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Apple: Please Design Better Serial Numbers
- arb99 14y agoSo an employee made a mistake? that doesn't happen anywhere else.
- jevinskie 14y agoBut if Apple is as innovative as they say they are, why don't they implement better serial numbers like the article suggests? I agree, the numbers can be hard to read, especially given their tiny size.
- pja 14y agoThe obvious thing to do would be to encode the serial number in a 2D barcode & have the Apple store employee scan it from the device.
- Hansi 14y agoOlder laptops used to have this, was under the removable battery, which is now defunct. I'm sure it's most likely somewhere on the motherboard now.
- pooriaazimi 14y agoYou can be great at some things, and suck at others. Just because they screwed this one doesn't mean they're not (or can't be) innovative at other things. And just because they claim they're the most innovative company in the world does not mean that they are.
- jevinskie 14y agoA checksum could always be added like a ISBN. Though you would still enter an incorrect serial number, you would know that it was incorrect.
- polyfractal 14y agoMountains out of molehills? Why is this newsworthy? And I say this as someone that doesn't even particularly like Apple or Apple products. It's a serial number, and an employee made a mistake. End of story.
- mikeash 14y agoIt's not presented as "newsworthy", so why ask that question? It's a mild musing on a subtle design defect in Apple products, which is interesting for a company that prides itself on getting little details right. It's also interesting from a wider perspective, because the problem of making alphanumeric strings that can be entered by hand is pretty common, and there are some easy steps you can take to make the process easier that few people actually take.
- polyfractal 14y agoI have no problem with people posing idle thoughts on their blog. But this is Hacker News ... and this was not news, nor was it particularly interesting.
- mikeash 14y agoHalf the stuff on the front page at any given moment is not "news".
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- mhb 14y agoSince they can't change the existing serial numbers, why don't they have autocomplete software suggest the possible alternatives to an incorrect one based on the likely character mistakes?
- najhr999 14y agoWhy not just include it as a QR or Bar Code, then scan when you arrive?
- jsmcallister 14y agoMaybe the employee needs to have his eyes checked. I have no problem reading my serial numbers and I have a 5 and an S.
- emehrkay 14y agoHere is a fix for computers that can turn on: > About This Mac > More Info > Highlight serial > Copy (command + c or edit > copy> > Paste (command + v or edit > paste> into form field
- hfs 14y agoDon't the serial numbers have bar codes under them? Would a bar code scanner not solve this problem?
- scottoreilly 14y agoKeep in mind that this was the second time an Apple employee screwed up a serial number in a year. Obviously something is wrong with the system.