Hardware

Hardware / News — Comments Off on “Staingate” or peeling/bubbly screens on Macbook Pro Retinas
20
Oct 15

“Staingate” or peeling/bubbly screens on Macbook Pro Retinas

If you find that your retina screen is getting funky looking, Apple has a quiet repair program that might be for you.

Staingate
In general, though, it seems Apple is trying to keep news of the problem quiet. There is no public acknowledgement of such a program existing on Apple’s website. Apple is contacting people who have reported the problem earlier in the year and were turned away, however. If you have problems like those shown in the picture above (although that’s an extreme case), you should now be able to take your laptop to the Apple Store for a straightforward repair.

AppleCare coverage is not necessarily required with several people successfully getting screen repairs/replacements who are officially out of warranty. If you believe you are affected by this problem, call Apple Support or visit an Apple Store or authorized reseller for support.

Hardware — Comments Off on 2012 iMac
07
Nov 12

2012 iMac

New iMacs announced. Great specs (best power for the $ and USB3), but one some gotchas–the biggest is the lack of upgradable RAM on the 21″ iMac. It’s soldered on. That’s right, you buy the iMac configured for a particular memory and that’s it, sucker. 2012 27″ iMac has four slots, or so says Anandtech. 2011 21″ iMac, if you can find it, has upgradable RAM.

Secondly, no optical drive on these guys. So if you need DVD or CD burning/playing on your iMac, you’ll want an external drive such as this or this (plays BluRay). You can still buy one of these Apple external Superdrives, or consider a much cheaper non-Apple optical drive.

Other item of note, but not a dealbreaker, is the lack of firewire ports on these. So far as I can tell the Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter will suffice, though there may be some devices like high-end audio peripherals that don’t work with this adapter. So if you depend on a particular external I recommend research before you upgrade.

More information once I get hands on with one of these things. Not clear exactly what RAM they’ll take yet.