Just take a good look at featured images. I took them this morning. These smudges are literally growing from the bottom edges. I don’t smoke, —it’s an apartment complex filled with smoke alarm— I didn’t burn my iMac either.

Those smudges, or smoke as Apple prefer to call them, are behind the screen. I’m not sure what is it exactly causing it. There are different theories, faulty LCD, faulty LED, simple smudge behind the glass, and etc. It’s because Aluminum iMac’s “smoke” issue was known for while. I remember it, because Korean media was hitting hard on it, calling out patriotism every darn day.

I called Apple Customer Support soon after I took the photo, told them what was going on. This guy, amused to hear “something got in between the glass and LCD,” was saying this is so unusual. Okay, I googled iMac smudge behind glass, I got at least 100 articles on official Apple support communities starting since 2010. Most of them were simply ranting, why does this need a warranty to fix it. Not exactly the field I’m interested.

27 inch iMac is almost impossible to bring it to an Apple Store for repair unless you own a car.

I don’t drive, because I can’t. I do have a license, but I can’t. Hope that does the metaphor. 27 inch iMac is literally impossible to bring it over to Apple Store without a ride. Even if I had a car, walking through crowds (either a mall or a street) with a box, size of radiator (and heavier), is a bit of trouble. Let’s face it. Unless Apple is seriously considering having it fixed it in couple of hours, I’m not interested in calling a cap 4 times just to get my workstation fixed and skip the work for a full week.

So I was really hoping for them to send a technician or a replacement, at least so that I could have a working computer during they are repairing it. Only thing he said was, “please don’t open it, because that would void the warranty” and “it would be best to take it to nearby Apple Store and have a technician look at it.” Yeah, sounds like a real pro, except it doesn’t work for me. I just hung up at that point.

It’s perhaps beyond ironic that a desktop can be more faulty than a laptop, or even an iPhone or iPad. If it had been a laptop, it would have been a small envelope to deliver, and a small envelope for pick up. All I’m left with is, a huge computer that’s going to be very tricky to even take it to an Apple Store. Here’s the problem for everyone to consider: what would you do?