41–50 of 117 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Technically, iFixit has given an orange a repairability score of 0 That's an O, not 0: > Orange Repairability Score: O out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair).
> That's an O, not 0: It's a 0 on the left-hand side of the meter, the meter is bottomed out whereas it's at the first mark for the 2015 macbook.
Seems that the major unknown is about the SSD controller [1] to know if it uses a custom controller or not. [1] http://www.anandtech.com/show/9173/more-pictures-of-2015-mac...
Look at the size of it compared to the Intel CPU. That thing is huge. What are the usual node size SSD controller manufactured in? 28/40nm
(Usually bigger silicon has more pins, and vice versa, but not necessarily)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My understanding is that Apple is one of the leading companies when it comes to eWaste. Also, this is the one of the rare Apple product that that only has industry standard ports/power chargers on it. You can't critique them on building a product that is hard to repair (and wow, this one looks next to impossible for your average non-technician) - but the ewaste/standard charger concerns don't appear to be valid.
Perhaps they are in the leading position, but shouldn't we strive for ever better products? I just upgraded a couple of old MacBooks and iMacs from HHD to SSD and all of a sudden they are usable again - and will probably continue to be so for the coming 2-3 years. That basically extended their lifetimes by perhaps 30-40% and the saved waste is presumably closely proportional to that. So, ideally, I think, all manufac…
>Apple has opted to transition from using a row of LEDs with a light guide panel, to installing individual LEDs beneath each key. That's progress. Now, Apple, please replace each LED with an infra-red or a visible-light sensor, so that someone can write software to put a representation of the keyboard onto the screen that shows which keys have a finger hovering over them, so that the user never has to look at the key…
Worth noting that this device, typical for Apple, gets the worst "repairability" score: >The MacBook 2015 Repairability Score: 1 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair) There are several reasons why this happens; the optimist says that to save space Apple had to glue and solder so much, the pessimist says it's so that Apple can charge more for repairs/replacements. But I think both can agree that this generates more e-wa…
>But I think both can agree that this generates more e-waste than necessary How so? https://www.apple.com/recycling/ The components are separated for recycling.
Where is that stated? I read these pages and all I could find was Apple saying that Apple requires its external recycling companies to respect local laws, i.e. they are shipping 20ft containers to East Asia and are done with it.
Worth noting that this device, typical for Apple, gets the worst "repairability" score: >The MacBook 2015 Repairability Score: 1 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair) There are several reasons why this happens; the optimist says that to save space Apple had to glue and solder so much, the pessimist says it's so that Apple can charge more for repairs/replacements. But I think both can agree that this generates more e-wa…
I think it's a combination of optimising for space and cost - every connector that needs to be aligned and connected, and every screw that needs to be installed, requires time and labour. It's far cheaper and faster to glue and solder everything together. This is known as DFM in the industry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_for_manufacturability
One of the more obvious examples of this in laptops is the move from keyboards with shaped keys to flat "island-style" ones; the latter are cheaper to produce.
I'm not sure why this is an issue any more. It was a nice ideal when laptops were just PCs put into smaller boxes, but as manufacturers put the effort and investment into satisfying our demands for smaller, faster, lighter, I don't think the expectation of poking around inside them is reasonable. We don't see people complaining about the repairability of their R-Pis, Chromecasts, SoC systems etc. That's the way hardw…
A big part of the annoyance with Apple is their tendency to explicitly take steps against repairs: insane amounts of glue, multiple "weird" screws (the macbook here uses pentalobe, torx, philips and tri-wing in a single machine), non-standard formats & connectors (I don't expect them to ever swap their non-soldered SSDs for M.2, even though they've altered the connector and format multiple times).
Having the machine be "hard to repair" because it's highly integrated is one thing, taking decisions which deliberately hinder repairability and have basically no other advantage is quite another.
> We don't see people complaining about the repairability of their R-Pis, Chromecasts, SoC systems etc.
Nobody complains about the repairability of an RPi because no specific step to make it harder to repair for no value were undertaken.
>Apple has opted to transition from using a row of LEDs with a light guide panel, to installing individual LEDs beneath each key. That's progress. Now, Apple, please replace each LED with an infra-red or a visible-light sensor, so that someone can write software to put a representation of the keyboard onto the screen that shows which keys have a finger hovering over them, so that the user never has to look at the key…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My understanding is that Apple is one of the leading companies when it comes to eWaste. Also, this is the one of the rare Apple product that that only has industry standard ports/power chargers on it. You can't critique them on building a product that is hard to repair (and wow, this one looks next to impossible for your average non-technician) - but the ewaste/standard charger concerns don't appear to be valid.
Perhaps they are in the leading position, but shouldn't we strive for ever better products? I just upgraded a couple of old MacBooks and iMacs from HHD to SSD and all of a sudden they are usable again - and will probably continue to be so for the coming 2-3 years. That basically extended their lifetimes by perhaps 30-40% and the saved waste is presumably closely proportional to that. So, ideally, I think, all manufac…
Even Samsung, with the Galaxy 6, no longer includes a replaceable battery.
My guess, is that in order to increase reliability, and reduce cost, companies have come to the realization that it's most straightforward to do that by abandoning multiple "plug in" components, and just soldering the memory, cpu, flash onboard.
For better or worse, I think the Macbook is the way of the future - and I suspect that in 2-3 years, the vast majority of the laptops being sold will be just a small stick of logic-board+flash+memory in the same way the Macbook is today.
Worth noting that this device, typical for Apple, gets the worst "repairability" score: >The MacBook 2015 Repairability Score: 1 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair) There are several reasons why this happens; the optimist says that to save space Apple had to glue and solder so much, the pessimist says it's so that Apple can charge more for repairs/replacements. But I think both can agree that this generates more e-wa…
the optimist says that to save space Apple had to glue and solder so much, the pessimist says it's so that Apple can charge more for repairs/replacements I think it's a combination of optimising for space and cost - every connector that needs to be aligned and connected, and every screw that needs to be installed, requires time and labour. It's far cheaper and faster to glue and solder everything together. This is kn…
And yet the keyboard alone uses both glue and about 90 screws (https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/YYpaGaNumhQuR5M6)