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Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter

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Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter

#291

Post by radoslawc »

simoncion wrote: post #263
radoslawc wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I might be, or he's total a-hole. But it's more complicated than this. He's 8, spent one year in shelter since everytime someone entered room he was hiding, so no one took him. He "exercises" daily, got full vet checkup, bloodwork has better than I do (kidney problems might lead to urinating all over the place), I've bought Feliway electric dispenser, checked 6 kinds of kitty litter and testing 7th, he was nutred in…

> He's 8, spent one year in shelter since everytime someone entered room he was hiding, so no one took him. Yeah. As you're obviously aware, this cat will require extensive and persistent training. Older animals that are surrendered to a shelter are not-infrequently difficult to train or deal with. People who are -for whatever reason- unable to properly train their animal will often surrender their poorly-socialized…

Thanks for concern, appreciated. He has scratching post (well two) and furiously scratching them. But chair is chair, you know, forbidden fruit. Vomit is not that often or shitting, pissing is where I've got problem to solve. I've consult animal behaviorist which is also vet in clinic we're going, and she said that if cat gets neutered after adolescence it might become habit to mark territory either way. Plus he might got into concept that since in shelter everything is "toilet" then why not at my place. Well, we'll see, so far Mattias is winning pissing contest :)

Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter

#293

Post by tallanvor »

strictnein wrote: post #45
throwaway420 wrote: post #30

Despite the visual appeal of their products, Apple normally does a very good job with prioritizing function over form except in this case with the charger wire being so fragile and thin. I know I'm not the most careful and delicate person in the world, but the failure rate here is ridiculous compared to other similar products I own. The end of the cable gets frayed every single time. Otherwise, Apple makes ridiculous…

Yep. Every single charger we've owned has had to be replaced after a year or two. The only thing worse are the Apple USB cables. Complete junk.

Every Apple USB I've had (back when I used iPods) had the casing crumble, which I haven't had happen with any other cable. I don't understand what they've done to make them so fragile.

Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter

#294

Post by simoncion »

PhantomGremlin wrote: post #241
Alupis wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> from my own personal experience with supporting hundreds of laptops I'm curious to how much hardware support goes into this, since most Apple machines are designed to not be support friendly (eg. non-replaceable and/or difficult to replace normal wear-n-tear components). > routinely break the charging port on the computer if they get yanked on too much Yes, most laptops have this issue, although it's not nearly as…

quite a few services for $75 inclusive of the DC jack ... Apple's cheapest adapter with magsafe cable on it is $79. That's an oranges-to-apples comparison. :) It's not fair to compare 3rd party repair services to a new Apple product. There are also 3rd party repair services for Apple chargers. For example, I know these guys will repair them: http://madmacsoforegon.com/Mad_Macs_of_Oregon/Welcome.html

> That's an oranges-to-apples comparison. :)

>

> It's not fair to compare 3rd party repair services to a new Apple product.

You have to remember that Alupis was replying to the following comment (which he quoted in his comment):

> [the charging port on a computer is] of course far more expensive to replace than a new charger...

Context is everything, friend. :)

Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter

#295

Post by vbezhenar »

throwaway420 wrote: post #30

Despite the visual appeal of their products, Apple normally does a very good job with prioritizing function over form except in this case with the charger wire being so fragile and thin. I know I'm not the most careful and delicate person in the world, but the failure rate here is ridiculous compared to other similar products I own. The end of the cable gets frayed every single time. Otherwise, Apple makes ridiculous…

I own 2 macbooks, iPhone 4S, iPad 3 and I had iPod Video (battery dead, but should work otherwise). Every iDevice had broken cable after about 1 year. One macbook have broken cable. Other macbook have broken cable, but it still work, not sure, how long. I started to apply pen springs to the cables, it seems to help a little bit.

I'm sure that it's intentional design, so Apple can sell more of their ridiculously priced accessories. Integrated chips in their accessories, making them harder to replicate, seems to approve that hypothesis.

Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter

#296

Post by arikrak »

throwaway420 wrote: post #30

Despite the visual appeal of their products, Apple normally does a very good job with prioritizing function over form except in this case with the charger wire being so fragile and thin. I know I'm not the most careful and delicate person in the world, but the failure rate here is ridiculous compared to other similar products I own. The end of the cable gets frayed every single time. Otherwise, Apple makes ridiculous…

Only Apple can continue charging $80 for a charger that's so defective. Yo can buy a smartphone for the same price that lasts longer.

Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter

#297

Post by tim333 »

cxseven wrote: post #281
noonespecial wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Magnetic self-locating connectors have been around forever. I have a waffle iron from the 60's that's got one. The patented part is the specific size and shape (and pinout I guess) of that particular connector that prevents 3rd parties from making compatible adapters. Apple is far from alone in trying to profit from that shenanigan. It is, of course, profoundly wasteful for manufactures to pursue "nickle-and-dime" pr…

I wonder how patenting a specific implementation of an already-known thing is allowed. Why is this considered an original invention? Among other things, it violates the intent of patents "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts".

I think they've patented innovations in their thing like you can put it in either way up and it's got a chip with little lights in the end. They waffle on for pages in http://www.google.com/patents/US7311526

I'm not sure they should be able to patent fairly simple upgrades like that but I guess that's the US patent system.

Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter

#298

Post by fit2rule »

Bud wrote: post #122
throwaway420 wrote: post #30

Despite the visual appeal of their products, Apple normally does a very good job with prioritizing function over form except in this case with the charger wire being so fragile and thin. I know I'm not the most careful and delicate person in the world, but the failure rate here is ridiculous compared to other similar products I own. The end of the cable gets frayed every single time. Otherwise, Apple makes ridiculous…

I support around 300 Macs for work. In my extensive experience, the deal here is that people are FAR too rough and careless in winding up those charger cables over and over. Apple HAS implemented strain relief here and done their best to make the points of failure less vulnerable. Here's a tip: Instead of yanking the cable at a 90-degree angle and winding as tightly as possible, let the cable come out of the charger…

My tip for trouble-free cable management: Never wind the cable. Always fold it. Always. Whether its a rope, a cable, whatever: every time you wind it, you twist the fibers.

Instead, grab both ends, hold them together, untangle and pull the two sides together .. find the new ends, combine them, fold, over and over .. until you get a nice tidy package.

This treats the cable much nicer - its built for expanding in the combined loops, but when you wind .. and wind .. and wind .. you twist the fibers. Fold, don't twist!

Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter

#299

Post by Dylan16807 »

peteretep wrote: post #284
grkvlt wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you may be a bad cat _owner_ from the sound of it. All those behaviours are signs of an unhappy animal, partiularly urinating and defecating on furniture. Do you perhaps not devote enough time to interacting with your pet? Based on the age of the cat, you are probably through the 'aww, cute' kitten stage, and now have an adult cat, and discovering that, like any relationship, you need to invest in it to make…

> I think you may be a bad > cat _owner_ from the > sound of it Why are people always so quick to victim blame?

It's an animal, you should be able to outsmart and train it.

And if the cat was treated poorly and dumped at a shelter, it's the victim.

It's extremely reasonable to conclude that the cat's owner(s) are the problem. It just happened to be caused by a previous owner in this case, which was key missing context.

Re: Macbook charger teardown: surprising complexity inside Apple's power adapter

#300

Post by kens »

doYouEvenHalt wrote: post #271
capitan417 wrote: post #269

There's no way that the cost of these individual components can be used to justify the price tag. That's pure delusion.

Hmm. Any citations to back this up?

At the end of the article, I price out most of the charger components . I also estimate reasonable R&D costs. Based on these numbers, it's the profit margin that makes the charger expensive. See also this detailed analysis of Apple's profit margin: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/iphone-cost-what-apple-i...
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