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Apple revamps/rebrands discussion forums as Apple Support Communities
Throughout the day we've had a number of readers contact us to say the Apple Discussion Forums were down. Now we know why. Apple has just launched Apple Support Communities, a revamped discussion forum with the focus on allowing Mac and iOS users to find answers to their questions quickly and easily. Don't worry, if you've started or replied to any topics in the past, all your old posts are still there. What the Apple Support Communities redesign does is add nifty little features, like an easier-to-browse forum, the ability to "like" any post, and even the ability to upload images so that you can show everyone just what it is you are talking about ("See! I get two beach balls, not one!"). Head on over to the support communities and check them out. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. Also, you can check out a walk-through of all the new features here.
Apple Discussion Boards to receive major overhaul
The Apple Discussion Boards have long been a great source of help for Apple end-users and professionals looking for both Apple-supplied and community-supplied assistance. In my personal experience, though, it can sometimes be a frustrating place to visit. Apple has announced that what has been known as "Apple Discussion Boards" will be renamed "Apple Support Communities" and sport some new functionality and design elements. One of the biggest changes will be the concept of a user-designed homepage, where one can customize it with social sharing elements, widgets and discussion activity alerts. Another new feature will be user avatars, which is likely meant to make the site feel more social and friendly and less like a place where pros will tell the novices to get the hell off their lawn. What's been your experience with the Apple boards up until now? What do you hope they'll address in the update? [via MacFixIt]
Apple drops Consumer Reports/iPhone 4 threads down memory hole [updated]
Update 3pm Tuesday:Wired's Epicenter blog points to at least two threads referencing the CR story that have been left intact. Perhaps an overzealous forum manager has now reined in the urge? If you were looking for a message thread on Apple's support forums pointing to Consumer Reports' article 'not recommending' the iPhone 4, it's not there any more. Apple's support forum moderators deleted the thread. Bing cached it. If it happened once, maybe you'd say it was a glitch. But what if it happened twice? Three times? Four times, five, six? Sadly, this isn't the first time we've heard about Apple deleting discussion board threads on topics which are unflattering to Apple's products. It's closer to the fiftieth time. In fact, we've heard so many reports about this happening that it seems safe to call this standard operating procedure for Apple's discussion boards. That's not to say that there are no negative threads on the discussion boards, but the ones that are there are the ones that Apple's moderators have decided to leave active. It's hard to imagine what Apple hopes to gain by doing this. Instead of having one negative news story, now we have two: not only did Consumer Reports come out and say they don't recommend the iPhone 4, but now Apple seems to be trying to prevent people from talking about it on their support board. Want some overwrought comparisons to Orwell's 1984? Apple seems to be begging for it. Thanks to reader Paul Richards for pointing this out.
MacBook Pro owners report hard drive lag
There's a thread at Apple's Discussion Boards about an issue that's bothering a number of users. Specifically, the current model 17" MacBook Pros seem to be experiencing hard drive lag. Several users report hearing the hard drive park itself, but at inappropriate times, causing the Marble of Doom to appear and bringing all tasks to a halt. This comes a short time after other users have reported a strange beep. One user reported no red flags while running Activity Monitor while another went so far as to swap the hard drive to no avail. If you're having this issue, or if you've solved it, please let these folks know. Update: A user calling himself theycallmefreddy reportedly fixed the problem late this morning by creating a 2nd user account. You can read his post here.
