Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable. An iFixit Op-ed.

[Chris Harlan]

[Craig Seeman] “[Chris Harlan] “The issue is that if any part fails, the entire unit fails.”

Apple’s position may be that it’s easier to replace than repair.
That just as Apple hit the VARs with FCPX distribution, they may kill independent repairs.

BTW this also why I say people have it wrong when they argue Apple has gone consumer over pro.
They’ve become commodity. Higher volume sales. Shorter life cycles. Replace rather than repair.

I can’t help but think Apple mapped out the costs of service vs replacement vs system sales. Also the gains over supply when third party RAM suppliers or “system mod” companies like OWC can no longer sell some things to the public because everything goes through Apple.
“

I agree. I’m sure that’s there plan. And its Jobsian, for sure. Apparently Woz had to fight with him to put expansion slots into thel Apple 2. And, frankly, I don’t even know what I think of it yet. Might be a solid approach. I’m still thinking about the way it effects me. Do I really want to spend four grand on a computer if my daughter can’t use it in four years? Above, I was just reacting to people who seem dismissive of even discussing such changes. I find it funny how defensive some Apple users can be.

[Chris Harlan]

[Andrew Richards] “The price to have the battery replaced on the 13″ & 15”, $129, is the same price as the removable batteries of past MacBooks.
“

That’s cool to know.

[Davee Schulte]

Couldn’t agree more. The new MBP can start with 16GB of RAM. Add that and some Thunderbolt drives. What more do you need to get you through the next 3 years??

[Davee Schulte]

The RAM upgrade is only 200 from Apple. Not much difference

[Davee Schulte]

Have you had any drive failures with SSD?

[Andrew Richards]

[Davee Schulte] “Have you had any drive failures with SSD?”

Not yet. I even have a couple OCZ drives in service and I’ve read the horror stories with them. I’ve got two Apple factory SSDs, two OCZs (one Agility 2 and one Vertex 2) and an Intel 320. I store my big stuff on HDDs, including my backups.

The thing to remember about SSDs is they are consumable, they destroy themselves just to work. They will die after enough activity, so backups are as important (more important?) than ever.

But it’s worth it! I almost never see beach balls. I don’t wait for the computer to catch up to my input. On laptops especially, that is a big difference. The conventional wisdom has been to upgrade your RAM to “speed up” your computer. More RAM is always good, but if you really want to get the most bang for your upgrade buck today, swap your boot drive for an SSD. You can get smaller ones (60-120 GB) for around $1/GB now. Move all your local big data (media) off to a second HDD.

Best,
Andy

[Jeremy Garchow]

More on retina SSD if you haven’t seen it already.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/6005/apples-new-ssd-its-fast

Jeremy