Intenal Apple Memo Confirms MacBook Air Issues

The new MacBook Air may be gorgeous, but that doesn't excuse the recent display problems users have been facing

A short while ago I mentioned that a large number of MacBook Air users are complaining about certain display issues that pop up just as they’re enjoying their new laptop the most. Until recently, Apple mentioned that it’s looking into the situation but hasn’t come up with a declaration. Now the time has come for the company to finally confirm the flaws in the latest generation of the MacBook Air notebooks.

First of all I’d like to say that it’s very annoying when something new and reasonably expensive breaks down right after it was released on the market. Secondly, it’s hard to trust a brand that doesn’t do all the proper quality testing before it starts selling a laptop, a smartphone or a music player (aka this laptop we’re talking about now, the iPhone 4 and its reception problems, several iPod models that would overheat and go up in flames). Finally, this is even more annoying when the company that’s linked to all these problems is also one of the top manufacturers of phones, laptops and tablets and has shown on multiple occasions that it’s capable of delivering innovative gadgets that have no rival on the market for months or maybe years. This is turning into a: “see what we can do? Great isn’t it? Can’t find it anywhere else can you? Well then suck it up and ignore any problems it may have”. This is just my own view of what Apple has become, which would explain the high number of users who complain about various problems yet buy Apple in the future as well.

This time it looks like Apple has actually taken all complaints seriously. According to one of Boy Genius Report’s sources, the Cupertino-based company has marked an internal memo with a big red “confidential information” banner all over the top. The problems with the laptops seem to involve the internal display fading to dark soon after the computer has awoken from sleep mode. Problems were reported for both new models, the 11 inch and the 13 inch 2010 MacBook Airs. Another issue with the laptops causes horizontal flickering. This happens when the 13 inch version laptop wakes from sleep or after a display is hot-plugged.

Apple’s current resolution for both of the problems mentioned before is to force the display to power cycle. This can be done by closing the lid, waiting for about ten seconds and then reopening the lid, causing the Macbook Air to wake. After doing all this, the laptop’s display should return to normal. On top of that the company has announced that it will try to fix both problems with a software update. Sadly, there’s no mention on when we’re to expect the update. We’re also interested in more information regarding the actual problems. A problem was mis-identified in the past when Apple tried to release a software update for the iPhone 4 antenna problems. Obviously, that type of update would do virtually nothing because the problem was hardware-related. Hopefully the same situation won’t be repeated and a software update will fix the new MacBook Airs.11