Macenstein

Well, someone was probably speaking of China.

Yes, my newly ordered MacBook has left China, and apparently has made it to the West Coast. With each feverish pressing of the “re-load” button on the FedEx tracking page, I have gradually become less and less worried about the possibility it will arrive with graphics problems, and am now just plain old excited about the thrill of installing tons of crap on a pristine machine.

Perhaps sensing my newfound optimism, ComputerWorld has decided to re-piss on my parade by issuing a new report (un-sensationally entitled) Users at risk of data loss, thanks to ‘irresponsible’ Apple. The article is basically about how the Seagate drives Apple uses in the MacBooks and MacBook Pros are prone to data loss, and the researchers behind the report go so far as to say “Apple is being utterly irresponsible and should launch a product recall”.

Yikes.

Well, luckily, ComputerWorld has published the serial numbers and firmware versions of the drives to watch out for (ST96812AS and ST98823AS running firmware Version 7.01) so hopefully when the MacBook shows up this Thursday, a quick trip to the system profiler should be able to tell me whether or not I am screwed.

Of course, knowing you are screwed and being able to do anything about it are two different things. I have never purchased AppleCare on any Apple product I have bought, and did not do so on the MacBook either. I’ve been lucky thus far, hardware-wise, with my Apple purchases, but I admit all these reports about possible MacBook flaws is beginning to freak me out a little. Our good friend EDIT-XTREEM has written a fairly thorough take on the whole AppleCare thing, and after reading it I am wondering if now is the time to make the move to AppleCare. Obvioulsy, a portable machine has more opportunities for things to go wrong than a desktop, but adding another $250 for “insurance” is a tricky thing on a $1200 machine. I suppose I may consider adding AppleCare if it turns out I have one of the affected Seagate drives, and/or Apple does not admit there is a problem in the next week or two.

On the plus side, all is not doom and gloom on the MacBook front. MacNN is reporting that recent tests on the new MacBooks show they are “significantly faster than their predecessors” – up to 25% in some areas. Sounds encouraging!

And besides, what kind of fanboy would I be if I didn’t support Apple’s right to decide which of my information is worth keeping, and which is worth losing?
🙂