found drama

Not with the model I have (apparently) but… As it turns out, some iBook owners are organizing a lawsuit due to some fault logic board ish. Black Cider seems to be leading the charge though there’s some significant pressure coming from Brandon Carolan’s PetitionOnline.com petition (in the top 10 even!).

In a way, I was relieved to see that the problem was with the video. I have personally experienced no problems with the video so far (going on 6 months now…? something in that range…). The only hardware (almost) problem that I’ve really seen so far has to do with sleep mode not always working the way it’s supposed to. *ahem* “As I’d expect it to.” It seems that sometimes latching the screen down and closing the iBook doesn’t always put it to sleep and as such the battery winds up dead. This has only happened a couple of times … and each time I can think of, there was travel involved prior to discovery of the problem. So I’m not convinced…

BUT ANYWAY! There are enough of the cases reported on Black Cider to warrant a serious issue. At least a serious enough issue for them/those using that year’s iBook line. I sincerely believe that it is reasonable to expect no less than 4 to 5 years of solid use from one’s machine before it hits any kind of brickwall kaput. I’m not saying 4 to 5 years of solidly being able to run all brand-new apps without a hiccup or noticeable groan — but your machine should be able to do the following for a minimum of 4 years:

1. Boot up
2. Load the OS that came installed on it
3. Read media (CDs, floppies, etc.)
4. Display images on the screen

…maybe not a comprehensive list but one gets my drift, no? And I know there are ppl out there reading this thinking I’m crazy. “4 to 5 years!?” I know. I know. We should reasonably expect everything to run for millennia, right? Er… Well then! So what needs to be the outcome here? Barring a full-fledged investigation, the problem seems (on the surface) common enough that Apple ought to offer at the minimum some token conciliatory gesture to these folks. W/ their market share the way it is, Apple has nothing if not rabidly loyal consumers (read: fans). And nothing pisses off a rabidly loyal consumer quite like the feeling that he has been a shill. Between this and the iPod thing right now, Apple may need to do some serious ass kissing. ESPECIALLY since the whole point of paying “a little more” for an Apple product is b/c you are *relying* on that integration of hardware and software. You are paying a premium b/c you *just know* that the reason you can’t buy a kit to build your own Mac is b/c they have high engineering standards and rigorous testing and all that.

We’ll be watching this.

About Rob Friesel