Just to balance some of the personal computing propaganda

[ravencallscrows]

Since it always seems to become an issue when something gets flaunted as a Windows security issue, in the interest of equal time, there's a rumour circulating out of Cupertino, California, that Apple will be recalling as many as 40,000 of the new G5 Macintoshes.

Citing:
Recent CPU benchmarks show the "Worlds Fastest Personal Computer." is indeed not. Tests show Apple's new Dual 2GHz PowerMac G5 clocks in almost half the speed of the 236Mflop/s it once boasted, around 120Mflop/s, which would put the G5 at # 52 of the fastest desktops on the market.

Of 135,000 orders of Power Mac G5's, (38,000 of them being the Dual 2GHz) Apple has already recieved over 4,300 returns at an average of 358 a day. Apple Senior Vice President Avie Tevanian reports several problems in the logic board: "We didn't have enough time to test it for consumer use." Tevanian reveals. "The demand for the G5 was overwhelming. Customers wanted the G5 and they wanted it now. Our end decision to ship the G5's was backed with our free 90 day Applecare support. We will gladly replace our customers default machines, hassle free."

But one PowerMac G5 owner Steven Theoharris claims otherwise: "Apple has given me nothing but hassle. When I first talked to an Apple support representative, she denied problems with the logic board. After 2 hours of troubleshooting, she clamed that the G5 was 'The World's Fastest Computer' and any speed related problems, were caused by unsupported 3rd party software. such as Virtual PC."

Apple has also withdrawn the latest update to Mac OS X, 10.2.8, after a few hours. The company doesn't say why, but Ethernet and display problems lead a long list of bugs at MacFixIt.com.

Apple's knowledge base article for the update advises: "This update is temporarily unavailable. Please check back later."

Apple received widespread criticism for shrouding its Bluetooth beta program in secrecy, leading to hundreds of complaints within hours of release of the iSync update. The update required the OS to interoperate with twenty new devices, and critics said an open beta program would have resolved many of these

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has yet to comment on these issues.

This article is cited as "Troy Trimble, Tennessean" but it's not on the Nashville-based newspaper's website, although it's printed as above on several cities' editions of Craig's List

Comments

[gwynn-aaron.livejournal.com]

Either this was written by someone intending to compose fiction or they had some sort of Twilight Zone experience. Either way there isn't anything in there that can be verified in any other media sources, and there are a number of things that definitely make it stand out as false.

Apple's new iSync was just made available this morning over Software Update. So nobody has really played with it yet.

The bluetooth issue was on a much, much older release.

Regarding the benchmarks, the jury is still out and various sources have widely varying numbers depending on how and what they test. I have never read any source, even the most critical ones, claim that the G5 is half the speed it claims to be.

As for the problems with OS 10.2.8, yes there were a LOT of problems and Apple yanked it, but they rereleased a fixed version a few days ago and it seems to be much better.

The "quote" from Tevanian doesn't seem like the polished public statement from an Apple VP. He's quoted as saying "default" machines. Wouldn't that be "faulty" machines? Secondly, he wouldn't use the phrase "hassle free". He would say something like "easily", "quickly", "as fast as we can", or something a little more upbeat and positive.

The final nail in the coffin is the assertion that the writer was running VirtualPC on his/her G5. No version of VirtualPC will run on the G5 processor/architecture currently.

I talked to three or four people who work at Apple Stores and none of them have heard anything about logic board problems nor seen any returns for such problems.

[wingedelf.livejournal.com]

*nod* Thus the reason for the disclaimer at the bottom. I tried following up on it, but wasn't finding anything about it. Makes it about as valid as people who get hit by Windows virii targeting things which were fixed six months before hand.