In July 2008, NVIDIA publicly acknowledged a higher than normal failure rate for some of their graphics processors due to a packaging defect. At that same time, NVIDIA assured Apple that Mac computers with these graphics processors were not affected. However, after an Apple-led investigation, Apple has determined that some MacBook Pro computers with the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics processor may be affected. If the NVIDIA graphics processor in your MacBook Pro has failed, or fails within two years of the original date of purchase, a repair will be done free of charge, even if your MacBook Pro is out of warranty.
Category: Apple
It’s Your Own Damn Fault
TUAW’s Robert Palmer, on the best way to keep a Mac safe:
Also recommended: Not downloading pirated software (and their associated tools) on peer-to-peer networks. If you do choose to get your software that way, you have nobody to blame but yourself if your system gets infected.
I want to hug that man. This is one of those things that I would have bit my tongue to keep from saying while behind the Genius Bar.
Inside the Case
Michael Miller of PC Mag looks back at his first interview with the Macintosh team:
Most of the time I was meeting with other members on the team, but I remember Jobs coming in – even then he was very charismatic: intense, proud of the work, and a bit prickly about any criticism. He and his folks were quick to put down the IBM PC and its clones for not pushing the envelope and instead settling for “mediocrity.”
‘But Who’s Really Being Robbed?’
Macworld’s Dan Moren, on 99-cent iPhone applications:
So what’s the solution? The right answer, I think, would be to retrain consumers to stop looking at the single metric of how cheap something is and reinforce the idea of goods costing what they’re worth. Unfortunately, we don’t have the hundred years and advanced brainwashing equipment that such a proposition would likely require.
The whole article is brilliant.
‘While You Were Out’
The New York Times has posted a slick little feature on the effect of Jobs on Apple, and they echo the point I made the other day:
Apple came up with some amazing products without Jobs, and will do so after he is long gone, but they have to keep the product line clean and clear.
The feature highlights a fact that I had forgotten: In 1993 alone, Apple releases 19 new machines. Here’s a bit from the Times in 1993:
Macintosh Design Team Interview
Aresluna.org has posted an interview of the original Mac team by Byte Magazine. Here’s Jobs in 1984:
If you read the Apple’s first brochure, the headline was “Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication.” What we meant by that was that when you first attack a problem it seems really simple because you don’t understand it. Then when you start to really understand it, you come up with these very complicated solutions because it’s really hairy. Most people stop there. But a few people keep burning the midnight oil and finally understand the underlying principles of the problem and come up with an elegantly simple solution for it. But very few people go the distance to get there.
A Lack of Direction
A lot of people are worried about a post-Steve Jobs Apple. Looking back of history, these fears are not completely unfounded. After Jobs was kicked to the curb in 1985, Apple entered a 10-year period of falling sales, poor products, and a slipping market share, while Microsoft and others grew in strength and numbers.
When Apple’s engineers failed to build a successor for the aging classic Mac OS, Apple bought NeXT Computers, bringing NeXT’s OS and CEO - Jobs - into Apple. With Jobs once more at the helm, the company has rocketed to new heights in the last 10 years.
16 Minute Video on Macintosh’s Release
The thing that set the original Macintosh apart is the same thing that sets the current line apart - software.
The Macintosh Family Tree
Mercury News has a nice graphic of some notable Apple computers over the last two and a half decades.
A Look Back
The Guardian has a great interview with Steve Wozniak and Andy Hertzfeld, two of the men who helped birth Apple and later the Macintosh:
“The Mac was kind of a funny hybrid between the two, and no one thought much of it,” he says. “Even after Steve Jobs took it over, a lot of people thought it was the Steve Jobs back-to-the-garage fantasy, that he was trying to pull Apple back to its roots with a small team who were very excited about what they were doing.”
Ars Writers Pick Favorite Macs
Here’s the list. Included: the Titanium PowerBook, the Pismo, the Newton and the Performa.
Early Macintosh Reviews Show John C. Dvorak Clueless Even in 1984
CNNMoney has compiled some snippets from reviews of the Macintosh when it was released in 1984. Here’s my favorite, from John C. Dvorak:
Apple makes the arrogant assumption of thinking that it knows what you want and need. It, unfortunately, leaves the “why” out of the equation — as in “why would I want this?” The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a ‘mouse’. There is no evidence that people want to use these things. I dont want one of these new fangled devices.