My Issues with Apple

Disclaimer: OK, so this is not an infosec post but wanted to share my experiences with those who follow this blog.

Last year (18 months ago actually) I purchased a brand-new MacBook Pro 2016 with Touch Bar. I was “happy” save the keyboard and the insane amount of cable purchasing to change everything to USB C since I hate dongles that connect dongles. I purchased the advanced Apple Care support plan which covers two incidents of accidental drop etc.

I started to have keyboard issues where I it sounded like there was a plastic wrapper under some of the keys culminating with the ‘H’ key to completely ceasing to work altogether. Not to mention the random lock-ups and endless beachballs. I called it into Apple and after going through a salad bar of level 1 and 2 folks and trying my hardest to get or even pay for an advanced replacement, the only option was to send my laptop, my money maker, to Apple for 3 weeks (delays because of the recent storm). Obviously, I could not tell my employer that I was going to take a moth off of work because my keyboard was broken and had some jacked-up memory. I had to order a brand-new Apple MacBook Pro 2018 model.

Lesson to learn: Although Apple makes a kick butt laptop, if it is a mission critical piece of your workflow, I would suggest that you have a standby laptop since it appears, much to my chagrin, there is no advance replacement for MacBook Pros like the iPhones.

iCloud Drive Issue I:
So for years now, I have been having issues with iCloud Drive where it starts to duplicate my files 149x (last time). Although versioning is a good thing to have, this is obviously not that and is an anomaly. Apple has been unsuccessful in identifying the problem. The “fix” is to wipe all of my data from iCloud Drive in which case there is zero day and subsequently no duplicates….. until it comes back. I keep saying to them that unless they identify the problem, they can never fix it. This apparently and sadly, obviously, is a lesson they have yet to learn.

iCloud Drive Issue 2:
When I purchase a new device and configure it for iCloud Drive, my device will not sync. If I create a local folder to ‘sync’ to the cloud, on that device I get “waiting for upload” and none of my iCloud Drive docs are visible on that device. The fix…….. you got it, wiping all data from my iCloud Drive which of course syncs you to nothing. Then when I re-copy my more than 80GB of data back to the cloud, things start to work.

IOS keyboard issues:
It seems that at some point, I wrote Cisco in all CAPS, now my autocorrect will change Cisco to CISCO which is annoying at the very least. There are other words that are also jacked up. Apple does not allow you to go into the keyboard dictionary and surgically remove words that are wrong. There suggestion is to disconnect my phone, which I configured as a NEW phone, not a restore, from iCloud Drive and delete the keyboard database. Here is the problem, if I do that, then my iPhone will not sync with iCloud Drive until they wipe that contents of my iCloud Drive (See above).
These last three issues have been escalated to the highest levels in Apple (their executive offices) and “engineers” are “working” on identifying the “fix”. These engineers are clowns and don’t know jack about jack.

I love the Apple platform though. Everyone in my house has their own MacBook Pro, Apple Watch, iPads, Apple TV, Air Pods, iCloud, Apple Music, HomePods all over my house, multiple iMacs around the offices. However much I love them, there is a lot to be desired from a support perspective. It is like if you buy a small Chevrolet and take it in for services. I would expect a water cooler, some chairs and possible a TV. However if you buy the Mercedes Benz model with all the upgrades, I expect lattés, bagels, a cubical so I can work while I wait, a loaner etc. When you drop over 11K in two years on laptops alone, not including the endless watches, iPads, pencils, Air Pod etc., that shows me that Steve Jobs is definitely not there, even in spirit. Their support has declined and the willingness to “make it right” that I loved about them is long gone.