Archive for the 'Apple' Category

Apple!

Published on January 24, 2010 in Apple. 0 Comments

Oh, Apple Inc. You kill me sometimes. Comment from a reader:

I have an iMac intel 17″ early 2006 same problem with matshita uj-846. Two month ago I’ve got apple replace the lcd screen (vertical lines issue) for free. Tomorrow I’ll call apple for the superdrive issue; with luck I’ll got it replaced for free like the lcd.

The secret is to call apple service. Apple record customer calls to control its employers.

My family has an Intel 17″ iMac from 2006 with the same line issue. Apple has repeatedly told me that they will not acknowledge it. The kind customers who have taken to the Internet wish the company would.

Stuff like this makes it hard to appreciate Apple. The product announcement on Wednesday, however, will likely make it easier.

99% of Problems

Published on October 10, 2009 in Apple, Matshita SuperDrive and Tech. 2 Comments

Wonderful SuperDrive feedback from Kevan R. Craft:

I have a MacBook Pro 15 Inch, 2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 3GB RAM running Mac OS X 10.5.8 and experienced the same problem with my Matshita DVD-R UJ-867 drive after downloading an Apple Security Update.

I tried everything from spraying air into the drive, a DVD Lense Cleaner Disc, Power resets and even banging the case. I’ve even flashed the DVD Drive but still couldn’t get the MacBook Pro to read either CD or DVD media blank or recorded or commecial discs.

Finally, before I jumped to buy a new drive I decided to buy a set of Torx screwdrivers containing a T-6 Torx driver so I could disassemble my MacBook Pro and remove the Matshita DVD-R UJ-867 drive.

I eventually removed the drive and removed the screws opening the actual drive to reveal the DVD-R drive contents inside. Onnce open I sprayed the optical lense with a can of compressed air and cleaned any dust on the lense and the rest of the inside of the drive. After that I replaced the DVD-R cover and replaced the screws. I then replaced the DVD-R drive back into the MacBook Pro and screwed it all back together.

Once I’d put it all back together I then powered the MacBook Pro up, booted the machine and inserted a music CD THE BEST OF BILL WITHERS and low and behold the CD disc mounted.

So stripping the DVD-R drive and spraying compressed air directly onto the optical lense removed the problem of not being able to load either CD or DVD discs. Now I can read any disc possible and the fix has returned the Matshita DVD-R UJ-867 drive so it now reads both CD and DVD discs as before.

The process is a fiddly but worth the effort. It is my guess that 99 per cent of Superdrive problems experienced by Apple MacBook Pro users using this hardware cleaning method will return their Superdrives to working state so they should be able to read and mount both CD and DVD media..

Job is a good one..

Regards

Kevan

P.S. post this on any and all MacBook Pro forums and blos as possible so other MacBook Pro owners can use the fix to repair their DVD-R Superdrive problem no being able to read and mount CD and DVD media.. Do what I did above and you’ll get your drive back without having to buy a new drive.. If your MacBook Pro is under warranty with Applecare then go to Apple. If the warranty has expired use my fix to repair your Superdrive..

Worth a shot if you’re out of warranty and need to fix that SuperDrive.

Quick Praise for the Apple Store in Danbury, Connecticut

Published on July 5, 2009 in Apple. 0 Comments Tags: Apple.

I’ve made a habit of calling out bad customer service in the past. However, today, I’d like to mention some great customer service I was the recipient of two days ago from the Apple Store in Danbury, Connecticut.

I had a MacBook Pro battery that was randomly shutting my computer off when draining down. Dismayed, I took it to the Apple Store to see if there was anything that could be done. I knew that AppleCare, Apple’s extended warranty that I highly recommend for laptop computers, generally allowed for one replacement battery. Unfortunately, this battery in question *was* my replacement battery.

The gentleman at the Genius Bar was kind and listened to me. I like it when, if I know what I’m talking about, people treat me like I know what I’m talking about; this man did. Within a few minutes, I had another replacement battery, and I was on my way home.

New Battery Screenshot

Completely Off Topic

Published on October 13, 2008 in Apple, New Media, New Politics? and Politics. 1 Comment Tags: Apple, democrats, hatred, laptop, macbook, McCain, Obama, Politics, racism, steve jobs.

These are some off-topic thoughts I had while writing up a post for my New Media, New Politics? class. I know I haven’t been posting much, and that’s entirely my fault. So much as happened in my life, I don’t know where to begin. These thoughts will have to do for now.

…

Over the long weekend, I had three quick thoughts that I wanted to pass along.

One. Last week, Chicago Public Radio’s darling, This American Life, did the world a favor by running an episode carefully explaining the current financial crisis. If you have any doubts in your mind about what caused the crisis, listening to the show will be one of the most helpful beneficial things you’ll do this month. The This American Life website says the hosts will, “…explain what happened this week, including what regulators could’ve done to prevent this financial crisis from happening in the first place.” I highly recommend it; it’s both entertaining and intellectually rewarding.

Two. The level of hatred in this race really saddens me. When I look at some comments or rallies on both sides of the fence, I don’t see civil and democratic disagreements. In fact, I don’t see anything. I feel disturbing levels of hatred and malice towards the opposing candidate. Hate isn’t a partisan issue. Lies aren’t political. They’re despicable. The trends, frankly, are disturbing, and I hope that both candidates try to turn it around, whether or not they’re actually able to.

Three. Tomorrow, Apple CEO Steve Jobs will announce updated laptops. Besides being an avid follower of politics, I follow the technology industry. In my observation, no one is better at stealing the news cycle than Steve Jobs. He puts any political campaign to shame. Just watch for that tomorrow, in addition to the banter between the Obama and McCain campaigns.

That’s all. Have a great week, everyone!

The Killer Feature of iTunes 8

Published on September 10, 2008 in Apple and Tech. 2 Comments Tags: Apple, itunes 8, netcast, netcasting, podcast, podcasting.

My tweets for the night tell the story:

I can’t believe everyone missed the biggest feature of iTunes 8.
Podcast controls have been moved out of iTunes Preferences (cmd+,) and into their own window from the Podcast view.
In that podcast view, one can see the how often iTunes checks for new episodes and how many to keep.
The killer feature is that these settings are now able to be applied to podcasts individually, not all-or-nothing. This is amazing.

Personally, I’ve been asking for this feature for a very long time. It’s handy.
Moving the prefs out of iTunes Preferences signals that podcasting isn’t a focus of Apple’s anymore, though. It’s separated from novices.

What do you think?

Mac Users, Don’t Buy from CyberPower Inc.

Published on August 18, 2008 in Apple, Rants and Tech. 6 Comments Tags: Apple, cyberpower, mac os x, uninterruptible power supply, ups.

Update (February 16, 2009): CyberPower has issued me a full refund for the UPS. They maintain that the issue is not with the UPS, but with my MacBook Pro, which appears to be correct.

CyberPower is an upstanding company with a great reputation. Their only fault in this situation was a representative with sub-par Macintosh experience. I appreciate their cooperation with working through this situation.

The original post is archived below, for posterity sake.

—

I recently purchased an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) from CyberPower Inc. It’s the CP550SL, and it looked pretty good in the store. The box said it was PC and Mac compatible, had a comfortable number of outlets, and had standard shutdown features that worked out-of-the-box with Mac OS X. Great!

For anyone who doesn’t know, a UPS is a glorified power strip, a device that takes one electrical outlet and makes several. In addition, it has a built-in battery to power attached devices in the event of a power failure. Using a usb cable, a UPS connects to a computer so the computer can shut itself down before the UPS runs out of electricity.

I plugged in all of my devices, attached the USB cable from the UPS to my Mac, and plugged the UPS in. After cycling the power on all of my devices, I booted my Mac. Excited to configure the automatic shutdown options (the real reason anyone buys a UPS), I went to the Energy Saver prefpane of System Preferences.

Much to my surprise, all of the UPS options were grayed out. I couldn’t configure anything!

From here, I did the technical thing. I cleared out the user and system caches on my MacBook Pro, rebooted, and tried again. No luck.

At this point, I did the responsible thing – contacted tech support. I sent this email:

I just took the UPS out of the box and installed it with my Mac by plugging the USB cable into my Mac’s USB port. In the System Preferences panel, Energy Saver, I can see the UPS under the drop-down “Settings for:”. When I click that and go to the UPS tab below, I can see the battery level and model, but all of the UPS options (what make the UPS useful, like shutting down the computer after a certain period of time) are grayed out! The UPS is useless unless those options work. I’m an administrative user and the panel is unlocked.

I’m a poweruser, and I’m puzzled as to what the problem could be. Normally these things “just work”. Any help would be appreciated before I have to take this unit back.

This morning, I got this two-sentence response:

The grayed out option is a bug in the latest version of Mac. You can check for an update from Mac.

This response is unacceptable. First and foremost, “the latest version of Mac” doesn’t make sense. The Mac is a computer, the Operating System it runs is Mac OS X, and the company that ships both of those products is Apple Inc. A tech support person would never say,

The grayed out option is a bug in the latest version of Windows. You can check for an update from Windows.

Obviously, he or she would recommend that I check for an update from Microsoft or from Windows Update.

Moving on, there’s no update available from Apple! I’m running the latest version of the Mac OS; the next version, 10.5.5, isn’t expected for some time (more than two weeks). A responsible tech support agent would have told me that CyberPower Inc. is working with Apple to correct the problem and I should expect a fix on a certain date or time-frame. Due to his or her lack of detail, I will likely return this product to the store I purchased it.

The Apple market-share is a small fraction of the computer market. However, we’re a vocal fraction. Until this is resolved, I unequivocally urge Mac users not to purchase any products from CyberPower Inc.