mazda 3s

I'm gone from small to big over the past few years. Had a 2015 MacBook, which I bought for its portability (because it fit my workflow better). Hated the keyboard, and the keys always got stuck. But a quick dusting with come compressed air would usually do the trick. I then moved on to a 2016 13-inch MBP (no Touch Bar), and the keyboard seemed a little better. The keys were fine until about a year in, then they started sticking more often. The compressed air trick still worked to a degree, but I still don't think that they functioned as well as day one. My wife is now using this laptop.

I never had a problem with the keyboard on my older Airs or MacBook Pros -- if they got a crumb or something under the keys, a firm press would just obliterate them. Not so with the new keyboards.

Most recently, I picked up a pre-owned 15-inch MacBook Pro (2016) from B&H Photo in like new condition (9+ rating in their parlance) for $1600 with no tax. Still has a warranty until November 2018 and I'm still debating as to whether I should get AppleCare+. I'm taking every precaution with this laptop -- no eating around it, no snacks, no drinks, no nothing. I'm not taking any chances.

On a side note, I'm still pissed at Apple for ditching MagSafe. I can't tell you how many time MagSafe saved my older MacBooks back in the day either from my clumsiness or the inattentiveness of others. And I tried to take every precaution with the new USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 power on my recent MacBooks. However, I was outfoxed by my 2-year-old about a month ago. The 13-inch MBP was sitting on our round kitchen table plugged into the wall. I got up for a minute to go do something and my son went around the table and tripped over the cord, which was plugged into the wall nearby. The jolt knocked the laptop to the ground, denting the top cover on the corner (but luckily not damaging the display) and THANK GOODNESS, it didn't fall on my son's foot -- that would have hurt like hell or he could have lost a digit.

nunzy said:

 Here we go here we go again.  I can't imagine why any self-respecting iPhone owner would take it to some disreputable place to have something as important as the screen worked upon.

Would you bring your Ferrari to Joe's Garage and have it repaired with third-party parts?

I wouldn't compare an iPhone to a Ferrari. It would be more like taking your BMW to an independent shop in town that works on European brands like Mercedes, Audi, BMW, and Volvo instead of your certified BMW dealership. To that end, I was in Pep Boys today getting an oil change/tire rotation when a guy in a first generation BMW Z3 came in saying that his car battery wasn't holding a charge. They took it in the shop and confirmed that the battery was dead. They ended up charging him $209 for a Bosch battery (including installation). He told them that the BMW dealership wanted $325 plus $75 to install it.

So what's my point? I wouldn't consider replacing a display on an iPhone to be rocket science (just like it's not rocket science to change a car battery). I've done it numerous times on an iPhone 5 and an iPhone 6 (my wife is a klutz). Independent repair shops can do it without an issue. In fact, these iPhone 8s that were fixed were working perfectly fine -- as they should -- until the Apple update was pushed out. I don't see that as a knock again a third-party for installing the display -- their work was sound. It was just that Apple decided to flip the switch and decertify the work.

SpamSandwich said:

I suppose people forget a time (not so long ago) when you'd have to mail your product back to the manufacturer and it could take 6-8 weeks for them to do something about it!

And my 5-year-old didn't know what a house phone was, or a cassette tape -- times change

My wife and I nearly had a heart attack a few weeks back from laughter. We were at my wife's grandfather's house (he just turned 93) and his house phone rang. My son genuinely looked shocked and dumbfounded. He said, "What IS that? What's that noise?". Great-grand -- as he calls him -- pointed to the phone and showed it to him; you would have thought that he was looking at an alien

rogifan_new said:

Not everybody lives near an Apple store. Heck there aren’t even Apple Stores in all 50 states.

jcs2305 said:

Are these folks unable to mail a device to Apple for repair?  

And how long does that take for Apple to repair a phone? I don't know about you, but I can't be without my phone for days on end. I need it for personal/business reasons. Going to a third-party shop that may be down the street and having them take 30 mins to an hour to repair is a lot better than mailing off your phone and being without for a few days to a week (again, I don't know Apple's turnaround time).

Like rogifan said, not everyone lives within earshot of an Apple Store. The closest one to me is 35 mins away. The next closest one is 50 mins away. Some others don't have that luxury. Now, there's a third-party repair shop about 5 mins dow the road, but I've never had to use them (fortunately).

My only problem with this whole thing is that the phones were working perfectly fine beforehand, and then an update kills them out of the blue.

Nice to see some more variety being added to the mix. I used to always go with caseless with my iPhones, right up through my iPhone 7. But after plunking down $1000 plus tax for my iPhone X and seeing the repair costs for a cracked screen, I put that bad boy in a case.

So for those of you still brave enough to go caseless, this is definitely good news