iBox (the hardware)

 
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Did you put a retina column card in it?

Not until they up-res Hypercard to take advantage of it.

ddt

I'm just pissed because they refuse to support the Koala Pad on it.

again, I'm surprised no one is selling an eMate case for the iPod/iPhone.

With a hand crank!

What gives with Apple's hardware refresh strategy?

Some times I wonder how intelligent it is. Take the Mac Mini. They seem to have forgotten about it again. How hard it is it update this thing with faster processors? Does it really require that much staff and money? I can't imagine it does given how easily other PC manufacturers crank out new models. It hasn't been refreshed in well over a year though and I'd buy one today if I didn't feel it was stale. Then again, knowing Apple there's a good chance there will be no bump anytime soon.

I don't see how this strategy, which seems best described like "Oh ya, I forgot that one even existed, oh there, now it's better…" serves Apple.

Similarly, some of their other corporate strategies just seem idiotic. Like no apps on AppleTV? Well, why not? How hard would that be to do? It'd take very little effort and would instantly make it popular. Granted, Amazon would be a competitor, but I think it'd more than make up for that loss with people buying the AppleTV en masse. Don't get the fruit sometimes…

I wonder if too many people are using the Mac Mini as a media server for Apple's taste, and they are trying to move people to the Apple TV.

It's not just the mini--Apple's neglecting its entire desktop lineup. The mini was last updated in July 2011, but for the iMac it's been two months longer than that, and although the Mac Pro received a pseudo-update this June, it hasn't had a real update since July 2010. It's just not a priority. Apple easily could have updated the iMac to the Ivy Bridge architecture in June. When it didn't do so, speculation was that Apple was waiting until it could offer a retina iMac, but given the graphics processor power necessary to drive such a large retina screen (and how expensive such a screen would be), that could be a very long wait.

I hear new mini coming soon.

Quote
Dr Phred
I hear new mini coming soon.

Figures. I just bought a new used 2011 model.

Appleinsider says that a new iMac is "imminent"--if by imminent you mean "before the end of October."

I just repaired the screen in a Macbook Air 11".

There are a few choices if you crack one of these screens - you can send it in to a repair facility, and they'll do it for $350-500 depending on the place. You can buy the entire screen assembly, and pay around $500 for that part, or you can do what I chose, which is to open the screen assembly and replace the LCD panel, which costs about $90.

Since it is a 2010 model, I wasn't about to spend more than 3/4 of the cost of a complete replacement of the same vintage!

This repair is NOT for the faint of heart.

The bezel is attached with adhesive, which needs a blade and a hot air gun to remove without destroying it. The screen is double-sided taped to the clamshell, but if your lcd has substantial damage, you will likely leave behind a crust of shards, which have to be completely removed. Beneath the lcd is a sandwich of diffusers and fresnel sheets, and beneath that, the backlight panel.

Since the lcd panel in mine was very badly damaged, I had to strip it down all the way to make sure there weren't sharp bits of the old panel in the sandwich or on the backlight.

Once all of that was cleaned up, I could put the new screen in. That part was fairly painless, excepting the backlight cable, which has to be blind-attached to a friction connector using tweezers.

In the process of taking it apart, I pulled the jack off of the wifi/bluetooth adapter, so I have to wait to get a new one of those before completing the project. Thankfully, that was only a $15 mistake.

I love the Air platform and the new MBP Retinas, but the iFixit guys do have somewhat of a point about Apple's computers becoming less repairable.

good job. (I'm sorry I snickered inside on the second-to-last line. I feel so sophomoric)

Ha! I hadn't noticed, but thanks for that observation, Bill.

And cheers to Tom for bravery in the face of a potential clusterfuck.

ddt

I'm not surprised that the MBA's are hard to repair. If anything should be, it's them. They feel as thin as paper when I use them, and I think I can shave with one.

I love how thin they are, and certainly that leads to trade-offs, but if you're going to make something more breakable by making it thin (i.e., no additional glass or plastic over the LCD panel), then the repair should be easy.

The LCD, while mostly glued, does have five screws that hold it in along the bottom. I'm unsure why they chose to glue the rest of it, instead of using a couple of screws or a tongue along the top.

The top is thinner than the base, isn't it? I don't have my MBA with me just now.

It definitely is, but the LCD panel is so thin (like 1mm) I could easily see a two thread pan-head being able to fit. Or some sort of captive channel.

Again, I get that there are trade-offs, and I'm sure the other manufacturers of laptops this thin are taking similar steps. It's just a shame that your choices are $500 to fix it easily, or $90 if you are extremely tech savvy and have a lot of patience.

The machine, despite being the lowest model (2GB/64GB/IntelC2D) isn't a slouch, and I may even upgrade the SSD to make it more appealing to sell or to carry as a travel machine. I'll get worth out of it, I just would never have gotten the worth out of it with a $500 repair.

If you assigned a cost to your labor you might see higher numbers, but I know what you mean... I used to be able to make moderate hardware swaps on my laptops, but that stopped around the time that PowerBooks became MacBooks.