Posted on 01/11/2017 9:47:26 AM PST by Swordmaker
Macs tend to fare second best in Consumer Reports testing, partly because the magazine lives in ignorance of the differences between Apple’s computers and Windows boxes. But they’ve always been recommended, until recently. I can quibble about the way the tests appear to emphasize features over performance, usability and reliability. In fact, I have.
But it took a poor rating by CR to trigger a dialogue that revealed a serious flaw in their testing. The tests also triggered an obscure bug in Safari for macOS Sierra that might otherwise have remained undiscovered and unfixed.
It all started when CR reported wildly divergent battery life results, ranging from 3.75 hours up to 19 hours over three tests for each product. The latter is way more than Apple’s estimates, which range up to 10 hours.
Now all three MacBook Pro models exhibited similar behavior. A clue that something might be amiss was the fact that CR uses the default browser, in this case Safari. When the tests were rerun in Google Chrome, battery life was within acceptable limits.
Now Apple usually ignores test results from the media, but not CR, which has a circulation of millions of consumers and is highly influential when readers make buying decisions. A bad rating can kill or seriously hurt sales of some products. It can also accomplish good things, such as when an auto manufacturer has to go back and modify a faulty suspension system that might cause a rollover during a rapid maneuver to avoid an accident.
This time, Apple was in the hot seat. Even though a number of owners of the new MacBook Pros have reported an assortment of battery issues, CR’s results were unique. The inconsistency didn’t make sense, and thus marketing VP Philip Schiller posted a tweet — the new normal for getting the word out nowadays — saying that the results didn’t jibe with Apple’s own field tests. Apple was working with CR to figure out just what was going on.
Now CR’s tests are intended to be consistent from notebook to notebook. It involves downloading 10 sites from the company’s in-house server until the battery is spent. So just what was going on here, and was the test deliberately designed to leave Safari — and Macs — second best?
Well, that’s debatable, but to achieve consistent results, CR turns off caching on a browser. With caching on, the theory goes that the sites would be retrieved from the local cache, which presents an anomalous situation since different computers — and operating systems — might do it differently. On the other hand, it would also be using the computer normally, not in an artificial way. CR’s excuse, by the way, is that the test sequence puts greater stress on the battery: “This allows us to collect consistent results across the testing of many laptops, and it also puts batteries through a tougher workout.”
But how can such a test possibly produce results that in any way reflect what a typical user would encounter? After all, normal users might check a site several times a day, rather than constantly bring up new uncached sites. While all notebooks are being evaluated the same way, it’s a curious choice. Unfortunately, CR would have to go back and retest hundreds of computers to switch the testing scheme.
On Safari, caching is switched off via a seldom-used menu bar command, Develop, which is available in the apps preferences under the Advanced category. Clearly this is not a feature most users will ever use — or even know about. I use it to access the “Show Page Source” command from the context menu when I’m examining a site’s coding.
Now I suppose using a non-standard test scheme of this sort shouldn’t have had a disastrous effect, but it did. It seemed that the action triggered an obscure and inconsistent bug in Safari. With caching turned off, logos would reload, thus unnecessarily taxing the battery. It’s a bug that Apple discovered and fixed in the latest beta for macOS Sierra 10.12.3. You can download it if you’re a public beta tester or developer, and it will be made available for general distribution in a few weeks.
In the meantime, CR has accepted Apple’s findings: “According to Apple, this last part of our testing is what triggered a bug in the company’s Safari browser. Indeed, when we turned the caching function back on as part of the research we did after publishing our initial findings, the three MacBooks we’d originally tested had consistently high battery life results.”
It would have been nice if they said that before the review appeared, because that clearly indicated there was some sort of software issue that might be unnecessarily impacting the tests in a way that customers wouldn’t encounter. In other words, it’s an admission the test was unfair, and that the results didn’t in any way reflect a normal use case. After all, CR is testing a notebook’s battery life, not the capabilities of the default browser to render pages without caching.
In any case, CR is retesting the MacBook Pros with the revised macOS, and it shouldn’t take more than a few days to deliver the results. Assuming battery life is normal, the rating will be changed accordingly, and the new notebooks will be added to the recommended list.
Of course, CR should have realized something was amiss as soon as the battery life normalized with caching on. They could have reached out to Apple before the results were published for clarification. As it was, CR got a boatload of publicity for its decision not to recommend the MacBook Pros. Of course, that result will soon be changed if all goes well.
Will CR learn a lesson from this debacle? Probably not. After all, few companies would dare protest a bad rating. Indeed most companies who build products that don’t past muster probably deserve it.
I want to get the new MacBook Pro, but I like to wait it out for a year to let them work out all the kinks.
Look ASSHAT, I make a very good living off of supporting Windows, Linux, and Mac PCs for multiple clients. . . with the vast majority of my income coming from Windows PC problems. I've owned a business doing that for nearly 40 years. That is not the sign of anyone who was "frightened' of something that did not exist when I was a child.
Your little ratio only reflects the fact that I maintain the Apple/Mac/IOS/IPhone/IPad Ping list of over 750 of your fellow Freepers who have, each and every one of them, ASKED me to keep them informed on those topics. Just as dayglored and ThunderSleeps maintain the Windows and Android ping lists respectively.
If you don't like Apple threads, stay the hell off of them and don't comment! It's that simple. YOU are outnumbered by the 750 Freepers who do appreciate them!
Now, I am recovering from a heart attack I had Friday and I don't need your insulting, holier-than-thou asshattery. GO AWAY!
I'm not sure. . . I got on here to enjoy some FR time and already the repeat Anti-Apple AssHats are attacking for the fortieth time like the one above, who shall go nameless. He's adding a lot to my stress levels. Thanks for your concerns. I appreciate them.
It can also accomplish good things, such as when an auto manufacturer has to go back and modify a faulty suspension system that might cause a rollover during a rapid maneuver to avoid an accident. “
Such as Piddle screaming at a driver “if you can’t roll it, I will find someone who can!” paraphrased.
CR isn’t worth the paper it is printed on or the electrons that give their lives for the digital one.
WHAT PART OF THE OPERATING SYSTEMS ARE DIFFERENT TO YOU FAIL TO GRASP? Trying to make a Mac into a Windows PC is doomed to cause problems and that is why CR always fails when doing tech comparisons by trying to make things equal. They don't know what they are doing! They are all Windows geeks!
I recall the Suzuki rollovers and the counter video of the same model going through the same course WITHOUT the outriggers CR fitted theirs with because they were afraid it would tilt, going faster without tilting at all. Their vaunted engineers didn't realize their heavy steel outriggers actually facilitated the tipping! They moved the vehicle's center of gravity!
They never asked where were all the real world tipping accidents?
My pulse rate hasn't exceeded 70 in this exchange despite have been called "asshat" (whatever that is).And yet here you are on the verge of another myocardial infarction.Perhaps you should take up yoga in addition to taking your ace inhibitor,your beta blocker and your calcium channel blocker.
Yet more proof that Apple is a religion to you while it's just a thing to most.
Just callin' 'em as I see 'em!
Welcome back Swordmaker -— I’m glad to see you have as much energy (and patience) as before. Too bad the surgeons couldn’t have also excised the bubble-headed Apple-haters who plague FR while they were fixing you.
Good to have you back!
You have no purpose on Apple threads except to spread discord and rancor and insult people who have done you no harm. Go AWAY!
Asshat: adjectivepejorative metaphoric adjective; refers to those who have their heads up their asses - metaphorically speaking; as in short sighted, dimwitted or asinine or self-absorbed persons
"That selfish asshat doesn't give a damn about anyone but himself." OnlineSlangDictionary.com
Your repeated insulting, not-on-topic invasions of Apple threads have earned you that sobriquet. You have no interest in Apple topics so just stay out, as JR has ordered instead of trying to incite flame wars!
That's because Chrome doesn't have the ability to do what Safari does at the OS level in turning off functions. It's a down and dirty browser and doesn't support what Safari does.
“...Just callin’ ‘em as I see ‘em!”
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Based upon your posts in this thread, you are a major league A-hole who enjoys trolling your fellow FReepers.
Just callin’ ‘em as I see ‘em.
Not what he is paid to do.
Good God...what's your pulse right now? 110? Mine's still 70.Get a hobby.A hobby that doesn't involve anything powered by a plug or a battery.
And I'd wager everything I own that your doctors would agree!
This reminds me of the Pentium floating point bug.
Intel didn’t want to replace the processor because the average joe would only run across it under certain conditions.
Rather than say thanks. Intel fought replacing it until the low roar became a din and they finally decided to replace it “upon request”.
Seems Apple could have just said, hey thanx! Fixed it and be on there merry way....and hire the guy who set up the test as a QA guru.
But there are still too many Mac v. PC fire breathers and it produces crap articles like these - blame the guys who find and report the bugs.
Apple HAS said thanks and is fixing this minor fur ball. It is not a major problem that effects users of the MacBook Pro who use it as it is MEANT to be used. 99.9% of users never turn on the Developer Menu in Safari and will never find the commands to turn them off.
And the fact is that CR did not find it, Apple did in trying to figure out what CR did to get such crappy results! Apple thanked them for discovering the crappy results under very unusual circumstances, but CR had not a clue about why it was doing it.
Another trolling liar in an Apple thread. You've also been told repeatedly I am not employed to do anything for or to benefit Apple. Give your LIES a rest.
You're still here? You've been told by several of your fellow Freepers that you aren't welcome here. Obviously you ARE as stupid as you look. My pulse rate, if it is any of your freaking business is 80, not bad for recovering from a MI! But your purpose here is to raise the hackles of every Apple user who wants to participate in the thread with out harassment. YOU MAKE THAT IMPOSSIBLE.. . which is obviously your intention.
No, you are a rude, obnoxious a$$hat glory hog -- who delights in crashing other folks' parties and tossing turds into their punchbowls.
I (an apple owner/user/developer since the Apple ][+) ASKED to be invited to these Apple ping-list threads -- and, I read them, every one.
Yet, you (and several other mentally disturbed [or Microsoft financed] uninvited trolls) post on these Apple threads far more than I do.
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Get psychiatric help-- you are mentally imbalanced!
Grow up, quit interrupting adults' conversations -- and save your feces for your own punchbowl!!
And that goes for several others of your ilk, here on FR -- and all of you know da*ned well who you are...
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