Appallingly 'Apple': Chinese Quality At American Price

Hantu Laut

Top brand, most innovative company, excellent marketing strategy ???

The whole world have gone technophiles with Apple products and yours truly included. I must congratulate Steve Job for doing such fine job of conning his customers with his high-end, high-tech but shitty quality products.

Why do you think apple (sorry for the lowercase) has insurance plan that can buy extended warranty beyond the normal one-year guarantee? Because they knew their products wouldn't last and with almost all components made in China you are guaranteed to get Chinese quality at American price.

Since about three years ago, I have gone completely gaga with Apple, iMac, MacBook Pro, iPad and iPod, almost the whole spectrum of Apple products, except iPhone, which I really don't need and refused to buy because I don't talk much on the phone.

The iPhone is not a work machine, other than talking,browsing and doing your email it's just a pretty show-off gadget.

I still believe it is technologically more advanced than most products of its kind but the people at Apple should seriously look into the quality and durability of their products.

It is most appalling that you woke up one fine morning, switch on your pricey computer and found out that some aliens inside the computer are doing nasty things to your machine.

Thinking, it was a temporary phenomenon I switch off the computer thinking like most computers I had before it would reboot or repair itself. To my utter shock it didn't. You can see the three coloured vertical lines on the screen.


My next big shock came when I sent my computer to an Apple's dealer to repair the machine.They call me the next day and quoted RM2300 for the repair.The machine is less than 3 years old and and it is certainly a factory defect which Apple should make good without charging its customers.

Other than the annoying colour bands all other components are functioning properly.So, I have taken back the machine and use it till I resolved the problem with Apple headquarters.

It is very disconcerting that Apple in spite of its high technological achievements couldn't be bothered with the quality of its products.It has many contract manufacturers scattered all over the world but most of its products are assembled in China.

Other than defective computers some of it's Ipod series of music players are equally bad with sound quality sounded more like cheap Chinese stereo box.

How in the world can such a famous company who claimed to be producing high-end technological products can deliver such appallingly defective and pricey products to its costumers is beyond me.

I have an 80GB iPod that sounds like a cheap AM/FM radio which I have since stopped using. I now only use my Korean made thumb size Cowon iAudio player than sounds like you are sitting in a live concert hall.

Chinese quality at American price?

That's what you get of some of Apple's products.The vertical lines phenomenon is not only peculiar to iMac but also exists in its other products.A friend had the same problem with his MacBook about a year after the purchase but he was lucky as it is still within the warranty period.

Obviously, I am not the only unhappy customers, there are thousands of them all over the Internet with varied quality problems.

I am in the midst of writing to Apple and see what they have to say about their overpriced junks.

That's America for you.

They already lost two space shuttles because of complacency and quality problem but the Russians, supposedly, with inferior technology hasn't yet lost any of its spacecraft.

So, the next time you fell in love with anything American think of the poor factory workers in China and child labour elsewhere in the world.

The American used them.Apple is or was one of them.

PKR Sdn.Bhd set to implode after allegations of fraud

Just when you thought it is safe to go into the water, an allegation of fraud has now surfaced that may cause even more embarrassment for PKR. The latest controversy involves the onetime Secretary General of the party who filed an Affidavit alleging that his signature was forged.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Read more.

Voices From Anwar's Fallen Angels

KUALA LUMPUR - The Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) central leadership polls which concluded last Sunday are just an arena to strengthen the power of party advisor Anwar Ibrahim and his cronies, said Anuar Shaari, former private secretary to the opposition leader.

He said the easy access for PKR vice-president Mohamed Azmin Ali to win the deputy president's post had been anticipated since the polls started on Oct 29.

"The overall direction of PKR has been planned by Anwar, who wants all members to obey to his wishes to see Azmin and his (Anwar's) daughter Nurul Izzah win the contest.

"From my point of view, this is what Anwar wants and he has been driving the PKR with a personal interest to prolong his political life, using the party for his sodomy case by organising demonstrations and putting pressure on the government, while having no clear direction as to where the party should go," he told Bernama Wednesday.

Anuar was commenting on the PKR top leadership polls which saw Mohamed Azmin, who is Gombak Member of Parliament, win the contest for deputy president, a post vacated by Dr Syed Husin Ali.

The mother of Nurul Izzah, who won a post of vice-president with the highest number of votes, is Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who won the president's post uncontested.

Anuar said it was not surprising that many PKR leaders quit the party after finding out that they were not fighting for the same goal with the top leadership anymore.

"We can see that those who quit the party are mostly those who could not accept the party's ideology. Only after joining the party will they realise that the party's struggle is more of a personality struggle and at the end of the day, their fight for the party would mean nothing," he said.

Commenting on Azmin's recent statement that something should be done to wipe out traitors in PKR, Anuar described it as a warning for the future challengers.

"For Azmin, traitors are those who do not obey them (Azmin and Anwar), and not the party. If the members do not support the two of them, then these members become traitors for Azmin," he said.

Anuar also described the decision by former Federal Territory PKR chairman Zaid Ibrahim to quit the party as apt.

He said he saw Zaid as an honest politician who believed in his struggle.

Meanwhile, former PKR Youth chief Senator Ezam Mohd Nor, said he left PKR in 2006 after anticipating that there would be Anwar's intervention to ensure victory of his chosen candidates.

He said PKR was no longer a party which fought for the rights of the people as was the initial objective for its establishment.

It has now become the party to fulfil personal agendas and a place to solve personal problems of a leader, Ezam said.

"The much talked about 'struggle of the people' is merely a mask. Once, I was just anticipating (that PKR is a personal party), but now, it is crystal clear, and it does not provide any opportunities for the people.

"All those things said by Datuk Zaid and others who have quit the party, about the existence of the elements of manipulation and intervention to determine the party leadership Anwar believed in, are true," he said.

Ezam said he also believed that Zaid, a former candidate for the vice-president's post and former minister in the Prime Minister's Department, was not someone who was greedy for power to the extent of quitting the party just because he did not get enough support during the party polls.

"For me, Zaid is not that kind of a person. He joins a party not because of the post or power. If we look at his history, he was once a minister, and he was not fired, but he resigned.

"Not everybody can do what he did, especially Anwar. Anwar never left a position vacant. He will stay put until he is fired (like when he was deputy prime minister)," he added. - Bernama

Sabah Dilemma, Between The Two Ibrahims

Jeffrey at political crossroads after Zaid’s exit

WED, 24 NOVE 2010 06:15

By Joe Fernandez

ANALYSIS Pakatan Rakyat co-coordinator Zaid Ibrahim’s sudden departure from PKR, under somewhat unhappy circumstances, has caught Sabah strongman Jeffrey Kitingan flat-footed but not entirely without political or other options, it seems.

Zaid, who had banked so much on Sabah and Sarawak to win the PKR deputy presidency, apparently left his allies in the party in a lurch when he quit out of the blue without breathing so much as a word to them.

His critics, and many supporters as well, explain this apparently impulsive action on his part is basically due to a fundamental “instability of character” in Zaid. The truth, as usual, may be somewhere in between.

This situation sums up Jeffrey’s current stand on whether he will continue to stay in PKR or leave the party like a close aide, Phillip Among @ Daniel Dell Fidelis, 41, did last Saturday. The reading in Kota Kinabalu is that Among, who doubles as de facto PKR chief Anwar Ibrahim’s aide as well during the latter’s Sabah visits, was trying to pressure his boss (Jeffrey) into taking a definite stand and quit the party as well. He does not seem to be succeeding so far although he remains unfazed.

“I will look at the situation again after Dec 16 when my two months leave ends,” said Jeffrey who doesn’t want to criticise Zaid.

“Zaid is someone who understood and accepted the aspirations of Sabah and Sarawak. After him, we can see no one else in PKR that we can relate to as easily,” he added.

He was speaking in Kota Kinabalu yesterday at the tail end of a press conference which was held basically to explain Sabah PKR’s stand on the Sabah budget unveiled last Friday. The local press seemed less interested in the budget than in his political future, if any, in PKR after Zaid’s exit.

Fundamental mistake

Jeffrey stressed that his politics is all about Sabah and Sarawak rights within the context of Malaysia as a federation of three territories being in partnership on the basis of equality. That’s the historical and legal basis on which there can be no concessions or retreat, he said.

He came almost close to admitting that he made a fundamental mistake in relying too much on PKR to help further his cause.

However, he said Sabah and Sarawak have had a historical window of opportunity since the 2008 general election to stand up and be counted, but this was not happening. It’s because, according to him, the people have not realised enough to bring pressure to bear on their political leaders.

He quite agreed that Sabah and Sarawak leaders have a window of opportunity to demand for a bigger oil royalty in preparation for the forthcoming general election. He said that the opportunity was always there. Not stated, but implied, was that Sabah and Sarawak leaders would not demand for a bigger oil royalty because there was no pressure on them to do so.

He made passing reference to the emergence of a third force in Malaysian politics but did not mention his own role in such a movement.

Interestingly, some of those who attended the press conference were members of a team which has been working on a third force principally focused on Sabah and Sarawak but extending across the South China Sea to include other marginalised communities.

The existence of the team only emerged when two of its members turned up at the press conference and one of them was seen with a bulky document entitled “3rd Force Model”. He took it back before this writer could have a chance to flip through it.

It appears with some degree of certainty that if not for Zaid staying in PKR, Jeffrey would have quit the party a long time ago. He would have seen no real purpose being served by him remaining with a party which is more focused on capturing Putrajaya but needs just a little help from Sabah and Sarawak.

'Faceless and nameless'

Jeffrey was willing to give a little glimpse of what the third force should look like.

“We (Sabah and Sarawak) look at it differently,” he said. “The third force would be faceless and nameless.”

He expects to hold a briefing around Dec 16 to explain the third force to the media. He may also touch on the emergence of Barisan Rakyat Sabah (BRS) comprising all local political parties in Sabah. However, the details are still to be worked out.

Jeffrey believes any party or all parties on both sides of the South China Sea can subscribe to the third force. “The people must subscribe to it (third force) and believe that it’s their cause. There will be cheer leaders, faceless and nameless, keeping the issue alive before the people for them to decide and adopt.”

This appears to rule out Jeffrey leading the third force through a new political party formed by him to the exclusion of other political parties. The question of a new political party emerging with him at the helm is itself a million-ringgit question. No one seems to know, including Jeffrey, although his supporters like Among swear that they would have to head eventually in that direction.

Among sees the cue being taken from the formation of a new political party – Parti Keadilan Baru (New Justice Party) – by Zaid. At this point, Jeffrey would have to make some sort of decision, he added. “Jeffrey will not join Zaid’s party. We have had enough of the orang Malaya (Peninsular Malaysians) dictating to us. We can co-operate but not kow-tow.”

He predicts that Zaid’s party will pursue the agenda for change and reform. His party is also expected to join either Pakatan or a new Pakatan. The new Pakatan will apparently come about if Anwar objects to Zaid’s party being in Pakatan and at this point in time, Among surmises, both DAP and PAS will abandon PKR since it will be left with only the original agenda of “freeing Anwar”.

Both DAP and PAS, said Among, cannot ignore Zaid’s new party which is expected to attract MPs who left PKR and up to a further 10 MPs who are against Azmin Ali being deputy president. These 10 MPs don’t expect to be fielded at the next general election and see Zaid’s new party as their golden parachute to ensure their continued political survival.