It seems there is no Firewire on the new 13" MacBooks. Not that I am considering buying one... my 2006 MacBook (the subject of the title of this blog), after all the back and forth and final replacement, has been acting as I was originally led to believe...

Over the last couple of days I noticed the MagSafe connector was getting quite warm and the led in it was flashing between green, amber, and nothing at all. Today, I saw my battery was not charged 100% and it should have been having been plugged in all night long. I reached for the MagSafe, and it was too hot to hold, when I moved the cable, the green led came on, followed by the amber, then off again. I unplugged it, removed it and investigated. The rubber covering over the cable right at the join of the MagSafe had melted exposing electrical wiring.

So, as the one year anniversary approaches since Apple sent me my replacement black MacBook, I received an email reminding me my last chance to purchase the additional two years of Apple Support was fast approaching. I'd wait till payday, but I was definitely going to make the purchase after my experience with MacBooks so far.

Well, things with my MacBook have been running fine since the long and sordid story of my broken MacBook... Until now. This last week, while I am running on battery power, I am experiencing random shutdowns. No warning, just power off. When I try to restart right away, nothing, its dead. After about 5 minutes, it will start again, but only long enough for me to start a browser and then click, off it goes again. If I plug the MacBook into an power outlet, it runs again without shutting down.

http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/04/27/battery/index.php?lsrc=mwrss

Though my replacement MacBook is running like a champ and trouble free, an unlucky Australian almost had his home burn down due to a MacBook battery exploding and caching on fire: MacBook Burns.

My CoA friend just sent me this link with the subject line "Beware! This just happened to me."

I am keeping an eye on that battery indicator, but, so far, my replacement MacBook continues to run along trouble free. I am actually gaining a fair bit of confidence in this machine now.

Macintosh to be specific... A lemon Apple...

It all started when my old IBM Thinkpad started making rather disconcerting noises. The day had finally arrived; Thinkpad a22m had put in a good six years of trouble free service but the sites and sounds of laptop aging were suddenly occurring at an alarming rate.

Ok... that quote does not come from an Apple employee, it was the UPS operator.
I had to call them and give them RMA info from Apple regarding the shipping of my lemon MacBook back to Apple. After I explained I was shipping something to Apple the UPS operator said she was going to start answering the phone this way since so many of the shipping calls coming in were regarding Apple RMA's for MacBooks, MacBook batteries, and iPods. I actually asked if I could quote her on that. I took her laughter as a yes.