Spalpeen

I posted this as a comment over at MacWeek in response to the question how long could you live without your Mac?

“Y’know, I’ve been without my MacBook so often because of its hardware failure (11 of them), that I’ve learnt to live with my PC. I now actually work more efficiently on my PC than I do my Mac.

Yes, I do miss expose, the dashboard, the better multitasking capabilities of OS X (my Mac has two cores and 2GB of RAM, my PC has one core and 1GB of RAM), and I do enjoy using my Mac when it’s around, but I’m rapidly starting to think that maybe when I get it back next that it should go straight onto eBay.

If I can get used to it not being around (and I have to, because I’ve gotta do my job), then what’s the point in sticking with this unreliable piece of junk that could get me £600-700 on eBay?”

Specifically, I’ve calculated that I’ve been without my Mac for 2 months out of the approx. 9 or so that I’ve had it due to repairs. During those periods I usually switch to my PC, which I keep around for situations where my Mac breaks. It’s been a reliable little bugger that whole time.

Honestly, I’m starting to get the feeling of relief when I sit down to my PC. Sure, I know it’s not perfect, but the mere fact that it keeps running and doesn’t conk out (even if it did, I could replace a component) makes me happy to use it. I’ve also discovered that the PC is a whole lot faster for blogging, especially in conjunction with a big monitor. Yes, that’s right: I find the workflow a lot smoother for blogging at Engadget. Surprisingly, I also find that my 1 core, 1GB PC is a whole lot snappier when it comes to window movement, and browser activities (especially flash) than my 2 core, 2GB Mac — although recently that may have been attributed to this.

It’s got to the point now where my Mac has broken so many times through no fault of my own (and I’m quite fault prone: I’ve killed at least 3 Mac laptops before) that I honestly can say that I don’t miss expose, dashboard, Comic Life, Photobooth, or anything else about Mac OS X. The reason for that is because I don’t freaking remember the last time I used them due to repairs! 

Why can’t I have it both ways: the rugged, modular, no nonsense PC approach coupled with the sexy, attractive, and fun Mac? I think Apple have seriously sacrificed reliability with the MacBook range, and they have therefore then lost a customer.

I discovered before I sent my MacBook in for repair the other day that when the battery isn’t plugged in, the CPU automatically clocks down to 1GHz. So for the past week I had it, it’s been operating at half speed. I wondered why it was so slow.

It’s still out for repair at the moment, and it definitely won’t be back before I go home tomorrow. Bummer. Lets see if I can get the repairpeople to send it back to me.

I’ve recently requested an Apple replacement for my battery (read more about my ongoing MacBook problems here) and I discovered an interesting fact whilst doing so.

The Apple representative I spoke to said that Apple would charge me £71.00 if I did not pack up the old, broken battery — which wouldn’t take charge after I got an AC adaptor replacement — and send it back to them (which I will be doing). I had to give them credit card details to this end.

Interestingly, a quick trip to the Apple Store UK shows that a new, 13-inch white MacBook battery is £99.00. So technically, by opening a “fake” repair request, you can save £28 (~$60) on a new MacBook battery. If you were feeling particularly brave, you could send your old MacBook battery back and swap it for a new, factory fresh one at no extra charge: although admittedly Apple might spot that it is in fact not broken, and charge you the money anyway.

Yeah, so this is very likely to constitute fraud, but Apple has seriously screwed me over with a complete lemon of a MacBook (the customer service rep refused to replace the MacBook, despite it having a total of 11 components replaced in 6 months), so I wouldn’t feel particularly bad if they lost some of their bottom-end with a few owners of worn out batteries playing dumb and saving a bit of cash.