MacBooks Experiencing Bluetooth Problems

flowolf writes in with news that Apple seems to be having difficulty getting to grips with a Bluetooth problem on MacBooks. Bluetooth goes unavailable intermittently from what users are assuming is a hardware problem, and while it's out the machines won't stay in sleep mode. Complaints started last spring on the Apple forum, which is still quite active. Many people have had to send their MacBooks for repair more than once without a satisfactory resolution.

So?

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh noez. And about a week ago they released a keyboard update to improve usability. And a graphics update so the freak'n iMacs would stop freezing (though some still are).

Let's hurry up and post another article about the Intel microcode update so we can flame them too.

Re:Sounds like Apple service to me

[captainjaroslav]

Consumer Reports' surveys consistently give Apple's support the highest rating of any computer company. Enterprise-level support might be a different story, but calling their consumer-level support "mediocre at best" is not an opinion that is supported statistically. What it may mean, of course, is that the entire industry's support is so awful that Apple only looks good in comparison. I'm just sayin'.

Re:Silence from Apple

[morgan_greywolf]

The real problem is the total lack of communication from anyone on Apple's side to these kinds of problems.

This seems to be Apple's MO in recent years at least. Because all of their grass-root marketing efforts revolve around "it just works," they seem reluctant to acknowledge when problems do exist.

Look, Apple, there's nothing shameful about having problems in your product. It happens all the time. The computing industry is relatively young, and the technology that's involved is usually not very mature compared to products in other industries. It's far better to admit there's a problem than to go on pretending it doesn't exist. "We acknowledge there's a problem and we're working on a fix," is far better than "Problem? What problem?"

Non-story?

[captainjaroslav]

Anecdotally, I have a MacBook and the Bluetooth has always worked fine, but I realize that anecdotal evidence isn't worth much.

For the very same reason, I'm not sure if this is a story if the only evidence to support it is a thread or threads on Apple's discussion pages. You hear this all the time: "Hundreds of people are posting to the forums about this problem, but [whatever company, Apple in this example] refused to acknowledge that it's a major problem!" Well, here's the thing, if the company sells millions of computers and a hundred people are having a problem... in fact, let's say that the posters on the forum represent only a small percentage of people that are having the problem, so, it's a few thousand units that have the problem, it's still statistically small, even if it looks like a major issue on the forum and feels like a major issue if it happens to you.

It's not that it's not important or that Apple shouldn't fix it, it's just that it's not a news story, IMO.

Posting this to Slashdot with no other links about the story seems like somebody's just looking for an excuse to write a negative Apple story, but maybe that's just my tinfoil hat talking.

Re:Blame Microsoft, Again.

[lazy_playboy]

I always assumed apple went to Intel for the better processors. PowerPC always seemed a bit of a dead end compared to x86 to me.
I really can't imagine apple wanting to suck up to running microsoft software.