Customer Service

December 2, 2008

My MacBook developed a crack along the wrist rest due to the lid's impressions on the surface. It was a common problem with the model that I have and is covered under the AppleCare plan. The same thing happened to a friend of mine and several other people on the internet. It was one of those flaws that were just cosmetic and didn't inhibit the use of the computer.

This past weekend I finally had time to take it to West County Mall's Apple store to get it fixed. I made an appointment with a Genius and they took a look at it, gathered information and grabbed the part from the back before anyone else could. The Genius told me it would be ready in 2-3 days. I was kind of bummed because I heard reports of it taking 20 minutes if they have the part in stock. Apparently they were quite busy with repairs. So, I leave expecting it to take 2-3 days. 3 hours later I get a call from the Apple store telling me it's ready to be picked up. I hate fanboys as much as anyone, but I can see why people like Apple so much. People rave about the customer service they experience when buying an Apple product and now I can too.

iTunes Problem Leads to New Solution

November 8, 2008

Friday night I plugged my iPhone into my computer and let it sync. Next thing I know, all the apps on my iPhone were deleted and some of the songs and videos that were on the iPhone were removed as well. It's no secret I really do not like iTunes, especially with how slow and buggy iTunes 8 is, so when I started iTunes the other day and it told me the library was corrupted and it backed up the corrupted file and loaded up a new, I thought nothing of it. Typical iTunes being stupid and not working how it's supposed to. I never thought that the broken library file would effect my syncing, but it did. I'm guessing because the file was broken, the new one it created didn't have all the music and applications that it should have. Therefore, when my iPhone synced, it deleted the things on the iPhone that did not exist in the library.

I added the applications, music, and podcasts back into iTunes. The problem was knowing what songs were deleted from the iPhone. I add only checked files, but that doesn't always work (because iTunes sucks). So sometimes I have to add them to a playlist in order for them to sync, even though they are checked to sync. Trying to figure out which ones were in a playlist or already on the iPhone would take forever. That's when I decided to do a little searching. That's when I found this post. Basically, what I did was create a smart playlist that included items that I check. As soon as I check an item, it is added to the playlist. If I uncheck, it is deleted. I set up my iPhone to sync that playlist, now every song that I check is synced with my iPhone. It's the easiest way I've found to manually manage the music to sync. So, iTunes breaking and not doing things right made me find a solution that I never knew about that will save me a lot of time. Of course, if iTunes "just worked" I wouldn't have had to search for a solution in the first place.

My iPhone

July 23, 2008

I've only had my iPhone for a day and I am in love with it. I love being able to get on wifi networks on my phone, having a full html browser, the applications. To be honest, while the phone is great, I don't know if I'd ever buy it if it didn't allow 3rd party applications. That's what makes the iPhone truly great. I love being able to be in contact with people anywhere, whether it be email, IM, twitter, or whatever. [caption id="attachment_738" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="This is my home screen on the iPhone"][/caption] The email on the phone is fantastic and looks just like it does in Outlook. Now, if our work webserver goes down, I can be notified right away if I'm not at the computer. Twinkle is great for a Twitter client. I tried Twitterific, but whenever it would launch it would crash right away. Probably my favorite has-some-use app has to be Shazam. You let it "listen" to part of a song and it will tell you what song it is. That should come in handy whenever I'm in the car and don't know the song.

Another cool app, and this one cost, is the MLB At Bat. When I bought it I thought I was just getting[caption id="attachment_737" align="alignright" width="150" caption="The second screen of my iPhone"][/caption] the box scores and the Who's On stuff, but no. They did more than that. They update the games with video highlights as they are going on, so you can watch the highlights of the game. And the video quality is amazing. Other great apps that I've tried are Facebook, Last.fm, The New York Times, and Google. The Google one is a little pointless because you can get to all their stuff via the Safari web browser. It is kind of nice though because it is a quicker way to get to those things. All in all I'm extremely happy with the phone thus far. And I've not even used it to watch movies or listen to music yet. It was a great purchase and I can't wait to see what other cool apps come out for it.

Computer Frustrations

July 16, 2008

I've been really frustrated with my Windows Vista box. When I first got the machine, last summer, I loved Vista. Now, with each day, I tend to loathe it more and more. This is due to many frustrations I have with it.

Things seem to freeze all the time. Whether it's Internet Explorer (yes, I use it to check the compatibility of websites I work on), Windows Explorer, Windows Sidebar, or pretty much anything else. I don't run a lot of programs at once and have 2gb of RAM (which Windows while idling uses about 44% of) and these things still freeze.

Things just don't work. Windows Media Center is a piece of crap and can't play DVDs without freezing or taking forever to load. I went to burn a cd this morning using Nero and clicked "Burn" forgetting to put in the cd. No problem, Nero notified me and I put in the blank disc. What's that? Windows decided to drop the drive altogether? Nice. So then I had to reboot the machine so it would pick up drive. All to burn the cd.

Another factor weighs in on my continuing hatred for Vista. My MacBook. While I do find some faults with OSX, for the most part, it's a good OS. It's fast on my MacBook, there's good software, and the look and feel is great. And I never run into any of the problems I run into on Windows. My next desktop computer is going to be a Mac. Too bad that won't be for a while.

I could install Linux on it, which I do have Ubuntu installed via Wubi, but I don't want to have to do a lot of work to get something to just work. I don't want to go around the bend to get my ATI card to work to it's full potential all while sacrificing other aspects of an environment I like (If I want to use the ATI drivers for desktop effects I can't play games or have a screensaver because the screen flickers while doing those things). Too bad OSX won't work on PC hardware (without mass amounts of hackery).

Stand in Line for Me

June 9, 2008

So, the day that the iPhone 3g comes out, July 11th, I will be having my wisdom teeth removed. All four of them. What I need to do is find someone to go stand in line and buy one for me at one of the AT&T stores or the Apple store. That way when I leave the surgeon, in complete agony, I will have something to do while I rest up and float high on Vicodin. So, to my lovely sisters and/or brother-in-law, if you would like to volunteer for this tremendous oppourtunity to help out a person in need, I would appreciate it a great deal. I might even make it worth your while (no, I will not buy you an iPhone).

Wanted: More Real Estate

April 13, 2008

I love my MacBook. I love it more than my previous Compaq laptop. It's so much lighter, thinner, and well, OSX is much better than Windows. The reason I went with a MacBook and not a MacBook Pro was because I didn't want a laptop that was as large as my old one. I wanted it lightweight and compact. The problem I see now, and it's not so much a problem as a minor annoyance, is that I miss the larger screen. My old laptop had a 17 inch widescreen. My desktop has a 21 inch widescreen, and the MacBook has a 13 inch. The only time I really need it is when I'm working on website stuff. I like to have multiple windows open, along with IRC and instant messenger, and be able to move stuff around. More screen space equals more productivity for me. With a 13 inch screen Firefox or Smultron or Transmit take up the entire screen. Oh well, I still prefer working on my MacBook to my Windows Vista machine 99% of the time and I have no regrets in buying this over the MacBook Pro. I really can't wait for my next desktop. I do believe that will be a Mac too.

It Just (doesn't) Work(s)

February 13, 2008

Let me start this post by saying I love my MacBook. I use it every single day and am not disappointed in my purchase in the least. In fact, unless the next Windows blows me away (or the current version of Linux out there) my next desktop computer will probably be a Mac. That being said, I just love how Apple's mantra is (or was)It just works. I'll give you an example that I came across yesterday of it not working.

We all know that OSX Leopard update 10.5.2 came out on Monday. I upgraded, welcoming all the new fixes and updates. They changed Stacks a bit, which is good, but I still wish they would make Stacks how it was originally supposed to be. I want to create a stack on the dock for, say, all my communication apps: Adium, iChat, Colloquy. I want to click on that stack and have it expand to show those apps. The video for stacks before Leopard came out did exactly that, then the feature was removed. This post isn't about that though. Stacks worked for me, even if it isn't how I want it to work. My problem was with Time Machine.

I don't keep my MacBook hooked up to the external drive at all times. In fact, I only hook it up when I want to make a backup. After updating to 10.5.2 on Monday I decided to make a Time Machine backup. The only changes that really occurred since the last Time Machine backup were adding maybe two files to the Documents folder. So I run Time Machine and it said Preparing backup. 30 minutes later, it still said the same thing. After about 45 minutes I decide to cancel the backup and try again later. Tuesday (on my snow day) I try again. It sat at Preparing backup for an hour before I canceled it. I go do some searching on the Apple forums and find numerous other people having problems backing up since 10.5.2. One solution that a user found was erasing the drive and starting over. I figured, why not, everything is still on here, it won't hurt to erase the disk so I can backup again. So, I do it and what do you know? Time Machine works again. So, Apple, you release updates to fix the broken and you wind up breaking more stuff. Seems like a lot of Apple things don't just work lately. Keep it up and I'm going to start calling you Microsoft. ;)

Disappointing Macworld

January 16, 2008

I am by no means an Apple fanboy. I only have one Apple product, and that's my MacBook. I will say that since I've gotten my MacBook, I now think all my future computer purchases will be Macs and not PCs. This has nothing to do with me being a fanboy. I just really enjoy using my MacBook and Windows Vista drives me nuts more and more each day. That being said, I have to say I was disappointed in this year's Macworld. I was expecting much more from Apple. While I didn't think they would actually release a tablet portable device, the thought was cool. Instead they release the MacBook Air. Excuse me while I yawn.

iPhone and iPod updates were surprising. First, the lack of a 3G 16gb iPhone upset me. I was expecting this to debut at Macworld. At least I was hoping it would. My current contract is up in April and I was hoping to maybe get an iPhone when it ended. I doubt that's going to happen now. Especially since AT&T promised a 3G iPhone in 2008. Why would I buy one when a new one will be coming out later in the year? The only thing they did was update the firmware for the iPhone and iPod. Those were good upgrades but I can't believe they expect people to pay $20 to update the iPod touch. That seems a bit ridiculous to be, but this is the Apple culture. The fanboys are known to pay anything that Jobs pushes, so Apple will get their $20 from thousands of fanboys.

A new Apple TV came out, but that gets another yawn from me. I'll stick to Netflix or Blockbuster Online thank you. Overall, I thought the expo was disappointing. The one big announcement was the MacBook air. I like my MacBook as is. I don't want to sacrifice an extra USB port and user-replaceable battery for extra thin body. Besides, I use my optical drive. No thank you to that product, especially at it's hefty price. Oh well, there's always next year.

Going on a Safari

January 7, 2008

More and more I find myself browsing the net using Safari. I used to loathe Safari, and on Windows I still do, but it's starting to grow on me a bit on the MacBook. On several Windows systems I found it to be much slower than Firefox, despite Apple's claims. In fact, Opera and Firefox were faster at launching and loading websites. The only major browser it did beat in my experiences was the horror that is known as IE7. It does run faster than Firefox on the MacBook. The things I hated about Safari before still exist; the lack of an address drop-down until you type, the lack of extension support, etc. I still use Firefox for 99% of my web browsing, but I am slowly moving to Safari for more and more casual browsing (I'm writing this in Safari now). If I am doing web work or more heavy-duty browsing, Firefox is still my number one choice, and probably will be until Apple decides to add extension support. There are a few I can't live without.

Software Suggestions

November 12, 2007

So, I have my new MacBook, and one thing I notice about Apple users is they are just as passionate about the apps they use as they are about using Apple products. What's funny is they will argue over what text editor is better just as fervently as they do when arguing over why a Mac is better than a PC. Based on recommendations by fellow Mac users in the #habari IRC channel, I have already begun collecting applications. So far I have Menuet, Adium, Transmit, Quicksilver, Colloquy, Firefox (of course), Smultron, and Transmission. What other applications for the Mac do I need (or you think I should have)?

Quick Thoughts

November 9, 2007

On the second day of my four-day weekend, I thought I'd update my blog a bit. After all, a break from work doesn't mean a break from blogging, right? Since I've been off, nothing much has really happened over the past couple days, with one exception. My MacBook was delivered. What can I say? I love it. I've heard some users talk about their switch in the past and complained about how slow it was or how slow the programs were, but I've not experienced any of that. The OS runs great and programs are blazing fast to launch, even Firefox. I love the design of the MacBook, especially the keyboard and super-drive, compared to my old laptop. iChat is pretty sweet. I enjoyed chatting with Lisa on that. The only problem I had so far with the MacBook is last.fm appears twice in the dock and also doesn't want to shut down (and needs a force-quit). I know Lisa has had problems with it appearing twice in the dock. Anyone else have any problems with last.fm on their Mac? I think next time I get a desktop it will be a Mac as well, but that won't be for several years. That's pretty much it for now.

My Mac

November 4, 2007

After looking at Leopard, watching the videos, looking at the features, and taking a trip to the Apple Store for some hands-on experience, I bought a MacBook. I really enjoyed playing around at the Apple Store. I've never been to one, because there isn't one that is that close to me. So I drove to the closest one and played around with all the gadgets. The MacBook, the MacBook Pros, the iMacs and the Mac Pros, and the iPhone were fun to mess around with and to see their capabilities. The employees were very helpful and answered any question a PC guy might have. I was very impressed with their customer service. The store sold the last MacBook of the specs I wanted, so I ordered my MacBook online. What makes it even better was the educational discount I received because I work for a participating school district. I can't wait to get my new laptop and stop lugging around the POS that I carry around now. Is there any software that people recommend? I'm looking for a lightweight text editor (I use the awesome PSPad for the minor code editing I do). Also, what's a good FTP client? I'd like to stick with open source apps if possible.

i am shep

Tag: apple