“A grey strip of some kind of high quality material…”
I know “Apple funny”, and this is Apple funny.
Faithful Macenstein reader Nicholas sent us a link to one of the funniest Apple Discussion forum posts we have seen (and there have been many). Entitled “Help, I Can’t Open My MacBook Pro!“, the posts details the plight of first time MacBook Pro owner aberard who can’t seem to figure out how to open his new laptop, and the poor forum users who are trying to help him.
“I can’t open my new MacBook Pro. Is there a latch? I’m afraid of wrecking something by pulling or pushing,” he writes.
As you can imagine, the post soon go south, and poor abgerard feels he is being talked down to (I wonder why).
“I appreciate the attention, but I’m not stupid, guys, so please pay attention to my question. When I look at where I presume there is a latch, what I see is a grey strip of some kind of high quality material. I think it’s a piece of tape (to protect the latch?) but it could be decoration or have some other function. I do not want to tear off an integral piece of the machine as my first act with my new purchase. Is it just a piece of tape?”
Unfortunately, after many helpful bits of advice with apparently no progress, the thread goes dead, so we don’t know whether or not poor abgerard ever got his MacBook Pro open. If you’ve ever scrimped and saved to get a MacBook Pro, you may find the fact that abgerard could afford a MBP depressing, but if not, and if you need a quick pick me up, read the thread here.
Umm.. its been a fair few years since i looked, but i’m fairly sure the little getting started guide that comes with a MBP would state how to open it.. and today, my faith in man kind has slipped another notch..
I think the guy was just looking at the wrong end of the macbook pro. When my mum got a new macbook, she first tried to open the wrong side of it because of the orientation of the Apple symbol. It was glaringly obvious to me, she did end up just turning it around so her ‘stupidity’ only lasted for 1 second. But this guy is something else.
He should have his mommy take him to the nearest Apple Store to get some help.
Has he ever seen a computer before in his life?? How else does he expect to see the apple logo right side up, unless you open it looking at it upside down. I’m sure he has it turned around….
And I don’t even own a MacBook…. just an iMac
I’m sure the “Geniuses” would have a great time with this one if he went to the store because he can’t open it……..
even though there was no solution, i think the guy realized he had it backwards and figured it out – from what i can tell though, the other members of the forum were being as reasonable and helpful as they could. don’t know why the guy got offended.
I know why the thread went dead. Mr. Darwin came over and fixed the problem.
You have to feel a bit sorry for the guy…reminds me of this Yahoo Answers discussion: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080312093451AA0XK8B
Oh my, i don’t recall any packing tape on my MBP when i got it. Maybe some on the sides? Must have worked with unix when he had sight.
“He should have his mommy take him to the nearest Apple Store to get some help.”
You got that backwards. When I worked tech support, we’d sometimes say, “Can you put you kid on the phone?” (Which has to be done very carefully.)
“Has he ever seen a computer before in his life?? How else does he expect to see the apple logo right side up, unless you open it looking at it upside down.”
Ah! But in the past, Apple laptops DID have the Apple logo upside down when opened. (Until a guy complained about it at a WWDC Q&A with Jobs.)
I sympathize… well, at least a little. I still swear foul oaths every time I try to unlatch the bloody thing. Simply pressing the bar doesn’t do the trick; it needs a thumbnail insterted in just the right spot, to just the right depth. I’m thinking of growing out the pinky nail like the old Italian men do.