We have all seen the various ads where Apple uses vague concepts such as, “Macs are cooler” and “Macs are easier to use”, to push their wares. We have all seen the cheap shots they take at Bill Gates by having a geeky and technologically inept twit touting Windows, only to admit that Macs are cooler in the end.

Well now Microsoft decided to run some ads specifically targeting Apple, and unlike the former’s unsubstantiatable statements, Microsoft attacks Apple where it really hurts, on price.

Macs on average are about twice as expensive as Windows based machines, running on the exact same hardware, and now Microsoft is driving the point home. In the ad, Microsoft compares a $972 Dell laptop to a $1999 Mac with virtually the same hardware. Apparently Apple’s legal department called Microsoft to get them to stop running the ads, because they lowered the price of their PCs (oops I mean Macs) by $100, making the ad technically slightly inaccurate. The end result, however, is that Macs are still hundreds of dollars more expensive, and seeing as how Apple just tipped their hand, Microsoft has every intention to ratchet up the ads even more.

How does it feel to have the finger wagging in your face now Steve? Let’s do some LSD and talk about it.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/16/apple_asks_microsoft_to_pull_ads/

Palm PRE’s media sync software currently works with iTunes version 8.2, by pretending to be an iPod when users try download stuff form the iTunes store. With the release of 8.2.1 Wednesday, which does little other than to block the PRE’s ability to fool iTunes that it’s an iPod, that fun is over.

An Apple worm was recently quoted saying, “iTunes 8.2.1 is a free software update that provides a number of important bug fixes. It also disables devices falsely pretending to be iPods, including the Palm Pre.” We wouldn’t to have anyone pretend anything that’s for sure.

So all you Palm PRE users who were trying to be descent people by BUYING music at the iTunes store, unlike so many of your peers, learn your lesson well. Either don’t buy your music at all anymore, or just not from Apple’s iTunes store. Apple would of course love for you to run out and take back your PRE and buy an iPhone/iPod, but I think you should extend your middle finger and offer Apple a well deserved expletive instead.

With Apple, it’s always their way or the highway. Why can’t they just be happy that someone is spending money at their store?

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/15/apple_disables_palm_pre_access_to_itunes

The release appears to be disabling a hack that allows users to use the iPhone 3G and 3GS as a wireless broadband modems for laptops and PCs, using their cell provider’s data plan.

This capability – known as tethering – was touted as one of the benefits of version 3.0 of iPhone software, when Apple sang its praises at its Worldwide Developers Conference last month. Unfortunately, Apple also announced at that time that the iPhone’s exclusive US carrier, AT&T, wouldn’t support tethering until it was damn well good and ready.

For those that can’t read between the lines, I”ll explain it simply. You can’t use tethering because of the anti-competitive and exclusive deals that Apple signed with certain mobile carriers. It means that services will not be offered as applications become available, instead allowing some third parties to dictate what you can or can’t do with your phone. It means that creative products and applications will be stifled until a proper way to fleece you out of your money has been thought-up. I would also hazard a guess, that this was not Apple’s own idea, but rather a special request by AT&T, and that should make it much more annoying. How does it feel iUsers (or should I say iUsed?) that some corporation was able to tell the manufacturer of your precious phone that they want certain features disabled. Does it feel like jailhouse love with no lubricant? It should.

If AT&T feels like taking a year or two “officially” allow tethering, because they might not want to upgrade their networks right way, well too bad for you iUser. Your phone provider signed an exclusive deal with a carrier and you can kiss their ass once you have passed over your hard-earned money.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/15/iphone_beta_disables_tethering/

www.system-network-solutions.com

Steve Jobs will not be shamed by his use of psychedelics in the past (Well, allegedly in the past. Common all these freaky looking gizmos and no one credits drug use). He has famously called his LSD experiences “some of the two or three most important things I have done in my life.” Examine that statement for a second. The CEO of a hugely successful corporation – the things he must have seen and done – and yet his LSD use is one of the most important experiences in his life.

LSD inventor Albert Hofmann, just before his death, decided to write to the iPhone creator to see if he’d be interested in helping a fellow researcher out with some research money.

Albert Hofmann died @ age 102, which in and of itself, is remarkable considering I am sure he has done a his fair share of the drug he helped create, and drugs are bad. He had penned this never-before-seen letter in 2007 to Jobs at the behest of fellow researcher and friend Dr. Rick Doblin.

Rick Doblin runs an organization dedicated to studying the medical and psychiatric benefits of psychedelic drugs. Below are the letters he wrote to Steve Jobs, and to his friend telling him about the letter. Find a link to the full story at the bottom.

***************************************************

Dear Mr. Steve Jobs,

Hello from Albert Hofmann. I understand from media accounts that you feel LSD helped you creatively in your development of Apple computers and your personal spiritual quest. I’m interested in learning more about how LSD was useful to you.

I’m writing now, shortly after my 101st birthday, to request that you support Swiss psychiatrist Dr. Peter Gasser’s proposed study of LSD-assisted psychotherapy in subjects with anxiety associated with life-threatening illness. This will become the first LSD-assisted psychotherapy study in over 35 years.

I hope you will help in the transformation of my problem child into a wonder child.

Sincerely,

A. Hofmann

**********************************************

Dear Rick,

Thank you for all you do for my problem child. I am pleased to add whatever I can do from my part.

I learned much from your great letter, to do things after waiting for the right moment, how clever and careful you organize and do your work.

I do hope that my letter to Steve Jobs corresponds to your expectation, especially what regards the choice of the writing paper. [Doblin had asked Hofmann to use his personal letterhead. It's not what you're thinking.] I believe that I followed your prescription.

Hopefully Dr. Gasser will be successful with his request.

Cordially -

Albert

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ryan-grim/read-the-never-before-pub_b_227887.html#hoffmanjobsletter

http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=3157

The devices uses LCD screens and has the ability to adjust focus to give the crispest possible image to people who wear corrective lenses. The unit will also have it’s own rechargeable battery, so it will not drain the life of your iDevices.

The only thing is that it’s not gleaming white like those cute little iPod headphones. Oh wait, those make you a target for robbery, so maybe that’s a good thing.

It’s been several months since I recieved my final Macbook Pro Unibody from Apple, and despite my attempts to fall in love with this precision crafted piece of aluminum, I have encountered numerous problems since day one. As far as the physical form of the MacBook Pro, at least this one isn’t cut warped, with the screen hanging over theft side when closed like my previous model. However, everytime I rest my palms on the machine to type the left side wobbles because it is not level. I find myself, after hours of work, unwillingly pressing down on the left side in a rythmical pattern to unconsciously create a tapping beat. Annoying!

They lovely black chicklet style keys now maintain a greasy, almost luminescent glow thanks to the superior absorptive low grade paint Apple has decided to use. And, no. I am not a 200 lb computer geek that sweats Cheetos and fried chicken from my fingertips. My old Macbook Pro with the silver keys held up just fine.

IPHONE 3G

What can I say about the iPhone? I love it to death. Thank God for Jailbreaking! What can’t be done on the iPhone? Well, it can’t cook burgers and I can’t use it in the shower. Other than that the only inherent problem with the iPhone is the control iTunes/Apple have over it until it’s busted out of Jail.

Those of you who haven’t Jailbroken your iPhone yet. Shame on you. Go back to Motorola!

Go to Settings > General > Network > Reset Network

Tada! Internet = working

WHEN THE NEW Macbooks came out a few weeks ago, Nvidia stated that the chips they provided to Apple did not contain the proverbial ‘bad bumps’. Unfortunately for them, an investigation led by The Inquirer proves that not to be the case.

Background
If you recall, Nvidia has been in the spotlight all summer for failing chips due to bad materials and thermal stress. The end result is that bumps, the tiny balls of solder that hold a chip to the green printed circuit board it sits on, crack, and the computer it is in dies. If you want the full technical analysis, read this article (and parts 2 and 3).

Nvidia took a $200 million charge over the problem in July, but the firm refuses to support its customers by saying which parts are defective, and what computers they were sold in. You can get some clue from message boards, with Dell, HP, and Apple being prominent victims.

Nvidia says that the problem only affects notebooks, HP says otherwise. Nvidia assures manufacturers that their machines won’t have problems, manufacturers say otherwise.

In the end, what you have is a massive cover-up that keeps affected customers in the dark. Doing right by them would cost a lot of money, which says a lot about the reason for a cover up. Fixed parts with a new ‘material set’ – basically new bumps and underfill – were phased into production starting in mid-summer, and the old, defective bumps are being sold off slowly alongside the new.

The question of the season is whether or not the brand new Macbook was designed and sold with ‘bad bumps’. Nvidia told us directly that the chips were not using the ‘bad bumps’, and we took their word for it even though internal Nvidia sources were telling us that this was not the case.

One thing to keep in mind however, is that these bumps are so small that they are virtually invisible to the naked eye. In this case, they are about 100 micrometers in diameter, near the diameter of a human hair. To complicate things, they are permanently sandwiched between the chip die and the green fibreglass carrier, the bumps literally solder the two together. They are then covered with an epoxy-like material called underfill.

Nvidia could have shipped chips with bumps made of peanut butter and said that they were gold. As long as the chips functioned, there was almost no way of knowing exactly what they were made of. It is a pretty safe bet for Nvidia to call the parts good publicly, even Apple might not bother to check up on them. Again.

To say definitively what the bumps are made of, you would need to buy a Macbook off the shelf, disassemble it, desolder the chips, saw them in half, encase them in lucite, and run them through a scanning electron microscope equipped with an X-ray microanalysis system like this.

That is exactly what we did.

The Science

Here is the G96 cut in half, ready for analysis

Yes, you read that right, a brand new 15-inch Macbook Pro was purchased in California as soon as they went on sale. This was an off-the-shelf part, not a review sample, not a gift, but a normal model that hundreds of thousands of you bought. It was then secreted to a small lab of mad scientists who do not wish to be named, fearing repercussions from Nvidia and Apple.

These well-meaning boffins took it apart, desoldered the parts, and cut the defenseless notebook into many pieces. With meticulous care, they then ran it through multi-million dollar tools that would tell them exactly what materials the bumps used. Exactly.

This is what most of the Macbook Pro motherboard looks like

The motherboard of the new 15-inch Macbook Pro looks like this (above), with the heat pipes removed. There are basically three chips on it, the Intel CPU on the bottom, the Nvidia MCP79 chipset, and the Nvidia G96 CPU. The MCP79 is marketed under the name 9400M, and the G96 is called a 9600M GT GPU, but we may refer to them as just the 9400 and 9600 in this article.

The bumps have two possibilities, new and old, good and bad respectively. According to Nvidia documentation, the ‘bad bumps’ consist of mostly lead, 95% lead (Pb) in fact, with the remainder being tin (5% Sn). That is why they are called high-lead bumps. The newer ‘good bumps’ are called eutectic, and what they do differently is explained in great detail in the technical links at the top of the article. As far as composition goes, they are about two-thirds tin (63% Sn) and one third lead (37% Pb).

An electron microscope image of the chipset bump with analysis

Here is a closer look at the bump.

An electron micrograph of a 9400 chipset bump

Take a closer look at a portion of the graph that contains the elements in question.

Material analysis of the 9400 bump

Even if you don’t have a degree in material science, you can plainly see that there are two big clumps in the graph. The two-pronged one on the right is tin, and there is notably more of it than there is lead, the spike on the left. This means the bumps on the MCP79/9400 are made of eutectic material (63% Sn, 37% Pb), and they are ‘good’. Nvidia’s story checks out so far.

Take a look at the same data for the 9600.

9600 micrograph and analysis, coloured red for ease of reading

And again, a closeup of the bump.

A good close look at a 9600 bump

And once again a close-up of the graph. (Please note that the original was black and white, we filled it in with red for clarity)

Part of the 9600 analysis, the tail was cropped for readability

Even a communications major can tell that there is one big spike at lead (Pb) and a very small one at tin (Sn). This would fit the profile of high lead (95% Pb, 5% Sn), and is radically different from the ‘good bumps’ of the 9400. The 9600 is unquestionably using ‘bad bumps’, directly contradicting the statements from Nvidia.

If you want more evidence, look at the surfaces of the bumps in the pictures above. Eutectic solder has a melting point that is the same for all components. When it cools, you should get an even physical structure with a fairly consistent grain. That is what you see on the 9400. With non-eutectic solder, the component that cools first should clump, and you can see that on the surface of the 9600.

More Problems
You will notice that we stated in the beginning of the article that Nvidia said the bumps in the chips were good, and you can see from the above data, this is definitely not the case. The computer that ‘donated’ it’s guts for the above analysis was a 15-inch Macbook Pro, purchased off the shelf in California. There was nothing special about it, not a press sample, not even a pre-production version. This is what Nvidia said was good.

How did they say that? Below is the last mail in an email chain between the author and Mike Hara, Vice President of Investor Relations and Communications at Nvidia. Phone numbers and email addresses were removed, and only the formatting was slightly changed for readability. It was sent at 1:52PM CST on October 15, 2008, titled “RE: 9300/9400 materials sets”. The emails appear here in reverse chronological order.

[Begin Email]

oops, sorry.

Michael Hara – NVIDIA Corporation – Vice President of Investor Relations – ( 408) xxx-xxxx – Fax: (408) xxx-xxxx

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

—–Original Message—–

From: Charlie Demerjian [mailto:charlie@xxxxx]

Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2008 11:44 AM

To: Michael W Hara

Subject: Re: 9300/9400 materials sets

I assume you mean 9400, not 6400.

Michael W Hara wrote:

> Charlie,

>

> The 9300/6400 and 9600 discrete all use the new material set.

>

>

> Michael Hara – NVIDIA Corporation – Vice President of Investor

Relations

> – (408) xxx-xxxx – Fax: (408) xxx-xxxx

>

> =======================================================

>

> —–Original Message—–

> From: Charlie Demerjian [mailto:charlie@xxxxx]

> Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2008 9:27 AM

> To: Derek Perez; Michael W Hara

> Subject: 9300/9400 materials sets

>

> Guys,

> The obvious question of the day is, what materials set is used on

> the 9300/9400 and the discrete 9600 used in the macbooks?

>

> -Charlie

[End Email]

As you can see, the question was asked the day after the new Macbooks came out, and it is quite clear in naming all three potential parts, 9300, 9400, and discrete 9600. There is no nuance, and the then brand new Macbooks are directly named. As we have proven above, the statement in that email is simply not true.

One problem that journalists run into every so often is that PR people don’t always tell the truth. They usually do, but every once in a while, they don’t. Sometimes this gets found out, and that inevitably leads to a very embarrassing story, sometimes it doesn’t. The only down side to this for the PR person is their getting caught with their corporate pants down, and the inevitable hit to their reputation.

The problem this time is that Mike Hara is not PR, he is IR, Investor Relations. His main job is to deal with stockholders and analysts, and is consequently under a very different set of rules when speaking to such people. People buying and selling stock expect, and are required to get honest answers to the questions that they ask.

The legal boundaries for IR are the same for talking to analysts, stockholders, the milkman or the press.

Analysis
So, what does this all mean? It suggests that there are 15-inch Macbook Pros being sold with ‘bad bumps’, the same materials that brought down so many HP, Dell and Apple parts, both laptop and desktop. For some odd reason, Nvidia really does not want you to know this.

The first and most obvious question is, does Apple know? Repeated calls to Apple PR were not returned prior to this story, and while that looks pretty damning, it isn’t. Apple will not talk to journalists unless they are assured the response will be fawning, and we do not fit that mold. That said, given the history between Apple and Nvidia, it could go either way.

When we ran our finding past Nvidia prior to publication, Mike Hara replied: “You asked me specifically if the 9400 and 9600 used in the MacBooks were free of all bad bumps. I responded to you that the combination of material underfill and bump is different from the combination that was exhibiting the bump crack field failures earlier in the year.”

We find this problematic. If the bumps were not a problem at all, why were they changed on the 9400? The 9400 is a much cooler-running chip than the 9600, so why change the part that is less likely to die? If the 9600 with ‘good bumps’ is being phased in, why bother with the qualification costs, time, and inventory hassles if it is not a problem?

The other problem comes down to heat. The new Macbooks run hot, very hot. The net is filled with reports of them overheating and hanging. This is most often seen when gaming, a task that stresses the GPUs hard, and results in a ‘black screen of death’. These beasties run extremely hot.

On the surface, the explanation of the Macbooks not getting hot enough to crack the bumps doesn’t stand up. If it is hot enough to sear the flesh off your thigh, it is likely more than able to reach an internal temperature of 60-80C, the point where the underfill softens. If the chips get hot enough to crash, it is unlikely they are running within prescribed thermal boundaries.

If you assume the engineering work was done, and done correctly to keep the 9400 and 9600 in the correct thermal range, why didn’t Nvidia simply say so? Barring a total failure of their lot-tracking system, they had to have known the Macbooks shipped with ‘bad bumps’.

The Future
What do you do from here? At the moment, the simple answer is: avoid the 15-inch Macbook Pro. While there is no assurance that the high-lead bumps will cause a failure, given their history, we cannot recommend that you take the chance.

Apple and Nvidia need to clearly mark which machines have the ‘bad bumps’ so consumers can decide for themselves. Given that Nvidia claims to be transitioning from high-lead to eutectic bumps, it is only a matter of time until the high-lead inventory is depleted, and the Macbooks are safe to buy.

Until that time, you would be well advised to avoid these potentially problematic notebooks. µ

Note
In a statement just before publication, Nvidia’s Mike Hara had the following comment on the situation. “The GeForce 9600 GPU in the MacBook Pro does not have bad bumps. The material set (combination of underfill and bump) that is being used is similar to the material set that has been shipped in 100s of millions of chipsets by the world’s largest semiconductor company.”

Replacement 1: Dented body, faulty batter indicator

I received my first macbook pro (5th gen/unibody) early October. When I opened the box I immediatley noticed that above the trackpad there was a huge dent. This was obviously unacceptable, so I called Apple and requested a replacement. Another issue that was discovered shortly after was that the battery indicator on the left side of the machine was not functioning.

Replacement 2: Defective video card, broken clutch/monitor hinge

I received my second replacement. Actually that is a lie, Apple shipped it to the wrong address and I had to drive 40 minutes away to pick it up at the FedEx depot. When I finally got home and pulled it out of the box I noticed that as I opened the lid/screen it made a horrible cracking noise. I didn’t think much of it, being a new system, perhaps it was just nice a stiff. After working for a few hours, things seemed great. I shutdown and closed the lid. As I lifted the macbook pro to place it in my bag, I noticed that the black clutch at the back had popped right off. I immediatley popped in back into place and opened up the lid. After gliding my finger across the inside of the bezel I noticed that the entire thing was warped!

I used this machine for 4 days. On the 4th day, I was working with some graphic software and as it was rendering, the system decided to shut down the program, clear my desktop of it background and contents and in the top left corner appeared a lovely black box. This was fixed by a restart. I decided to try and recreate the occurance, so I loaded up a graphic intensive game, played for about 20 minutes and bang! The computer just shut itslef off.

I called Apple and requested yet another replacement.

Replacement 3: Yellow screen (9C85), squeaky keys

This one is the best yet. I open the 3rd replacement macbook pro, I place it next to the 2nd replacement, in order to transfer my files via fw800 and I immediately notice that the screen on the new machine is YELLOW compared to the crisp white screen of the previous one. My first reaction was that the screen must be defective. After some research I discover that Apple actually manufactures to different screens for their unibody Macbook Pros.

9C84 – Manufactured by LG/Samsung
9C85 – Manufactured by Chei Mei

Turns out I received the No Frills brand monitor. Normally, this wouldn’t bother me, but considering that the difference between the two screens is very apparent, I was appalled that Apple would try to put lower quality screens in their Pro line machines.

Another issue with this machine, aside from its sub-par screen, was that my keys were squeaky! I have a video of these squeaky keys in a previous post. Feel free to look it up.

I called Apple and demanded to receive a new machine, however, I wanted them to ship it to the closest Apple Store so that I could open it up with the store manager present, just in case there was a defect.

Replacement 4: 9C85 Chei Mei Screen

The Apple Store Yorkdale called me to pick up my in-store replacement. The system was in great condition, however, the screen was not the brilliant wide screen I purchase, it was infact, the Chei Mei yellow tinted junk screen. I placed the replacement down next to one of the store models and put the brightness on both machines all the way up, as well as changed both color profiles to default. I asked the store reps to bend down to look at the screens side by side and it was a unanimous “Oh!”. They all noticed the yellow screen.

Long story short, they kept the 4th replacement and told me they’d look into this two manufacturer discovery as they had never heard of it.

I am currently awaiting my 5th and final replacement. Apple will not acknowledge the difference between these two screens and would rather insult the intelligence of their most loyal customers by offering us some useless goodwill gestures, like an ipod touch.

You know what Apple? I bought an iPhone 3G, I bought a Macbook Pro fully loaded, I bought a Dual G4 when they first came out in 1994, I bought a Dual G5 shortly thereafter, I own Logic Audio, Final Cut HD and 3 ipod nanos.

After this experience, not only am I jaded, but I question your mandate. I thought Apple cared about making us, the professionals – advocates of all that is Apple – happy. It’s apparent now that Apple is no different than Microsoft, Dell or any other big box manufacturer that simply cares about the bottom line.

Maybe my next system will be a Psystar. Steve… you broke my heart.

- For those of you interested in finding out which screen you have…

System Preferences > Display > Color > Open profile >> take a look at line 13. It’s either 9C85(junk) or 9C84(LG/Samsung!)