I don't understand why people are so upset about this... it sounds like a special kind of glass that obviously doesn't play well with coarser materials. It's the same reason you get a microfiber cloth with your glasses
But you can get 100s of microfiber cloths from various places. The idea that only Apple is capable of making this special cloth for cleaning their display feels a little silly.
It's not a big story, but it's not quite insignificant.
Do you read the manual when you buy a monitor?
They're all pretty much the same and work out of the box, especially an Apple monitor. I can see a lot of people just setting up the monitor and tossing the manual. When they see the cloth, all they think is "cool, free cloth".
Also, you have to educate anyone who would think to clean or touch the monitor screen in your absence, like cleaning staff, significant others, your kids, visiting relatives, or whatnot.
I'm of the view is that if it's an Apple monitor, there's probably nothing you need to do to it other than plug it in and power it on. The color calibration out of the box will probably be near perfect, and all the controls will make perfect sense (which can't be said of all monitor makers).
Unless there's a huge warning sticker on the plastic that usually comes over the screen, I wouldn't even think that there was special care required.
Of course, that's assuming I'm setting up the monitor myself. In an office environment, it might not be set up by the actual user, and the user might not be given the manual or know about any special care requirements.
Sounds like a you problem. If anyone is spending thousands of dollars on a single item and doesn't take the time to review the usage manual that's their own problem.
The only reason why this special cloth even made the headlines and why it's a hot topic for discussion is because it is considered an outlier from a care perspective.
This isn't a regular display. It's a super-expensive professional instrument. The only people buying this are going to be photo editors, Hollywood people, graphic artists, etc.
All that effort by Apple to design a such beautiful monitor only to have a crudely taped message on it seems... wrong.
To me, it makes more sense to include or offer a dust cover (presumably lined with the same material as the special cloth) to put on it when it's not in use.
I see a market opportunity for monitor-sized screen protectors coming up. Actually, for our TV at home, I had to cut and frame a piece of plexiglass to protect the TV from the grandkid.
In a twisted way, the headline is also performing a public service.
I can tell you that if I bought one of these monitors, I wouldn't have read the manual, and I would have thought of the free cloth as one of those "nice little touches" that always comes with buying an Apple product.
If I was buying the monitor after seeing the headline, I would probably try to find a safe dust cover to put over the monitor when not in use to help prevent avoidable mishaps from someone being a little too enthusiastic about cleaning my work area.
Probably not an issue in most situations, but if you're unlucky to have these monitors in a space where custodial staff who didn't get the memo might take it upon themselves to wipe some dust off a screen, or several screens... yikes.
Related to my other comment--I have a nano ceramic coating on my car, and when I take it for service, I have a little sign I hang from the mirror that basically says "Don't wash vehicle without permission."
Just set a screen saver that says "Don't touch me"
You're assuming anyone cleaning an office can read English, so you'd probably have to have that message in multiple languages and trust that Google Translate did a good job.
Besides, who actually uses screen savers these days? Don't most people turn off their monitors or put them in energy saving mode at the end of the day?
No, it's relatively common and applied on the outside - it just protects the paints from dirt, literally makes everything slide off for few months after application.
what's the purpose of a fancy coating if it makes the surface less durable such that it now requires special techniques just to clean it? Serious question.
Every time a new Mac Pro or related product is released, we see the same "a fully loaded Mac Pro costs $____!!!" and similar headlines.
I know there's no easy alternative to ad-based revenue models for news, but it's led to such lazy and low quality "reporting" that is so obviously focused on getting clicks above anything else.
Intel's high-end platforms (motherboard, processors) are bad investments if you don't have hardware to make use of them. This is not new.
So while I think it's fair to question why the base model Mac Pro exists, I understand the price given the (specific) hardware it contains. You're paying an Apple Tax on top, of course, but if you don't think macOS adds additional value you should be looking elsewhere.
I really think most of the people complaining about the Mac Pro's price want it to be something it's not. I understand the desire for a consumer-level, upgradable Mac desktop, but that's not what Apple set out to create with the Mac Pro.
Unless you are talking about the previous Mac Pro (which I don't know about) the base model for the new Mac Pro starts at 32GB of ram, you can't even spec it to 8.
The Dell Precision 7920 I am wasting my company time on right now was more than $10k. Most PcMaStErRaCeRs would comment that they could throw together some aliexpress parts and "beat" it but my workflow won't... flow with less than 768GB of RAM and I can't guarantee (within comfortable margins) that my output is correct unless it is run on a Quadro RTX-- with 32GB of memory.
But yeah, a pee-cee can get more eff-pee-esses in Doom.
A firm that is processing several million dollars worth of data on a workstation doesn't really care, within reason, about the price of the workstation.
The cost of catering for some of the projects that these workstations will be working on will vastly exceed the price of the workstations, and you poop out the catering at the end of the day while the workstations keep on workstationing.
And if my Dell breaks? A guy will drive for over an hour to where I'm sitting and put a brand new one on my desk before the end of the business day, and he'll swap out the drives. Try that with stuff from pcpartpicker.
I don't know what applecare does for the Mac Pro, but if they start carrying them in stores I'm willing to bet you'll be able to walk in with a broken one and walk out with a fixed one.
For the record, I actually don't think this is crazy and I think it's good/sensible that they're trying to give people guidance on how to clean their expensive screens.
Off-topic: am I alright using a screen cleaner like Woosh! on the MacBook Pro or should I go totally dry?
Yes, it's a safe bet we're talking about rubbing (wood) alcohol here, not grain (e.g. booze) to clean fingerprints and miscellaneous cooties off the screens. A single-malt is only effective for scrubbing off residue from social interactions.
Probably looses wireless coverage if you don't hold it in a special way. Another example of "overdesigned and underengineered" when professional equipment can't be cleaned without some super duper fancy cloth.
Which is not going to be the case. The people doing the cleaning are not specialized in displays and the "professionals" doing the work are not the ones doing the cleaning.
So they should be told not to touch those displays, or if they do then their company will be charged for replacement. We have cleaners and they know not to touch any audio or artist equipment, how is this different?
It's different because it's Apple, and HN tends to want to find any reason to hate on them regardless of sensibilities. There's a lot of equipment that can be damaged if cleaned in an improper way, and it's definitely not far fetched to ask cleaning companies to not clean specific things..
It is different in that screens are common and are commonly cleaned. In particular, as long as you use just water and a microfiber cloth you are fine -- except for this case.
You're arguing that cleaning staff are so wholly incompetent that they can't follow basic rules like "don't touch the monitors"? That's obviously not reality. Even at my small software company, the cleaning staff don't touch any of the electronics. If a computer is shelling out $5k/display they're going to cover this with the cleaning staff.
Anecdote: Our state capitol dome was being renovated. Involved slowly sanding off 150 years of accumulated lead paint with respirators. Tedious, hot, cramped work.
They were told under no circumstances to use a torch (the usual way of removing layers of heavy paint) to melt the accumulation off. Because of very dry wood etc, it was a fire hazard.
During lunch break, one new guy thought that was silly, got a torch, went back up to try it and prove to everybody it was really the best way.
Of course, the wood heated up, the shredded-cellulite insulation inside the wall caught fire.
We lost the entire capitol dome to the resulting conflagration. (The well-meaning worker survived).
So, even intelligent creative people (especially so maybe) can do dumb things. Because they think they know better.
Presumably, Apple didn't use this fragile coating just for the heck of it. They chose this coating because it was the only way to make this monitor to perform in the way they wanted. Should Apple have just made a worse monitor because the coating is fragile?
(BTW, we don't know what will actually happen if the screen is cleaned improperly. The monitor won't necessarily become an instant piece of junk.)
I would call a fragile piece of office equipment, disguised as an ordinary similar thing (looks much like a regular monitor) an "attractive nuisance". Unless I could secure such special monitors, I wouldn't even put one out in the general population.
I am arguing that "do clean all the monitors except the ones with the Apple logo" reflects badly on Apple.
Of course you can work around that problem, but that does not mean it is not a problem.
my only concern, I am not in the target market for such a display nor am I interested in one even if I could justify the expense, is that if this display is so sensitive to the cleaning method then how is it not sensitive to the environment it is in. surely any cleaning cloth will cause abrasion just from what freely floated and adhered the screen. the cleaning instructions for the cloth pretty much put me in the camp of this isn't all that special of a cloth if I can use dish soap on it; those are certainly all not created equal let alone with the same additives.
It does appear that one of Apple's strategies to maintain a high margins is to soak those who are willing and able to pay a premium. I just read an article in gizmodo where the author was complaining that Apple was charging $100 per wheel on a mobile stand instead of static feet. I'm guessing Apple will continue to charge ridiculous margins until it isn't profitable.
Is is a monitor, albeit an expensive one with an apple on the back. So-called 'professional' displays have been used for a long time for e.g. digital medical imaging, they get cleaned every day using normal monitor cleaning procedures. If brands like Eizo can produce monitors which can cope with being cleaned with normal monitor swipes while maintaining their suitability for medical imaging while this monitor can not cope with such it can not be said be suitable for professional use.
67 comments
[ 6.0 ms ] story [ 118 ms ] threadDo you read the manual when you buy a monitor?
They're all pretty much the same and work out of the box, especially an Apple monitor. I can see a lot of people just setting up the monitor and tossing the manual. When they see the cloth, all they think is "cool, free cloth".
Also, you have to educate anyone who would think to clean or touch the monitor screen in your absence, like cleaning staff, significant others, your kids, visiting relatives, or whatnot.
Unless there's a huge warning sticker on the plastic that usually comes over the screen, I wouldn't even think that there was special care required.
Of course, that's assuming I'm setting up the monitor myself. In an office environment, it might not be set up by the actual user, and the user might not be given the manual or know about any special care requirements.
The only reason why this special cloth even made the headlines and why it's a hot topic for discussion is because it is considered an outlier from a care perspective.
Because in an office all it takes is one cleaner or coworker to not know to leave that display alone and they could damage your expensive display.
This isn't a regular display. It's a super-expensive professional instrument. The only people buying this are going to be photo editors, Hollywood people, graphic artists, etc.
To me, it makes more sense to include or offer a dust cover (presumably lined with the same material as the special cloth) to put on it when it's not in use.
I can tell you that if I bought one of these monitors, I wouldn't have read the manual, and I would have thought of the free cloth as one of those "nice little touches" that always comes with buying an Apple product.
If I was buying the monitor after seeing the headline, I would probably try to find a safe dust cover to put over the monitor when not in use to help prevent avoidable mishaps from someone being a little too enthusiastic about cleaning my work area.
Just set a screen saver that says "Don't touch me"
Besides, who actually uses screen savers these days? Don't most people turn off their monitors or put them in energy saving mode at the end of the day?
They typically empty out wastebins and attend to the bathrooms.
Makes it easier to clean and protects the paint
I know there's no easy alternative to ad-based revenue models for news, but it's led to such lazy and low quality "reporting" that is so obviously focused on getting clicks above anything else.
So while I think it's fair to question why the base model Mac Pro exists, I understand the price given the (specific) hardware it contains. You're paying an Apple Tax on top, of course, but if you don't think macOS adds additional value you should be looking elsewhere.
I really think most of the people complaining about the Mac Pro's price want it to be something it's not. I understand the desire for a consumer-level, upgradable Mac desktop, but that's not what Apple set out to create with the Mac Pro.
You have to compare apples-to-workstations.
The Dell Precision 7920 I am wasting my company time on right now was more than $10k. Most PcMaStErRaCeRs would comment that they could throw together some aliexpress parts and "beat" it but my workflow won't... flow with less than 768GB of RAM and I can't guarantee (within comfortable margins) that my output is correct unless it is run on a Quadro RTX-- with 32GB of memory.
But yeah, a pee-cee can get more eff-pee-esses in Doom.
A firm that is processing several million dollars worth of data on a workstation doesn't really care, within reason, about the price of the workstation.
The cost of catering for some of the projects that these workstations will be working on will vastly exceed the price of the workstations, and you poop out the catering at the end of the day while the workstations keep on workstationing.
And if my Dell breaks? A guy will drive for over an hour to where I'm sitting and put a brand new one on my desk before the end of the business day, and he'll swap out the drives. Try that with stuff from pcpartpicker.
I don't know what applecare does for the Mac Pro, but if they start carrying them in stores I'm willing to bet you'll be able to walk in with a broken one and walk out with a fixed one.
Totally understand the need to take special precautions.
Off-topic: am I alright using a screen cleaner like Woosh! on the MacBook Pro or should I go totally dry?
Does it scratch when touched?
Is it a little bit durable?
"Pro" classed gear usually is more durable than consumer grade products.
Anecdote: Our state capitol dome was being renovated. Involved slowly sanding off 150 years of accumulated lead paint with respirators. Tedious, hot, cramped work.
They were told under no circumstances to use a torch (the usual way of removing layers of heavy paint) to melt the accumulation off. Because of very dry wood etc, it was a fire hazard.
During lunch break, one new guy thought that was silly, got a torch, went back up to try it and prove to everybody it was really the best way.
Of course, the wood heated up, the shredded-cellulite insulation inside the wall caught fire.
We lost the entire capitol dome to the resulting conflagration. (The well-meaning worker survived).
So, even intelligent creative people (especially so maybe) can do dumb things. Because they think they know better.
Presumably, Apple didn't use this fragile coating just for the heck of it. They chose this coating because it was the only way to make this monitor to perform in the way they wanted. Should Apple have just made a worse monitor because the coating is fragile?
(BTW, we don't know what will actually happen if the screen is cleaned improperly. The monitor won't necessarily become an instant piece of junk.)
It's (probably) just Apple trying to sell fantastically overpriced cleaning cloths.