Some early adopters of the MacBook Pro laptops with Retina displays that Apple introduced Oct. 22 are already reporting issues with their machines.
MacRumors was first to spot growing lists of complaints on Apple Support Communities.
“This is my second day of usage, and I have encountered sudden system freeze for 2 times already,” wrote a user identified as kyawlin. “The keyboard and trackpad stop working including brightness keys and volume control keys.”
“I have been using my Macbook for 2 days. And I have encountered sudden freeze for 4 times!” agreed forum user haochuanfromhkg. “The keyboard and the trackpad are unresponsive. But actually the system is working and the apps are working.”
In addition to reports of keyboards and trackpads locking up, users are reporting problems installing Windows 8 and Windows 8.1.
“Users are also reporting that a reset of the MacBook’s System Management Controller (SMC) appears to be ineffective, and a small survey of users within the thread show that the problem is affecting all three configurations of the 13-inch model,” reports MacRumors. “It is unknown as to whether the freezes are a hardware or software problem.”
Apple responded in an Oct. 30 post, telling users:
“Apple is aware of rare circumstances where the built-in keyboard and Multi-Touch trackpad may become unresponsive on 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display (Late 2013) computers and is working on an update to resolve this behavior.
“If you experience this issue, reset the keyboard and trackpad by closing the computer’s display for approximately one minute and then open it.”
Bugs in new Apples are becoming an increasingly frequent phenomenon.
Countless users of older iPhones have complained of issues—crashes, dragging delays—since downloading iOS 7, the platform introduced on the new iPhone 5S and 5C, which went on sale Sept. 10.
On Oct. 22, Apple released iOS 7.0.3, which included a raft of updates, including:
— a fix to an issue where iMessage fails to send messages to some users;
— a fix to a bug that prevents iMessage from activating;
— a fix to an accelerometer calibration issue;
—a fix to a bug that allows users to bypass the Lock screen passcode
—a fix to an issue that could cause Siri and VoiceOver to use a lower-quality voice
— a fix to an issue that caused VoiceOver input to be too sensitive;
— a fix to an issue that caused supervised devices to become unsupervised;
— enhancements to the Reduce Motion setting to minimize motion and animation;
— the addition of a password-generator option; and
—the addition of iCloud Keychain to keep track of account names, passwords and credit card numbers across approved devices.
The most embarrassing and upheaving examples of Apple’s recent sloppiness was Maps, an in-house app that Apple hoped would replace the Google version on its devices.
The app was so ridiculously, laughably bad—roads went places they actually didn’t, addresses were off, bridges were shown melting into rivers—that Apple CEO Tim Cook issued a public apology, saying that Apple fell short of its commitment to offer customers “the best experience possible.”
Several key executives were let go soon after, while others were given new responsibilities—changes that Apple characterized as moves to “encourage even more collaboration.”