Much like how the All Spark in Transformers gives life to everything mechanical it touches, the Apple Spark gives life to the question "Is there something wrong with my MacBook Pro?"
Tonight, after having dinner with my brother and finding a birthday present for my Mum (as it was her birthday today), I went back to my brother's place to see this so-called "problem" he was having with his newly bought MacBook Pro.
You see he thought he was being shocked by it or that it might be Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.
I told him it was all in his head.
I think I was wrong.
You see my brother looks for faults in nearly everything — okay… everything — he buys. From the Xbox to the car to the hard drive to the towel rack to the… we'd be here a while.
Sufficed to say, him finding a problem in something isn't unusual. He's good at finding flaws. It's why he's such a good reviewer.
But I've only ever been shocked by one MacBook Pro in my life before, and that one had been messed around with at the power cable end as well as having severe power supply and hard drive failures. Surely Mike's couldn't be this bad not long into owning it?
But it was.
I put my hands down on the aluminium shell of his MacBook Pro and occasionally felt the tiny pinches of electricity tugging at my flesh.
My fingertips joined in on the action to producing tingly sensations when I pressed some of the keys.
And it's not just us who are experiencing this too. There are quite a few people. Complaining. (Yes, all of these are different links.)
So the interesting question here is…
Why isn't this an official question on the Mac support database?
I mean sure, it's not an attractive question and sure, not everyone can feel it. But certainly if enough people are dealing with it, it should be something support might actually want to take a look at.
I imagine that it has something to do with the metal casing. You know, the whole aluminium shell.
When I was reviewing the Lenovo X300 recently, Ray & I were quite surprised that the top of the lappy was made out of a rubber or plastic shell instead of a metal, but now looking at the MacBook Pro, I think I can understand why: shock value.
Literally.
With the brushed aluminium in the Apple laptop, apparently minor shocks are normal and there's really nothing you can do about it, except by moving to a plastic laptop.
So my question for Apple is this:
If the MacBook Pro is so special and high-spec, why haven't you moved on to making it out of something that's less likely to conduct electricity like carbon fibre?