By now, we're all painfully familiar with my repeated, personal problems with new, yellow-tinged iMacs—but luckily, our readers have taken the cause beyond one man's whining. Today is the first of (hopefully not too many) weekly iMac updates.

Can You Safely Purchase an iMac Yet?

In a word, nope.

We've received at least 15 tips to our submissionsATgizmodo.com line, all users who've received yellow-tinged iMacs since January 1st and documented the problem with photos. (And I've received twice that many personally from irate customers with whom I'm extremely sympathetic.)

It seems that, despite the extremely well-documented problem(s), Apple refuses to do the right thing and simply stop shipping these faulty iMacs out. Last I checked, the public's view of the iMac's "ultimate display" was not one with pee-like stains at the bottom. Then again, I haven't run a focus group on the matter.

And you should note, yellow screens are just one element of production problems. According to readers, firmware updates have not completely fixed other screen problems, like black outs or flickering.

Replace or Repair or Return?

I have yet to hear from someone who has successfully replaced a yellow iMac with one that's perfectly functional. That's a bad, bad, bad sign for Apple's current yield. (Hopefully, a few of you will keep attempting, so we can see if Apple gets their act together.) However, it seems that Apple has been pushing more users toward repairing their systems rather than getting them replaced. I didn't settle for getting a new product (that should be in mint condition) repaired, and imho, neither should you—in which case, some of you will be stuck only with the option to return.

As for My iMac

After being refused a replacement, my iMac stopped booting altogether. It just went dead. Unsure that I could get the inevitable next (broken) version replaced, I simply returned it.

Where Do We Go From Here?

As long as you keep demanding exchanges, checking on new iMacs, I'll keep posting about them. You can test your iMac here.

Quote of the Week

I'll also be including bitchtastic quotes of the week in these updates. This one, from Laura:
"I want the imac purchasers, who have already paid their money AND spent countless hours being fruitless with their machine set-ups and troubleshooting attempts, to be put on the top of the list for receiving brand new WORKING machines. An added bonus would be for Apple to do this kindly, respectfully, and without any attitude. We should not be out of pocket, taking time off work and energy to lug these heavy ibeasts across town looking for a repair; it's a lemon, Apple — you made it, so please replace it. And please do it kindly, respectfully, and communicate to us the process, so that we can all stay in love with all things Apple. "

The Faulty iMac Saga will run every Wednesday on Gizmodo. That is, until Apple fixes and/or admits the problem.