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by coldtea 3620 days ago
>As I am typing this on my macbook air, I have to take my hands off the keyboard time to time because it gets too hot.

For over 5 Apple laptops of various kinds, I've never seen that, with heavy programming/VM use, or DAW and NLE use. A little warmer yes. Ouch, my hands hurt? No. Does that really happen, and can we have some actual temperature measurements, or is it just that some people are too sensitive?

>Also the battery has swollen up to a point where I can't even close the laptop.

That, on the other hand, I had happen. The battery needs to be replaced, and it can even be dangerous.

>All they released was some minor upgrades and a "macbook" which I didn't buy because I know better than to act as Apple's guinea pig and buy their first iteration of anything--I learned it the hard way with my iPhones and iPads.

Those are probably the worst examples to cite, as the original iPhone and iPad were mighty fine. It's mostly with 1st generations of Mac redesigns that things sometimes get bad for some production runs (faults found in new materials/suppliers/designs etc).

>Anyway, all this to me feels like it's because Apple is no more an innovator company, instead they follow the stock market.

Compared to which company that is? Because I mostly see either PR projects (like Google glass) or failed semi-copies (Surface capped to 1M unit sales etc).

So while new and exhiting things might have slowed down at Apple (though I remember in Jobs times that we waited for 5 years of iterations to get color and wifi on our iPods and people cheered for any minor incremental update as if it was golden) I just don't see anyone in the PC land doing anything worth my while.

2 comments

> For over 5 Apple laptops of various kinds, I've never seen that, with heavy programming/VM use, or DAW and NLE use. A little warmer yes. Ouch, my hands hurt? No. Does that really happen, and can we have some actual temperature measurements, or is it just that some people are too sensitive?

Yes it does happen. I have had two macbook pros, two macbook airs. It happened to every single one of them when it was time for their death. Maybe you've been switching your macbooks before something like that happened. It's not like I get a serious burn but it sure is very irritating and even hurts if I keep it there for too long.

> Those are probably the worst examples to cite, as the original iPhone and iPad were mighty fine. It's mostly with 1st generations of Mac redesigns that things sometimes get bad for some production runs (faults found in new materials/suppliers/designs etc).

I bought the first iPad, and it was super heavy. They came out with a lighter iPad soon after. In my opinion the best timing to buy any Apple product is their second iteration. The second version is always significantly better than the first one and then the perceived variance is not as severe afterwards.

> Compared to which company that is? Because I mostly see either PR projects (like Google glass) or failed semi-copies (Surface capped to 1M unit sales etc).

I'm comparing it to Apple itself. Comparing to other companies has no meaning. Just because other companies are not being innovative doesn't make Apple an innovative company, has nothing to do with each other.

>I bought the first iPad, and it was super heavy. They came out with a lighter iPad soon after.

Well, I had the first iPad, and have been using it for a god 4-5 years until I got an iPad 4. It being heavy is just what the technology afforded at the time, not some unique case of making the customer a guinea pig.

>* I'm comparing it to Apple itself. Comparing to other companies has no meaning. Just because other companies are not being innovative doesn't make Apple an innovative company, has nothing to do with each other.*

Innovative (which I dislike as a word in general for this use, as people conflate it with anything, from primary physics research to new case designs) is relative.

Some company is innovative because others make less new things. If HP for example produced marvels of novel technology year after year since 1999, then we wouldn't call Apple or anyone else innovative with the "mere updates" they've put out (in comparison).

My Macbook Pro 17in got so hot I ended up buying an external keyboard. No actual temperature measurements because it was a work machine I gladly gave back, but given that people often tell me I have "asbestos fingers" I'm certainly not too sensitive.

First iPad (I still have one) became a paperweight pretty fast, partly due to the small amount of RAM, but also because the last version of iOS that runs on it has a seriously buggy version of Safari. It will suddenly quit in something JavaScript-related, I know not what. Reasonably well attested on various support forums.

I still swear by my Mac desktops - the mini is a marvel - and would be wary of drawing any greater narrative, but I've certainly had some duds recently.