 cents and feel none the better for it.
The graininess appears to be a graphics chip driver issue (someone above mentioned that rebooting into Windows fixed it) rather than a display issue, or it could be a problem with the Intel graphics hardware (there's enough problems there already, this wouldn't surprise me).
I've actually noticed graininess on the iMac displays as well as the laptops. However, on a cheaper external LCD, I noticed the particular display was very uniformly colored. I've always had problems with the quality of Apple's consumer displays. They just aren't good enough for color accuracy.
Putting aside potential quality problems from Apple with their macbook, as it's quite off topic (isn't that thread about the class action and the colour depth of the display?)
Companies shouldn't be allowed to say whatever they want just to sell their stuff, and customers shouldn't be held accountable for not having checked it before buying (especially when nowadays so many products are sold over the net, hence without much possibility to check before buying...)
That said:
1- going to the developper's pages on Apple site, they state for macbook as well as for the cinema display that the colour depth is up to 24bits... For me, developper's site is exempt of the usual marketing chit-chat (I might be wrong though...)
2- browsing the net, it's easy to check that there are still quite a lot of competitors that advertise millions or 16.7 millios of colour... why don't they get sued too?
3- after all, who cares if the hardware is 2 bits or 1 billion bit capable, as long as the result for the eye is the equivalent of 24bit depth? after all, nobody's ever sued the electric companies, for letting us think that the light bulbs have a constant brightness when in fact they're flickering 50Hz or 60Hz (depending where you live)
Forcing manufacturer's to face their responsability is a great thing, pushing things to get money out of it is just ruining the original moral purpose...
Comments
[I]"Since lugging a full sized display is somewhat impractical,
?Madame DeFarge
Yes they are. Nevertheless, laptop screens cannot be relied on for critical editing for reasons already stated. If you are forced to rely on one, the results are a total crapshoot.
Should they be allowed to get away with that?
BTW, as it turns out, the trackpad issue is now know as a major issue in all iBooks for that time frame. Apparently, this is not the first time that Apple has put a defective (or not as advertised) product out there and refused to take responsibility for it.
As to Apple's intimidation tactics with defect issues, I experienced that when I bought a MacBook G4. The track pad was defective but they claimed, rather strongly, that the reason it didn'y work was because I used hand lotion, and nearly every associate in the store was called upon to convince me that was true. Fortunately, I'd owned previous model Apple laptops that functioned just fine, with or without moisturized hands, so I didn't buy into that. I've also had posts deleted in their support section if I complained too strongly about an issue.
It's called a Powerbook G4.
I get a kick out of these people that complain that they've had threads deleted in the Apple Discussion Boards. DUH... it's Apple's Board on Apple's site, they're not gonna allow you to put anything you want on the discussions. It's also not the complaint department. If you want to complain, phone Apple or rant on some other Mac forum.
2 out of 4 Apple laptops I've purchased had to be returned due to serious issues on arrival, and the two I've kept had "minor" but nontheless noticeable defects (bent hinge on PB and partially recessed power button on MBP).
1/2 iMacs I've purchased had to be returned because it randomly started making crazy sounds and freeze - deemed to be a logic board issue.
The Powerbook I've kept had its hard drive fail after 2 years and the display now disconnects when adjusting it - and I am by no means an abusive user.
Last but not least, my Airport Express just blew on me after I left it plugged in for a week! And I almost never used it!
I switched from a Powerbook G4 15 inch to a MacBook Pro 15 inch for my daily use and I noticed the "dithering" before I read about it on the posts. Once you use the computer a lot, you don't see it, but it is there, and I do feel like I got a sub-par display for a premium price.
I won't even mention the horror stories people have when attempting to "prove" to Apple that their products have a problem and need an exchange, or the number of faulty, "disposable" iPods out there.
Apple needs to see as many complaints / lawsuits as possible on this subject matter. As much as I respect the company and am an avid Mac-only user, I do not believe it is wise to keep on defending Apple and coming up with excuses for them if it's their fault.
It's called a Powerbook G4.
I get a kick out of these people that complain that they've had threads deleted in the Apple Discussion Boards. DUH... it's Apple's Board on Apple's site, they're not gonna allow you to put anything you want on the discussions. It's also not the complaint department. If you want to complain, phone Apple or rant on some other Mac forum.
........
Again, though I'd never buy a PC, I do resent being taken for granted by Apple.
For a long time, they could count on Mac loyalists to stick with their product, because, not matter what kind of issues there might be, Apple turns out a vastly superior product. But it's a different story now that they are trying to woo PC users, as the they may be more likely to balk at defective computers or not as advertised issues.
Personally, I was seriously considering buying the next MacBook Pro that comes out, but I may wait a year, to see if this issue gets resolved. It's not in Apple's interest to fudge specs.
From Wikipedia....
iBook G4 (October 22, 2003) ? Major revision, processor switch
12-inch or 14-inch Active-matrix TFT Display (1024x768 max resolution)
G4 800/933 MHz/1 GHz
256 MiB RAM
30/40/60 GB Hard Disk
Slot-load Combo (CD-RW/DVD-ROM)
USB 2.0, Firewire 400, Video Out, Ethernet 10/100
Airport Extreme (802.11g, optional)
Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther"
You're kidding right...
Run out and show me a Display/TV/Projector that doesn't degrade as time goes on...
As a matter of fact... Why don't you show me **any** product that doesn't degrade over time... Pet rocks and sand don't count.
D
Uhh...show me ones that consistently degrade in a matter of weeks or months after purchase. The MBP has only been out for what..a year? Try reading and comprending what people are complaining about next time.
If I'm shelling out mega bucks for a MacBook Pro, I think I'm entitled to know exactly what I'm getting.
Don't be goofy...
Seems like 2 weeks is plenty of time to decide if you like the computer you just purchased...
Apple Store (online): "RETURN & REFUND POLICY - If you are not satisfied with your Apple purchase of a product, please call 1-800-676-2775 for a Return Material Authorization (RMA) request within 14 calendar days of the receipt of the product."
D
Yeah, and when the display degrades in two months or even THREE weeks, Apple won't take it back. Oh, and they'll dimiss your complaint too. Nice.
The human eye can distinguish between over 200,000 colors, but not millions. The average persons eyes change as they age, which is why older people have different color preferences than younger folks. Color is totaly perceptive, and also associative. If you were to start to edit a photograph in one location and then looked at it in different light, it might look awful. What you had for lunch can affect your color perception.
No serious professional would consider color work on a laptop. But lot's of other image work can certainly be done, and that's why portables outsell towers 10 to 1.
This suit is just another waste of money, time, ink.
It's not about what people can tell the difference between. Most can't tell the differenc between 256kbps and 384kbps audio. Does that mean Apple can now sell 256kbps audio as 384? I mean, it's not that big a of a difference folks! Oh, and does that mean that when I point this out to them, they can tell me where to stick it?
So glad you started that off with a gratuitous insult....
I have an MBP; if these "persons" actually *had* a case, mine would be subject to the same sub-standard screen they claim Apple is foisting off on their customers. It is not, ergo, no case - oh, what's that? they degrade? you mean, their performance suffers over time? you mean like everything else in the world? Sorry, Sparky: my MBP is nearing the 18-month mark, and I use it 8-10 hours a day, every day - my screen is, and has been ,crystal-clear, sharp and gorgeous.
In a true class-action situation, all or most MB/P screens would be subject to the claimed defect; not the case: just a couple monkeys fishing in deep pockets. *YAWN*
So remember. kids, jump on every bandwagon that goes by - who knows *where* you'll end up!
So yours doesn't have the issue. Neither does mine. So what? It's not about "all or most" friend..it's about a significant number. Seems like the complaint proves that outright. And I've personally heard of these same issues before.
And no, sparky, I'm not talking about performance degreading over a year or three. Jesus...try actually reading what the parties are complaining about, champ.
Yeah. :-) Everyone knows that LCD/TFT displays loose about 1 bit of color per year and become useless after 6 or 8 years...
Ok outside the joke, probably, everyone also knows that Apple uses LG Philips screens in (*at least some of*) its notebooks, and LG Philips guys just do not produce laptop screens with more than 6-bit color -- see http://www.lgphilips-lcd.com/homeCon...prd300_j_e.jsp for LG laptop screen details -- except for some 20-inch model (did anyone see 20-inch notebook already?)
So, this is all another ridiculous money-srewing suite. Just wonder, how Apple would come out of it... :-(
(Pardon my English)
Perhaps the 8 bit thing is bunk, but not the durability/reliability issue nor false advertising claims. As for "everyone knowing" about LCD/TFTs losing a bit a year, I ask you and everyone else to try to comprehend that fact that the issue is NOT long term degradation...but short term degradation coupled with false claims and shitty service from Apple.
It's called a Powerbook G4.
I get a kick out of these people that complain that they've had threads deleted in the Apple Discussion Boards. DUH... it's Apple's Board on Apple's site, they're not gonna allow you to put anything you want on the discussions. It's also not the complaint department. If you want to complain, phone Apple or rant on some other Mac forum.
Don't be an apologist. Sure they are Apple's boards, but it's dishonest for them to delete legitimate service/repair issue threads just to make themselves look better. Hell, they may have even been doing it to prevent the threads from being used against them in a lawsuit.
On that not, "I get a kick" out of watching 13 year old Apple apologists think that their favorite company can do no wrong. I love Apple products, but I also know Apple is an arrogant company with questionable service/refund and repair policies. It's just the way it is.
No serious professional would consider color work on a laptop. But lot's of other image work can certainly be done, and that's why portables outsell towers 10 to 1.
Portables do outsell towers, but nowhere near 10 to 1. In fact, in a recent quarter, Apple was still getting about 40 percent of its Mac revenue from... desktops.
And on the PC side, its even closer. It was only a couple of years ago that notebooks became more popular than desktops:
http://news.com.com/PC+milestone--no...3-5731417.html
.
E.g. the transition of the interface in iTunes isn't really smooth. If I have a completely white page, it isn't smooth as well, but the pixels differ slightly in color. When I compare this to my BenQ TFT I can notice the difference a lot. I'm really sensitive to graphical details, so perhaps not everybody compains about this. It isn't a joke or whining, it's just true in my case.
However, I read some topics about this on the forum a few months back and since it's not just happening to me, I simply accepted the fact that my MBP screen isn't as good as some other screens
"Millions of Colors" and "More than 16 Million Colors" have become industry-wide terms. I'm almost certain that NEC and/or ViewSonic have used these in the past. Using these terms is a dead giveaway that dithering is involved and that there are truly only thousands of colors. Legally, I have no idea what the implications are, but Apple is certainly not the only one to do this. I'm not excusing Apple, but if Apple is held accountable, then so should all other manufacturers. Note that lots of manufactureres have stopped listing the color depth altogether, perhaps becasue this was a legal landmine.
That's true, and I'd expect similar lawsuits to be leveled against PC notebook makers.
I'm just surprised that stuff like this hasn't come up before in a major way in other hardware. Remember the old graphics cards that used to claim '22-bit' color, but it really was 16-bit color, dithered? The computer and tech industry has been using dishonest lingo to describe color depth for a LOOOOONG time now.
.
No serious professional would consider color work on a laptop. But lot's of other image work can certainly be done, and that's why portables outsell towers 10 to 1.
This suit is just another waste of money, time, ink.
http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/graphics.html
"Promote your ideas on the MacBook Pro’s dazzling display. An aggressive ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics processor under the hood coupled with up to 256MB of GDDR3 SDRAM powers the mobile visual studio you’ve been waiting for. Retouch color, edit on location, video conference with colleagues: Do it all, anywhere.
MacBook Pro makes your ideas more enlightening, with a sharp, high-resolution screen. See blacker blacks, whiter whites, and many more colors in between on a brilliant 15.4-inch, 1440-by-900-pixel or 17-inch, 1680-by-1050-pixel digital display. Enjoy a nuanced view simply unavailable on other portables."
It was hell trying to get them to repair it. I use it every day for school and work and had to send it in to Apple, after much arguing in their store, to have them "fix" it. I went through this 3 times for the random shutdown issues and once for a bad logic board. Each time it was sent out, it was gone for over 2 weeks. Very ridiculous.
Now my screen is flickering a ton, like a loose connection or something. I've looked online and there seems to be thousands upon thousands of other similar reports so obviously mine isn't an isolated incident. This thing is only about 10 months old, no excuse for so many problems like that and the bad service. I imagine trying to battle in the store about the display issue will be just as painful, especially since it doesn't happen all the time and I haven't found a particular way to reproduce it. With only 2 months left of my 1 year warranty, I wouldn't put it past them to just meddle around with it for 2 months and then say my warranty is up, tough.
Not happy with Apple's quality on their laptops at all, if you couldn't tell.
That's true, and I'd expect similar lawsuits to be leveled against PC notebook makers.
I'm just surprised that stuff like this hasn't come up before in a major way in other hardware. Remember the old graphics cards that used to claim '22-bit' color, but it really was 16-bit color, dithered? The computer and tech industry has been using dishonest lingo to describe color depth for a LOOOOONG time now.
.
And how about some of those older 15 inch CRT monitors with viewable screens smaller than 14 inch monitors? It took a class action lawsuit back in 1995 to get monitor manufacturers to start being honest about the true viewable size of their displays. And I bet Apple fans back then were also saying the same "useless lawsuit", "damn lawyers" comments. But on the other hand, when Apple's lawyers sue someone, it's always "Hurray Apple! Go get em!"
Y'know, I'm proud that I've never joined a class-action lawsuit against any company. The net result is that you'll receive a check in the mail for 12 cents and feel none the better for it.
Yea but it also means 12 million for the lawyers.
The graininess appears to be a graphics chip driver issue (someone above mentioned that rebooting into Windows fixed it) rather than a display issue, or it could be a problem with the Intel graphics hardware (there's enough problems there already, this wouldn't surprise me).
I've actually noticed graininess on the iMac displays as well as the laptops. However, on a cheaper external LCD, I noticed the particular display was very uniformly colored. I've always had problems with the quality of Apple's consumer displays. They just aren't good enough for color accuracy.
Companies shouldn't be allowed to say whatever they want just to sell their stuff, and customers shouldn't be held accountable for not having checked it before buying (especially when nowadays so many products are sold over the net, hence without much possibility to check before buying...)
That said:
1- going to the developper's pages on Apple site, they state for macbook as well as for the cinema display that the colour depth is up to 24bits... For me, developper's site is exempt of the usual marketing chit-chat (I might be wrong though...)
2- browsing the net, it's easy to check that there are still quite a lot of competitors that advertise millions or 16.7 millios of colour... why don't they get sued too?
3- after all, who cares if the hardware is 2 bits or 1 billion bit capable, as long as the result for the eye is the equivalent of 24bit depth? after all, nobody's ever sued the electric companies, for letting us think that the light bulbs have a constant brightness when in fact they're flickering 50Hz or 60Hz (depending where you live)
Forcing manufacturer's to face their responsability is a great thing, pushing things to get money out of it is just ruining the original moral purpose...