* Posts by Phillip Davis

3 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Jul 2007

Leopard data loss glitch uncovered

Phillip Davis
Jobs Halo

Hardly a dissaster!

Hey, wow, so it could happen!

To put it bluntly, anyone who moves - as against copies - a folder from one drive to another (including network storage) is risking disaster. File corruption can happen at any point and invisibly - as I found out to my cost recently - so anyone who loses information due to moving rather than copying loses my sympathy as well as their data.

It may be a 'bug' but it's one I would never, ever encounter because I am not that stupid.

See you on the dark side... Windows that is.

iPhone's keyboard prompts patent violation suit

Phillip Davis

Oh, please...

Yet another company hard up for funds who thinks it's a good way to make a quick buck by suing Apple. I remember Sharp and Psion had touch screens - nothing happened then - and as already commented, what about all the phone companies "infringing" this companies so-called patent.

What a load of crap and I hope the court thinks so too. Let's hope that these vultures have to pay Apple's legal costs as well.

Burned by a MacBook

Phillip Davis

Hey, wow, a bad Apple!

Oh my, goodness gracious, someone had a problem with an Apple! Perhaps it's because they are almost bulletproof that such a case is unusual enough to warrent rabid publicity. Had this been a Wintel machine the incident would not have raised an eyebrow.

Although I am no longer in the computer retail sector I sold Apple (and PC) computers for over 18 years and have owned an Apple almost as long and never saw anthing remotely like the this case. By contrast, one could expect a fault, hardware problem or incompatablility with at least 1 in 3 PC's. One company who shall be nameless but have been I.n the B.usiness for M.any years once told me to inform a customer that a problem with their new machine was a "feature" and not a fault!

Given a wealth of retail experience you must excuse me for being cynical but reading between the lines it strikes me that perhaps this person was angling for a replacment machine and is dissappointed that she did not get her own way. I experienced it so many times in my days as a salesman I could write a book.

My biggest suspicion is aroused by the power cord picture. The break is so close to the connecter it appears to me there has been some undue stress at the joint. Whilst I am not suggesting deliberate abuse or undue user stressing of the connector, I sold Apple portables of all flavours for many years and have never seen this happen even with the old 'hard wired' PSU's. As for the 'burn', I have had worst looking scratches. Stick some ointment on it for goodness sake.

OK, so the DVD drive broke... it happens. It's an outsourced component (take a look at system profiler) and the odd duff one does crop up. So are hard disks. Even Apple mice are outsourced. The logic board problems were unfortunate but once again, it happens. Anyone with an ounce of nouse would realise there are hundreds of components and it only takes the wrong one to break a machine.

So there were problems and there seems to have been an unfortunate catalogue of errors but such a thing is as rare as hens teeth with Apple and no manufacturer or dealer is perfect (I once saw a broken axle on a Rolls!). As a percentage of market share I doubt if Apple are anywhere near as bad as PC manufacturers.

As for the idiot PC brigade who have posted the most stupid comments I have seen in recent history, I can assure you that having sold and used both flavours of machine and operating system wild horses would not drag me kicking and screaming back to Wintel! Get a Dell? Get lost!

Apple may have the odd issue - occasionaly - but all of my machines and those owned by others of my aquaintance have worked out of the box, 99.9% of the time and without the fear of unexpected failure or the need to upgrade every couple of months. I have yet to have a friend or relative with a faulty Mac wheras one of my work colleagues recently had to return his "bargain" branded PC portable just three weeks after purchase and a friend had the most horrendous battle with HP to get his PDA fixed.

Oh yes, I have seen an Apple crash (shock horror)... it worked fine again as soon as MS Office was uninstalled - need I say more?. One of my PC owning friends upgraded his motherboard (my iMac is 18 months old and works faster without anything more than some extra RAM) and can no longer run a program despite several telephone calls and Windows update downloads. My "expensive and under spec" Mac encodes video for authoring twice as fast as his PC despite his chipset being, on paper, nearly twice as fast as mine. I have lost count of those asking me for help with XP and as for Vista, well, where shall I start?

I doubt many - if any - of those critising Apple have ever touched one of their machines let alone used or bought one. Unlike the Wintel camp, I make considered judgements on practical experience, not on biased comment from unreliable sources which is more often than not based on little more than heresay and rumour.

As for a product recall, please, get real will you?. When the 'never used an Apple because it's too different/PC's are cheaper' camp demand the same from their makers every single time a machine faults then I will demand the same from Apple. Until then, get a life and give it a rest eh?

Am I an Apple snob? You bet I am. My smugness comes from knowing that like the owners of made to measure clothes, Porche cars, Bose sound systems and Omega watches, I have paid for and own some of the best kit there is. If I am sad about anything Apple has done it's releasing iTunes and Safari for Windows. The best analogy I can think of is that it's akin to putting champagne in ring pull cans. Casting pearls to the swine or what!

Is the The Register biased against Apple? Nope. Just don't know any better, that's all.