Apple Macbook Pro Mis-Steps

[sheeko]

Hello,

Last week I received my shiny new Macbook Pro notebook with the i7 chip, 8Gb Ram, 500Mb HDD, and the new Hi-res anti-glare screen. Having purchased in the neighborhood of 20 Macs for my office in the last two years, this Macbook adheres to the same quality production standards as I have come to expect from Apple. The new i7 chip is amazingly fast. However there are a few not so positive things that I caught me by surprise which I wanted to share with the forum.

1. The new Macbook Pro has no swappable batteries. I found this shocking! I do travel to places with no power where I am without power for a week or more. In the past I would carry 6 or so batteries to keep me functional.

Apple claims 8-9 hours of life, but as I sit here with the screen turned to 1/2 brightness with no DVD use, and the battery at 97%, it is claiming 3:57 minutes of use left. Far short of the 8-9 hours that apple advertises. This is an assumptive and limiting move on Apple's part that makes no sense.

With this new Macbook, my option is to purchase an external power source. This is OK except these are of unknown quality.

2. Snow Leopard has proven itself to be highly unreliable. I have had to reboot this mac like a windows system. This has been with a number of applications: 1) Aperture 2) Final Cut, and 3) especially with network functions such as connecting to network drives. Network drives intermittently stop working. At this point ejecting the drive does not work and to regain network drive capability, the only cure is to reboot the whole system.

Finally, I can't help but weigh in on the whole Flash thing. A big part of Apple's systems are based on open source. BSD as the core OS, Open LDAP, Postfix, Mozilla, and Apache to name a few. Apple has relied on these highly vetted open source applications to deliver OS X. Now they are acting much like Microsoft -- Bullies. Apple really needs to get over itself and contribute back to the community.

Sheeko

 

[miles01110]

1. The new Macbook Pro has no swappable batteries. I found this shocking! I do travel to places with no power where I am without power for a week or more. In the past I would carry 6 or so batteries to keep me functional.

Obviously you did zero research before buying your new machine, as this is the second (or is it the third?) revision of the Macbook Pro to have a non-removable battery.

Apple claims 8-9 hours of life, but as I sit here with the screen turned to 1/2 brightness with no DVD use, and the battery at 97%, it is claiming 3:57 minutes of use left. Far short of the 8-9 hours that apple advertises. This is an assumptive and limiting move on Apple's part that makes no sense.

Because the advertised battery life was not measured while running a DVD.

2. Snow Leopard has proven itself to be highly unreliable. I have had to reboot this mac like a windows system. This has been with a number of applications: 1) Aperture 2) Final Cut, and 3) especially with network functions such as connecting to network drives. Network drives intermittently stop working. At this point ejecting the drive does not work and to regain network drive capability, the only cure is to reboot the whole system.

Ok? I haven't really experienced any of those problems. Sounds like an 80/20 issue to me.

Finally, I can't help but weigh in on the whole Flash thing. A big part of Apple's systems are based on open source. BSD as the core OS, Open LDAP, Postfix, Mozilla, and Apache to name a few. Apple has relied on these highly vetted open source applications to deliver OS X. Now they are acting much like Microsoft -- Bullies. Apple really needs to get over itself and contribute back to the community.

Flash has sucked in OS X for years. Why is this news to you? Furthermore the Apple/Adobe/Flash spat mainly has to do with the iPhone OS, not OS X.

 

[bob.loblaw]

Obviously you did zero research before buying your new machine

Zero or close to it

 

[Matthew Yohe]

1. The new Macbook Pro has no swappable batteries. I found this shocking!

Very silly of you to buy this without looking into it. Also, if you carry around 6 or so batteries, why when you purchased this, did you not attempt to buy an extra battery? Someone as dedicated to swappable batteries as you seem to be would surely buy one battery, no?

Apple claims 8-9 hours of life, but as I sit here with the screen turned to 1/2 brightness with no DVD use, and the battery at 97%, it is claiming 3:57 minutes of use left. Far short of the 8-9 hours that apple advertises. This is an assumptive and limiting move on Apple's part that makes no sense.

You've ran the battery all the way down and charged it all the way up, correct?

If your machine is claiming only 4 hours left, you must have something running in the background that you aren't aware of. Run Activity monitor and check what's using CPU.

Finally, I can't help but weigh in on the whole Flash thing. A big part of Apple's systems are based on open source. BSD as the core OS, Open LDAP, Postfix, Mozilla, and Apache to name a few. Apple has relied on these highly vetted open source applications to deliver OS X. Now they are acting much like Microsoft -- Bullies. Apple really needs to get over itself and contribute back to the community.

I thought you were going to weigh in on the whole Flash thing...? I don't see any direct critique other than "they are bullies and need to get over themselves" and then a request for Apple to give back to the community. What does this even mean? If they weren't bullies, and allowed Flash onto the iPhone, they would be giving to the community?

 

[oplix]

Make sure you calibrate the battery. The estimate is just that..an estimate. It could last longer than what it says. Make sure that bluetooth is turned off. I know you said it's at half brightness but make sure again because sometimes coming off the charger it will put it at full brightness.

 

[djasterix]

The new Macbook Pro has no swappable batteries. I found this shocking! I do travel to places with no power where I am without power for a week or more. In the past I would carry 6 or so batteries to keep me functional.

I't's been like that since late 2008...

Apple claims 8-9 hours of life, but as I sit here with the screen turned to 1/2 brightness with no DVD use, and the battery at 97%, it is claiming 3:57 minutes of use left. Far short of the 8-9 hours that apple advertises. This is an assumptive and limiting move on Apple's part that makes no sense.

If the nVidia GPU is running, you'll get about 5 hours...

Snow Leopard has proven itself to be highly unreliable. I have had to reboot this mac like a windows system. This has been with a number of applications: 1) Aperture 2) Final Cut, and 3) especially with network functions such as connecting to network drives. Network drives intermittently stop working. At this point ejecting the drive does not work and to regain network drive capability, the only cure is to reboot the whole system.

Never had that kid of issues with SL, very stable and robust for me, and I'm running Aperture and Final Cut.

Finally, I can't help but weigh in on the whole Flash thing. A big part of Apple's systems are based on open source. BSD as the core OS, Open LDAP, Postfix, Mozilla, and Apache to name a few. Apple has relied on these highly vetted open source applications to deliver OS X. Now they are acting much like Microsoft -- Bullies. Apple really needs to get over itself and contribute back to the community.

Contributing also means being responsible, and I think that's what Apple is doing...

 

[fullojellybeans]

sounds like a poor migration from a previous version of the OS causing all the issues. minus the battery being unremovable.

Zero erase will fix all problems.

 

[Sun Baked]

You might have to make sure you test the machine with low brightness, sleep the drive at all possible times, run the CPU in energy save mode, and likely use the integrated video.

If you do travel a bit of the time away from the grid, you might ask people with the SSD's to see if that would help.

 

[jnpy!$4g3cwk]

Hello,

Last week I received my shiny new Macbook Pro notebook with the i7 chip, 8Gb Ram, 500Mb HDD, and the new Hi-res anti-glare screen. Having purchased in the neighborhood of 20 Macs for my office in the last two years, this Macbook adheres to the same quality production standards as I have come to expect from Apple. The new i7 chip is amazingly fast. However there are a few not so positive things that I caught me by surprise which I wanted to share with the forum.

1. The new Macbook Pro has no swappable batteries. I found this shocking! I do travel to places with no power where I am without power for a week or more. In the past I would carry 6 or so batteries to keep me functional.

I'm surprised at your surprise, since this switchover happened quite a while ago. I have the last vintage that didn't do this I believe -- fall 2007. I prefer the swappable batteries myself, but, Apple was pushing for longer battery life+ lower weight. I kind of wish Apple made a heavier swappable battery system, but, it doesn't.

Apple claims 8-9 hours of life, but as I sit here with the screen turned to 1/2 brightness with no DVD use, and the battery at 97%, it is claiming 3:57 minutes of use left. Far short of the 8-9 hours that apple advertises. This is an assumptive and limiting move on Apple's part that makes no sense.

It is all relative. I have a Windows PC that claims three hours, but, if I'm doing anything video, lasts about an hour.

2. Snow Leopard has proven itself to be highly unreliable. I have had to reboot this mac like a windows system. This has been with a number of applications: 1) Aperture 2) Final Cut, and 3) especially with network functions such as connecting to network drives. Network drives intermittently stop working. At this point ejecting the drive does not work and to regain network drive capability, the only cure is to reboot the whole system.

Now this surprises me. I don't have one of the latest MBP's, but, for me, Snowleopard has been rock solid. I don't run Aperture but I do run iPhoto an Final Cut. Your experience suggests a driver problem perhaps.

Finally, I can't help but weigh in on the whole Flash thing. A big part of Apple's systems are based on open source. BSD as the core OS, Open LDAP, Postfix, Mozilla, and Apache to name a few. Apple has relied on these highly vetted open source applications to deliver OS X. Now they are acting much like Microsoft -- Bullies. Apple really needs to get over itself and contribute back to the community.

Flash is not open anything, let alone open source. I turn it off whenever I can. But, I don't miss it on my iPhone. When my kids visit Flash-based sites on my Macbook, the CPU usage goes way up and the fan runs incessantly. Apple is right about this (technically), despite the "Apple knows best" attitude.

 

[Transeau]

Sticking with the general theme of this tread... I think you will get little sympathy here.

You would really have to live in a cave to not know that the battery is not removable.

As for battery life, well - you can't buy the fastest CPU, most memory, fastest hard drive and highest res screen and actually expect the get the same battery life as the lowest spec machine.

Snow Leopard is unstable? This sounds more like a user issue. The only thing that I ever find unstable about SL is a crappy 3rd party driver or app, and Flash.

Now Flash - You really need to go there? You have bought 20+ Mac's in the last two years and you still think Apple is to blame here? Flash can suck it. I disable it. I can't stand that it constantly uses more CPU time than h.264 encoding!

 

[sheeko]

I want to thank those of you who responded with positive constructive feedback. It is much appreciated.

Obviously you did zero research before buying your new machine, as this is the second (or is it the third?) revision of the Macbook Pro to have a non-removable battery.

Very respectfully, to all the people who posted saying that the Macbook Pro has not had a removable battery for 3 iterations/years, you are all wrong on this. This is the first revision of the Macbook pro where you have to unscrew the undercover to access the battery.

Previous version in fact DID have removable batteries. I have purchased over 20 Macs in the past two years and purchased a brand new Macbook Pro a few months ago that did have a removable battery.

The last revision did have a latch that had to be pressed to expose the battery and hard drive.

Please get your facts straight before responding in the tone that you did.

Because the advertised battery life was not measured while running a DVD.

If you read my post it clearly said "NO DVD USE."

Flash has sucked in OS X for years. Why is this news to you? Furthermore the Apple/Adobe/Flash spat mainly has to do with the iPhone OS, not OS X.

Regardless of your opinion on Flash and its merits on OS X as well as the newsworthiness of my comment, Apple has made a decision around political issues to keep their platform closed. Thereby they have prevented us from official support on OS X and no support on other platforms of an industry standard technology.

As I commented previously, this is after they built their platform on Open Source tools. I did not claim that Flash is Open Source as some concluded.

I personally believe this is inappropriate. If others accept this and support them, then I respect your decision, however I do not agree with it.

Finally a word about the tone of the responses. This is an open forum for information sharing, the exchanges of ideas, and resolution of problems. There are folks here who come across authoritative, aggressive, flippant, dismissive and/or demeaning. I would appreciate if you respond, then respond respectfully.

All of this dialog could be had positively without the negative tone. Especially when there is a chance that you could be wrong.

Again, thank you to those who responded in a positive tone and with the intention to help.

Best Regards,

Sheeko

 

[macwow55]

RE: Battery

Hi Sheeko,

I have the exact same spec'd machine as you.

I was having the same battery problems. Was lucky to get 4hours on 50% brightness and JUST internet browsing.

I took my computer to the genius bar yesterday and voiced my concerns. The guy there agreed to give me a new battery.

I just charged it for the first time and it appears to be significantly better. Am getting estimated times between 6.5-7.5 hours. Am happy with that if it proves to be real time usage.

You may have a defective battery. My other one said it was working fine on apples test thing, but i talked with the guy about what was happening and he was nice to replace it.

right now im on 91% remaining and have 6hours 54min left. Lets hope this is actually correct.

 

[miles01110]

Very respectfully, to all the people who posted saying that the Macbook Pro has not had a removable battery for 3 iterations/years, you are all wrong on this. This is the first revision of the Macbook pro where you have to unscrew the undercover to access the battery.

No, it's not. The first revision with a non-user-removable, internal battery was released in June 2009. The second was released in April 2010. That leaves 10 months for you to go to the Apple site and read about the new battery.

Previous version in fact DID have removable batteries. I have purchased over 20 Macs in the past two years and purchased a brand new Macbook Pro a few months ago that did have a removable battery.

Yes, they did. Note the past tense. Nobody was arguing over whether or not older versions of the Macbook Pro had removable batteries.

The last revision did have a latch that had to be pressed to expose the battery and hard drive.

Wrong, see above.

Please get your facts straight before responding in the tone that you did.

Please don't make a thread entitled "Apple Macbook Pro Mis-Steps" when all of your points are due to (a) lack of research on your part about the specifications, (b) some strange technical problem you provide almost zero relevant information about, or (c) a half-hearted diatribe against Flash.

If you read my post it clearly said "NO DVD USE."

Oops I'll give you that one, but battery life is one of the most oft-discussed topics on the forums. Search for the various threads about it and you can investigate what the problem is.

Regardless of your opinion on Flash and its merits on OS X as well as the newsworthiness of my comment, Apple has made a decision around political issues to keep their platform closed.

"Keep their platform closed" ? What exactly do you mean by this? Currently anyone can develop an application for OS X and distribute it without going through some sort of approval process like you do for the App Store. You clearly are either misunderstanding what "closed platform" means, or are just blowing smoke.

Thereby they have prevented us from official support on OS X and no support on other platforms of an industry standard technology.

Arguing that Flash is an industry standard is like arguing that Ford is an industry standard. Flash is Adobe's product, not Apple. It is not "standard" by any means. Apple is under no obligation to bend over backwards to make Flash work perfectly in OS X any more than Microsoft is under obligation to make iWork compatible with Windows.

All of this dialog could be had positively without the negative tone. Especially when there is a chance that you could be wrong.

That's the thing- "a chance that you could be wrong" [about Flash, whatever] is subjective. Your statements about the battery are factually incorrect.

 

[philtech44]

2. Snow Leopard has proven itself to be highly unreliable.

Errrm I am so sorry to sound ignorant but is this a personal view or one that's well documented... but somewhere I've completely missed over the 9 months....

"Highly Unreliable" harsh, no?

 

[philtech44]

for me, Snowleopard has been rock solid.

agreed, without doubt... do we need to vote on this subject?! lol

 

[sheeko]

No need to vote: I guess I must be unique in my problems.

As for Flash -- this is a personal opinion. Though I will offer that Closed to me means a platform that only one organization controls, and forceably prevents support of other's technology.

As for the Battery, the last post that talks about the battery being built-in since June 2009 sounds right. I have not bout a Macbook since then. Also, as it relates to research all the Apple web site says is "built-in" battery. Quite frankly this comes across a bit vague. Caveat Emptor.

Thank you for the more positive tone in the responses.

Sheeko

 

[scaredpoet]

The new i7 chip is amazingly fast. However there are a few not so positive things that I caught me by surprise which I wanted to share with the forum.

Return it. It's obviously not the machine for you.

As for Flash -- this is a personal opinion. Though I will offer that Closed to me means a platform that only one organization controls, and forceably prevents support of other's technology. .

You claim to have bought over 20 Macs in the past two years and are just now concerned with the politics of Apple's architecture and its relationship with Adobe? As much as Adobe pretends to be the angel in this, they've been laggards and antagonists to the platform for a long time now. And Apple's policies in terms of the OS X platform have not changed recently, either. You really didn't do your research, in so many ways.

Not trying to be facetious here: I honestly think you might've been better off investing in systems built around the linux platform, such as ubuntu. Though I should warn you, Flash doesn't exactly work so well there, either.

 

[tigress666]

As for the Battery, the last post that talks about the battery being built-in since June 2009 sounds right. I have not bout a Macbook since then. Also, as it relates to research all the Apple web site says is "built-in" battery. Quite frankly this comes across a bit vague. Caveat Emptor.

It does? Really?

I thought it was pretty obvious honestly. When the battery was removable, they'd say removable battery. And you didn't go bother to actually look at one in person before buying? Even if you don't have an Apple store near you they are not the only ones selling Macs. I hear Best Buy sells them now as does Fry's (not sure where else, those are just the local places). I know if I were buying a 1000+ machine I'd be looking through stores to be able to see it in person first and play with it (just to make sure I liked how it worked) before I bought it.

 

[DeepIn2U]

I't's been like that since late 2008...

You mean late 2009; I have a AL_uMB 2008 and its battery is removable.

 

[sheeko]

Return it. It's obviously not the machine for you.


You claim to have bought over 20 Macs in the past two years and are just now concerned with the politics of Apple's architecture and its relationship with Adobe? As much as Adobe pretends to be the angel in this, they've been laggards and antagonists to the platform for a long time now. And Apple's policies in terms of the OS X platform have not changed recently, either. You really didn't do your research, in so many ways.

Not trying to be facetious here: I honestly think you might've been better off investing in systems built around the linux platform, such as ubuntu. Though I should warn you, Flash doesn't exactly work so well there, either.

ScaredPoet,

I am not "just now" concerned. But as someone who actually does like OS X and Apple's computers and an investor and an evangelist for the products with my clients, friends, and family, I am allowed to not like specifics about the products and the organization's direction without having to make an all or nothing move. I am not surprised by this as some claim, I just don't like it and I am entitled to raise the issue as a topic of dialog. No?

I do think the new i7 is a decent machine, though a few things have caught me off-guard. I admit that I did not do significant research other than looking at Apple's site and am a bit disappointed in the battery thing. It was not something that I thought they would even consider. I do believe this is a mis-step on Apple's part since some degree of versatility is lost. Though it would not warrant me to not buy it.

As for your Linux suggestion, you are correct. I like and do use Linux significantly. Especially Ubuntu. Apt-get is the bomb! However, I like it more as a server platform or as a tools platform, though I find that OS X is more refined for everyday use. The biggest challenge is finding good quality hardware with the proper Linux driver support.

Even with my comments, I do think that on average, Apple is head and shoulders above the PC market with their product line.

Thank you for your feedback.

Best Regards,

Sheeko

 

[sheeko]

Hi Sheeko,

I have the exact same spec'd machine as you.

I was having the same battery problems. Was lucky to get 4hours on 50% brightness and JUST internet browsing.

I took my computer to the genius bar yesterday and voiced my concerns. The guy there agreed to give me a new battery.

I just charged it for the first time and it appears to be significantly better. Am getting estimated times between 6.5-7.5 hours. Am happy with that if it proves to be real time usage.

You may have a defective battery. My other one said it was working fine on apples test thing, but i talked with the guy about what was happening and he was nice to replace it.

right now im on 91% remaining and have 6hours 54min left. Lets hope this is actually correct.

MacWow55. I will follow up and try this. I appreciate your feedback.

Thank You.

Sheeko

 

[tigress666]

I do think the new i7 is a decent machine, though a few things have caught me off-guard. I admit that I did not do significant research other than looking at Apple's site and am a bit disappointed in the battery thing. It was not something that I thought they would even consider. I do believe this is a mis-step on Apple's part since some degree of versatility is lost. Though it would not warrant me to not buy it.

I used to not like the idea of non-removable batteries as well. A combo of my iphone and my current mac (which *does* have a removable battery) has convinced me otherwise.

1. A built in battery means they can have a thinner computer/bigger battery/both because less room for the structure needed for a removable battery. Given they don't put a battery that doesn't last very long this is a great trade off.

2. Not only that, the computer will be more solid/durable honestly with less things to break up the structure (and less moving parts to break)

3. I tend to plug in my laptop whenever I can and usually do have access to a plug (the power adapter fits neatly in the laptop bag so it easily comes with me). The times I don't I'm on an airplane and even with my current macbook's "5 hour" (which you know means it lasts less time) battery is mostly sufficient for a cross country flight (good enough for 1 1/2 movies on DVDs anyways).

4. The few times I'd have real use for a removable battery (going to be used when I won't have access to a power outlet) are so few that I'd never maintain that 2nd battery correctly so it would be a waste of 70 dollars when that battery would die quickly and get maybe 2 uses a year.

5. My computer actually mentions you should leave the computer off for a decent chunk of time (I think maybe 30? It certainly wasn't five or 10 minutes) before changing batteries. Kinda ruins the idea of being able to change batteries when it runs out. You're still out laptop use for a decent chunk of time. Plus, honestly, even if you could just switch batteries you have to shut the computer off and turn it back on again. What a pain. I'd rather have a longer lasting battery that I don't have to do this in the first place.

6. For the iphone I definitely think the thinness and more solid build is a good trade off. And you can buy aftermarket battery chargers for it as well if you need extra power (and I am thinking you probably can for your laptop as well though they might be pretty big).

So I like Apple's direction in focusing more on long life of battery than switchability. Certainly for a 10 hour life battery (yes, I know that's always optomistic but given how long my 5 hour life battery lasts I expect it will last longer than I need it to in any circumstance I'd be in) it is a good compromise for having a thinner computer (which means more portability and packs in my backpack I take on the plane much easier as well).

 

[sheeko]

I used to not like the idea of non-removable batteries as well. A combo of my iphone and my current mac (which *does* have a removable battery) has convinced me otherwise.

1. A built in battery means they can have a thinner computer/bigger battery/both because less room for the structure needed for a removable battery. Given they don't put a battery that doesn't last very long this is a great trade off.

2. Not only that, the computer will be more solid/durable honestly with less things to break up the structure (and less moving parts to break)

3. I tend to plug in my laptop whenever I can and usually do have access to a plug (the power adapter fits neatly in the laptop bag so it easily comes with me). The times I don't I'm on an airplane and even with my current macbook's "5 hour" (which you know means it lasts less time) battery is mostly sufficient for a cross country flight (good enough for 1 1/2 movies on DVDs anyways).

4. The few times I'd have real use for a removable battery (going to be used when I won't have access to a power outlet) are so few that I'd never maintain that 2nd battery correctly so it would be a waste of 70 dollars when that battery would die quickly and get maybe 2 uses a year.

5. My computer actually mentions you should leave the computer off for a decent chunk of time (I think maybe 30? It certainly wasn't five or 10 minutes) before changing batteries. Kinda ruins the idea of being able to change batteries when it runs out. You're still out laptop use for a decent chunk of time. Plus, honestly, even if you could just switch batteries you have to shut the computer off and turn it back on again. What a pain. I'd rather have a longer lasting battery that I don't have to do this in the first place.

6. For the iphone I definitely think the thinness and more solid build is a good trade off. And you can buy aftermarket battery chargers for it as well if you need extra power (and I am thinking you probably can for your laptop as well though they might be pretty big).

So I like Apple's direction in focusing more on long life of battery than switchability. Certainly for a 10 hour life battery (yes, I know that's always optomistic but given how long my 5 hour life battery lasts I expect it will last longer than I need it to in any circumstance I'd be in) it is a good compromise for having a thinner computer (which means more portability and packs in my backpack I take on the plane much easier as well).

tigress666,

Thank you for your articulate response. I find that my challenge is when I have no option to plug in for considerable times. Just recently I was in Africa with no access to electricity for 6 days, yet with the need to use my computer. Moreover, I do travel internationally and find myself on flights that last 8 - 24 hours. With DVD use, 8 hours is not an option and regardless of the use 24 hours is out of the question.

I have been eying the BatteryGeek external battery, however your point about build quality and reliability seems valid and one that I had not considered.

As for the iPhone, I can't comment since I have given up on my iPhone as it does not work well as a phone in the New York City area. iPhone itself was pretty decent, however I am settled with my Palm Pre. Web OS is phenomenal and short of the Pre being a bit under powered, it does work well as a phone. This however is a discussion for another Forum.

Thank you again for your feedback.

Best Regards,

Sheeko

 

[EstrlM3]

obvious trolling

Fun read though *Popcorn* also its bought.

 

[dusk007]

Thank you for your articulate response. I find that my challenge is when I have no option to plug in for considerable times. Just recently I was in Africa with no access to electricity for 6 days, yet with the need to use my computer. Moreover, I do travel internationally and find myself on flights that last 8 - 24 hours. With DVD use, 8 hours is not an option and regardless of the use 24 hours is out of the question.

While it is understandable that you want more than a integrated battery, you should acknowledge that Apple went mainstream with their MacBook "Pros". Most people are happy with 6+ hours battery life and never need more and this is the big part of the population and that is where they want to sell MBPs and make money.
It is not like there is no alternative. You can still have 24h battery life but you have to buy business grade Notebooks from Dell (E6410 with 9 cell and 12 cell (slice) batteries), or these 3rd party ext. batteries. Apple just doesn't care about this 0.0.. whatever % of their fans that want more battery life. They want a small product portfolio and target the mainstream. People who want more may find their respective product at a different company.