Apple Press Event September 12th

http://www.electronista.com/articles/06/08/30/apple.sept.12.press.event/

This seems to be new; coincides with Apple Expo Paris - especially interesting based on the previous news that there isn't going to be a keynote.

Definitely seems like this would make September 12th a potentially likely date to officially announce those Core 2 Duo MBP's (and maybe MB's). Or possibly iPod updates.

Probably not a bad idea to hold off on any MB or MBP purchases for a couple of weeks though (unless you absolutely need something right away).

 

OMG! OMG! OMG!

“an official e-mail”

You are right this might be it

I can’t believe how obsessed I’ve become with Apple.

 

Actually, I probably would say we should wait and hear if this event is confirmed somewhere else. I've never heard of electronista.com, and their only source is saying that an e-mail was received by a radio show called "Your Mac Life". I assume if this is an actual event it will start being reported elsewhere too.

 

Yeah, wouldn't this have been posted on apple.com?

 

Well, not necessarily. They don't normally post these announcements on apple.com - they send invitations out to various press contacts (I think the last press event they had was the one when they unveiled the iPod Hi-Fi), and that is usually how it becomes known publically that they are doing a press event.

 

No news yet on Mac Rumors so, I am not sure this is legit. Also, a move to Core2Duo does not require an announcement. That is the type of thing that may just appear.

 

Quite personally if Apple decided to announce every little change like a different model processor, I'd get very irritated. I only want to hear BIG giant changes, not minor.

 

Yeah, if there is going to be a press event on September 12th, it is likely that they would have more to say than just processor upgrades.

-Zadillo

 

Welcome to the club

 

you know what, Apple needs to seriously get a grip of the BS that is going around before they even release C2D. Day after day Apple is making the news in a negative way. This RSS BS!

You know what Apple! Take your time, get it right and then release it.

 

What are you talking about exactly? RSS BS?

Most of the negative news stories recently were things that were sort of peripheral to Apple, but which they have been taking action on anyway; the Sony battery defects affected other people as well, for example. And the issue with Foxconn is also something that Apple seems to have taken a pretty strong stance on. The only other specifically negative story I can think of is the Greenpeace report, and I guess we can hope they improve on that front as well.

Either way, Apple has been taking care of most of these issues, so I'm not sure what else you want them to do exactly.

But as far as "take their time"; I think Apple is, and they do seem to getting closer to taking care of the previous problems. I don't see why delaying updating to Core 2 Duo processors would help anything.

 

Btw, forgot to mention it. Looks like there has been confirmation from other sources that this is going to happen:

http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2006/08/20060831122800.shtml

Will take place in San Francisco and be streamed to London - a little odd perhaps with that also being the start of Apple Expo in Paris, but who knows.

 

I was referring to the Random Shutdown Syndrome that Apple hasn’t officially acknowledged yet. I feel sorry for these guys:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=213531&page=5

It’s like 30 of them petitioning or whatever they’re doing.

And it’s just confusing, to me at least. I mean how would anyone feel if they were working on a unsaved paper and it randomly shutdown. Devastating! I just hope Apple solves all these kinks when they release the merom macbooks.

You know all those things that you mentioned Sony vaio users fixing by themselves. Most of us did that at some point or another. But I am new to OS X and I wouldn’t want to void the warranty. My point is these kinks deem a user sort of helpless, because apparently Apple doesn’t even know what’s going on.

 

If i wasn't worrried a little bit, i would be lying to you guys. Maybe i am a little chickensh!T but i badly want happy times with the macbook i plan to buy. I'm in love with macbooks Hahahahah i don't want anything wrong when i get one!

 

OK, yes, I've heard of that.......... the thing that probably needs to be kept in mind is that just because Apple hasn't publically acknowledged something doesn't mean they aren't working on it. Historically, they take the time to determine exactly what the problem is (look at the affected computers, see who is reporting it and what the common problems are, etc.).

So so far that's 30 people experiencing some problems, but there isn't even a clear consensus on what the cause might be. Some suspect it might be RAM, some suspect it might be the CPU, one Apple Store said it was a logic board problem, some suspect it was related to the firmware update.

This is exactly why Apple doesn't just send out a public statement right when these kinds of things happen..... it does take time to investigate the affected laptops and see what is causing the problems and then do whatever needs to be done to fix it (whether that's a recall, a logic board replacement, a firmware update, etc.).

If it makes these people feel better to start a petition or something, more power to them, but it isn't like Apple needs to be petitioned to figure out what might be causing a problem and then fix it.

It's not like Apple gets a bunch of support calls, but only does something if someone puts up a website about it. They look into these problems, if repeated problems start coming up in the support process they investigate it and then take necessary measures (issuing a firmware update, or even replacing a logic board if that is the cause of the problem).

Does that make more sense, or do you still find it confusing?

Nothing is ever going to be perfect, and no matter what it isn't unheard of that when millions of computers are sold, you would get a few dozen people who might encounter a problem like this. All that can be done is to try and fix it. But a lot of that work happens behind the scenes; Apple doesn't just make announcements before they know for sure what is causing the problem and what the proper method is for their customers.

Seriously, imagine if Apple did make an announcement right now. What would it be?

"Dear MacBook customer,

We have received reports from 30 MacBook owners of a problem with random shutdowns. We haven't actually had any time to investigate it yet, and we can't tell you whether you're affected or what you should do, but we wanted to send this message to you know just so we could show that we are aware of the problem and aren't ignoring it."

If Apple released a letter like that, the support lines would be flooded by every MacBook owner who received it demanding to have their MacBook "fixed", even if they didn't experience any problems.

-Zadillo

 

I understand. There are no guarantees though, it's just part of buying expensive consumer electronics, computers, etc. In all likelihood you probably shouldn't have any problems (one thing to keep in mind is that we're talking about problems where you have a few dozen or maybe a few hundred reported problems out of tons of computers sold). The statistical likelihood is that you shouldn't experience any problems.

But you can also take some confidence in knowing that Apple is taking care of people who do have problems, and has been pretty quick to come up with resolutions for problems as they've become known (i.e. the early white discoloration problems a small percentage of MacBook owners experienced were dealt with fairly quickly once it was understood what was going on and what needed to be fixed).

There's not going to be a time where Apple releases a laptop has a 100% success rate and never has any problems; all that can be done is to try and cut the number down to as small a number as possible, and then take care of people who do have problems as quickly and efficiently as possible.

-Zadillo

 

Yeah, maybe I am reading too much into macbooks lately. And I guess Mac users are that much more vocal and articulate.

Statistically speaking it is a very long shot to have anything go wrong. It’s kind of a little confusing because I dunno but most of these problems shouldn’t even have reached the consumers. The problems have a weird pattern that isn’t restricted to a specific batch of macbooks. I mean some of the problems occur with earlier releases and some with recently released macbooks. If Apple wasn’t as great as it is, it would be a horror story. Take HP for example if they had these issues I wouldn’t look twice at them. It would be sweet if Apple solves present macbook faults before releasing the C2D. There is nothing wrong with a tiny minority having a faulty keyboard and some with a faulty keboard and some with hinge problems. The media is playing this though like macbook is plagued with problems, you know like what’s next.

 

Well, one thing you'll need to get used to as a Mac user if and when you buy a MacBook is that Apple has been the media's whipping boy for the past couple of decades. Throughout most of the 80's and 90's it was mostly about how Apple was going to go out of business "any day now", and in many cases these stories weren't totally unjustified (Apple had some pretty screwed up problems throughout the 90's, and no real direction or clear idea of what to do for the future).

Ever since Steve Jobs returned to Apple though, and actually brought some real direction and future to the company (with the iMac, OS X, the iPod, etc.) new topics have had to be focused on.

Generally speaking, the tech media especially love doing negative Apple stories because they are guaranteed to get a ton of traffic and feedback...... you get a ton of traffic from the Mac or Apple fans who come in to criticize the negative story, and a ton of traffic from the Mac or Apple haters who love reading something negative about Apple.

So right now, when you do have problems with some Apple computers, it is greatly amplified; is Apple really the only company that has had these kinds of problems? No, of course not. Pretty much every computer manufacturer has a similar share (or more) of problems.......... but these aren't really big stories.

When a story involves Apple, it almost inherently becomes bigger as a result. Sort of like the stock option scandal issue. Apple is one of dozens of companies that are facing the same problems, but Apple gets special attention because of who they are.

This isn't totally unique to Apple of course. To some degree, stories involving Microsoft also will often get more attention than would otherwise be merited simply because it's Microsoft.

This isn't even unique to the computer industry. Just as an example, Toyota has been in the news because of some questions about the number of recalls they've had to do recently. These stories were really only newsworthy precisely because Toyota is so known for their quality that these were seen as being a pretty big deal.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying these problems aren't real. They clearly are, and I think Apple is taking most of these things pretty seriously, and hopefully in the future they will be able to cut some of these things down a bit.

Generally speaking, Apple has often had problems with "1st generation" hardware, and I think what we're seeing here is the sort of double-whammy that you get from not only 1st generation hardware, but hardware that is basically using a completely new platform and underlying architecture. As things settle down and Apple's engineers and manufacturing partners work out most of these kinks, things should get a lot smoother.

 

Nice post, informative and reassuring in a way. I’ll sleep better

 

I agree with Zadillo. People love to target mac.

And remember, people often go to a forum, see a few poeple saying they're having a problem with product X and then all of sudden it's everyone of the X is having the problem in some peoples eyes.
Yes, anytime a Mac has a problem, even minute, everyone jumps down apples throat about it, even if it's not widespread or a real issue.

 

True. Although one thing I've found is that Mac users are actually often even harsher critics of Apple than "Apple haters", usually. When Apple does screw up or have problems (as can be seen right now with the quality problems on some MB's and MBP's), Mac owners do seem to get a LOT more vocal about it and really demand immediate action, etc. So I think it is sort of a two-way street between Apple and their users, and I think even though it's a bumpy ride some of the time, it ultimately does end up working out.

 

You know to be honest, I actually believe the firmware update, because my Macbook has been doing nothing but smooth sailings before I installed the SMC update, I think it was like a week after I installed it that I had shutdown issues.

However, I'm not exactly sure how to go about getting rid of firmware, because its not exactly an everyday thing to do, and it has higher risks as well. I'd like to remove it to see if anything happens.

 

Yeah, I'm not sure that firmware rollbacks are actually possible (at least, I don't recall ever seeing any instructions for doing one). I guess it probably is worth checking with Apple, or at least keeping track of the issue and seeing what resolution people ultimately come up with (it seems like at least in some cases they have been doing logic board replacements, according to the people in that thread).

-Zadillo

 

Thats what I have read much about as well not only there but also at Apples own discussion forums. Personally to me seeing that many logic board replacements doesn't seem very likely to me and its not the issue, those logic boards that are used in replacements most likely do not have the firmware update and thus why they work.

I think Apple needs to take another look at that firmware.