My First Complaint with Apple
12/12/07 12:27 PM Filed in: Technology
Honestly, it may not
actually be my first complaint. But it's definitely
my first significant, "What were the designers
thinking when they implemented THIS?" complaint.
Last week, I lost all audio in my Lappy speakers. Maccy the Lappy was completely silent. I plugged in headphones, and the sound came through clearly. I unplugged them; silence. I plugged in my stereo speakers; sound! I unplugged them; silence. Needless to say, I was puzzled. I plugged in and unplugged my headphones over and over in a fury, but nothing would make the sound come out! I double and triple checked the volume, but for some reason it said the volume was set to full, but at the same time, nothing was coming out of the internal speakers.
I was very confused.
I consulted my loyal friend, Dr. Brian Jones. The Doctor informed me that Apple's come, surprisingly enough, with Optical (Digital) Out! Usually you have to buy a separate card for something like this, but it's fancy that it comes standard with Apple computers, I guess. Unfortunately, Dr. Jones didn't know how to enable or disable Optical Out, he just knew it was in the computer somewhere.
I leaned over and glanced at the side of my computer, looking at the Audio Out port. Sure enough, a red LED was glowing out of the hole; that was strange. Apparently when the headphones were NOT plugged in, my Lappy was confused, thinking the audio was being sent to a set of Optical speakers, so it was muting my laptop speakers. This was a problem ...
I looked online and found out that sometimes if you jiggle a headphones plug around in the port, it might switch it off. So I tried that. Nothing.
It was time to bring in the big guns. I IMed David and asked him to come over and help me out. I explained the situation to him. "Do you have a paper clip or something small?" I didn't. We were in the SSC right by the Admissions office, so I popped in there.
"Can I help you?"
"Um hey. Yah, I have a small request of you."
"Yes?"
"I need ... a paper clip. And just so you know, I probably won't bring it back."
"Oh, I can handle that!!"
(Thanks, Admissions!) The lady behind the desk was really nice. I thanked her and ran back to David, handing him the paper clip. He shoved it into the port and wiggled it back and forth for what seemed like eternity. Finally, as I was watching, the red glow stopped coming out of the port.
I pressed the volume button my Lappy.
*POP*
SOUND!!
You've got to be kidding me, Apple. You mean to tell me you put the switch for Optical Out INSIDE the port? That's potentially the worst design I've ever heard of. Granted, if I had a pair of Optical speakers, they would probably flip the switch on and off for me when I plugged them in. But if that's the case, why is it so easy for the switch to accidentally get switched on with a pair of regular headphones?
That's just lousy. Lousy, I tell you. Give the average human a simple switch to turn it off if it accidentally gets turned on. I asked around, and apparently I'm not the only person with a Mac that has had this problem.
Last week, I lost all audio in my Lappy speakers. Maccy the Lappy was completely silent. I plugged in headphones, and the sound came through clearly. I unplugged them; silence. I plugged in my stereo speakers; sound! I unplugged them; silence. Needless to say, I was puzzled. I plugged in and unplugged my headphones over and over in a fury, but nothing would make the sound come out! I double and triple checked the volume, but for some reason it said the volume was set to full, but at the same time, nothing was coming out of the internal speakers.
I was very confused.
I consulted my loyal friend, Dr. Brian Jones. The Doctor informed me that Apple's come, surprisingly enough, with Optical (Digital) Out! Usually you have to buy a separate card for something like this, but it's fancy that it comes standard with Apple computers, I guess. Unfortunately, Dr. Jones didn't know how to enable or disable Optical Out, he just knew it was in the computer somewhere.
I leaned over and glanced at the side of my computer, looking at the Audio Out port. Sure enough, a red LED was glowing out of the hole; that was strange. Apparently when the headphones were NOT plugged in, my Lappy was confused, thinking the audio was being sent to a set of Optical speakers, so it was muting my laptop speakers. This was a problem ...
I looked online and found out that sometimes if you jiggle a headphones plug around in the port, it might switch it off. So I tried that. Nothing.
It was time to bring in the big guns. I IMed David and asked him to come over and help me out. I explained the situation to him. "Do you have a paper clip or something small?" I didn't. We were in the SSC right by the Admissions office, so I popped in there.
"Can I help you?"
"Um hey. Yah, I have a small request of you."
"Yes?"
"I need ... a paper clip. And just so you know, I probably won't bring it back."
"Oh, I can handle that!!"
(Thanks, Admissions!) The lady behind the desk was really nice. I thanked her and ran back to David, handing him the paper clip. He shoved it into the port and wiggled it back and forth for what seemed like eternity. Finally, as I was watching, the red glow stopped coming out of the port.
I pressed the volume button my Lappy.
*POP*
SOUND!!
You've got to be kidding me, Apple. You mean to tell me you put the switch for Optical Out INSIDE the port? That's potentially the worst design I've ever heard of. Granted, if I had a pair of Optical speakers, they would probably flip the switch on and off for me when I plugged them in. But if that's the case, why is it so easy for the switch to accidentally get switched on with a pair of regular headphones?
That's just lousy. Lousy, I tell you. Give the average human a simple switch to turn it off if it accidentally gets turned on. I asked around, and apparently I'm not the only person with a Mac that has had this problem.