defects
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iPhone 4 early shipments include some defective Retina displays
Which is worse: the heartbreak of knowing you're not getting an iPhone 4 by launch day, or receiving one early but slightly defective? I'm going with the latter, myself. Several folks who've received an iPhone 4 early are tipping us and reporting to Apple that the fancy, new Retina displays on their new iPhones are defective and showing odd, colored splotches near the bottom edges of the screen. One report notes: "In the bottom 10% of the screen there are three blotches about the size of shirt buttons that discolor the screen a brown/yellow color." You can see a demonstration of that anomaly in the image to the right. Seeing as there's quite a shortage of iPhone 4's right about now, if you're experiencing this issue and report it to Apple, it may be some time before you see a fresh, undamaged one in your hands. In fact, we're told Apple won't take tech support calls for the iPhone 4 until after its official release tomorrow. Thanks Robert!
Microsoft responds to European inquiry on scratched 360 discs
Even though Microsoft seems to be dragging its feet when it comes to addressing the EU's anti-trust concerns, the software-giant-cum-console-maker was quick to respond to European Commissioner for Consumer Affairs Meglena Kuneva's inquiry regarding accusations of faulty 360 hardware. Specifically, the commissioner wanted to know the scope of the disc scratching problem brought to light by Dutch program Kassa -- and unsurprisingly, Redmond seemed to allude to 1UP that it was toeing the same party line in Europe as we heard back in April. The bottom line here is that Team Xbox is clearly adamant that there is no widespread problem, and while they seem to be a little more reticent to blame the end user now, your only recourse remains contacting the company and crossing your fingers.[Via Joystiq]
Microsoft, Wal-Mart sued over baby's death
While the figurative jury is still out as to whether video games harm our youth by inciting them to commit violence, loiter unnecessarily, and utter profanities, a real flesh-and-blood jury may soon be deciding if one faulty Xbox was to blame for the December 2004 death of an Illinois baby. The family of young Wade Kline is suing Microsoft, retail giant Wal-Mart, and an unnamed power supply manufacturer in state court for damages "in excess of $50,000," claiming that their console -- the suit cites a 360, though it's more likely that the it was a first-gen unit sporting one of those recalled power cord -- overheated and caused the attached wall outlet to spark what turned out to be a fatal fire. This isn't the first time we've seen Xboxes and fire go to bed together, but it may be the first attempt to hold someone accountable for the damage done, so it'll be interesting to see how the culpability gets doled out here.
Belkin replaces defective iPod remotes
After some Canadian customers reported technical issues with the remote control packaged with their Belkin TuneCommand AV units, Belkin started marking affected packages with information stickers and set up this page for Canadian customers to request a free replacement. If you purchased an affected product, use this form to submit your shipping information. Contrary to some rumors floating around the Internet, this is not a general offer for a free remote. It's meant only for Canadian customers affected by specific technical concerns.
Dell recall prompts inquiry into all Sony laptop batteries
Just as we suspected, Dell may not be the only manufacturer recalling countless batteries due to fire hazards, as the Sony-made lithium-ions are also found in laptops from Apple, HP, and Lenovo, not to mention a variety of other consumer electronics products. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission acknowledged on Tuesday that the batteries "are not unique to just the Dell notebook computers," and have launched a review of all Sony laptop cells manufactured between April 2004 and June of this year. Some manufacturers, like Apple, claim to be looking into the matter on their own, while others -- namely HP -- have publicly distanced themselves from the affair by stating that "It's a Dell issue." Sony itself also believes the problem is limited to batteries in Dell PCs, while Lenovo seems to be side-stepping the recall with claims that "we have not seen any unusual pattern of problems in our notebooks." Although it's true that the recent spate of toasty lappies does indeed seem confined to machines from the Texas-based manufacturer, we have a hard time believing that Sony was only sending crappy batteries to Dell while everyone else got quality product. That being said, we're anxious to hear the results of the CPSC's inquiry, but until that time, we certainly won't be so cavalier about keeping our notebooks powered up 24/7, regardless of branding.
PowerBook G4 plays the flame game too
Looks like someone at a Norwegian design firm forgot to trade in his PowerBook G4 battery during last year's recall. See, Dell, you're not the only company getting bad publicity over spontaneously-combusting laptops -- everyone seems to be in on the fun. Read on for a close-up of the offending battery after it was ejected from the docked notebook...[Thanks, Stian]Update: Sølve Skrede, the owner of the battery shot us an email saying that his G4 battery actually was not one of the ones recalled! Curiouser and curiouser.
Another Dell laptop ignites
Today's "Dell laptop bursts into flames" story brought to you by "Henrik the Automation Engineer" of Vernon Hills, Illinois. Quick on the draw with his 7.2 megapixel camera, "Henrik" managed to document the amusing / scary saga of his coworker's notebook, well, pulling a Dell -- and as the placement of the gaping hole in the lappy's burned-out husk indicates, there's little doubt as to the cause of this blaze. C'mon, Dell, enough with the inquiries: if you've really been aware of this dangerous defect for several years now, it's time to fess up and let your customers know the full extent of the problem. Because until you do, these little incidents are going to continue to get a ton of press -- and models from HP and Gateway are going to continue looking more and more attractive to consumers who value life and limb.[Thanks, Blake]
Apple admitting, repairing laptop whining and discoloration problems
Always the good corporate citizen -- well, maybe not always -- Apple has finally fessed up to both the MacBook discoloration and MacBook Pro whining issues that have been plaguing customers since the notebooks were released, and has agreed to fix the problems free of charge. We already knew that the company was sneaking new logic boards into Pro models that had been sent in for unrelated repairs, but now the "high-pitched buzzing sound," as it's technically known, has been officially acknowledged in a support page on the Apple website. An inquiry by DailyTech revealed that affected notebooks fall under the standard one-year limited warranty -- meaning that all MacBook Pros are covered -- and that the solution involves replacing either just the fan or both the fan and the logic board. The discolorations, meanwhile, have not yet been publicly recognized, but AppleInsider is reporting that a recent company bulletin intended for retail and service partners indicates that white, 13-inch MacBooks in a specific serial number range will indeed be eligible for a new top case and corresponding screen bezel -- assuming that approved cleaning solutions have been proven ineffective. Overall, not a bad resolution; sure the admissions could have come sooner, but instead of blaming the discoloration on dirty customers, attributing the whining to tinnitus sufferers, and calling it a day, Apple came through in the end and took the responsible course of action.Read- WhiningRead- Discoloration
Samsung BD-P1000 shipping with picture-degrading chip
If you shelled out over $1,000 for Samsung's BD-P1000 Blu-ray player only to discover that the picture quality wasn't as impressive as you'd expected, fear not: it looks like a faulty-but-fixable chip may be responsible for the sub-par video. After noticing a "softness" in each of the titles he viewed with the P1000 -- especially compared to the performance of Toshiba's HD-A1 HD DVD player -- Perfect Vision editor Scott Wilkinson initiated a chain of events that has culminated with Samsung VP Jim Sanduski confirming that there is indeed a hardware problem with the initial rollout. Apparently, the machines have been leaving the factory with the Genesis scaler chip's noise-reduction circuit enabled, and after comparing a repaired unit to one out of the box, Wilkinson agrees that the fix does indeed result in a sharper picture. Future P1000's will be shipping with noise-reduction disabled, and luckily for current owners, Samsung will be releasing a firmware update that you can download, burn to disc, and pop into your player. So the lesson we've learned here is: early-adopters beware, because even though this problem has a relatively easy solution, next time you may not be so lucky.[Via HDBeat]
White MacBooks showing premature discoloration?
It's not uncommon for electronics -- and especially laptops -- to begin showing some discoloration after a few months or years of wear and tear, but reports coming out of Mac forums and websites of three- and four-week old white MacBooks sporting heavy staining on the trackpads and wrist rests are causing no small amount of alarm among the Apple faithful. Having ruled out heat, smokers, and people not washing their hands enough, commenters are now starting to use ugly terms like "manufacturing defect" to explain why disparate white MacBooks are all showing signs of heavy use barely weeks out of the box, with afflicted users reportedly unable to remove the stains even armed with the harshest of cleaning agents. While it's too soon to really gauge the scope of this supposed problem, if we owned a MacBook we might start using external input devices just to be safe, and if we were in the market for a new one, well, we might even drop the extra loot for that fancy -- and seemingly stain-resistant -- black edition.[Thanks, Calamier]
Apple initiating a "silent" recall of batteries?
So PCSIntel is reporting that Apple's effecting a "silent" recall and replacement of first and second week MacBook Pro batteries (which start with the serial numbers W8607 and W8608) due to such symptoms as failure, power cutoffs, mis-reporting of remaining power, and unresponsiveness to status polling. You know, the usual for a 1.0 product. We didn't hear either way from Apple PR (yet -- we'll let you know if we do), but a quick call to Apple support -- which according to PCSIntel should have yielded a quick blanket-return of any part with a serial that started as stated above -- yielded no recommendation for return. In fact the support rep we spoke with researched it and told us he had no documentation or instructions to initiate any such blanket return on MBP batteries -- which we're told is why it's a "silent" recall. So that doesn't necessarily mean the batteries from the first and second weeks aren't (often) defective, or that Apple isn't necessarily silently recalling them, but, well, it kind of goes without saying that if your new system is having problems you'll be giving them a call no matter what you read here or anywhere else.[Via The Apple Core]Update: Apple's Director of Product PR called to let us know that there's no such recall of MBP batteries they're aware of -- so take that how you will. We'll take that as "there's no such recall of MBP batteries they're aware of."
