MacBook Air owners get laid

And they don't like it

By Rik Myslewski in San Francisco • Get more from this author

6th December 2008 01:01 GMT

Mac-centric web forums are abuzz with complaints about MacBook Air display problems. It would seem they're getting laid.

In paper-making parlance, "laid" refers to paper with thin, tightly spaced horizontal lines. Some unlucky Apple MacBook Air owners claim that noticeable horizontal - or nearly horizontal - grey lines are turning up on the displays of their precious-but-pricey lightweight laptops.

According to posts on the Apple Discussions forum, MacRumors, and eWeek's Apple Watch - and well-illustrated in a click-to-enlarge screenshot on TidBits - the offending lines may be subtle but they're inarguably annoying.

The lines, according to posters, are either there or they're not, and they appear as soon as you first fire up your new MacBook Air. They don't develop over time. On the bright side, a number of posters have reported that they've received no-argument replacements from their local Apple stores. On the less-bright side, our email and phone inquiries to Apple about the problem have gone unanswered, as have those of multiple posters.

And so the laid-paper display now joins the missing four-finger swipe reported on non-US units and occasional trackpad malfunctions among reported MacBook Air maladies. Perhaps the old adage of "Never buy version 1.0 of anything" may be holding true yet again. ®