Holy mother of crap. I knew that folks were actually taken with the Droid (when your "normal friends" start talking about it voluntarily, it catches your attention), but I had no idea it was moving that fast!
Out of curiosity, what's the difference between laptop and tower failure rates.
I'm fairly convinced that the increased heat and limited airflow in a laptop is murder on the parts (and thus good for the computer sales industry) but can find no definitive study on the topic. #laptops
@Pope John Peeps II: Does anybody even use desktop computers anymore outside of specialized gaming rigs? I'm pretty sure nobody who builds a gaming rig even attempts to use it without massive upgrades for an entire three years. #laptops
@Pope John Peeps II: shhh There's a reason you can't find anything on the topic. You might be silenced with that kind of silly talk.
but seriously, what you're thinking surely must be the case. This trend here even backs you up with netbooks, the even smaller computer, having a higher failure rate. So many components packed into ever shrinking cases just increases the self destruction factor of these things, but that's business. We can't give you those light bulbs that never burn out just yet. #laptops
@chefgon: Since desktops are so much cheaper, especially when buying the parts and doing some of the assembly yourself, you can basically buy one that stays relevant to technology for way longer than a laptop would. My desktop has 2 year old parts and is still very, very fast relative to today's tech. Well, maybe I need a new graphics card if I want to make it my media centre. #laptops
@chefgon: Yes, they do. I recently graduated from college, and got a job where I no longer needed a laptop for any meaningful reason, as I have high speed at my apartment and at work.
Why not get more power, more reliability, and more upgradeability for the same price, if mobility is a non-issue? #laptops
Scientists, Graphic Artists, photographers, video, 3d artists, engineers......
Yep, they all use desktops. Not to mention the larger widescreen monitors are nicer to use than any laptop monitor on the market. Desktops are the most flexible, upgradable, and cost effective way to do computing. The only spot they fail is the whole portability thing. #laptops
Honestly after the first year the machines I buy already are done with the warranty. I just repair them if I can. Only had one that wasn't worth it, a damn compaq with a motherboard that cost more to get a replacement for than near what I paid for it. #laptops
The whole thing wrong with this theory is this would be the most reported issues, as well as weighted for which laptop is the most popular (and vice versa, the least popular get less reports.)
Not to mention how many ARE reported in the first place. #laptops
@soggy_cheerio: I think what he means is while Lenovos might have a higher failure rate than Dell in this survey, there may be a lot more people with Lenovos with a SquareTrade warranty than Dells with a SquareTrade warranty. So Dell may still have a higher failure rate (I'm sure it does) but since less people who own Dells buy their warranty it looks more reliable.
That may have made sense or it may have sounded convoluted and senseless. (I've been up all night working on a scientific realism essay so I'm delirious, sorry) #laptops
@skywalker24: It's a shame it's not a statistics take home test.
And, yes, @nathan.hornby008: , it would be nice if confidence intervals were provided. They state in the report that they used a random sampling of 30,000 of their warranties, no indication of the distribution among the brands. (which we could infer ourselves from the confidence intervals) It's entirely possible that their random sample of 30,000 contained only a few dozen Apples. #laptops
@soggy_cheerio: Silly me for jumping to the appendix. 1000 units is mentioned in the article (it wasn't that interesting) but not in the section I focused on. Whoops. Mea culpa. #laptops
@ripfire: ++ In good conscience I can only buy a few $60 games a year, so the older games with price drops get played much more often.
Also I do have the income to buy as many games as I want, but there are a lot of things that are more valuable to me than always playing the newest and greatest game the week it comes out. #videogamesales
@travisco_nabisco: Seriously! I could spend $60 bucks for one game. Yeah, I did that with Fallout 3. Or I could spend $20 bucks for three used games: Bioshock, Modern Warfare(1), and The Darkness. I'm currently playing Bioshock. Man it's awesome!
Oh btw, don't tell me about the cake. I want to find out for myself.
@Kaiser-Machead: Nice to know im not the only one frozen by Bowie Stare, almost hypnotized to compelled to keep watching. Maybe that how he has powers on the Venture Bros, he drains our souls for it. #videogamesales
if you CAN fix it, fix it. you'd be surprised how simple a lot of electronics are once you crack em open. learn to solder, get some tiny obscure screwdrivers and get in there. i know a lot of people who traded in ipod touches with broken glass, who got hardly any credit towards the replacement, who could've saved a couple hundred dollars.
the only time i'd say forget about fixing it is if you physically break the LCD of a TV. the replacements aren't much cheaper than a new set is and those things aren't really made to be user serviceable - even less so than an ipod.
ALSO if you want your pocketable gadgets to last longer, open em up and throw some conformal coating on the PCBs, and treat all the connectors with dielectric grease. screwing up a gadget by getting it wet can often be fixed by simply drying it out, but corrosion adds up. #repairorreplace
This might be useful for people who don't know how to fix their own stuff, but for anyone else, whether you decide to repair something or replace it depends not so much on the gadget's age but on whether you'd rather have a new one than fix the old one. :)
We just replaced our washer and dryer that we bought in 1987 and both still worked fine (in fact, someone else took them and they're still going strong). We bought new ones to save space in the laundry room so we could put in the dishwasher we never had up till now. #repairorreplace
@infmom: So your dishwasher is in the laundry room? Interesting, I always thought dishes went in the kitchen and that the dishwasher was in the same room. #repairorreplace
@travisco_nabisco: It works that way if your house wasn't built before the dishwasher was invented. :)
This place was built in 1930 and there is absolutely no space to put a dishwasher in the kitchen. The laundry room is right next to the kitchen and the dishwasher just rolls up to the sink when we want to use it. #repairorreplace
Wow, I honestly wanted to argue this, given that almost nothing has even a "consider repair" beyond 5 years. A quick second thought later and....Nope. That sounds about right.
Geez. I've had pet fish with longer lifespans than some of our gadgets. #repairorreplace
How about this - if the repair cost is greater than or equal to 1/3 of the replacement cost, get a new one. I have some $80 headphones that I love, but if it cost me more than $25 ($26.67) to fix them, I'd think seriously about just getting a new pair - and they're less than a month old. #repairorreplace
When I was a young'un, I tore through all the CYOA-type books at my local library. Afterward, I was feeling somewhat unsettled by the internal inconsistencies in the stories ("But why was my choice of "tackling the alligator" the only option that allowed me to be rescued from the tropical island nine choices later?").
So I wrote to the authors. About eight or nine authors, I believe, and I asked them a litany of questions about why one choice caused a specific result further down the line, and what would have happened if choices X and Y were not available and how the different scenarios coexisted with each other.
None ever replied.
Guess I should have turned to page 63 and opened the sarcophagus instead. #chooseyourownadventure
11/24/09
11/23/09
This is getting exciting.
11/17/09
I'm fairly convinced that the increased heat and limited airflow in a laptop is murder on the parts (and thus good for the computer sales industry) but can find no definitive study on the topic. #laptops
11/17/09
11/17/09
but seriously, what you're thinking surely must be the case. This trend here even backs you up with netbooks, the even smaller computer, having a higher failure rate. So many components packed into ever shrinking cases just increases the self destruction factor of these things, but that's business. We can't give you those light bulbs that never burn out just yet. #laptops
11/17/09
11/17/09
Why not get more power, more reliability, and more upgradeability for the same price, if mobility is a non-issue? #laptops
11/17/09
Scientists, Graphic Artists, photographers, video, 3d artists, engineers......
Yep, they all use desktops. Not to mention the larger widescreen monitors are nicer to use than any laptop monitor on the market. Desktops are the most flexible, upgradable, and cost effective way to do computing. The only spot they fail is the whole portability thing. #laptops
11/17/09
11/17/09
Not to mention how many ARE reported in the first place. #laptops
11/17/09
[en.wikipedia.org] #laptops
11/17/09
That may have made sense or it may have sounded convoluted and senseless. (I've been up all night working on a scientific realism essay so I'm delirious, sorry) #laptops
11/17/09
And, yes, @nathan.hornby008: , it would be nice if confidence intervals were provided. They state in the report that they used a random sampling of 30,000 of their warranties, no indication of the distribution among the brands. (which we could infer ourselves from the confidence intervals) It's entirely possible that their random sample of 30,000 contained only a few dozen Apples. #laptops
11/17/09
11/16/09
11/16/09
11/16/09
Also I do have the income to buy as many games as I want, but there are a lot of things that are more valuable to me than always playing the newest and greatest game the week it comes out. #videogamesales
11/16/09
Oh btw, don't tell me about the cake. I want to find out for myself.
11/16/09
11/16/09
11/16/09
11/16/09
11/16/09
Time to break out my wooden Labyrinth game. #videogamesales
11/16/09
11/16/09
11/16/09
11/16/09
11/13/09
the only time i'd say forget about fixing it is if you physically break the LCD of a TV. the replacements aren't much cheaper than a new set is and those things aren't really made to be user serviceable - even less so than an ipod.
ALSO if you want your pocketable gadgets to last longer, open em up and throw some conformal coating on the PCBs, and treat all the connectors with dielectric grease. screwing up a gadget by getting it wet can often be fixed by simply drying it out, but corrosion adds up. #repairorreplace
11/13/09
We just replaced our washer and dryer that we bought in 1987 and both still worked fine (in fact, someone else took them and they're still going strong). We bought new ones to save space in the laundry room so we could put in the dishwasher we never had up till now. #repairorreplace
11/13/09
11/13/09
This place was built in 1930 and there is absolutely no space to put a dishwasher in the kitchen. The laundry room is right next to the kitchen and the dishwasher just rolls up to the sink when we want to use it. #repairorreplace
11/13/09
11/13/09
11/13/09
Geez. I've had pet fish with longer lifespans than some of our gadgets. #repairorreplace
11/13/09
11/13/09
11/13/09
11/13/09
11/13/09
11/13/09
11/13/09
How about this - if the repair cost is greater than or equal to 1/3 of the replacement cost, get a new one. I have some $80 headphones that I love, but if it cost me more than $25 ($26.67) to fix them, I'd think seriously about just getting a new pair - and they're less than a month old. #repairorreplace
11/13/09
11/13/09
11/11/09
If you follow the link for more information, turn to page 19
If you only read the headline and post "FIRST!1!!1oneone!!1", turn to page 62 #chooseyourownadventure
11/11/09
11/11/09
So I wrote to the authors. About eight or nine authors, I believe, and I asked them a litany of questions about why one choice caused a specific result further down the line, and what would have happened if choices X and Y were not available and how the different scenarios coexisted with each other.
None ever replied.
Guess I should have turned to page 63 and opened the sarcophagus instead. #chooseyourownadventure