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A Hidden Genius at the Apple Store

duncandavidson.com

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Re: A Hidden Genius at the Apple Store

#31

Post by sil3ntmac »

ugh wrote: post #17
bsandbox wrote: post #10

Another hidden benefit that they may or may not make use of - Apple can directly observe their users interfacing with their products. With websites and to a certain extent with software, usability data collection is a given. But for consumer products like iPods, iPhones and Macs, it's a little harder to come by. By having thousands of end users in dozens of stores around the world playing with their gear, it seems li…

It wouldn’t be an easy task to adequately collect that information. Their retail employees are not sociologists or usability experts and letting them collect usability data which might be quite subtle and usually cannot be had with a simple standardized form seems like a daunting task. There is also the danger that Apple ends up with massive amounts of unstructured data, so much that no one can possibly make heads or…

Yes that seems a very possible result. Besides, I'm sure Apple already does UX/UI testing of their products as much as possible.

Re: A Hidden Genius at the Apple Store

#32

Post by mitjak »

zdw wrote: post #19

Just an example of how Apple has changed the build of their equipment for ease of maintenance: I had someone give me an broken iBook G4 and ask "Can you see about getting the data off the drive?". Here are takeapart instructions for it: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-iBook-G4-14-In... 14 pages, 60 screws. Compare to a recent MacBook: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-MacBook-Unibod... 3 pag…

Objection. Look at first generation iMac G5s which had the entire back panel come off granting access to practically every part of the logic board, followed by the next generation G5s that only offered user upgradeable RAM to the C2D intel iMacs only offering an upgradeable RAM slot. Consider also the removable battery of the pre-unibody laptops compared to the built-in one on the unibody MacBooks.

Progress is relative depending on what you want out of your machine. I want matte 16 bit screens back.

Re: A Hidden Genius at the Apple Store

#33

Post by kjhgfkjmhng »

unexpected wrote: post #11
varjag wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do for corporate customers.

correct me if i'm wrong, but I thought "the Dell Guy" that comes is a 3rd party company? They'll come to your office and fix your machine, but I'm not sure that guy is a Dell employee...

They are and the system demonstrates how badly it works compared to Apple.

I had a Dell with a faulty touchpad - it took 12 TWELVE onsite visits to fix it. That included 2 visits where the tech had been given the wrong part and 2 to replace parts that had been broken by the previous tech.

Every visit was a new person, none of them knew that the part they were swapping had already been swapped 6times before - until finally they stopped swapping the touchpad and replaced the motherboard.

But the info that this release MB was faulty was all over the net - it was only Dell that was unaware of it.

Re: A Hidden Genius at the Apple Store

#34

Post by GHFigs »

jamesbritt wrote: post #27
zdw wrote: post #19

Just an example of how Apple has changed the build of their equipment for ease of maintenance: I had someone give me an broken iBook G4 and ask "Can you see about getting the data off the drive?". Here are takeapart instructions for it: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-iBook-G4-14-In... 14 pages, 60 screws. Compare to a recent MacBook: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-MacBook-Unibod... 3 pag…

"3 pages. 3 screws. That's progress." I wanted poke around inside my new Thinkpad X100e. Might be four screws I had to twist, and they were designed to not fall out; they loosen up but stay in the cover hole, so no more concerns over lost screws. Very nice touch.

Captive screws/fasteners are lovely. I've personally encountered them on the engine housing of a Cessna (where a lost or loose screw may be much more than an inconvenience) and an iMac G5 (where just three drive the latch that holds the computer onto the back panel/stand). In both cases I was left with the impression that the entire remainder of the screw-turning world is missing out.

Re: A Hidden Genius at the Apple Store

#36

Post by culturestate »

ghshephard wrote: post #24
credo wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a Dell server 3 years ago, its power supply is now damaged (because of a power outage and failure of the surge protector). It is unclear whether there is more damage, but the first thing to do is to try using a new power supply. I called Dell to order a new power supply. They didn't have it in stock, but promised to get back to me by the next Monday. They never got back to me. A week after that Monday, I cal…

Also, to be Fair - Dell is optimized for supporting the poweredge line with a support contract, which it offers in 4 Hours turnaround time. Since 1999 I've had roughly 600 Dell Servers under active support at three companies in the Bay Area, and have probably called dell about 20-30 times. They've never missed their support window of 4 hours (come close several times, but by the 240th minute, I've always had part and…

AppleCare Premium provides similar 4-hour onsite for XServes, and in my (admittedly singular instance) experience, they meet their commitment.

Re: A Hidden Genius at the Apple Store

#37

Post by eitland »

kjhgfkjmhng wrote: post #33
unexpected wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

correct me if i'm wrong, but I thought "the Dell Guy" that comes is a 3rd party company? They'll come to your office and fix your machine, but I'm not sure that guy is a Dell employee...

They are and the system demonstrates how badly it works compared to Apple. I had a Dell with a faulty touchpad - it took 12 TWELVE onsite visits to fix it. That included 2 visits where the tech had been given the wrong part and 2 to replace parts that had been broken by the previous tech. Every visit was a new person, none of them knew that the part they were swapping had already been swapped 6times before - until fi…

At one site where I worked we had somewhere between 20 and 30 Dell Optiplex desktops breaking down due to this http://www.badcaps.net/pages.php?vid=4

Every time a skilled technician (InfoCare business support in Norway) would arrive within the time frame specified in the support contract, change the motherboard and make sure everything worked smoothly.

Re: A Hidden Genius at the Apple Store

#38

Post by mcav »

ugh wrote: post #29
zdw wrote: post #19

Just an example of how Apple has changed the build of their equipment for ease of maintenance: I had someone give me an broken iBook G4 and ask "Can you see about getting the data off the drive?". Here are takeapart instructions for it: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-iBook-G4-14-In... 14 pages, 60 screws. Compare to a recent MacBook: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-MacBook-Unibod... 3 pag…

The big problem I have with Apple is that they sometimes have the tendency to be a bit too restrictive for apparently no good reason. Their most recent MacBooks have no door which allows you to quickly replace the battery which is fair enough (it’s a feature I personally don’t really need anyway). The battery, however, is still pretty much the same as before. There is not much you can do wrong replacing it all on you…

I was under the impression that the latest MacBook Pros had different, more embedded batteries to enable them to have that 10-hour battery life, and that was why they can't be user-replaced.

Re: A Hidden Genius at the Apple Store

#39

Post by ugh »

mcav wrote: post #38
ugh wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The big problem I have with Apple is that they sometimes have the tendency to be a bit too restrictive for apparently no good reason. Their most recent MacBooks have no door which allows you to quickly replace the battery which is fair enough (it’s a feature I personally don’t really need anyway). The battery, however, is still pretty much the same as before. There is not much you can do wrong replacing it all on you…

I was under the impression that the latest MacBook Pros had different, more embedded batteries to enable them to have that 10-hour battery life, and that was why they can't be user-replaced.

They do have different batteries but you can remove the new one by unscrewing three screws and disconnecting a cable [+]. The battery has even a pull tab which allows you to easily lift it out of the case.

That’s a little more involved than previously when you only had to open a latch and pull out the battery but it’s pretty much exactly as hard as replacing the hard drive.

[+] Here is iFixit’s guide: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-MacBook-Pro-15...

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