Apple's Rev A issues apparent again

My much-loved and well used 17" MacBook Pro 2.4Ghz from 2007 died inexplicably and completely a few weeks ago. Powering on produced an audible hard-disk spin-up but nothing else: no ability to reset PRAM, certainly no single-user mode, no firewire target disk mode, nothing.

My first reaction was panic - and I legged it down to the Apple Store to grab a replacement machine and dropped my old one back with Apple. It turned out to be the NVIDIA logic board issues that plagued a run of 2.4Ghz 17" Pros and they repaired it for free... which was great as I noticed from their receipt that the part would have set me back £675 or so!

But, and apologies for the long-winded intro, my issues really started with the new 15.4" MacBook Pro I bought to tide me over... It was the new model that had been out for a week and so I was most definitely back in 'Rev A' territory.

First, there was the intermittent trackpad click issue which they resolved with a firmware update. (It manifested itself for me in not responding to clicks or taps on occasion.)

Then there was the lack of RAM (I couldn't buy the 2.56Ghz model with 4GB of RAM because the Apple Store didn't have any) so I purchased 2 x 2GB from Crucial via MacWarehouse. This I fitted and immediately started getting full computer freezes. The entire UI would freeze and I would be unable to do anything but hold down the power and force a reboot (not ideal when in the middle of an AutoCAD plan in VMWare). I knew this must be a RAM related issue so I suspected dodgy sticks and ran the comprehensive (and mammothly slow) MemTest. All came out fine and indeed the RAM is not giving problems in any other way. But the freezes continue.

Now for the really weird bit - I have never had one of these when the machine is in my office. Yet the moment I start work at home, on the kitchen table, I will get one within minutes... Is it in some way prompted by something on my home network?

There is plenty of talk on this Apple Discussion thread about heat but I really feel that this is not the right line of investigation as I have used it on stands, for hours at work under heavy loads and in all manner of configs hot and cold with no freezes occurring.

And in the 2 weeks that I used the machine without the new RAM I never had a freeze so I am pretty sure the RAM is the root cause but such erratic symptoms are odd.

So Rev A issue 3: I use a 24" Apple display at work connected to my MacBook Pro as a secondary monitor (an ancient one using the DVI to ADC converter) via the new Display Port and if the Mac displays go to sleep when you wake them the external display will be covered with shimmering, coloured lines and it has to be disconnected and reconnected to restore it. This is quite frustrating to say the least because windows have to squeeze back onto the single monitor and then fan out onto 2 again and they don't always get back to the same places so you have to do the dance of the toolbars and palettes.

So those are 3 fairly key issues that I believe Apple should really not have allowed to ship. There are many people new to Apple buying these units and they will be very disappointed - and in many cases they will wonder why Apple has such a reputation for stability in contrast to Windows.

The funnest ipod ever

And apparently Michael Phelps is the winningest athlete ever.

God give me strength.

3 day weekends - it just feels right

So, I got to thinking this morning (channeling Carrie) that 3-day weekends are actually quite a good thing. Just off the August bank holiday I found that I had time to spend with my family, time to do some work and get the jump on items for next week, and time to do those boring chores like clear out the vaults under the road...

And then I saw this poll at Lifehacker and I was very surprised by the numbers.

I am in the Yes camp - but maybe when that's the norm, and one is pushing 14-16 hours on a 10 hour day rather than 11-13 on an 8 maybe it wouldn't be so sweet.

MobileMe - the road to nowhere

In a very unusual move for the control freaks at Apple it seems that Steve himself has sanctioned a blog to report on the continuing travails with the newly launched MobileMe.

The first line goes as follows:

"Steve Jobs has asked me to write a posting every other day or so to let everyone know what's happening with MobileMe, and I'm working directly with the MobileMe group to ensure that we keep you really up to date."

And the last:

"We'll post another update later this weekend to report on status..."

I am hoping for some real honesty as I can report the following issues just in my small circle of MM users:

• My mother-in-law has been unable to access email for more than a week, during which time her account expired and the billing did not auto reactivate (as it was set to). I can now not get the authorisation through to bring her back online.
• I ordered the Family Pack in order to rationalise 2 accounts for my wife and a third for myself (which we only use for calendar and contact syncing) and after 8 attempts it seems one of them was successful insofar as one of her 2 accounts now shows as Family Member but there is no sign of the Master Family account so I have no idea how to manage this.
• During that process I received some comical server error pages - my favorite being attached.

I am now at a complete loss when it comes to resolving these issues as support chat is taking days, the phones are useless and there seems to be little acknowledgement that the card payment system is on the fritz.

Therefore, my hope for the blog and the author's comments later this weekend.

Very worried...

Having bought an iPhone 3G today (I dropped the last on a cobbled street - and to be honest I was seriously impressed that the touchscreen still worked) I was interested to see how lilies actually get gilded.

First impressions (and I'll be brief as this has been written about ad nauseam) are that the slippery plastic is actually quite nice - slips into the pocket more easily, seems lighter (I'm not sure if it actually is) and is yet sturdy in the hand.

So, pick to the fore, SIM out of the old, SIM into the new, sync with iTunes. Boot and...

1 bar on the phone. Now, the old phone was giving me 5 as it sat next to my computer. Wave it around a bit. Still 1 bar.

Read some of the (few) posts that I had not previously browsed about the new iPhone... terrible 3G performance, particularly in the UK.

Turn 3G off.

5 bars.

3G on.

1 bar.

Long-running test (5 hours and going) - max reception approached: 3 bars, somewhere near Eight Over Eight on the Kings Road on my cycle home.

This

is

no

good.

Please tell me it's O2's fault as then I just have to wait for new or upgraded cell towers. If it is a hardware issue in the new iPhone then I am very, very disappointed.

The party doesn't seem so bad once you've left

As with many things, life has a rosier outlook after the event is over and so it is with MobileMe. I say this because MobileMe is now pushing my contacts and calendars from Mac (after 15 mins or manual command from the sync menu) and backwards and forwards between iPhone etc.

Now that I have got over the whole disappointment with the @me.com address for push mail I am back to my two Google accounts (Google Apps with my corporate domain and regular Gmail) and I have sync'd my MobileMe but turned off the Mail functionality in the iPhone System prefs so it just does my calendars and contacts. Interestingly the very fact that you can individually select which parts of the MobileMe platform to use (Mail, calendars or contacts) suggests perhaps that they knew that it was going to be used for other mail accounts.

And with a combination of Spanning Sync on my Mac sending my multiple Gmail calendars to iCal and backwards I actually get a pretty good Gmail to iPhone sync albeit with the caveat that I have to at least open my computer to get Spanning Sync to activate and do the last leg.

Anyway, this is a lot more convoluted than I had hoped and it isn't "Exchange for the rest of us" as SJ suggested and so I am on the hunt for new and better methods.

So, an old fashioned doff of the cap to the quiet talent of the man who brought you Hardware Growler (still one of the only 5 or 6 apps bundled with every download of the great growl platform) and the flashes of wit and insight on his blog at Monkeyfood.com - the great Diggory. He led me to Nueva and its Exchange solution to push mail, calendars and contacts from Gmail. The article he put me onto is here, care of Beau Giles.

Thanks all. Any other workarounds appreciated.

Me.con?

MobileMe, beyond having a bad name, is proving to be a cussed & ugly child. It laid claim to Microsoft Exchange's slice of cake at the push-info birthday party (and let's face it MExch is no little orphan Annie - she throws some spectacular hissy fits but she remains the teen-queen in this particular realm) but has so far vomited on arrival, refused to let any of the children play with his toys and been a pain in the arse.

What staggers me is that .mac was always the slightly slow child, who was a bit plain and really didn't make an impact but then Mac-fanboys did love him a little so he never got the boot. 

But MobileMe was sent to replace him, the sexy younger brother shows what those genes could really do... and it was bad.

I have had a contact in my address book for the last three days and have been waiting for it to push to the cloud (all settings, Mac, me.com, iPhone all correct) and has it pushed, puffed even suggested it might move? Has it hell.

On top of the whole push-email fiasco (you mean only @me.com addresses push - the rest of your domains go hang?) I am seriously underwhelmed.

This is one big lost-opportunity for the Cupertino team... or are all of our contacts, emails, calendars stuck in the Infinite Loop. Let's leave this party.