It's not a good thing when a simple point release of Apple's desktop OS causes a flurry of error reports with a central theme of "I just installed the 10.7.3 version of Lion and now nothing works." Last night and this morning, threads began popping up on Apple's support forum and elsewhere indicating that a flaw in the 10.7.3 delta updater is resulting in app crashes with a characteristic "CUI CUI CUI" overlay on some interface elements.

While it should be noted that there are plenty of reports of users updating with no issues whatsoever, there's no denying that for those affected this is a painful and unfortunate bug. It's especially awkward for users who don't have a bootable backup or another machine to help the recovery process, because it leaves your Mac pretty much unusable.

The good news (mostly) is that it should not be necessary to resort to Time Machine or other data restores to get back into working condition. Tipsters on the Apple boards and a helpful walkthrough at OS X Daily recommend using the OS X 10.7.3 Combo Updater to resolve the problem. (If that link comes up 404, it's a Safari quirk; just reload.)

If you can boot your Mac into Safe Mode -- just hold down Shift during startup until the desktop or login window appears -- then you should be able to download and install the Combo Updater and proceed normally. If you can't get running in Safe Mode, you have a few options; with a second Mac running Lion or a visit to the Genius Bar, you can mount your machine in Target Disk Mode and install the combo update directly.

You also can take advantage of Lion's Recovery Partition, which should be present on any machine where 10.7 was installed by the conventional process. Holding down the R key at startup will boot you into Recovery, where you can then reinstall Lion. The 10.7.3 combo update should be downloaded and installed normally as part of the recovery cycle. Do not erase your drive or restore from Time Machine, it is not necessary. The only thing that you should need is a fresh install of the OS X system, which will not impact your data or applications.

While Lion is a lot more 'recoverable' than past versions of OS X thanks to the Recovery Partition and the ease of retrieving purchased apps from the Mac App Store, a self-inflicted foulup like this one reminds us all that Apple makes mistakes (sometimes really bad ones -- remember the iTunes version on Windows that ate music files?) and that the only sane pre-upgrade policy is to have solid, tested backups.

The other point that bears repeating is sometimes harder for us to internalize, but it's equally valid. If your livelihood depends on your Mac (or your iPhone, or iPad, or PC) working as expected, installing any updates in the first day of availability is just plain dumb. Production machines need to be boring, predictable and unsurprising -- so leave them alone for days, weeks or months if necessary to make sure that any patches and 'improvements' you want to make don't leave you twisting in the wind on a deadline, or tearing your hair out over data loss.

Thanks to Matthew and everyone who sent this in.

OS X 10.7.3 causing CUI errors for some, Combo Update recommended originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

OS X 10.7.3 causing CUI errors for some, Combo Update recommended originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In mid-November, TUAW reported on Apple's program to replace certain first-generation iPod nanos with refurbished models. The replacement program was designed to resolve issues with iPod nanos manufactured between September of 2005 and January of 2006 that could cause overheating and pose a safety risk. Now some nano owners are reporting on a MacRumors forum that Apple is replacing their 2 GB first-generation iPod nanos with 8 GB sixth-generation models.

News of the first shipment of these newer units came from MacRumors reader CoolCatGee, who posted an image of an email that had been sent by Apple announcing the shipping of the device. The reader checked the serial number of the new device and found that it was a 6th generation iPod nano.

So why is Apple sending out newer devices to replace old equipment? It appears that there was unprecedented response to the "recall," and there may have been only a small number of refurbished units to send out. Many of the forum respondents also noted that the replacement is taking 5 to 6 weeks, meaning that Apple might be providing the newer units as part of its usual policy of over-delivering on promises.

MacRumors is now backing up its forum posters with a confirmed report that Apple is indeed shipping sixth-generation iPod nanos. The devices come with an expired warranty, and forum fans are unsure if they're refurbished 6G iPod nanos or completely new devices.

[via iPodnn]

Apple replacing recalled nanos with new models originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 20 Dec 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple replacing recalled nanos with new models originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 20 Dec 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Some iPhone 4S owners have been experiencing a peculiar situation where the device stops recognizing their SIM cards. Users have been reporting that they receive error messages on the iPhone 4S stating that they either have no SIM card installed or their SIM is invalid. Rebooting the handset works as a temporary solution, but most users experiencing this problem have reported that eventually the iPhone 4S will refuse to recognize the SIM at all.

This issue doesn't appear to be isolated to any one carrier or model of iPhone 4S, and it's been happening to quite a few users since the handset launched. So far, the only sure-fire solution to the issue seems to be getting a replacement SIM from your carrier and swapping out the old one.

It's not clear if this is a hardware issue specific to the iPhone 4S, a software bug in iOS, a bad batch of SIMs across multiple carriers, or some unlikely combination of the three. Users have reported success in getting their iPhone 4S units to recognize new SIMs, so if you experience this issue, a visit to your carrier's closest store is probably in order.

Some iPhone 4S users report SIM card issues originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Some iPhone 4S users report SIM card issues originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Today, Erick Schonfeld reports his experience at Tech Crunch. Despite moderate use during an 8-hour work day -- about two-and-a-half hours of Internet and email and roughly 30 minutes of calls -- his iPhone's battery had died. If the iPhone saw hands-on activity for about three hours, according to Erick's anecdotal observation, it spent about 5 hours sitting idle.

As Erick notes, the phone was "...constantly bleeping with notifications and emails. And that may very well be the problem." Often a "resting" iPhone is in fact doing something, and it's possible that very frequent notification alerts can contribute to battery drain. Per the Guardian story, problematic contacts may also be to blame (see Chris Breen story below).

While we wait and see if anything official will come from Apple on this apparently widespread problem, here are a few general tips you can use for preserving battery life on an iOS device. You won't suddenly run 12-hour days after trying these things out, but every bit helps, right?

1. Lower screen brightness. A blazing screen equals a blazing battery. Move that slider a bit to the left.
2. Reduce alerts you don't need. Yes, push notifications are wonderful as are their corresponding beeps. Just look at how many you've got enabled and whittle it down to the essential.
3. Enable quick screen locking. You can typically let the display go to sleep when you aren't actively using your iPhone.
4. Enable Airplane mode when offline. It kills Wi-Fi and data dead. Plus it's polite to whomever you happen to be talking with.
5. Reduce email checking. Do you really need to see a new message every five minutes?
6. Make sure you're not synchronizing massive mail folders you don't actually need on the go, like Sent, Drafts or Junk.
7. Try de-synchronizing your Exchange, iCloud or Google contacts and seeing if that improves matters -- you may have a corrupt contact record in there.

Admittedly these tips are common sense stuff and probably won't address more specific issues others are reporting. For example, the folks at iDownloadBlog suggest that the Time Zone setting could be a problem and describe a way to test your own device (note that they tested the iPhone 4 and 3GS, not just the 4S), while Christopher Breen discovered that an errant contact was causing a battery-draining crash loop while trying to sync to iCloud.

If you've found any helpful tricks, please share in the comments.

iPhone 4S battery concerns and tips for better performance originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 28 Oct 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

iPhone 4S battery concerns and tips for better performance originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 28 Oct 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Update: It appears that Apple has removed the firmware download from their support site. As pointed out by David in the comments below, this update was likely not intended for public release just yet, as it was posted to the discussion thread by a customer who is apparently working with AppleCare to resolve the issue on her display. Remember, official updates from Apple will appear in Software Update.

Buyers of the 24-inch Apple LED Cinema Display who connected the device to Thunderbolt-equipped Macs were dismayed to find that the screen exhibited a flickering problem. The issue first came to light in February after the first Thunderbolt Mac, the early 2011 MacBook Pro, was released. Now AppleInsider is reporting Apple has released a firmware update to resolve the flickering issue.

The update notes state that the fix will only install when the display is connected to a Mac with the Thunderbolt interconnect, and that the update may not resolve the flickering issue if a Mini DisplayPort extender cable is used. There's also a warning to users to disconnect non-essential USB and FireWire devices while installing the firmware update, and to use only an Apple keyboard and mouse during the installation. The update is 926 KB in size, and works with Mac OS X 10.6.8 and later.

The 24-inch LED Cinema Display has been discontinued and replaced with the 27-inch Thunderbolt Display. The new display includes a built-in FaceTime HD camera, high-quality audio speakers, and support for Gigabit Ethernet and FireWire 800; it can also be daisy-chained to another identical display and other Thunderbolt-equipped devices.

Apple issues update to fix flickering with 24" Cinema Display and Thunderbolt (Updated) originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 29 Sep 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple issues update to fix flickering with 24" Cinema Display and Thunderbolt (Updated) originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 29 Sep 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has released iMac Graphic FW Update 3.0 to address graphical hanging issues that some people were reporting on iMacs. After upgrading to Lion, many users had reported their iMacs were locking up entirely after playing certain kinds of videos, requiring them to reboot in order to regain control. This firmware update hopes to address this problem.

As with all firmware updates, the file itself is small -- 482 KB -- but it does require you to reboot your iMac and ensure the power is not interrupted during the update. Let us know in the comments if this update resolves your iMac's issues.

Apple releases iMac Graphic Firmware Update 3.0 to address hanging graphics originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 24 Aug 2011 15:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple releases iMac Graphic Firmware Update 3.0 to address hanging graphics originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 24 Aug 2011 15:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple support is now aware of the problem, and it's been classified as a "known issue" that they're looking into. Meanwhile, several affected customers are seeing their bank accounts significantly overdrawn, with all of the heinous additional bank fees that go along with that, so hopefully Apple also makes good on those additional fees.

If there's a lesson to draw from this, here it is: if you pay for iTunes purchases through PayPal, it's probably a good idea to switch to another payment method until this gets sorted out. If you haven't bought Lion yet and you're worried about paying 100 times more for it than you're supposed to, you can always pay for it with an iTunes gift card.

PayPal reportedly overcharging some customers for OS X Lion originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 27 Jul 2011 16:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

PayPal reportedly overcharging some customers for OS X Lion originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 27 Jul 2011 16:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After installing OS X Lion last week, one of the things I've noticed is that Safari tends to run away with enormous amounts of RAM over time. A subprocess called "Safari Web Content" will sometimes use over a gigabyte of RAM. Since my Mac maxes out at 4 GB, and since it's a rare day that I'm only using Safari and nothing else, having so much of my system's RAM gobbled up by one process was bogging everything down.

Safari Web Content is a sandboxed subprocess of Safari that runs all webpage rendering. If you've got several dozen tabs open at once, it might make sense for the subprocess to use up that much RAM; however, I was seeing huge amounts of RAM usage even with only three or four tabs open. Four webpages shouldn't be consuming over a gigabyte of RAM. Many people's knee-jerk reaction has been to blame Flash for the excessive memory consumption, but that's not the case here; Flash runs as its own separate process and has nothing to do with the "Safari Web Content" process or its runaway RAM usage.

A few people have recommended disabling any Safari extensions you may have running to reclaim a big chunk of the RAM used up by Safari Web Content. Whether it's a bug in Safari 5.1 or incompatibility with older extensions, the theory goes that one or more of the extensions I've been running was the cause for Safari's excessive RAM usage. Disabling all but a handful of my Safari extensions brought the Safari Web Content subprocess's RAM usage down from 1.06 GB or more down to a much more manageable 300 - 320 MB with five tabs opened, but over time usage climbed to over 600 MB again, so it's possible one of my enabled extensions is the culprit.

As I write this, it's been around ten minutes since I restarted Safari the last time. I have only three extensions running -- Better Facebook, Rapportive, and ClickToFlash -- and I've browsed about ten pages between three tabs since relaunching Safari. Already Safari Web Content has consumed nearly 300 MB of RAM.

A subsequent test with all extensions disabled has caused Safari Web Content to go from its initial 148 MB all the way up to 251 MB of RAM after browsing 39 webpages -- most of them on Wikipedia, which isn't exactly known for data-heavy content. This doesn't seem normal to me.

This bug definitely seems to have been introduced in OS X Lion or Safari 5.1, and hopefully it's one we'll see addressed in a forthcoming update.

OS X Lion Bug: Safari guzzling massive amounts of RAM originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 27 Jul 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

OS X Lion Bug: Safari guzzling massive amounts of RAM originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 27 Jul 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Over the past few days, quite a few iMac owners have told us they're experiencing systemwide freezes after watching videos. Likewise, Apple's support forums are full of iMac owners experiencing the same issue.

Although the bug is difficult to reproduce reliably, it's not confined to any one type of video. Flash-based YouTube videos appear as likely to cause the system to lock up as viewing movies from the local hard disk in either QuickTime or iTunes.

During the system freeze users can still move the mouse pointer, but the system doesn't recognize any other form of user input. No error message comes up, and users who have checked their system logs aren't finding any evidence of kernel panics or other system-level errors. Thus far, the only solution to the freeze has been a hard shutdown by holding in the power button.

iMac owners afflicted by this particularly nasty bug have speculated that the 10.7.1 update will be rushed out to address this and several other of Lion's version .0 growing pains. In the meantime, if you're an iMac owner and haven't upgraded to Lion yet, it may be prudent to hold off upgrading for now until we learn whether this problem has been addressed in the presumably forthcoming bugfix update.

Lion bug: Some iMacs locking up after playing video originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 24 Jul 2011 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Lion bug: Some iMacs locking up after playing video originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 24 Jul 2011 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has issued notice of a recall of potentially defective 1 TB Seagate hard drives installed in iMacs sold between May and July of 2011. Apple has offered to replace the possibly defective drives free of charge until July 23, 2012.

The drives, installed in 2011-model iMacs in both 21.5 and 27-inch configurations, may fail under "certain conditions," which has led to the recall. If your iMac is one of those covered under the recall, you can take your iMac in to the local Genius Bar or set up an appointment with an Apple Authorized Service Provider.

Apple will not replace your data for you, so to ensure you don't lose anything, make a full backup of your drive using Time Machine or another backup solution before taking your iMac in for service. Apple does recommend replacing the drive as soon as possible, so if you have one of the affected iMacs but haven't been backing up your data, you'd better start now.

Apple issues recall for some iMac hard drives originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 22 Jul 2011 20:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple issues recall for some iMac hard drives originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 22 Jul 2011 20:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has debuted a new support program called (quite reasonably) the MacBook Bottom Case Replacement program. As 9to5Mac notes, there's been an issue with the rubber bottom part on some recent MacBook models where some glue problems may separate the rubber pad from the actual MacBook case.

If you have had such an issue with a MacBook sold in the past few years, Apple will be happy to replace it at any Apple Store. And if you don't want to bother with coming in, you can even order a replacement kit online, then just put the new case on yourself.

It's not a huge deal, of course, and Apple says that if you're not having the problem, you obviously don't need to replace your case, but it's good to know that Apple's got a way to deal with even a small hardware issue like this.

Apple will now replace your MacBook's bottom originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 30 May 2011 23:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple will now replace your MacBook's bottom originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 30 May 2011 23:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I have three Macs, but Home Sharing would only bring up one library on both my iPhone and iPad. It wasn't always the same library; the one that appeared was totally random and often changed. I could never get more than one library to show up at once, so I called Apple. I was told that they would sort it out and get back to me.

After two weeks with no response, I called again and went up three levels of senior tech support. During the call, they were easily able to replicate the problem and told me this was the first time they had heard of it. They said it was a definite bug in the iOS software, thanked me for finding it and said they would contact me regarding when it would be corrected.

Continue reading iOS Home Sharing bug found while using multiple Macs

iOS Home Sharing bug found while using multiple Macs originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 15 Apr 2011 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

iOS Home Sharing bug found while using multiple Macs originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 15 Apr 2011 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Update: All Things D reports that Apple is aware of the issue and working on it.

A number of owners of Verizon iPad 2s are reporting that their devices seem to be having issues accessing the Verizon 3G network. As discussed in the Apple support forums and reported by GigaOM's The Apple Blog, the iPads are fine fresh out of the box, displaying Verizon as the carrier in the upper left of the iPad status bar. It's when owners activate an account with Verizon that things start getting a little strange.

Once the account has been set up, the word "Roaming" appears where the carrier name should be. This is usually an indication that a user is no longer on his or her carrier's network, and is using data roaming. The problem gets even stranger -- to use data service, even in an area with only a strong Verizon network signal, the iPad owner has to turn data roaming on.

GigaOM's Charles Jade notes that the problem may be related to the Preferred Roaming List, which is an internal database common to CDMA devices that determines how the device connects to a network. Some Verizon iPad 2s just aren't recognizing Verizon cell towers, so they display the "Roaming" indicator. Verizon doesn't charge subscribers for U.S. data roaming, so there's no extra cost involved, but the issue is still annoying.

Affected iPad 2s can be returned to Apple or Verizon stores for replacement, although the replacement models may still exhibit the same symptoms. There is some discussion that iOS 4.3.2 might include a fix for the roaming problem, but until then Verizon iPad 2 owners who are seeing the issue will have to be content to roam.

Verizon iPad 2s feel the need to roam ... constantly [Updated] originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Verizon iPad 2s feel the need to roam ... constantly [Updated] originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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According to a thread on Apple's support forum, there may be an issue going around with FaceTime on the iPad that freezes up the iPad 2's front camera. Users are saying that sometimes, when FaceTime loads up, the front camera will freeze on a frame and not send any more video. Fortunately, the fix seems to be simply restarting the iPad, but obviously, there's something weird going on -- the issue often pops up even after a restart.

The FaceTime for Mac app was just updated yesterday with a few performance improvements, so there's likely an update pending for iPad as well. Hopefully, whenever that's released, it'll fix whatever issues users have been having.

[via 9to5Mac]

FaceTime causing some iPad cameras to freeze originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 23 Mar 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

FaceTime causing some iPad cameras to freeze originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 23 Mar 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Last week we reported that the new Intel Sandy Bridge-based early 2011 MacBook Pros are experiencing issues with iTunes Home Sharing. Now it appears that the top-of-the-line MacBooks are also having issues when users are trying to put the new processor to the test.

When operated under heavy load conditions, such as compiling code, running a virtual machine or rendering 3D images, the machines operate at very high temperatures and then lock up. A user describing the issue in the MacRumors forum noted that the machine appears to be completely locked -- no mouse control or keyboard response -- although it can be accessed via SSH. There's a very long thread in the Apple support discussion forums with a huge number of posts by unhappy users.

Fortunately, the problem is very reproducible, which is useful in finding root cause for the issue. It's thought that the problem is related either to the graphics driver or the power management subsystem, which means that the solution could be as simple as a firmware update from Apple. The company is apparently aware of the issue, raising it to priority status and assigning engineering resources to finding a solution quickly.

Until a fix is found, it may be best to quit as many open apps as possible when performing CPU-intensive tasks to avoid running into a freeze situation.

2011 MacBook Pros reportedly crashing under heavy loads originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 21 Mar 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

2011 MacBook Pros reportedly crashing under heavy loads originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 21 Mar 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The new MacBook Pro models powered by Intel's Sandy Bridge CPU may sport the über-fast Thunderbolt I/O interface for incredibly fast connections to external hardware, but those same MacBook Pros are reportedly having problems with a commonly-used wireless interface.

According to a post on AppleInsider, a large and growing number of early 2011 MacBook Pro owners are finding that iTunes Home Sharing isn't working for them. Home Sharing, when working properly, allows a single iTunes library to be shared between Macs, PCs and iOS devices over a wireless network. One Apple support forum user reported that he was initially able to stream from his new MacBook Pro to a second-generation Apple TV without difficulty. Later, the Apple TV began reporting that it was unable to connect to the computer or would display an error message stating that "there are no movies in this library."

Since the MacBook Pros appeared in February, Apple has released iOS 4.3 and two updates to iTunes that added compatibility to iOS 4.3 and Home Sharing. Those software updates do not appear to have resolved the issue, and a related thread in the Apple support forum now has over 220 posts.

Owners of other Macs are reporting similar issues with iTunes Home Sharing, but not to the extent that those using the new, speedy MacBook Pros are. Have you run into this issue or found a workaround? Let us know in the comments.

MacBook Pro owners reporting Home Sharing issues originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 Mar 2011 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MacBook Pro owners reporting Home Sharing issues originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 Mar 2011 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple's products are widely hailed as better-built and more reliable than other manufacturers' devices, with greater longevity, better build quality and a lower incidence of device-killing defects. Ask most Mac owners, and they'll tell you their experiences with their machines have been almost completely problem-free.

I wish that I could say the same. My house is where portable Macs go to die.

In mid-2007, my wife bought a white MacBook. In the three years she owned it, the following things went wrong with it:

• Late 2007: Upper case cracked. Known design issue. Replaced with used case.
• Mid 2008: Upper case cracked again, in same spot. Replaced with new case.
• Mid 2009: Logic board failed. Known issue. Replaced.
• Late 2009: MagSafe adapter fails. Known issue. Replaced.
• Late 2009: Graphics failure. Display replaced.
• Early 2010: Logic board fails again. MacBook replaced with a brand new 2009 model.

One lemon machine is bad enough, but at least she got the most positive outcome imaginable: only months before her AppleCare expired, Apple gave her a brand new replacement machine with another three years of AppleCare coverage.

As I write this, I'm using my wife's MacBook because my MacBook Pro is in the shop (again) with a failure related to the logic board (again). For the first couple of years, I had no issues at all with my Early 2008 MacBook Pro, but it started to fall apart at the seams in October of last year. First the battery experienced a fault, losing over 10 percent of its capacity in a week, and getting AppleCare to replace it was an irritating jousting match. A month later, the infamously defective NVIDIA 8600M GT GPU failed, and I got the logic board replaced. Given the history of defects in our equipment, I half-jokingly told my wife that my MacBook Pro was likely to fail again within a couple months of my AppleCare expiring.

Continue reading Why my next Mac won't be a notebook

Why my next Mac won't be a notebook originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 Mar 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Why my next Mac won't be a notebook originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 Mar 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Reports are coming in of iPod touch users having graphics glitches after updating to iOS 4.3. As you can see in the picture here and in this video, the problem looks like overlapping icons and "interference" on the screen.

There's a growing thread on the Apple message boards of fourth-generation iPod touch users who aren't happy. Resets and factory restores don't solve the problem, it seems, and users are looking to Apple to fix the problem with an update soon.

"I've noticed in the lock screen, certain notifications seem to have some sort of flash thing (almost looks like it's blinking in some cases)," says one user. "Similar to other posters in this thread. After rebooting it many times, the same issue is happening."

"The graphics for some reason have a snowy and animated outline," says another. "This iPod is not hacked or dropped or anything I don't understand why this is happening. I've turned it off and turned it back on and still having the issue. It is NOT a major issue, it is odd though and having issues with the display on this type of device still can't be a good sign right?"

No, it's certainly not a good sign, since the display is pretty much the only way to interact with an iPod touch in the first place. Here's hoping Apple figures out what's causing this and issues a fix.

[via Engadget]

iPod touch owners report graphics issues under iOS 4.3 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 16 Mar 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

iPod touch owners report graphics issues under iOS 4.3 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 16 Mar 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you own a MacBook Pro with an NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT GPU and an expired warranty, you may be unaware that since late 2008 Apple has offered a free out-of-warranty service program for the faulty graphics chipset. Apple's replacement program for the 8600M GT was initially valid for three years beyond your purchase date, whether you bought AppleCare for your Mac or not, but in 2010 the program was extended to four years from your purchase date. According to Apple, "If the NVIDIA graphics processor in your MacBook Pro has failed, or fails within four years of the original date of purchase, a repair will be done free of charge, even if your MacBook Pro is out of warranty."

My Early 2008 MacBook Pro's AppleCare expired last week, and many early adopters of the first MacBook Pro with a multi-touch trackpad will be in the same boat. The good news is that even though your AppleCare coverage may be expired, your GPU is still covered for another year.

Continue reading Have a MacBook Pro with a faulty GPU and no AppleCare? You may still be covered

Have a MacBook Pro with a faulty GPU and no AppleCare? You may still be covered originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 08 Mar 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Have a MacBook Pro with a faulty GPU and no AppleCare? You may still be covered originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 08 Mar 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone alarm still not working for some, here are a few solutions originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 03 Jan 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

iPhone alarm still not working for some, here are a few solutions originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 03 Jan 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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