Category: Apple

Louis Rossman: How the genius bar handles data during customer repairs sucks.

As you've no doubt heard by now (if you follow tech news at all), last week Apple surprised nearly everyone by releasing new versions of the 13- and 15-inch  Touchbar MacBook Pro. Amid the other upgrades and improvements was the addition of the Third Generation Butterfly Keyboard "to decrease the noise level" of the previous generation. Not as Apple was quick to point out, to increase the reliability of the keyboard itself. Because you know, the problem with the previous generation of keyboards was reported by only a very small number of users. That's why they're replacing even out-of-warranty keyboards free of charge now and refunding the folks who've forked out money to get them repaired in the past.

It has nothing to do with all the bad press and multiple class-action lawsuits. Um. Yeah. Whatever, Apple.

As the folks at iFixit quickly discovered, Apple's redesign includes what I call a keyboard condom; a extremely thin layer of silicone polymer between the key mechanism and key cap that not only cuts down on the sound of the keyboards, but also does it's best to keep out the detritus that can render the previous keyboards inoperable.

While this will affect me in no way whatsoever because Apple has categorically stated these new parts will not be used to repair the previous generations, ("We're going to replace pieces that break with more pieces that will break!") it at least it restores my faith enough that I wouldn't hesitate to buy a new machine if/when the need arises.

I just got mine back from repair yesterday afternoon.

Via The Verge:

Apple has officially acknowledged that there are problems with its "butterfly" mechanism built into the keyboards of the recent MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops. The company is now offering an extended keyboard service program for computers affected by the issue, via iMore.

The extended warranty covers replacement of one or more keys or the whole keyboard, depending on the extent of users' problems, and it covers eligible laptops up to four years after the computer was bought at retail. (Every MacBook and MacBook Pro model with the butterfly switches seems to be included.) That's dramatically longer than the limited warranty the computers ship with or even Apple's extended AppleCare Plus.

According to Apple's service page, the program covers the following issues:

●  Letters or characters repeat unexpectedly
●  Letters or characters do not appear
●  Key(s) feel "sticky" or do not respond in a consistent manner

Complaints from users about Apple's recent laptop keyboards have grown in the past weeks and months, with people saying that the keyboards tend to fail entirely when encountering dust and the fragile design makes them difficult to repair. And while it's certainly taken longer than most users would probably have liked, it's good to see Apple is finally taking steps to solve the problem.

A few weeks ago my buddy Mark (I know far too many Marks) in California was telling me he was ready to throw his MacBook Pro (mid 2012) through a wall.  It had gotten slow and unresponsive to the point of being unusable.

He couldn't afford to upgrade to a new one—something I strongly dissuaded him from doing anyway based on my own experience over the past year—and instead suggested he increase the RAM and swap out the spinning hard drive with an SSD since his was the last year of "upgradeable" MBPs and it would be a relatively easy process.

He didn't feel comfortable doing it himself, and since I have always been his hardware go-to guy but now lived 700 miles away, he asked, "Can they do that at the Apple Store?"

"Probably, but you're better off just buying the parts and sending it all to me. It will be cheaper in the long run and you'll know all your data will be transferred properly."

"Tell me what I need to buy."

So last Thursday the machine arrived, along with 8GB RAM and a new 512 GB Intel SSD.

And for once—a rare instance for my experience with Apple these days—everything just worked. It took only about two hours to swap in the new parts, load a fresh copy of the O/S (I had it on a USB thumb drive that I'd created for work a few days earlier), and restore his data from the old drive.

Working on this "old" Mac reminded me just how much we've lost in Jony Ive's unrelenting quest to build a Mac no thicker than a sheet of paper. Never mind the loss of ports or the stupid fucking keyboard on the latest models. It's the little things like MagSafe and that slowly glowing (but otherwise invisible) indicator on the right side of the bottom case that showed the machine was sleeping when the cover was closed) that initially made me such a fan of Apple. And of course this:

Having the two machines side by side, however, did highlight how much better the display has gotten over the past five years, even leaving out the fact that Mark's wasn't a retina display and mine was. The brightness and color saturation were so much better on my 2016 it was ridiculous.

But c'mon Jony…how about bringing back a little of that "surprise and delight" factor Apple used to be known for?

And I can't tell how often over the last twelve months I wish I'd just paid to get it fixed instead of replacing it.

When Business Insider calls out your crap, you're in trouble.

And then there's that little matter of a class-action lawsuit.

If nothing else, I feel vindicated knowing that I'm not the only one in this situation; that I'm not just "typing on it wrong."

Somewhat.

Last Wednesday evening Ben's MacBook Pro started acting up again. The machine already had the entire top case replaced two months ago because of keyboard issues and here we were again. This time the keyboard had suddenly become completely unresponsive. We attached an external one and were able to do the normal troubleshooting (resetting the SMC and PRAM), but the problem remained. After a totally useless 30 minute call to Apple Care, Ben made an appointment to take it in again to the Genius Bar for repair and unhappily resolved himself to being without his machine until the first of next week. He was able to successfully clone his drive, so restoring his applications and data wouldn't be as much of a clusterfuck as it was the last time we had to do this.

As I've written before, going to an Apple Store used to be fun for me, but lately it's become an unpleasant chore because of a certain—attitude—that the employees are starting to throw. So when we arrived at the Scottsdale Quarter store (where Ben bought the laptop and where it was last repaired) I expected the usual unfriendly customer service we've consistently gotten from Apple of late.

But that didn't happen. I was pleasantly surprised. Everyone from the concierge to the Genius himself was how I remember Apple used to be.

After listening to Ben explain that this was his only computer and it was the second time we'd been in for the same problem (and that I too was on my second MBP because of keyboard issues), we fully expected the guy to simply say, "I'm so sorry to hear that! We'll send it off for another bottom case replacement and you'll have it back in 3-4 days."

But he didn't.

"Hold on a sec…" he said, and disappeared to the back.

Several minutes passed, and he reappeared with a shiny new white box in hand.

"I spoke to my manager, and we're just going to give you a new one, if that's okay," he said. "We'd like to send your old one Engineering. They're actively tracking these keyboard issues."

I don't know if it was because it was a slow night or if he was genuinely interested in this problem (he struck me as not only an Apple employee but also a fan), but we then proceeded to have a long discussion about these keyboards and Apple's general design philosophy. It was very refreshing to speak to an Apple employee who  actually knew their shit and seemed generally interested in their customers.

After we got back home, Ben booted to the cloned drive and restored everything to the new machine in 30 minutes. Back in business!

(As an aside, if you're a Mac User and you're not using Carbon Copy Cloner for your backups—you do backup, right?—you should be. It's proven to be much more reliable—and user-friendly—than Apple's Time Machine ever was.)

This doesn't mean won't bitch about Apple in the future if it's warranted, but this trip to the Genius Bar was definitely a much-needed breath of fresh air.

I guess I'm still a fanboy.

Now it's Ben's turn to have his 2017 MacBook Pro sent off for top-case replacement. He was having slightly different problems, but since EVERYTHING on these machines is apparently soldered/glued in place, individual parts can't be swapped out.

MacOS is starving for attention. It is stagnating. It is falling apart. High Sierra is in many ways pathetic and scary in how sloppy things were done with it how many bugs there still are in many areas. The security bugs are embarrassing. I mean, it's getting worse. Every release seems like it's getting worse. Sierra was a terrible release also. Very unreliable, lots of bugs, lots of problems, lots of subsystems and things that were seemingly rewritten for vague reasons and then were worse and more buggy. This is increasing over time because they are not putting the resources into the OS that it needs to be stable and secure and to be moved forward.

I've found myself just more and more annoyed that things that used to reliably work, don't work anymore. And then I see these software issues that are just disheartening and it makes me just feel like I want to throw my hands in the air and plop them down on the desk and say, "Now what? Now what do I do? Cuz I'm just screwed. Where am I gonna go? It's just frustrating because it used to be this was my happy place. And maybe the problem is because I'm clinging to the Mac and the Mac is dead, but I don't know where the issue is. Is it me? The Mac? Is it Apple?" ~ Casey Liss, speaking on this week's Accidental Tech Podcast

Well, it's fixed. It has been for a couple weeks now. I just haven't bothered to write about it because I know y'all are tired of hearing me bitch.

As expected, the entire top case was replaced. At minimum that included the keyboard, trackpad, and battery. I suspect that the system board was also new, since the SSD (hard wired to said board) was returned with a clean install of Sierra (unfortunately not High Sierra as it had gone out with).

The keyboard (as evidenced by the new markings on the control and option keys) is from the mid-2017 line, even though my original was a late-2016 model, leading me to believe that the entire machine was swapped out except for the bottom cover (where the serial number is engraved) and that the serial number itself was transferred from one machine to another in firmware. I understand there are some minor internal changes in the 2017 keyboard design (there have been far fewer complaints of keyboard issues), so hopefully this will be the last trouble I have with this laptop for however long I end up keeping it.

If you're tired of hearing me bitch about Apple and technology, you might want to just skip past this one because it's gonna be a long one.

"It Just Works!"

Except when it doesn't.

As I wrote a few days ago, I'd decided to bite the bullet and take my six-month-old MacBook Pro into the Apple store so that the wonky keyboard could be replaced. I knew it was going to have to be sent out because the entire top case would have to be replaced. I went ahead and made the appointment.

I'd upgraded Ben's old MacBook with a 512GB hard drive and bumped the RAM to 8 GB—the same configuration I had on my new machine which would allow me to effortlessly move all my data onto the old machine while the new one was getting fixed and not have to pick and choose like I did the last time I had to use the trusty old warhorse.

I'd initially wanted to get my data transferred before I took the machine in for service in case I ran into any glitches, so as I'd done dozens of times before when restoring my entire profile onto a different machine, Friday night I installed a fresh copy of the OS on the old machine, logged in with a Temp Admin account, and then ran Migration Assistant. It kept crapping out. Even though everything was properly checked off, the first attempt transferred everything except the Applications. What the hell? I attempted to go back and just select "Applications" at that point, and after churning away for another hour or so it informed me it was finished. I logged in and nothing had been transferred.

At this point I wiped and reinstalled again. This time I selected only Applications. Success! But when I went back and attempted to restore everything else, it crapped out each time it got around to discovering "Other Files and Folders." After banging my head against the wall for the better part of the evening, I decided to attempt a peer-to-peer restore from my new machine to the old one. Once again I wiped and reinstalled the OS. Set up the peer-to-peer option for restore and waited. And waited. Because it was going over our wireless network, it was going to take hours, but it seemed to be working. That was fine. I was ready for bed anyway.

Saturday morning I woke to find it hung at "51 minutes remaining" on restoring just my profile (it hadn't even gotten around to the Applications or "Other Files and Folders." No problem; my appointment wasn't until 11:45. It was only 7 am. I had plenty of time.

Except it never changed. Finally at 10:45, I pulled the plug and wiped and reinstalled the OS on the new machine before taking it in. Call me paranoid, but I don't trust Apple that much with all my data. I figured I could sort out the Time Machine issue one way or another when I got back. Little did I realize it would literally take all day yesterday get up and running again. Flashback to 2009 and Windows HELL.

Upon arrival at Apple Biltmore, the concierge  gave me more than a little attitude when I approached her. I don't know what the problem was, but she was anything other than smiles and welcoming vibes. In fact, the whole energy level of the place was vile. I remember when I used to enjoy going there, whether it was to buy something or get something fixed. Now I dread it.

I explained my problem to the "Genius" and he whisked the laptop to the back for several minutes, finally returning to say that yes, he was able to verify my issues. He said it would be 3-5 days for the repair

Upon returning home, no matter what I did to restore the data, it wasn't working. I wasn't too worried; I knew all my data was safe, and most importantly I had multiple manual backups of my photos and music in case something was really seriously out of whack. Everything could be restored. Finally, somewhere around 9 pm I did a deep dive on Google and the overwhelming recommendation was to run a repair on the Time Machine. I started that as I went to bed.

Yesterday morning, finished, it reported multiple errors, none of which could be repaired.

FUCK.

"The data is safe. The data is safe. Your important stuff is backed up multiple places." Nonetheless, my anxiety level was rising.

So once again I wiped and reinstalled the OS. At this point I knew i was going to have to reinstall all my apps either by moving them manually from the Time Machine or worse—from scratch—and then manually pull the rest of my data from the Time Machine. While I didn't look forward to it, it was probably well past time for such an endeavor. Multiple installs and uninstalls of apps and multiple OS upgrades over the years since I last did a clean install probably guaranteed there was a lot of sludge on the drive that needed to go away. It would also afford me a new, good backup to use with Migration Assitant when I got my machine back from repair. And if nothing else, philosophically it was a good way to start the new year. My two main concerns however were restoring my mail folders (I store pretty much everything locally, and based on past experience, moving Apple Mail from one machine to another is a pain in the ass, unlike Windows and Outlook where it's generally just a matter of copying a .pst file.) and my Chrome Bookmarks. I hadn't bothered to export them before all this started, foolishly thinking everything was safe and sound.

By late morning I'd located the mailboxes. Each one had to be individually imported back into the new instance of Mail I'd set up, but everything was there. I know it's a silly, first-world problem, but I like to keep that stuff. My anxiety level dropped a bit.

When I fired up Chrome, I logged in and—braise the baby cheebus—all my bookmarks were there. The same went for my RSS Reader. Since I switched to Feedly some months ago it was simple to reattach it to the Reader. Anxiety level continued to drop.

The rest of the day was still spent in robopsychosis, but at least my anxiety had bottomed out; I copied all my apps over from the Time Machine backup, knowing full well that more than just a couple of them wouldn't work properly at first. That proved to be the case, and a simple uninstall and reinstall from the Mac App store solved 95% of the problems. The remainder were licensing issues, solved by contacting the developers who—amazingly—were actually working yesterday and able to help me get everything sorted out.

Ben and I headed out yesterday afternoon to do our usual Sunday grocery run and prior to leaving I started manually copying the +150GB worth of music files back from the Time Machine. When we got home, everything was transferred, and firing up iTunes verified that everything was present and accounted for.

As if I hadn't experienced enough Tech Hell this past weekend, Ben and I decided to switch cell providers. We'd been with Verizon for years and were very happy with the coverage and service, but in the interest of saving money, a few months ago we switched to T-Mobile. BIG mistake. The old adage of "you get what you pay for" could never be more true. Coverage was spotty (Ben had no service at his school), customer service was a joke, and while we still owed $1000 on the two new phones, we knew we had to get out of the contract.

So back to Verizon we went. Unfortunately, we had to buy two new phones because T-Mobile phones are locked to the carrier. Supposedly our numbers were ported over (we got these at Target), but as of this morning, all the phones are still active with duplicate phone numbers, and it's causing nothing but grief for sending/receiving calls and SMS messages. We'll get it sorted today, but damn…really?!?

Anyhow, before we went on our Verizon run, I set to copying the ±150GB worth of personal photos and um…"other" pictures from the Time Machine. It was still running by the time we got back, but eventually everything came through.

By the time 2018 arrived last night, the Mac was back in order except for the issues caused by two different phones with the same number trying to link to the Messages application.

Lesson learned? I really do have a lot of stuff on my laptop that I can't afford to lose. Multiple Time Machine disks are necessary and I need to run disk repair on a regular basis on each of them to prevent this from ever happening again—because having to go through all this is exactly the kind of shit that sent me fleeing Microsoft, and as much as I bitch about Apple, I could never go back.

I know y'all are probably as tired of hearing me bitch about the keyboard issues on my six-month-old MacBook Pro as Ben is, but this is my blog and I'll bitch if I want to.

This week I finally reached the end of my rope with this fucking keyboard. I got a little cash for tending my sister's cats over the holidays, so I bit the bullet and ordered a larger hard drive and more memory for Ben's old MacBook so I can transfer all my data and then take mine in for service and comfortably be without it for however long it takes Apple to replace the entire top case—because just the keyboard can't be replaced. No, the entire top case and battery (because it's  glued in place) has to be swapped out as well . The hardware I ordered is due to arrive from Amazon today and tomorrow, and I have an appointment at the Apple Store on Saturday.

It's as if the machine knows what's going to happen. Now all of a sudden I have not one wonky key, but five that either won't type without pounding on them or type double characters. I've followed Apple's ridiculous keyboard "maintenance" instructions and now in addition to the aforementioned keys still not working, two of them are brighter than the others. (Obviously the compressed air loosened and blew away something under the keycaps that controlled the brightness.)

I swear this is the worst MacBook I've ever bought from Apple. Every day I regret not purchasing last year's model when I had the opportunity. I pray to the gods that the keyboard is fixed/reverted/redesigned on the next iteration of these machines because at that time this one is getting replaced as soon as possible thereafter.

My thoughts exactly.

I haven't had any further issues with the keyboard on my MBP—only because it's been covered with a silicone keybaord skin, preventing anything from actually coming in contact with it.

And I hate it. The things never fit properly (I've tried four so far), always tending to bunch up on one end or the other, and much like putting a case on an iPhone, what's the point of Apple going to such lengths to create something that you want to touch, but is obviously so prone to damage you never actually get to?

After living with this computer for three months now and knowing what I do, if I had a chance to go back to last May, I definitely would've purchased the 2015 model—with the old keyboard design and no Touchbar—when I had the opportunity. The Touchbar remains of dubious utility and the fact that I have to put a condom on the keyboard to ensure that it works when I need it to work is ridiculous.

(audio source)

Except, of course, when it doesn't.

Shortly after that post bemoaning my continuing keyboard woes, the situation worsened. One key was consistently typing double letters and another wouldn't type at all unless I pressed down really hard.

Reluctantly, yesterday afternoon I made an appointment to take the machine into the Genius Bar, resolving myself to the fact that I'd be without my Mac for a few days.

With little else to do this morning however, I started poking around YouTube. Even if it wasn't obvious from Apple's own forums, the sheer number of videos posted about these keys not working properly was confirmation that my problem wasn't by any means unique. Also, it seems these new keyboards aren't as unfathomable as I'd feared.

After watching the video I figured I had nothing to lose by trying this. After all, I already had an appointment scheduled at Apple. Taking a deep breath, I slowly pried off the first keycap. I got out my trusty can of compressed air and gave the mechanism in the key socket a good dusting and carefully snapped the key back on. Viola! No more double letters. I repeated the procedure with the other offending key and afterward it was once again fully functional.

I haven't cancelled my 5:45 pm appointment just yet; I'm waiting to see how this plays out the rest of the day. But right now, things are back to normal.

While I still feel this is a huge design blunder on Apple's part (the tolerances are now so tiny that the slightest bit of dust or dead skin cells or whatever can apparently muck up the mechanism), it's nice to know that the fix is relatively easy and straightforward—and while I sure don't look forward to doing this again, it certainly beats Apple having to send the fucking machine out for an entire top case replacement.

I bought a silicone keyboard cover right after I got the laptop because my anal-retentiveness hates the way the keys eventually wear down and get all shiny. But wasn't a perfect fit, it bunched up, and I didn't much care for the way it felt while typing. But if it prevents stuff getting down into the key mechanism, I may just have to live with it.

#firstworldproblems

We went out to Arrowhead Mall yesterday because Ben needed new shirts for work and JC Penney was having a huge sale. He also wanted to go to the Apple Store to look at MacBooks; he has become increasingly disenchanted with his decision to leave the Church of Jobs earlier this year and wanted to check out the new models.

While Arrowhead has had an Apple Store forever, they have remodeled and now have one of the new designs:

That's right. The new stores are like stepping into one of the "artificial constructs" of the Matrix. I even had to look to find the iconic Apple logo outside the store.

Anyway, the model Ben wants is the 15-inch 2.9/16/512 Touchbar, that even with his education discount comes in at $2500—twice what he paid for his Lenovo Yoga with similar specs a few months ago—so it's not happening any time soon.

Even then I'm in no hurry for him to switch back. While Ben loves technology, Ben is also one of those Technology Cursed. He has issues with pretty much every piece of gear he buys, and with my own ongoing problem with the keyboard (yes, it's happening—albeit with different, random keys this time—on the replacement machine I got) on my new Mac, I don't want him jumping into that shark pool until Apple fixes this mess. (If I could do it over, I would go back and get the 2015 pre-butterfly key model because this is really starting to piss me off. There's no logic to it; like with the first one I had, the h-key went wonky. Then it cleared up and the g-key lost its mind. Now it's the n-key. Hardware? Software? Sun spots? Apple will repair it, but from what I understand it will have to be sent out because the entire fucking top case needs to be replaced and I'll be without a machine for a week—and there's no guarantee the problem won't recur. I'm not yet to the point where I'm ready to go without but if it gets any worse I may reconsider that stance.)

No, Apple. Just no.*

*Opinion undoubtedly revised once I actually hear one.

Let's face it: Apple has issues. It's a company that has grown from a single garage to a multi-national behemoth. And like all mega-corporations, it has its share of problems.

Less than a week after getting my new MacBook, one of the keys stopped working. Or rather, I should say it worked intermittently. Sometimes it wouldn't register at all; other times it would produce a double character. Annoying, to say the least, and not expected from a brand new two-thousand dollar machine, much less one from Apple.

A quick search revealed numerous complaints surrounding the new butterfly keyboard on these Macs. I followed the recommendations, from blowing compressed air into the affected key to the wholly ridiculous procedure of reloading the OS.

Blowing air seemed to alleviate the problem to the point that I canceled the Genius Bar appointment I'd scheduled for Friday evening.

Of course the moment I canceled the appointment the key started typing double characters. (Hey, it wasn't not typing any more!)

Fuck.

I made another appointment and took the machine in today, expecting the worst and gearing up for a confrontation. (After all, it was barely a week old.)

Imagine my surprise then when—after explaining what was going on to the Genius and mentioning it was only a week old—he said, "Oh heck, we'll just swap the whole thing out."

This is the outcome I was going to fight for if it had not been offered. After all, I was still in Apple's 14-day no-questions-asked return/exchange window.

After verifying my educational pricing purchase (I was never asked for Ben's education credentials when I picked the machine up a week ago), the machine was swapped out and the old one wiped of my data as I watched. The Genius then offered to help me set up the new one, but by that time he'd already sensed I was more than capable of doing it myself.

I set up the machine with a temp account (something you need to do if you're planning on restoring from a Time Machine backup), verified that all the keys worked normally and that there were no dead pixels on the display, and was on my way less than a half-hour after arriving at the store.

Many things can be said about Apple's Quality Control these days. No longer under the watchful eye of taskmaster Jobs, I believe that the company's attempt to adhere to what are now expected annual multi-platform hardware and software upgrades isn't allowing much opportunity to squash every software bug and hardware glitch before new product rolls out the door. This is what's most frustrating because you don't expect to encounter these type of issues with an Apple product. "It just works," after all.

But based on my own experience—and despite some horror stories from friends and others posted online—Apple's Customer Service is exemplary and what I still strive to emulate in my own professional life (when I'm not cussing out my customers under my breath, that is). This, more than anything else is what keeps me a loyal customer.

They weren't the circumstances under which I wanted this to happen, but since it did, I'm going to make the best of it—even if it means #backindebt again.

Say hello to my new Mac.

I've had it less than 24 hours, but I have to say that everything I've read online about this machine is true. It's beautiful. It's responsive. The display is awesome. But what do I like the most?

The keyboard.

I'd been a little worried about how it would "feel" in relation to all previous iterations of the Apple keyboard because of all the negative press the redesign initially received, but at least for me, it's an absolute joy to use. The keyboard illumination is uniform and has no light leak at all.

You know what I like second most? The fact that encountering a page full of animated gifs online or using Adobe Bridge no longer sends the fans into overdrive. That is wonderful!

Yeah, I kind of miss the glowing Apple logo on the case, and I still think the Touch Bar is more gimmick than anything else, but there's no denying it's a cool gimmick, and maybe some day I'll actually use it for more than just changing screen brightness or playback volume…

Since this time I was able to restore from my last Time Machine backup in full—in comparison to having to pick and choose what to leave out because Ben's old MacBook couldn't hold it all—bringing this machine online and have everything work from the get go was a breeze.

And now there's a new rule in this house: NO LIQUIDS ANYWHERE NEAR OUR TECH!

Conundrum

Since it doesn't make fiscal sense to have my Mac repaired—the estimate being only a couple hundred dollars less than the cost of a new machine—I am now faced with finding a replacement.

At the time I bought it four years ago, my machine was the top of the line: 3 GHz i7, 8GB RAM, and a 512GB SSD…so obviously I'm going to want something similar.

Apple is still offering all models of the 2015 MacBook Pro (MagSafe, multiple ports, retina display), but with a refresh imminent, it's hard to say for how long they'll be available. With Ben's education discount, I can get a 2.7 GHz i5/8/512 for $1559. If I want to bump that up to a 3.1 GHz i7, the price jumps to $1829. Both of these are custom orders, so I can't just walk into an Apple Store and go home with one.

And this is where the conundrum comes in.

I can get the 2016 non-Touchbar model (2.4 GHz i7/8/512) for $1899. This would also be a custom order.  For the same price I can get the Touchbar model with a faster processor (2.9 GHz i5/8/512)…and it's in stock.

When the Touchbar Macs came out last year I was immediately enthralled, but despite the "cool" factor, I still do question the ultimate usefulness of the feature. And then there's the whole loss-of-ports thing. How much of a problem that would ultimately be for me is probably overblown since the only items I connect via USB A/B are my Time Machine and occasionally my phone—and USB C to USB A/B adapters are readily available.

It's all kind of academic at this point since I can't do anything about this for a couple weeks. Let's just call it a birthday present to myself.

Thankfully I have Ben's old 2010 MacBook to use in the meantime. After several extremely frustrating hours I think I've finally beaten it into enough submission that it's now properly syncing messages with the phone and only occasionally prompting me to enter my Apple password to validate a piece of purchased software.

At Ben's recommendation, instead of taking it to Apple, I took the Mac into a local, highly-recommended shop today.

Worst case scenario is the system board. $900 including labor. (Better than what I was reading about Apple.)

Best case, $50 to simply clean the thing out.

The tech told me it might also be a simple matter of the power button being hosed. If that's the case, it's an upper case/keyboard replacement (because both items are apparently sealed to each other) at around $300, including labor. (The fact the charging light came on was a good indication the system board wasn't fried.)

Should hear something from them within 24 hours.

Fingers crossed.

UPDATE: Worse than Worst Case. Pretty much everything except the display is shot and needs replacement. Time to buy a new Mac.

At least Gazelle is giving me $185 to offset the cost of a new one a bit…