sflocal

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sflocal
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  • Manhattan Apple Store customers targeted by group of thieves

    sflocalsflocal
    This has always been a pet-peeve of mine since I started buying products at an Apple store.

    I bought an iMac a few months ago for my sister and I specifically asked for the shipping carton it came in.  The rep looked a little confused when asked and I simply told him that I don’t want to walk around with a box that screams “steal me”.

    I vent this very same issue with them every time I buy something at their store.  I criticize their bright white bags too.

    That being said, the consumer needs to be more vigilant.  When I buy a pricey/flashy  Apple product, I make a point to go straight to my car quickly and drive home.   I’m hyper-aware of my surroundings as well.  I actually feel a bit nervous walking like I’m carrying a bagful of money, and I’m a big, intimidating-looking guy too.  

    I’ve had friends ask me to accompany them to the store for this exact same reason.  I always look like I’m pissed off, so that comes in handy as a bodyguard. :)

    I hope those punks get what they deserve.
    svanstromcat52ronnjony0watto_cobra

  • Is the $500 nano-texture finish worth it on the 27-inch iMac?

    sflocalsflocal
    I just purchased a 2020 iMac.  128GB, 8TB SSD, 10-Core i9, and I struggled with buying the NanoTexture display.  It would not be that much more money in the big picture of price to include it.  What prevented me was the very special care necessary to keep the screen clean, and more importantly, the unknown variable of constant cleaning of the screen might wear down the display texture over time.

    I'm border-line OCD when it comes to clean monitor screens.  I'm always cleaning it.  I didn't want to risk ruining the screen in some way from cleaning it "too much".  Don't know.  I'm curious to read how durable this texture a couple years down the road for folks that have purchased it.
    muthuk_vanalingamwatto_cobra

  • Apple opens up independent repair shop program to include Macs [u]

    sflocalsflocal
    I follow Louis Rossman... Being the Apple Hater that he is, he does make a very good living on servicing Apple computers and his repair skills are something I admire.

    He did take the time to discuss this and I found it quite interesting.  Apple appears to be not very forthcoming with what independent repair shops can and can't do in this program.  The biggest two hurdles are that Apple will not allow repair shops to stock an inventory of parts.  They would have to be ordered one at a time, so for something like an iPhone battery / screen, something that a customer should be able to walk in for and get serviced immediately, they would now have to wait days/weeks for the order to be processed first.

    Second, and more concerning is that Apple requires all customer information, IMEI, etc.. to take the order.  So if a customer does not give up their info (address, phone#, etc..) no sale.  I know Apple is probably one of the best companies out there in terms of privacy, but that doesn't mean that I as a customer should be required to give up my Information to the repair shop in order to get a new phone battery.

    Any truth to this?



    FileMakerFeller

  • Foxconn says trade war means China can no longer be 'the world's factory'

    sflocalsflocal
    asdasd said:

    john_t said:
    99% of what comes out of China is cheap crap that breaks within half a year. It would be a shock, but it’s better for all of us to start producing again in our own countries. We’ve let China get away with blatant human rights violations long enough. They’re bullying the entire planet, and they’ve been expanding both militarily and economically. It’s time this stops. 
    Thats not true at all, they clearly have the most advanced manufacturing in the world. Tim Cook has pretty much said that. 
    That is only true because companies like Apple are constantly monitoring what comes out of the factories and that it is top quality.  Without supervision, they will do whatever it takes to use the cheapest/inferior materials (like most of what they make) and dump it to consumers.

    The company I work at stopped doing being with China a few years ago.  We'd buy product from China to use in our end-items, and when we noticed the quality started slipping, we discovered that they veered off from our original requirements/quality standards and started using inferior substitutes, yet charged us the same price!  When we caught them doing that, they reverted back to the original designs, only to pull that stunt twice again.  We terminated our business with them and took our business out from China.

    They really suck.  They reel you in with their cheap prices, but it ends up being more expensive in the long run.
    svanstromtmayGG1watto_cobra

  • 27-inch iMac flash storage cannot be replaced or upgraded

    sflocalsflocal

    sflocal said:
    The vague issues regarding upgradability of the SSD in the new iMacs is the reason why I ordered it yesterday with the 8TB option.  It will be my last Intel-based iMac and I decided to bite my lower lip and max it out so I never have to deal with it ever on that machine.

    That being said, with Thunderbolt3, it's really not that much an issue.  There are excellent external TB3 enclosures (like from OWC) that will let you install regular NVMe drives to your heart's content.  I get that it would be nicer to upgrade the internal drive, but it is what it is.
    I totally get your reasons for the 8TB option, as I would do the same, but not with an Intel Mac when they are out the door in Apple's mind.  Sure you will likely get about 4-5 years of use out of that Mac, but in past Apple history, they did not support the OS for very long when they switched processors.  When they switched from 680x0 to PowerPC, the 680x0 Macs only had support for System 7 and early versions of System 8 (7.5, 7.6, 8.0, and 8.1.  The original Power Mac shipped with 7.1.2).  Apple cut off 680x0 Macs with System 8.1, and System 8.5 and later were PowerPC only.  With Intel, the last iMac G5 only had support for Mac OS X Tiger and Mac OS X Leopard (10.4 and 10.5), and they originally shipped with 10.4.  So they only received one OS upgrade.  The PowerPC Macs were cut off when Snow Leopard shipped (10.6).  As Apple moves forward with Apple Silicon, they probably are not going to put that much effort into supporting the Intel Macs except for maybe one or two versions past Big Sur.  Maybe you should have done the 2TB SSD upgrade for the Intel Mac, and then do an 8TB option for the Apple Silicon Mac which will have a much longer future.  $2,400 is pretty steep.
    My job requires I use Windows.  So ARM is out of the question.  I do tons on VM deployments to x86(64) servers doing all the initial work in my Mac.  It will continue for many years.  I know very well Apple will abandon MacOS(x86) someday, but my iMac will still work just fine.  Apple will support MacOS I think for at least 5 years and I’m okay with that.

    By the time I’m ready for a new iMac years down the road, Apple will have worked out the kinks and have a very polished system.  I’m okay with that.
    caladaniandewmeGG1hippowatto_cobra