[PCWorld]

Post your comments for iFixit's Surface Pro teardown shows repairs won't be easy here

[laserw]

Have you tried to fix a new Apple product lately? Repair of Apple electronics is never given a single thought by you windows bashing jerks.

[SElope]

We don´t bash windows. We love windows, and that is why we are here. What we hate is microsoft. we bash miscrosoft for shoving 16:9 displays on us, when we what to work on documents that at 4:3. We bash microsoft for shoving the ribbons on us. For making docx. files that are incompatible with the rest. For going back to windows 3.1 style interface, after all this year, and calling it Modern interface. We hate microsoft for making money out of every htc, sony or LG android smartphone.

[MKZ1945]

Quote

Have you tried to fix a new Apple product lately? Repair of Apple electronics is never given a single thought by you windows bashing jerks.

I don’t believe they are bashing Microsoft here. I can see where you might get that impression they way the media has treated the Surface device lately, but if you do some research on iFixit they’ve made similar statements on Apple products. This is a good article and I respect iFixit for what they are trying to do for people by providing their free manuals and other information like this one.

I've had my laptops and computers apart many times for upgrades and cleanings and they are designed for the user to be able to do that. For gadgets like Smartphones, Tablets, etc., they are not typically designed for the average user to be nosing around in beyond the covers for batteries or memory expansion. I repair much of my own electronic products when I feel it’s worth it, but for the average user when these devices die it generally cost more to repair them than they are worth. With that in mind, trying to repair them yourself gives you little to lose and you probably get a little smarter every time you break into any gadget. Just be careful. I’ve had puncture wounds trying to break into some of them.

[angryshortguy]

Quote

Have you tried to fix a new Apple product lately? Repair of Apple electronics is never given a single thought by you windows bashing jerks.

You're kidding, right?

Apple products are notorious for being difficult to work on or upgrade.
The author even brings this up in the article.
Who on earth are you referring to as being windows bashing jerks?

And show a little respect! Windows is a proper name like Apple and should be written as Windows, not windows!
You Windows disrespecting jerk!

I'm just kidding.
I hate Microsoft products.

[rak1948]

Quote

Have you tried to fix a new Apple product lately? Repair of Apple electronics is never given a single thought by you windows bashing jerks.

I was just wondering if you were reading a different article than I was........

"Last year, chief executive Kyle Wiens wrote an editorial lamenting[sic] how Apple's MacBook Pro with Retina Display was too difficult to fix or hack..."
Careful what you write, it might come back to bite you. Of course if you did, then we would not have anything to write about.

[Dave1199]

Quote

we bash miscrosoft for shoving 16:9 displays on us, when we what to work on documents that at 4:3. For making docx. files that are incompatible with the rest.

MS is the one shoving 16:9 displays on us? Really? My laptops are made by Lenovo and Gateway and both have 16:9. My monitors are made by Acer and Dell and both are 16:9. My phone is a Motorola which has a 16:9 display. I have TVs made by Samsung and Sharp which are both 16:9. I watch Walking Dead which is filming in 16:9 and most of the movies I watch are filmed in a near 16:9. You are telling me that MS is behind all of this? The only company I can think of that doesn't use a 16:9 display is Apple.

I do not know what you do for work but the majority of the stuff I work on has a better look and flow with a wider screen then a taller more square like display.

I would say that docx files would be a problem only if you were still using Word 2003 as all the usable free office software can read them and on the release of Office 2010 MS also released an update (free update) for Office 2007 programs that allows them to read and edit the docx or any of the x file types.

[Danny1970]

4:3 better than 16:9???? Are you crazy SElope ????? I guess if you like crop bars on your movies and like seeing less of the movie itself that's fine. Why do you think the 4:3 TV is gone now? Because our eyes see things in horizontal fashion, not like a box. 4:3 is dead

[MrHistamine]

Quote

There are 29 screws holding the motherboard assembly in place, and in total the Surface Windows 8 Pro has more than 90 screws inside.

Well...now we know why they had such a low number of Surfaces available at release. You could probably build 5+ desktops/laptops with all those screws; having that many screws in a tablet, is a tad bit ridiculous...lol

[John2jio]

Quote

We don´t bash windows. We love windows, and that is why we are here. What we hate is microsoft. we bash miscrosoft for shoving 16:9 displays on us, when we what to work on documents that at 4:3. We bash microsoft for shoving the ribbons on us. For making docx. files that are incompatible with the rest. For going back to windows 3.1 style interface, after all this year, and calling it Modern interface. We hate microsoft for making money out of every htc, sony or LG android smartphone.

Amen Brother! also mention windows new take on Multi Tasking or what they now call Multi Tasking. Win 8 sucks more every day

[HellcatM]

Quote

We don´t bash windows. We love windows, and that is why we are here. What we hate is microsoft. we bash miscrosoft for shoving 16:9 displays on us, when we what to work on documents that at 4:3. We bash microsoft for shoving the ribbons on us. For making docx. files that are incompatible with the rest. For going back to windows 3.1 style interface, after all this year, and calling it Modern interface. We hate microsoft for making money out of every htc, sony or LG android smartphone.

I like Windows 8 and its tiles. I don't think its going back to 3.1, apple's OS on the other hand looks like Windows 3.1 with its icons that do nothing. I'd rather have a 16:9 screen, when I first saw the ipad with its 4:3 I laughed and I still laugh, a square screen, give me a break. I also like the ribbon, especially in Office 2013, I find it better than the old way. Sony, HTC and LG pay Microsoft for Android because Android uses Fat32 and other Windows components. apple sues over a rectangular phone with icons, slide to open and pinch to zoom which those patents are being looked at and will hopefully be nullified. As for .docx files, are you saying that iworks or i whatever apple's program is called doesn't have its own extension? Even Open Office has its own extensions.

Microsoft isn't perfect, no company is. Every company if you look at them hard enough you see flaws and apple, Google, every tech company has them. Some are worse than others and I think apple is up there with the worse while Microsoft is in the middle.

[thewazak]

It's not that the article bashed MS: it is that the article did not admit Apple is as bad - till the last paragraph!
In other articles on PCW, authors are very quick to add a "pro Apple" comment as early on in the article as possible:
eg. MS App Store opened with only a handful of apps (Apple's app store has 27 thousand trillion apps) but we hope ............

[controlaltdel123]

Quote

We don´t bash windows. We love windows, and that is why we are here. What we hate is microsoft. we bash miscrosoft for shoving 16:9 displays on us, when we what to work on documents that at 4:3. We bash microsoft for shoving the ribbons on us. For making docx. files that are incompatible with the rest. For going back to windows 3.1 style interface, after all this year, and calling it Modern interface. We hate microsoft for making money out of every htc, sony or LG android smartphone.

Do you know what Docx is? It is part of the open doc format, you see, that you create on the Mac, PC as well as open office etc., I hate it when people try to act smart without knowing a thing about it! iDiots!

[ChatTn23]

It’s amazing how what seemed to be a simple article about the difficulty of breaking into the Surface Pro turned into an Apple verses Microsoft debate. Discussions get a little silly sometimes because in most cases comparing Apple anything to Microsoft anything is like comparing electrons to protons. Both have their target audience and in some cases a single person can be that audience. I know many people that use Microsoft based desktops on a daily bases that have I-Phones and/or I-Pads. They generally don’t bash one or the other because they know why they own them. So it becomes very obvious to me that too often persons bashing one product or the other have had little experience with them.

The very first post in this article was someone flying off the handle over nothing if he or she would have read the article instead of the title and running with it. MKZ and rak1948 tried to neutralize the situation, but it obviously did not work very well.

[reyvee61]

It's true that mobile devices are a real bear to repair with Apple products being no exception as I've done several repairs on iPhones and iPods and I can tell you they are tricky to say the least.
This just shows that the trend is continuing on a tangent where you may as well do as the auto industry has done and leave nothing for us DIY's to service.
It's something we have to live with moving forward I suppose.

[MacNewton]

I'm surprised that they could open it up, what a junky looking logic-board compared to Apples iPad design (see iFixit -iPad 4) As a tech I see that Microsoft had this unit design by the same people that made the commodore 64. It's a very old design, made in a way that tells me that you're not going to see refurbished units being sold.

When a computer like this is returned with internal problems, they will just give you a replacement unit. Then they will scrap the old unit for the metal components, and not repair it.

The Apple unit on the other hand can be repaired and refurbished , returned back into active life. Much better for the environment.

I have seen this type of manufacturing before, just look at the layout in the photos provided by iFixit and compare it to the iPad 4. You can see for yourself the difference. Unless of course you're so much in love with Microsoft you can't even take a look. If you're embarrassed to look, I can understand that.

The Macbook Pro article talks about the screen glued together and the RAM is not upgradeable. To some this may be as bad as what Microsoft has done to the Pro.

It may not be too desirable to some, but it doesn't make it a bad design compared to Microsoft's cheap glued together design and low grade components. I wonder what the return rate will be. Not to worry, this is just Rev 1, Apple is now at Rev 5. They made some mistakes with the older models, Microsoft will catch up one day.

You would think that MicroSoft would buy a few iPads and see how to design a better Tablet. Whoever the OEM manufacture are, their production line must have been assembling toasters, I had the opportunity to work with a Pro, it kind of gave off a burnt smell. My iPad 3 gets a little hot but it doesn't smell of burnt wiring.

OK what other silly BAD things can I say about the Pro, Oh right, in my impersonation of Steve Ballmer let me say this, Metro, Metro, Metro...

~ From Hell's heart I stab at thee
Moby-Dick, Chapter 135 ~

[overdue]

Quote

We don´t bash windows. We love windows, and that is why we are here. What we hate is microsoft. we bash miscrosoft for shoving 16:9 displays on us, when we what to work on documents that at 4:3. We bash microsoft for shoving the ribbons on us. For making docx. files that are incompatible with the rest. For going back to windows 3.1 style interface, after all this year, and calling it Modern interface. We hate microsoft for making money out of every htc, sony or LG android smartphone.

Isn't nearly every display on the market these days 16:9?
Did you know you can hide the ribbon?
The Modern interface is a design decision, which obviously doesn't please everyone, but surely your eyes must bleed when looking at iCal and Contacts on Mac OS, too?
Yeah, your lase point, totally valid though.

[overdue]

Quote

There are 29 screws holding the motherboard assembly in place, and in total the Surface Windows 8 Pro has more than 90 screws inside. Well...now we know why they had such a low number of Surfaces available at release. You could probably build 5+ desktops/laptops with all those screws; having that many screws in a tablet, is a tad bit ridiculous...lol

I had to replace my wife's iPhone screen; took out 17 screws, I think, and that wasn't all of them.

[WinTard]

MacNewton, on 13 February 2013 - 08:19 PM, said:

I'm surprised that they could open it up, what a junky looking logic-board compared to Apples iPad design (see iFixit -iPad 4) As a tech I see that Microsoft had this unit design by the same people that made the commodore 64. It's a very old design, made in a way that tells me that you're not going to see refurbished units being sold.

When a computer like this is returned with internal problems, they will just give you a replacement unit. Then they will scrap the old unit for the metal components, and not repair it.

The Apple unit on the other hand can be repaired and refurbished , returned back into active life. Much better for the environment.

I have seen this type of manufacturing before, just look at the layout in the photos provided by iFixit and compare it to the iPad 4. You can see for yourself the difference. Unless of course you're so much in love with Microsoft you can't even take a look. If you're embarrassed to look, I can understand that.

The Macbook Pro article talks about the screen glued together and the RAM is not upgradeable. To some this may be as bad as what Microsoft has done to the Pro.

It may not be too desirable to some, but it doesn't make it a bad design compared to Microsoft's cheap glued together design and low grade components. I wonder what the return rate will be. Not to worry, this is just Rev 1, Apple is now at Rev 5. They made some mistakes with the older models, Microsoft will catch up one day.

You would think that MicroSoft would buy a few iPads and see how to design a better Tablet. Whoever the OEM manufacture are, their production line must have been assembling toasters, I had the opportunity to work with a Pro, it kind of gave off a burnt smell. My iPad 3 gets a little hot but it doesn't smell of burnt wiring.

OK what other silly BAD things can I say about the Pro, Oh right, in my impersonation of Steve Ballmer let me say this, Metro, Metro, Metro...

~ From Hell's heart I stab at thee
Moby-Dick, Chapter 135 ~

Funny all the Apple freaks fail to mention things like this:

macbook pro most difficult to repair ifixit


Or the fact the battery and display are GLUED in?

And where is Apple's all accidental risk + extended warranty? That includes spilled coffee or dropped and broken screen, or dying battery BTW.
http://www.zdnet.com...-99-7000011295/


Anybody? 'chirp chirp chirp'... Anybody? Bueller?

~~~~~~~~~~~
Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine.
~ Bill Gates said in Feb 2007 in response to I’m a Mac propaganda campaign.

Truly successful decision making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking.
~ Malcolm Gladwell, 1963-present

If you're not the lead dog, the view never changes.
~ Robert Crandell, chairman of American Airlines in the late 1990's

[MacNewton]

WinTard my dear friend, please don't take what I say personally, but Apples computers will always be top drawer, well engineered and have a very long life. With 30 years (or more) in this industry I have seen it all. I'm not sure what your story is and I don't really care.

I have Mac's and a few PC's that I purchased years ago that still work very well thank you. The PC's the still work (when turned on) were custom built by me. Each composite that I installed into the PC's where Top of the line and when I installed them I used an anti-static wristband and had a workbench anti-static service mat. As for the Mac's the only thing I needed to install was more RAM and Hard drives.

Of course I have serviced hundreds of PC's and Mac's I can I can tell you without any Bull$#^% that most of the PC's used very low-end OEM factory components. In The 80's When HP, IBM & Compaq were in business they did produces some very good product. Interesting fact when PC's of that time period used MS-DOS you could get years of production out of them without too much trouble. Today if you buy an HP your lucky to get a year out of it.

NOW BACK TO THE PRO

After looking at the photos of the Surface Pro, It's not looking too good, the logic-board looks a lot like the low-end Thailand tablet that I just picked up for $50.00. I believe the Pro was manufactured by Shenzhen Ananda Technology in Shenzhen,China.

Side note: I see that a month after they released the RT they get sued!

On November 14, 2012, Microsoft was sued by a Los Angeles lawyer for false advertising and unfair business practices due to the fact that about half of the total * disk space on his 32 GB Surface RT tablet was being used by the operating system, applications, and recovery data Microsoft said in a statement that it believes the suit is without merit, because it had advertised the discrepancy on its website.

MAKES YOU THINK WHAT OTHER DISINFORMATION THEY HAVE HAVE RELEASED.


* I'm sure they should have used the word RAM or memory and not disk space. A good lawyer will get MS off because of the error...