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The unsaid thing in this entire topic is that apple has a no questions asked return policy.

People should use it if they are unhappy with the product.
Yeah, Apple is extremely generous with exchanges so there is no risk. It also underscores there is no incentive to deliver defective or poorly designed products as Apple would know this would adversely impact revenue. Unless the suggestion is they will lose money on each one but make it up in volume. :p
 
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Either way, they got to review those things without spending any money. Meaning they got it for free, even if they need to return it. Regular people who want to "review" must use their own money and buy those things on their own. Do you think these youtubers would risk not getting any review units in the future by being critical about things, especially Apple? Apple even booted people from attending their future keynotes due to negative comments.
I never doubted any of that. I just made you aware of your mistake. No offence.
 
Er, Apple is a business. Its entire reason for existing is to make money. That's capitalism. That's what rules the world. What did you think Apple was? A charity?


Sir, your attempts to interject reality into the discussion are wholly rejected. Please stick to fairies and rainbows.
 
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I really can't take these "gates" seriously anymore as they are usually more due to owner's of faulty units being vocal on Twitter and having large followings than there actually being a big issue at hand.

Just return the product until you get a good one -If it's all lemons then there's something to it, but if not then it's just you being unlucky.
And not to mention most ‘jumping on the bandwagon’ don’t even have the device.
So MR, specifically @jclo you guys did a hands on review - did you notice these issues???
Simply reporting on Reddit user complaints is not really helpful…
I agree. We have a massive community here and testers that do they’re own reviews on the macrumours team. Why completely miss this fact (likely becuase it wasn’t evident in macrumours testing) and instead jump all over widespread complaints on another site? Are you invalidating your own reviewers?
You could append to the story that you didn’t find such issues. Or if you did, append your own reviews to show it.
 
Of course the early reviewers didn’t mention anything, they don’t want to get dropped from their early access perks
That's probably not it.

Clearly Gruber doesn’t hold back and he certainly didn't regarding the Studio Display. Neither did Rene Ritchie. We don’t know if the review units were part of the same batch as those available to the public.
 
The answer to your question, and pretty much all other product, policy and service related questions, is money.
Apple is, like all other publicly traded companies, going to do all it can to maximise shareholder return. Shocking, I know. Thankfully I'n not a naive Cupertino sycophant.
I enjoy and own their products but refuse to place them (or any other company) on any sort of pedestal. Frankly, on a lot of topics they're full of poop.
Also, Steve was a d**khead; people should give up on treating him like some deity or saintly figure.

My point was something different. Apple will make less money by cutting these corners. If they make the highest quality products, with no shortcuts, and charge a premium, they will own the majority of the profits in the industry. This is what they have done, it's worked beyond belief, and will continue to work. Trying to out-cheap the PC guys will never work.

Make a premium product and charge a premium price. You'll never have most of the market share, but you'll have most of the money. Apple should stick to this winning formula.

It's not about being a fan-boy or whatever, it's protecting a valuable brand by sticking to a winning formula and economic engine.

Yes, Steve was flawed like the rest of us. Maybe more so. I never met him, and I'd wager neither have you. So let's be kind. But I agree that we should minimize the hagiography and deification in this community.
 
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I dont trust Reddit bubbles anymore, they act like it’s a universal problem when it’s only a small group of people complaining. AirPods Pro cracking, MacBook screen cracking, now this… everything Apple makes must crack now. They build millions of those things, its most likely a bad batch or a manufacturing flaw that is probably fixed by now.
 
Apple is doing what every other good company does before they crash and burn. They had a CEO that made good quality products at a fair price and grew rapidly. Now they have a CEO who is trying to milk the customers for every penny. Prices are going up and quality is going down.
 
Apple is doing what every other good company does before they crash and burn. They had a CEO that made good quality products at a fair price and grew rapidly. Now they have a CEO who is trying to milk the customers for every penny. Prices are going up and quality is going down.

We’ve now entered the Twilight Zone as evidenced by someone trying to say that Apple was known for “fair prices” during the Jobs era. The urban dictionary entry for “Apple tax” is from 2008 and the term was around before someone thought to do that. Where do people come up with this stuff?
 
Apple is doing what every other good company does before they crash and burn. They had a CEO that made good quality products at a fair price and grew rapidly. Now they have a CEO who is trying to milk the customers for every penny. Prices are going up and quality is going down.
Yup, take over a visionary, grow a company to become the most valuable company in the world, first to reach trillion, two trillion valuations, reach billions of users around the world.

you know storybook downward spiral
 
Yup, take over a visionary, grow a company to become the most valuable company in the world, first to reach trillion, two trillion valuations, reach billions of users around the world.

you know storybook downward spiral

I have a PowerBook G4 from 2004-2005 still floating around somewhere and the display had dramatic issues with inconsistent brightness. Oh lawd the complaints on the Apple support forums about how Apple was losing their touch and that quality was in the toilet because Apple was so focused on the iPod and iTunes that they couldn’t be fussed to build quality Macs anymore.

Literally nothing changes, it’s Apple product complaint Mad Libs every time one of these issues comes up irrespective of whether or not the problem is actually pervasive.

And to be clear I am not saying that people aren’t experiencing these issues or that they’re not disappointing if they’re happening. iPads AREN’T cheap and getting one that feels lousy really stinks.

But that doesn’t mean that posters here have a clue about the strength of recycled metals or know how Apple’s QC was affected by remote work.

It also reminds me of my last job where the company I worked for provisioned smartphones with custom software for use in research. When we did trainings at IRL meetings we’d have literally hundreds of the same model of Google or Samsung’s latest, flagship phone, all loaded with the same software which put identical display settings on all the phones. And when you had them all on and lined up near one another, the differences in brightness, color temperature, etc., on identical phones with identical display settings could be surprisingly dramatic. And unless you were in a setting almost exactly like that, you’d never notice how different things that all passed the same QC checks that are ostensibly identical can actually be.

These are mass produced devices. Some are going to be lemons. Return them and get a satisfactory one. And if you want to be unintentionally hilarious, please continue to talk about Apple’s reputation for affordability during Jobs’ tenure, I could use the chuckles.
 


Some fifth-generation iPad Air users are complaining about a purported downgrade in build quality, according to posts on social media.

ipad-air-m1-2.jpg

The complaints claim that the iPad Air has a noticeably thinner aluminum enclosure, resulting in creaking, a hollow sensation in the hand, and light pressure on the back of the device warping the display. A thread on Reddit (via iMore) contains a large number of complaints from iPad Air users who say they have build quality concerns about the device. The opening post on the thread states:

A multitude of responses on the thread agreed and expanded upon the issues, suggesting that it is not an isolated case, and some users have even posted videos of creaking noises coming from gentle taps on the device's display to highlight some of the problems. Some replies said that the iPad Air "feels very low quality" compared to its predecessor, noting that there is a detectable difference on the rear of the device. It "feels like I can feel the inside from the back," one reply claimed.

The first reviews of the fifth-generation iPad Air were shared earlier this week, but no reviewers mentioned any downgrade in build quality, and other than new color options, the iPad Air is externally identical to the previous-generation model. Key new features of the iPad Air include the same M1 chip found in the iPad Pro, 5G connectivity on cellular models, an upgraded 12-megapixel front camera with support for Center Stage, up to a 2x faster USB-C port for data transfer, and new color options. Pricing continues to start at $599 in the U.S. for 64GB of storage.

Article Link: Some iPad Air 5 Users Complain About Creaking and Build Quality Downgrade
I haven’t noticed anything like this, build quality feels good.
 
So let me try to understand this.

You purchased three iPads at an Apple Store, opened all three, found defects with all three and then returned all three iPads? I’m not questioning the defect that you observed, I’m questioning how did you possibly unbox/‘open’ three iPads at an Apple Store, unless you paid for all three and then Apple granted the return(s)?
I went into the store to exchange, so they brought one out. It had the sme yellowing issue. The Apple rep agre3 and brought another one out. This was repeated once more and the same issue persisted, however it wasnt quite as pronounced. I needed a new iPad for school so I stuck with it for a bit despite the issue.
 
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I really just don't understand the point of this product. It is still extremely expensive for a mid tier offering. The 64GB option is a joke at this point. That is perfectly acceptable for the budget iPad because it's core demographic will most likely never need more storage, however the way the Air is marketed says otherwise. The 128GB option which is the best choice is $749. For that money you are getting an inferior screen, no Face ID, one basic camera on the back, and two oddly placed speakers which adds up to a terrible value for the money. For another $50 you could get the Pro. I tried the Air 4 and I was not impressed. The M1 is a surprise addition, but It's in a worse package. Normally I would always recommend the budget option, however the Air 5 is an exception. My advice would be stay away.
 
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The usual suspect 'reviewers' are unofficial Phil Schillers. Anyone with eyes and ears can see that.
That ignores the fact (as mentioned above) that a lot of them, in fact, trashed the camera quality of the Studio Display in literally the same week as their Air reviews went up. Are there bad reviewers? Yes. Is everyone who gets an early review unit from Apple on their payroll and going to say only nice things about it? No, clearly not. BTW, thanks for proving my point by not, you know, engaging even a small cluster of neurones to analyse the facts before posting.
 
I really just don't understand the point of this product. It is still extremely expensive for a mid tier offering. The 64GB option is a joke at this point. That is perfectly acceptable for the budget iPad because it's core demographic will most likely never need more storage, however the way the Air is marketed says otherwise. The 128GB option which is the best choice is $749. For that money you are getting an inferior screen, no Face ID, one basic camera on the back, and two oddly placed speakers which adds up to a terrible value for the money. For another $50 you could get the Pro. I tried the Air 4 and I was not impressed. The M1 is a surprise addition, but It's in a worse package. Normally I would always recommend the budget option, however the Air 5 is an exception. My advice would be stay away.
So I currently have an Air 4 (Air 5 on the way). I am not part of the "core demographic" you're referring to and the 64GB Air 4 has had more than enough storage for what I do. What exactly do you think people need more storage for? More than happy that there is no Face ID at this point. And why does the camera on the back need to be anything more than what it is? Its perfectly fine for what it's intended for. Its a great product and I actually AM probably the demographic they're shooting for with this product.
 
I am ordering one of these for my mom so I visited my local Apple store to see what the fuss is about.
I could not hear any creaks. Mind you this was in a store environment. However, the device is very thin and just by pressing a little harder than usual on the Apple logo or a little below it causes the LCD panel to show distortion. I tried this on almost all devices on display at the store.
 
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