reliability
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Tesla Model 3 loses Consumer Reports recommendation
The long-simmering tussle between Tesla and Consumer Reports over car reviews took a fresh turn Thursday, after the publication said it could no longer recommend the Model 3. Tesla had finally claimed the distinction last May after it was able to reduce the car's braking distance. Previously, Consumer Reports declined to recommend the car due to that issue, along with "stiff" ride quality and a "distracting" touchscreen.
Microsoft claims Surface reliability isn't really that bad
Consumer Reports said that it would no longer recommend Microsoft's Surface laptops and tablets because of "poor predicted reliability" compared to other brands, based on its surveys. Now Microsoft has responded, with a statement saying that it is "disappointed" in the decision and providing some of its own data. Panos Panay, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Devices: We are proud of our products and the amazing things our customers are doing with them. We stand firmly behind the quality and reliability of the Surface family of devices, and I can confidently tell you there has never been a better time to buy a Surface.
Those early Teslas might not be too reliable
A survey of 327 Tesla owners conducted by Plug In America has revealed that there may be a serious issue with the drivetrain on the 2012 and 2013 Model S. As reported by Green Car Reports, the component is likely to conk out after just 60,000 miles, forcing drivers to go back to the firm for a replacement. The Model S was first produced in 2012, so it's only at this point that people have been using it long enough to test its durability after a sustained period of use. It's not the first time that questions have been raised either, since Consumer Reports dropped its recommendation for the ride back in October.
Consumer Reports drops its Tesla Model S recommendation
Once upon a time, Consumer Reports gave the Tesla Model S P85D its highest rating ever, but the love affair is over, for now. While it still loves the way the sedan drives, the review organization has concluded after its Annual Auto Reliability Survey that reports from 1,400 owners show the cars have a "worse-than-average overall problem rate." While it also noted that these problems are mostly covered by Tesla's four year/50,000 mile bumper-to-bumper warranty or its eight year, unlimited mileage powertrain warranty, it still decided the vehicle isn't deserving of its "Recommended" rating. In response, Tesla says it strives to make hardware fixes "painless," and noted that the study also found owners rated the company's service as the best in the world.
Backblaze stats on 27,000 hard drives show which ones keep on ticking
When your business value proposition is delivering inexpensive, reliable cloud backup for thousands of customers, you're going to learn a thing or two about drive reliability. The Backblaze team has been sharing that HDD savvy (gleaned from several years' experience and more than 75 petabytes of storage) in a series of blog posts over the past couple of months, and we've been fascinated to note their discoveries. Now Brian Beach at Backblaze has addressed the eternal question: What hard drive should I buy? BB's StoragePods are packed with consumer-grade hard drives just like the ones you'd buy at Costco or Best Buy, so it's reasonable to use Backblaze's failure stats as a proxy for how these drives might perform on your very own desk with your very own Mac. Granted, drives in a StoragePod are in more continuous use and subject to more vibration than a home-use drive, so your mileage may vary. Of the 27,000-plus drives running in Backblaze's server racks, the vast majority (almost 13,000 each) are Seagate or Hitachi models. There are only a couple of drives that Backblaze won't buy or try -- WD's Green 3TB drives and Seagate LP (low power) 2TB models -- because the BB StoragePod environment doesn't agree with them, possibly due to vibration sensitivity on spin-down/spin-up. Other than that, the company buys drives on a commodity basis, going with the best GB/$ ratio available at a given point in time. Best of the BB batch? Hitachi/HGST's Deskstar 2 TB, 3 TB and 4 TB models. Beach says, "If the price were right, we would be buying nothing but Hitachi drives. They have been rock solid, and have had a remarkably low failure rate." At the moment, due to price fluctuations, the drives of choice are a Seagate HDD.15 4 TB unit and the Western Digital 3 TB Red. As Beach notes, however, Hitachi's storage unit (originally purchased from IBM in 2002) has been bought (and split) in the past two years, with the 3.5-inch business going to Toshiba and the 2.5-inch product line going to WD. Although HGST is still marketing and making the Deskstar line, it's likely that technology will settle under the Toshiba brand in the future.
The Soapbox: Commitment issues
I have friends who have a hard time settling down into just one game. This is not inherently a problem; if you want to jump into many games a month at a time, more power to you. But that's not the case with these folks. They want to be in one place, to stick to just one or two games. These friends look to me, not because my friends assume I am a font of all wisdom as it pertains to MMOs but because I'm pretty stable in games. Barring my participation in things like Choose My Adventure, the games I play are staples. I've been playing Final Fantasy XIV and Star Wars: The Old Republic since launch, the only thing that stopped me from playing City of Heroes was a shutdown, and even my briefer incursions last four months or more. So how do I do it? The answer is the same as the answer to how you make a long-term relationship work: You commit.
Apple sweeps PCWorld satisfaction survey
Despite the occasional report of issues with new models, most Macs tend to be quite reliable. Most Mac users intuitively feel that they're getting a quality machine for their money, and now the PCWorld 2011 Reliability and Service Survey validates that feeling. Apple desktop computers (iMac, Mac mini, Mac Pro) topped the survey, which compiled results from 63,000 PCWorld readers. The survey ranked manufacturers on five criteria -- problem on arrival, any significant problem, any failed component replaced, dead PC, and overall satisfaction with reliability. Apple got a better than average rating from respondents in four of the five categories, trouncing second and third place Asus and Dell business PCs that both captured that rating in only two categories. In terms of reliability, what are the desktop PCs you want to stay away from? At the bottom of the list were CyberPower, Dell (for home), and HP (for home). The CyberPower PCs (which I've personally never even heard of) received worse than average ratings across the board. Mac owners were also ecstatic about the features of their computers, with Apple getting a better than average rating in six out of seven categories. The sole category in which Apple got slapped with a worse than average rating was expandability. That's not surprising, since the majority of Apple desktop owners have either purchased the iMac or Mac mini, both of which are pretty well closed to any expansion except for RAM. The third area in which Apple kicked butt and took names was in desktop support and maintenance. Apple received better than average scores in four out of four categories, with no other manufacturer receiving a better than average score.
Seagate Pulsar XT.2 and Pulsar.2 SSDs target enterprise, reliability-obsessed consumers
Seagate has just taken the wraps off a slew of fresh enterprise storage drives, highlighted by a pair of new Pulsar SSDs. The MLC NAND-equipped Pulsar.2 is capable of 6Gbps speeds over SATA, while the 2.5-inch XT.2 uses SLC memory and a 6Gbps SAS connection, and both are unsurprisingly touted as being the fastest and finest guardians you can buy for your company's data. Seagate sees the use of MLC flash on the Pulsar.2 as a major advantage in lowering costs, while its data-protecting and error-correcting firmware is expected to maintain the high levels of data integrity required in this space. No price is actually given to validate Seagate's claims of a breakthrough price / performance combination, but both of its new SSDs should be available in the second quarter of this year. The XT.2 is already shipping out to OEMs, along with its 360MBps read and 300MBps write speeds. There are also new Savvio and Constellation HDDs from the company, but you'll have to read the 1,400-word essay press release after the break to learn more about them.
Verizon, AT&T iPhones load web pages at same rate, firm reports
Verizon's network may reach areas that AT&T doesn't, but people stuck with AT&T have told themselves at least AT&T's data network is faster. While this is indeed the case, it doesn't make web pages load any faster on AT&T than on Verizon, according to a phone testing firm. Metrico Wireless confirmed that data speeds on Verizon's CDMA network are indeed just half those on AT&T's network, but that this made no difference when it came to browsing the Web. Users will only notice the difference if they're downloading large files on their iPhones. Verizon boasts that its network is more reliable than AT&T's, and Metrico's testing confirmed this. But, without revealing exact percentages, the firm said that the difference in terms of dropped or unconnected calls wasn't that great. Metrico tested with 4,000 calls and 10,000 web page downloads in New York, Seattle, Washington, Baltimore, Chicago and Dallas and surprisingly found that the Verizon iPhone was 10 percent less reliable than the AT&T model when downloading a file in a moving vehicle.
Verizon dropped 10,000 emergency calls during January snowstorm in Maryland, FCC finds it 'alarming'
Uh oh, Verizon's got itself into a bit of hot water with the old FCC. An outage during a snowstorm last month has reportedly resulted in a whopping 10,000 calls to 911 not being connected by the big red carrier. That would be bad enough in itself, but the less-than-pleased Communications Commission also notes that the emergency services that missed out on these calls were not alerted to the connectivity failure -- in fact, Maryland's Montgomery County officers were the ones to inform Verizon of the fault it was having, which was then promptly repaired within 15 minutes. The FCC is now curtly asking the network to check its entire footprint for similar vulnerabilities -- as the January events were apparently "not unique" -- and to propose remedial actions and monitoring systems to prevent it happening again.
10.6.5 now available on Software Update
And just as foretold, here it is -- the 10.6.5 update to OS X is now available in a Software Update window near you. As you can see above, the new version provides a little more security, stability, and reliability in a few areas, helps out iPhoto and Aperture image processing, and should fix some outstanding issues with various apps and accessories. And of course, like any other solid OS update, it requires a restart, so if you're in the middle of something, make sure you finish and save up before applying the update.
PC World study: AT&T network has undergone "drastic makeover"
According to AT&T's commercials, they provide both "a better 3G experience" as well as "the nation's fastest 3G network." And, based on PC World's latest 3G wireless performance study, they've got more meat and potatoes (as if Luke Wilson wasn't enough) to back up their claims. The study, a collaboration between PC World and wireless analysis firm Novarum, took place from December 2009 to January 2010, and compares the four major U.S. wireless carriers (AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile) in 13 "broadly representative" cities in the U.S. During the study, 51,000 separate tests were run, in which 850 square miles, and 7 million wireless subscribers, were covered. AT&T showed marked improvements over their figures from a similar study conducted during March and April 2009. Highlights of the most recent study include: Using notebook computers (e.g., with a built-in or external 3G card), AT&T had the fastest download speed in 11 of the 13 cities, and the fastest upload speed in all 13 cities. For smartphones, AT&T had the fastest download speeds in nine of the 13 cities, and the fastest upload speed in all 13 cities. Of the smartphone-carrier-based combinations, the AT&T-iPhone pairing had the fastest download and upload speeds, although its reliability slightly trailed the T-Mobile-G1 combination, which posted the highest figures. Given the nasty back-and-forth between AT&T and Verizon Wireless, which resulted in AT&T taking legal action (which they dropped in December 2009) against Verizon Wireless, the study could serve as a feather in AT&T's cap. Readers, what do you think? Does the study mesh well with your experiences with AT&T Wireless? Let us know in the comments! [Via PC World].
This just in: MacBooks are more reliable than netbooks
Excel nerds rejoice! What you see above is the result of a laptop reliability study conducted by third-party warranty shop Squaretrade. The study looks at over 30,000 notebooks over the course of 3 years to determine the final reliability statistics. The results may not surprise you; for instance, netbooks fail 40% more often than premium laptops and Apple's MacBook line has above-average reliability. The report itself is fascinating to read and the graphs are simple to understand. Also, it is nice to see an independent study confirm what I've known for years: HP makes low quality laptops. A note of personal interest, had I purchased a Vaio all those years ago rather than a Presario, I might never have switched to Mac. [via Engadget]
Laptop reliability survey: ASUS and Toshiba win, HP fails
Boy, do we have a nice slab of data for you to sink your teeth into today. The 3-year service history of more than 30,000 laptops has been pored over, analyzed, and reduced to gorgeous comparative charts, which you know you're dying to know more about. We should note, however, that the service was provided by SquareTrade, whose primary business is selling extended warranties, but that shouldn't completely prejudice us against reaching conclusions on the basis of the presented facts. Firstly, netbooks have shown themselves to be on average 20 percent less reliable than entry-level laptops, which in turn are 10 percent more likely to break down than premium machines. In other words, you get what you pay for -- shocking, right? The big talking point, though, will inevitably be the manufacturer comparison chart above: here ASUS and Toshiba (rather appropriately) share the winners' spoils, while HP languishes in the ignominious last place, with more than a quarter of all laptops expected to suffer a hardware fault of some kind within three years. So, does your experience corroborate / refute this info? Keep it gentlemanly, okay?
It just works. Usually.
The latest festival of issues with Snow Leopard alongside a round of people unhappy with the latest iPhone update both suggest that Apple might need to work a little harder on pre-release testing. One thing Microsoft does rather well is gets a lot of people testing software releases in extended public betas. Of course that didn't go so well for Vista, which was a mess for many people, but it seems to have gone better for Windows 7. Apple, secretive as always, doesn't get really wide testing of new software builds, and when those updates finally get released there seems to be an ever increasing, ever louder response from customers that things aren't going swimmingly. Snow Leopard was supposed to be a cleanup of Leopard, but it appears that some people are having lots of issues. In my own case, some fonts were pretty messed up, and Keychain was jumbled pretty badly. The fixes in both cases weren't onerous, but they were nasty enough that it made me wonder how thoroughly the release had been tested. I still don't hear new mail sounds from MobileMe, a problem that has been going on at least since Leopard was released. I'm not alone in this, but not everyone has the problem. Most of the people I know had flawless upgrades, and of course here at TUAW we are more likely to hear about problems, which is also true of the Apple forums where people are able to report the smallest or the largest bugs. Therefore, from my perspective it's hard to say for certain if things are slipping away from Apple quality control, but it's starting to look that way. Apple was quick to release 10.6.1, which was a good effort, but it is not quieting down the roar of users who don't think that this latest release of Snow Leopard 'just works.' What's your perception? Does Apple have some work to do?
Apple drops to number two in reliability
RescueCom is a company that provides tech support and help from a 1-800 number, and they've released the latest version of their computer reliability report. This thing is actually pretty well done -- it examines just which brands and makes of computers are getting the most support calls, and then compares it to the average US market share for each brand. For example, if XYZ brand computers are getting a lot of calls, but they're also selling like hotcakes, it won't rate quite as high as ABC brand, which is only selling a few computers, almost all of which are breaking down.There's bad news, however, for Apple, in this quarter's report: they've fallen to spot number two. For the overall year of 2008, Apple reigned supreme in terms of reliability. But in the first quarter of this year, Asus and IBM's Lenovo have had their numbers rise above -- both of their shares of the US market are smaller than Apple's 6%, according to this report, but Apple's 2% of calls to RescueCom still means Asus and IBM/Lenovo have them beat in overall reliability. Unfortunately, they don't show us the fun side of the chart: HP/Compaq end up in the fifth spot, but their 17.9% of all the calls to RescueCom is only the fifth most reliable, not the worst.Apple still probably doesn't have too much to worry about -- as Wired notes, these are only quarterly scores, and don't forget that this is the quarter in which many people were still learning how to use their iPhones, iPod touches, and the App Store. But this might be an early sign that as Apple grows, it'll be tougher for them to guarantee reliability in their products.
Sony HDTVs found most reliable in PC World study
Yep, it's already that time of year again folks. That time when you begin to "see" your breath, the air has that "certain chill," shoppers go berserk and PC World readers toss in their votes for the most reliable HDTVs. The latest annual Reliability and Service survey received inputs not from independent researchers, but from 16,000 actual owners who can speak best for the quality of the wares they own. The happy winner was Sony, which notched above-average ratings in seven of nine measures, though LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp and Vizio didn't fare too bad, either. The biggest loser was Mitsubishi, which showed four below-average scores and a "higher-than-average incidence of severe problems." The four-page writeup can be viewed in full by clicking the read link, but our main question is this: are you in agreement with the findings?
SquareTrade Study: iPhones more reliable than BlackBerry, Treo
Independent warranty provider SquareTrade has released a report showing that iPhones are more reliable than either BlackBerry or Palm Treo devices.The report, titled "iPhone More Reliable than BlackBerry, One Year In", analyzes failure rates for more than 15,000 new cell phones covered by SquareTrade warranties. SquareTrade found that after one year of ownership, iPhone owners were half as likely as BlackBerry owners to have a phone failure, and one-third as likely as Treo owners. After 12 months, slightly over 16% of Treo owners had experienced a failure, while just less than 12% of BlackBerry owners had their smartphone die on them. Only 5.6% of iPhone owners had a critical failure.SquareTrade's report also shows the types of failures most common for the various devices. The iPhone's Achille's Heel appears to be the touchscreen, while other devices saw problems with keyboards, software, and call quality.When it comes to problems not caused by handset malfunctions, the iPhone is much more prone to accidental damage. 12% of iPhone owners reported failure due to dropping accidents, which SquareTrade attributes to the small size and slippery case of the iPhone. Apple has made no comment on the report.
Concurrent updates Start Over timeshifting service
By now, if its available in your area you're probably familiar with Start Over, basically a network DVR letting people see the beginning of a TV show they might have missed. Of course, all of that's only useful if it actually works and captures everything, so Concurrent has announced its latest advance for the backend is the Real Time Pitcher 2000, using reliable multicast to ensure no loss of video capture due to network or component failures and give it the big five nines of reliability. We certainly wouldn't want anything less tha a 99.999% chance of catching the first five minutes of The Closer, would you?
Final Cut Server Update 1.1
In addition to the Pro Applications update tonight, Apple also issued an update for Final Cut Server. Final Cut Server 1.1 address "issues with the check in/check out process for Final Cut Pro projects." In addition, double-byte character sets are now fixed and overall reliability has improved. Apple is recommending this update for all Final Cut Server 1.0 users. You can download this update by opening Software Update (choosing Software Update from the Apple menu) or by downloading the installer package from the Apple Downloads Website. You can find detailed information about this update by visiting the Final Cut Server release notes page.
