Last week, it was reported that a growing number of owners of Apple's new MacBook Air were experiencing Wi-Fi issues, with users reporting problems such as dropped connections that require a restart in order to reconnect. It was reported earlier this week that Apple has been replacing affected machines and collecting the defective units in order to examine them as part of the company's investigation into the issue.
As noted by AppleInsider, Apple is now sending out invitations to certain MacBook Air owners asking if they wish to participate in the company's AppleSeed customer software seeding program for the purposes of testing a new "MacBook Air WiFi Update 1.0". While Apple does not specify in its invitation exactly what problem the software update is designed to address, it presumably focuses on the connection issues being reported by users.
You have been selected to join our AppleSeed program. If you accept, we will provide you with a pre-release version of the MacBookAir WiFi Update 1.0 to install and use.
While trying out MacBookAir WiFi Update 1.0, we ask that you provide us with your feedback. Our program includes a bug reporting system for our participants. If you wish to be a seed volunteer and help Apple release high-quality software, follow the instructions below.
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Beyond the connection issues, Apple's OS X 10.8.4 public release and OS X Mavericks beta also appear to have a software issue that prevents machines supporting the new 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard from taking advantage of the faster speeds for file transfers. It is, however, unclear whether Apple will address this issue for current MacBook Air owners through this software update in testing or through a separate update such as the upcoming OS X 10.8.5 update.
Top Rated Comments
(View all)Here it comes...
What's coming?
Unbelievable. :(
What's unbelievable?
Really, these posts are useless. If you have a viewpoint, express it for goodness sake.
Use a cable.
I'm sorry, are you seriously suggesting not using WiFi, a major function in today's computing needs, and using a cable for a direct connection on a ~$1500+ iMac (which requires a USB - Ethernet adapter for the MacBook Air)? Let's just move all our systems next to our routers and connect them directly, cause "it just works". I thought I had seen it all on here.Problem solved.
You're welcome.
Use a cable.
Maybe Apple should release a new version called the 'MacBook Tethered' if they're not able to make a reliable 'Air', then?
They offered me a similar option when I reported WiFi drops during 10.7. I got a call from them. I had filled out a bug report on the matter. They essentially wanted me to brick my machine for their own purposes. Since like most people I need my computer for work amongst other things, I declined. For the time being I wired it to my modem and discontinued use of WiFi. The guy was a little annoyed and I ended the conversation with "You have developers, engineers and iMacs of your own."
Personally I feel that inviting the end level consumer to take part in these tests only allows for more bugs to be reported to the end level consumer (Such as MacRumors.com patrons) and make Apple look bad. Truth of course is bugs happen. Hardware issues happen. Most people I don't think know that. But then again most people who read about it here probably do know that.
But then again Apple has....had quite a lot of bugs in the last 24 months. I'm still confused as to why no one at Apple is addressing why Spotlight constantly indexes hard drives. I've reinstalled several times throughout the year and each time it's still there.
From what I have been hearing this issue with the 2013 MacBook Airs might be hardware based. Which is disappointing since I was planning on buying one in the fall. Now I won't.
So you're both:
(a) pissed off that Apple won't fix hard-to-reproduce bugs. (I, for example, have multiple Macs and have no idea what you're talking about with this Spotlight re-indexing bug) AND
(b) pissed off when Apple actually DID try to fix these bugs by contacting you?
All right then...