What a turd he is. Feeling invulnerable, so QC takes a backseat. What hogwash. I like Shims point of view - I think that's a lot more accurrate.

There is another widespread problem that neither Apple nor the Apple News sites have yet to address: iChat AV not working since the 10.4.8 update. Check the online chat sites to see how frustrating this has been for many, many people who bought Apple products for their ease of use and lack of problems. And these are just the small percentage of users sophisticated enough to post online!
Very tarnished image of Apple, especially for this Mac user since 1985 and evangelist whose family and friends are now mad as hell that they listened to me!

Enderle is an idiot and doesn't know anything about Apple. Apple like all computer companies have products that have glitches after final QC. This is not unusual and Apple does fix the problems in good faith. These are new products with new processors and sometimes things happen. As long as Apple corrects the problem they should be commended for the outstanding quality and great service which the likes of Dell only wish they had.

Considering all of the new hardware Apple has pushed out since the first of the year it's amazing how trouble free there hardware has been. Remember all of these products are brand new with new processors in them.

A guy I know at work purchased a Macbook for his wife a few months ago that was experiencing the shutdowns. He returned it to the store and they exchanged it no problem. However, the last I talked to him, the replacement is also experiencing the shut-down problems. The fact is, he had two bad ones in a row.

Apple’s technical support had the highest reader score in the November issue of Consumer Reports. True. But that same issue also points out on page 44 that their laptops have a repair rate of 18% - right down there with HP and Dell. In fact, on page 40, CR makes the statement “Apple offers the best tech support for desktops and is consistently ranked most reliable among desktops in our surveys (its laptop’s reliability is undistinguished).

I am a Mac owner and I enjoy Apple’s products… especially Mac OS X. However, I am not an Apple apologist either. It would appear that things are not as good as they could be with their laptops.

iChat AV has functioned flawlessly for the last 5 updates. Not a glitch at all with my computers, iSight, etc.

Is there a problem? Hadn't heard a single word about it and I'm on the net 14 hours a day during the week.

Tiger,
You are very lucky to not have any iChat AV problems. As an example, read the stories of these poor souls:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=674591&tstart=30
And I stress this is an EXAMPLE. Go to the Apple Support Discussion Groups and search for "iChat communication error". You will find many discussion threads. Go to MacWorld discussion forums. You will find many more.
It really would be helpful if you could tell us your circumstances and maybe we could figure out why you are NOT having the problem!

Nothing new here. Swanson will soon learn never to buy Rev. 1 hardware.

But how can you disprove a negative? How is it not not working? If it works, it works. Tiger doesn't have a problem. Neither do I. The (rare and minor) problems I have had have usually been to do with communication issues, or firewall configuration related to non-Apple ADSL modems - notoriously difficult in my experience for non-communication experts to configure.

I regularly use iChat for audio and video chats, both within New Zealand and overseas. It just works.

Are you Reality Check?

No, I'm not Reality Check. I'm not suggesting that you prove there isn't a problem. But just because you are not having a problem doesn't mean that there isn't a problem for many other people! I and many others have used iChat AV for years with no problems. Now with the upgrade to 10.4.8 and no other changes its completely broken. As you say, problems can often be traced to router or connection issues but, if you doubt there is really a major problem going on out there, look at some of the discussion groups. Many people more knowledgeable than me have been trying to troubleshoot this for more than a month.

I didn't prove there isn't a problem. I never said that. But quality assurance is governed by statistics. It's the negatives (where iChat doesn't work) that indicate the problem; the positives can't.

For the record: 20" Intel iMac (rev 1); 2G ram; Mac OS X 10.4.8 - for me it works.

Is it a major problem? Is the incidence of problems greater than, say, 1%? I don't know how Apple or anyone else would actually define a major problem. To say that it were major, there would have to be a metric that could indicate it. Remember, the people who are happy about it aren't going to spontaneously say that it's working fine.

I mentioned Reality Check because he had been lurking just before you posted…

iChat AV has worked flawlessly on our 4 Macs. We made sure UPnP was enabled on our routers and it just worked. No manual configuration necessary.

In my experience, you'd have to work at messing up iChat, Guest.

"This is not unusual and Apple does fix the problems in good faith. These are new products with new processors and sometimes things happen. As long as Apple corrects the problem they should be commended for the outstanding quality and great service which the likes of Dell only wish they had."

===============

While I'm generally pleased with my Macs, I do have to say that the last few years have been challenging. Right now I'm typing on a 1-yr old Powerbook G4. I paid $3500 for this machine, and am currently suffering from the following issues:
1) Dead lower memory bay
2) Faded white spot on screen
3) DVD will not cleanly accept disks about 50% of time
4) DVD drive will not play movies at all
(3 & 4 may be related)

This on a machine that has already had the motherboard replaced because it shut down one day and never woke up. My previous Powerbook also suffered from defects and spent at least 2 weeks in repair or transit over the course of its 2-year life. This may not sound like much, but to a computing professional whose work literally depends on my laptop, it's a huge issue (sadly, I don't make enough to own 2 laptops, just like I can't afford to own a second car while one is in the shop).

As for repairing in good faith - I must have bad luck living where I do. The Cambridge Apple Store has geniuses that are anything but, and wait times that I've never seen be less than 2 hours and average 4. So I wait 4 hours just to be told that the machine has to be sent away for a week for repair. My other alternative - Tech Superpowers - is decent enough but pretty crazy expensive. I'd just like to have a good experience sometime with a Powerbook repair or quality issue. Hopefully the new Boylston street Apple Store will improve the situation.

Nothing out there is as good as the Powerbook in my opinion, but I sure wish Apple put as much effort into handling repair/replacement issues as they do into design.

The MacBook Random Shutdown issue is resolved by the new SMC update:

http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macbooksmcfirmwareupdate11.html

I've been having iChat problems, too. And I'm the one who convinced several friends and family members to buy a Mac because of iChat (and iLife, of course)

I wish they would just fix it!

Thanks for the support, Guest. I KNOW there are many many people who are having this problem as well. Heck, I've been chatting with them online for two weeks trying to find a solution!

I have no doubt that Apple will fix this, eventually. Meanwhile, it does not bode well for Apple "ease of use" and "reliability".

I also agree with the person who posted about things breaking on their Powerbook. Several in my family have had similar problems. And nobody has mentioned the iPod problems yet! My wife took extra special care of her 60GB 5th generation iPod. The thing completely died after only 9 months! Apple promptly replaced it...but this kind of thing doesn't build a lot of confidence.

Quote

Anonymous wrote:
Thanks for the support, Guest. I KNOW there are many many people who are having this problem as well. Heck, I've been chatting with them online for two weeks trying to find a solution!

I have a G4 MDD DPP 1GHz tower and a white MacBook 2.0 GHz both running 10.4.8 and all the latest iLife apps. I use ichat at least several times a week to chat with my daughter in Florida, sometimes on the G4, sometimes on the MacBook. I haven't had a single issue at all on either machine, and this is the first I have heard of such a problem.

I would advise you and your buddies to go to Macintouch and post your problems there. Be sure to detail the problem thoroughly, and be sure to include hardware and software details, including your networking setup. There are a lot of good people there that are more than happy to assist.

Also, if you have Applecare, or are in a warranty period, be sure and call Apple for assistance, too. They can be amazingly helpful. Additionally, if this is a showstopper for you, and you are NOT in warranty or don't have Applecare, this may be a situation where it may be good to pay the fee for assistance.