mtnMan —
Thanks for the update,
and glad to hear that the Apple Keyboard Update 1.0 (for Intel-Based Macs) is providing improved performance for your Apple Wireless keyboard / Mac Mini (Core Duo).
Anthony —
Please accept a warm welcome — or is it welcome back? — to Apple Discussions. Sorry to hear that you're feeling so frustrated...
You may misperceive a couple of things about Apple Discussions. Please note that this is intended fyi, and not critically in any way.
(1) These are user-to-user forums, where we help each other with technical issues. "Rants" are neither appropriate nor effective — the latter because this is not a mechanism for providing feedback to Apple. The Moderators/Hosts of Discussions are swamped trying to keep things running smoothly, and although Apple folks may read individual threads now and then, seeking feedback here isn't their focus.
There are a number of feedback mechanisms available to you. Since this is a question that arises every so often, I'll copy my "canned response" as a footnote, in case you're interested in sending constructive feedback to Apple.
(2) Your statement that
"Just like everyone else has reported, I can't use my keyboard from more than 3 feet away, and my mouse acts like it's skating on ice."
isn't accurate. Not everyone has experienced problems with their Intel-based (or PPC) Macs and Bluetooth-enabled device(s) — and not all of the cases where users
have experienced difficulties match what you've described. Furthermore, as with all user forums, trying to make informed judgments based on folks' threads seeking help with problems simply lacks perspective. What would you think if the CDC tried to determine the existence and scope of an epidemic from a brief visit to a single emergency room?
By all means, there are real and frustrating problems — but there are many others who
don't have a problem, and have no reason to post here to say so.
If you'd like help resolving a problem, great — please initiate a thread about it, and participants will try to help. If not, please consider driving that mile, or utilizing one of the feedback mechanisms listed below.
Thanks for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Dean
If you want to "send" feedback to Apple, here are some good mechanisms for reporting "bugs," providing miscellaneous feedback, &/or seeking solutions to seemingly Sisyphian Mac conundrums.
(a) Contact Apple directly. If you have a new Mac or an active AppleCare Protection Plan (APP), calling, e.g., AppleCare Technical Support can be very helpful. This service is free during the first 90 days after purchasing a Mac; after that, a fee applies — except that an APP extends the free service for 3 years. If the problem isn't solved during the conversation, you'll be given a case number for use at an Apple-Authorized Service Provider (AASP — limited to authorized hardware problems) or for future reference. If the problem persists, your subsequent call(s) may be forwarded to higher-level support folks. AppleCare Tech. Support is also one means that helps Apple to recognize widespread problems and focus their engineers on finding solutions.
Your post indicates that you've done this — but not whether it was helpful. (Or perhaps the *s are an expression of this.) If none of the levels of AppleCare technical support have been helpful, I hope that word filtered up to Apple software engineers, who are probably working on solutions. Imo, the keyboard firmware update that mtnMan posted about is a case in point.
Different parts of Apple's website provide issue-specific feedback options, including:
(b) Mac OS X Feedback
(c) Product Feedback
(d) AppleCare / KnowledgeBase Feedback includes several categories — suggested KnowledgeBase improvements, broken links, and software download difficulties — and there are also feedback links from most individual KnowledgeBase Articles
(e) BugReporter (requires free ADC membership).
Apple provides FAQs and a "Bug-Reporting Guide" for using the latter. Simon Tatham's How to Report Bugs Effectively is also an excellent resource.
