I normally do all my computer work on a MacBook Pro; the convenience of being able take it anywhere with me is worth the cramped feeling of having “just” 1TB of disk and a small screen. Unfortunately, my MacBook Pro, which is about 3½ years old, went south yesterday, and now and it freezes up after a minute or three. I spent all day trying stuff to fix it, but it seems to be a hardware issue, So I called up Apple Support to arrange repair.

While creating my repair case, the guy asked whether it was covered by AppleCare, their extended warranty. I'd had the three years of AppleCare, but it expired a few months ago; I replied “Apple products never break down while covered by AppleCare”.

His reaction was priceless: “I can't tell whether that's a compliment or an insult.”

Hah. I guess it's both.

I'm writing this post on an Apple desktop machine from 2009, which is still humming along just fine. But Apple's cutting edge products like their phones and laptops squeeze just a bit more out of the space available than anyone thought possible until they actually demonstrate it's possible by releasing the product, and that kind of cutting edge stuff comes with this kind of cost of ownership... it breaks down a lost more than a sturdy old-tech product. In my experience, that's often right after the warranty expires.

Anyway, the delivery service just picked it up. Last time I did this (~8 years ago?) I had it back quickly... maybe three days. I hope it's the same this time....

Update:

Well, that was quick. It was picked up by the courier service on Wednesday night, and at 8am this morning (Friday) I got an email from Apple that said they have received my computer. I expected to eventually get a message offering an estimate for the repair and asking whether I wanted to proceed, but less than seven hours later, at 2:45pm, I got a message informing me that “my repair request is complete” and that it was already shipped back.

There's no information as to whether they actually did anything, and if so, how much they'll charge me, but I suspect that either they did nothing and are returning my broken computer, or it'll cost the maximum fixed fee of about 80,000 yen (~$730), which had already been reserved on my credit card.

In any case, I'll find out tomorrow... it's schedule to arrive before noon.