OSNews

It’s not like the Apple pro community thinks Apple is great at pro stuff these days either.

I'll stick to questions for now.

Why is the EU to blame for Apple being unable to comply with EU regulations which were announced 4 years ago?

Is Apple the only company unable to comply with these regulations?

Why is the government over here anti-tech?

[EDIT] You go to use that gif. Congratulations Thom.

Edited 2013-01-31 19:37 UTC

My apologies. Turns out Apple is intending to comply before the end of the year.

http://www.cultofmac.com/213628/apple-forced-to-stop-selling-mac-pr...

This means that, yes, they are just lagging behind in compliance.

That leaves the question related to the 'government over here' being anti-tech. Care to elaborate on that?

I believe the medical term for your condition is "ignorant American."

Willfully ignorant, perhaps, but ignorant nonetheless.

U.S companies seem to think that the world is their backyard and they have the right to dump their unsafe shit that doesn't pass U.S regulations everywhere else.

It is EU regulations, not US ones in question. Not sure if you miss typed that or not, because we do push other crap like GMO food that is not up to EU safety standards. In the case of these computers though, I think the EU may be over nerfing.

Once you get past the power supply everything is a safe 12 volts. What exactly is the EU trying to protect you from on the ports? What exactly is the nature of the change needed for the ports to meet EU standards?

I had a G5 (so I don't know how different the airflow is on the intel Mac Pros, but I thought it was similar) and I did not think the fans were a safety issue on that model. By the book you were not supposed to have it powered up with the access panel off and I believe they had a sensor to stop the fans when the inner airflow panel was open.

It makes me wonder what the underside of a EU approved lawnmower looks like if they are putting guards on parts that are already covered by access panels. It seems like the EU would want to protect the people who disregard the manual and try to change blades with it running.

It does go both ways though....
Suzuki recently pulled out of the US auto-market citing that it is to costly to meet us safety/emissions standards as one of the reason for leaving. I was kind of surprised with that, because I really like my Kizashi and though they had something that blended the style and quality of a VW fused with a Honda and then combined it with the all wheel drive of a Subaru.

Edited 2013-02-01 17:32 UTC

I haven't read the standard (IEC 60950-1) but citing other sources:

"At issue are the large fans within the Mac Pro. Since they are unprotected, it would be possible to touch the fan blades," MacWorld reports Apple as saying.


Is it true you can touch fan blades? That does look like a major oversight. Even if this wasn't in the standard any quality equipment should come with a fan hidden behind a guard - no excuse for Apple. True, I wouldn't put my fingers in the fan, but a toddler could very much try it.

"According to Apple, the new requirements necessitate fan guards and some increased protection on the ports on the electrical system."

Not sure about Apple but some time ago I tried to get Sony to fix an electrical leak from the power supply to the metal casing of the laptop (which was noticeable at 110V~ and rather unpleasant at 240V~). Their response was that this amount of leakage is normal and meets all legal requirements. So, I am not going to complain that EU is making regulations tougher.

I'm pretty sure you're not an electrical engineer, let alone read the regulation.

I was speaking more generally rather than about this particular case (which is obviously about E.U regulations).

I hear only about fines given out to tech companies, therefore only tech companies get fined.

Your complaint was "They fine only the tech companies!". So, yeah... that they fine everyone is a reasonable response.

It's called regulations and they are needed because it is painfully obvious at this point in time that the "free market" is unable to regulate itself in a satisfactory way.

It really is astonishing that there are still people in this world - in the US, no less! - who believe regulation to be a bad thing. It's as though caution and the idea of learning from one's mistakes are things to be crushed wherever they're encountered.

We are utterly doomed as a species.

There's some truth in what you say. Many times innovation and the launch of new products to the market are slowed down because of unnecessary regulations. I mean in the EU some things that are not required at all by US and Japan regulations are mandatory.. and the US and Japan regulations are considered to be of a high standard, but hey, more business for European certification authorities!

This is especially bad for small companies which are trying to enter the market; more regulations != better results, but in Europe regulations = good, regardless if they are useless or not. No problem for the big guys, a royal PITA for the small guy who is just trying to make a living with his company, and who has to bear huge costs just to bring a product to the market.

It is sad to see you voted down to -11. I voted you up.

The classic example are cars. In Europe they are over-regulated to the point that you cannot do any meaningful modification to the vehicle, as if the state built the car and gave you it as a gift (yeah.. really?). In the US and in Australia, regulations are very permissive when it comes to tuning and modifications, yet I don't see cars burning down.

Such a shame that people don't think before voting down.

I agree. Look at this;

Consider how many people have seriously harmed themselves on computer fans in the past decade. Consider whether the sum total of those people, if greater than nil, wouldn't also be the sort of people who could accidentally decapitate themselves with a walnut, and possibly have in the intervening years. Now consider the amount of money the EU has spent on paying salaries, expenses, test equipment and long lunches in order to come up with this particular jewel and ones like it.

Please cite some examples of these regulations of which you speak.

I'm not aware of any useless restrictions on vehicle modification, it's a fairly big industry in the UK. Only restriction I can think of are higher premiums from insurance companies who (probably rightly) assume you're going to drive like an idiot with performance upgrades on a small hatchback.

Sure... One might say that food industry regulations are not required, because if you get sick when eating at a restaurant you can just "vote with your feet".(You shouldn't care that you can actually die if poisoned)



Yes, the classic example will be you driving in front of me while I'm on a bicycle and spewing a mixture of exhaust and uncumbusted gasoline, just because you made some modifications. There are requirements for CO2 emissions that you have to pass, and if you don't pass it with your modifications then tough luck. The environment is not your private property.


Yet some people see the ignorance in his post. The regulation is very old now and has a lot of small adjustments for new equipment for safety and efficiency.

You are just agreeing because you dislike some regulations.

I've voted you up on the basis that you made a good point about regulations inhibiting entrepreneurship, so there was something factual in your comment. But, frankly speaking, the rest of it was incorrect, hateful and generally rubbish. Somehow it doesn't stop you from calling others (Europeans) "nationalists" just because they didn't like your rant. Go back to AOL or wherever you came from.

Reduced entrepreneurship may be the cause of regulations that protect the general public, but we're OK with that. Anyone saying that they're over the line, has really not worked in a regulated field.

Are there overbearing regulations? - Yes.
Are there a lot of overbearing regulations? - Not by a long shot.
What are the reasons for reduced entrepreneurship in EU? - Strong employee protections, not regulations.

No, not really.

I really hope you're right.

Is that even possible?

Ungrounded transmitter -> UPS -> 2A USB charger -> Nexus One -> headphones -> ear.

Also made my phone crash.

Admittedly, it was stupid of me to operate the TX without grounding it properly. I was in an apartment at the time with no access to a ground rod, and no proper house grounding. I had run an antenna radial into the apartment which probably induced the current as well. Granted, it was a portable transmitter, so it could operate without a ground if necessary. My current set-up is a lot safer. Thank the Universe I was running QRP at 5 watts instead of a QRO or 100 or I would have needed a run to the hospital.

I'm glad you're okay, but I don't understand what you were doing. What kind of a transmitter were you using? What was the purpose of hooking it up?

Like a am/fm radio transmitter or an wifi transmitter? Ham radio maybe? What was the relationship between that and the nexus? They just happened to plugged in the same UPS?

It was a Yaesu FT817ND transceiver. I was working the 14Mhz Ham Radio band at the time. One of the radials was only a few feet behind me, running basically parallel with the USB/headphone cable combination.

I voted funny because this is utterly retarded.

I think its fair to suggest that your operating methods were more of a health hazard than the industrial regulation in that instance.

No argument there. It's what I had at the time, and years ago. I learned a lot from that experience, despite the training I had already received to pass three separate license tests. RF can be a tricky thing.

This is also why I'm all for a little more safety in consumer equipment. You don't need a license to own and operate a Mac Pro. Dust is a bigger factor in computers than any transceiver I've cracked open. Children are a lot more likely to be around a running tower computer unattended, which is an X factor in a variety of ways. Although in this instance I'm thinking of tiny fingers exploring fan grilles. Yes, probably only a minor cut and a crying fit, but if a little change in the design can make that a little less likely, why not?

Because those little changes in design cost companies money which costs customers money. And because those little changes cost regulators money which costs taxpayers money. And because getting a minor cut and crying fit after sticking your fingers into a whirring, bleeping slab of machinery is a valuable life lesson that its not worth spending money on eradicating.

Despite that, I wouldn't argue against safety regulation en masse. Just lots of individual examples of it.

Just returning to their former self, before Jobs returned.

Nah, actually Jobs himself said in an interview something along the lines of "enterprise customers don't know what they want" which translated means "enterprise customers have specific needs that we can't fill with our current and future crap. ah well, there are still the home dudes that buy it like crazy. screw enterprise".

So they first slashed their server line and now the Mac Pro line. Not a big deal IMO.

Well he also said that about customers in general.

It's highly debatable. I can't work on tablets [and - god forbid - on not-so-smart-phones]. These are just toys, they never made my job done. They lack almost everything, starting from keyboard and ending on processing power. It's not about being luddite, it's rather about being serious Joe, who needs to do his job. Period. Entertainment in free time? cool. Bring me more tablets.

I won't even talk about security and privacy issuess. More apps - less transparency. That's what I observe.

Woosh!

Gotta feel for the Music guys, Apple buy Emagic/Logic and stop releasing a Windows version. Fast forward a few years and your options are even more limited with hardware...