Whine List

Pick your partners everybody, because it’s time for the dance we call the “Rev. A Hoe-Down.” Don’t worry, the steps are simple:

1. Apple introduces a new product.
2. People rush out to buy said new product.
3. Reviewers rave about said new product.
4. Reports of flaws in the product’s quality assurance begin to trickle in.
5. Trickle becomes deluge.

A 500+ post discussion thread on Apple’s support board shows MBP users experiencing a loud whine when the computer is idle. The thread was started on February 21st, around the time the MBPs first started shipping, and it continues to the present moment. Apple has yet to issue any sort of cohesive statement, leaving most users in the dark, or left to the capricious whims of Apple Technical Support.

QA problems are nothing new to Apple, especially in Rev. A products. There was the Aluminum 15” PowerBook G4 latch problem, the ever-popular PowerBook Titanium paint chipping fiasco, and, of course, the PowerMac G5’s musical PSU. It’s understandable, of course, that some problems don’t show up until a product is being mass-produced, but Apple often compounds their error by not issuing a quick, consistent response.

But I suppose we’ll always have Rev. B.