This weekend had some bad Apples
[EDIT]
So apparently the Mac gods are playing tricks on me... As soon as I finished publishing this post and closed Firefox, the speaker crackled again. I turned on iTunes to a little Copland - Fanfare for the Common Man and all was fine... bizarre. I decided to restart to make sure, and here I am... both speakers are working. The only thing I can think of was just before the speaker crackled and sizzled out, I did an EFI Firmware update. Honestly I have no clue. I'm just happy my speaker is back to normal... although a little bit of confidence is lost. I think I will be cancelling my Genius Bar appointment.
[/EDIT]
I love Apple products, I promise I do. It just so happened that this weekend a bundle of inexcusable (in my, as the consumer's opinion) deficiencies occured.
Least importance: I noticed that my USB cord for my new iPhone 3G's wire cover was severed close to the connection on the Mac end (see picture below). Now this really isn't all that important. It still works. It doesn't look good. It isn't that old... and that's the part that makes me twitch in a fashion that I don't find all too comfortable.
This is a shot of where the wire casing has severed. It appears the actual wires are still fine.
Middle importance: A little piece of my MacBook casing has fallen off. The piece is right where my right palm rests, just to the front-right of the trackpad and button. This issue is not causing any hinderance of the product's use. But the MacBook (although heavily used) was only purchased December of 2007. Exactly nine months ago. I would think the plastic would be meant to last a little bit longer than that. For a while the piece was just cracked completely off on one end, so it would flick around sometimes. However, once when moving my hand, it caught the piece and broke it completely off. I think all it would need is some glue, but I haven't gotten around to looking into that. This is an eye-sore on an otherwise very sexy laptop.
This is the piece of the casing that has fallen/chipped off
Most importance: This issue just happened no more than an hour ago. This issue was what pushed me over the edge. This is the issue that made me a not completely satisfied consumer. One of the speakers (the left) of my MacBook 'popped' and then stopped playing sound. I was working in GarageBand, nothing heavy, just making a ringtone to export to iTunes from an mp3, and all of a sudden POP ... error message telling me something about too many 'real instruments' (which there was only one track of the mp3 I clicked and dragged in) then no more sound from the left speaker. This put me over the edge, as yesterday I was having some sound issues with my iPhone 3G (which a restart took care of).
I immediately went onto http://www.apple.com/retail, found the store in the mall close to me, and made an appointment for Thursday evening after work with a genius. I only made mention of the piece of casing that fell off and the mainly the speaker. I do not remember what the AppleCare plan I have (whether or not I bought/extended one). Working speakers on my MacBook is a big must. I use the iSight for video chat over iChat every day, and I already thought the speakers were too quiet.
I will write an update post and provide link below after my visit with the Genius' at the Apple Store. I hope they can help calm my nerves on this one.
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Protocol Unity
One of the concepts I like most about using Apple products is the unity of information. With the use of Apple products as an almost choice of lifestyle, keeping information in sync is very very simple. I don't think Apple has an official motto of "It just works" but I find myself thinking that a lot while at both work and home.
When I first converted from Windows XP to OS X Leopard, I had some favorite applications that I had become rather familiar with, such as Mozilla Firefox, Google's Picassa, among others. I told myself that I was going to try and use the native OS X applications at first... get the full 'Mac Experience'. Granted, I use Mail at work, but not at home (still with web based Gmail), it was very successful. I started using Safari and found fantastic little things like the Find. I love the UI for Find in Safari, I pick it over Firefox any day. I continued to use Safari until Firefox 3 came out just recently... and now I'm back to Firefox. Really the main reason is that I love the third party downloads for Firefox.
I also started using iPhoto to keep track of my many photos. This has been a bit of a journey. Prior, I had all my photos organized in a neat directory structure, but this didn't translate to iPhoto completely as I would have liked. However, going on 8 months into my Mac experience, it hasn't caused enough issues for me to really spend a good bit of time to make it 'perfect'.
The big success story is in iCal. Prior, I had used Google Calendars for my schedule, but I wasn't completely happy with the interface, and iCal was exactly what I wanted and needed.
But enough about the specific products, this post isn't meant to be full of advertisements. What I do want to talk about is the topic I started with, unity of information. When I hooked up my iPhone to my MacBook and synced, my calendar information would be on both devices, perfect. But this involved daily syncing... I guess that's fine, but not ideal. Also, what do I do about accessing my calendar on a different computer. It wasn't until I started my Co-Op at Apple that I got a .Mac account. This was great, I was able to keep in sync all my devices. But then something even better just came along... MobileMe!
Now, MobileMe has been getting a lot of heat lately with its less than stellar roll-out (nicknamed, fail-out). This is understandable. Apple doesn't typically have rough transitions within products, and this one was a bit more than rough, so of course it is going to get the negative coverage. I firmly believe there are people/press that dislike the idea of Apple being a lifestyle, so when anything goes wrong (just like in a presidential campaign...) it gets blown up HUGE. But again... I digress...
All the bad press about MobileMe roll-out is covering up the real success story, MobileMe the product. Pushing information to devices is amazing. When this technology is polished, the world will be a better place. I make an edit to an event on my iPhone and within minutes it is updated on my Mac and the MobileMe website.
But here is the thing... this in sync 'thing' isn't universal. Sure it is universal within Apple... but as much as I would prefer it... there are people who still for some unknown reason don't use Apple products. Apple is making strides with this, in an enterprise sense now supporting Microsoft Exchange... but there are so many areas. There should be unity in protocol. If I want to send an event invite to a friend on Facebook, they should be able to accept, automatically updating their Google Calendar, or their MobileMe/iCal, or both! I should be able to receive an event invitation from a friend who only uses outlook (poor guy).
This brings up thoughts about a universal identification, which honestly I support. I think it would be a good thing for everyone if the United States started a national identification. We already have social security... but that's not exactly what I am talking about. If every person in the world didn't have to be assigned an identification, but it could be generated from their DNA, that would be pretty sweet. But, even thought that is a super interesting topic that I would love to delve into more right now... I could fill an entire blog with posts just about that.
Closing remarks:
I love how my information is available in all the areas I would like with ease through Apple products. I wish it were easier to keep my information in sync with other people who don't use Apple products. I support a universal identification. Let me just say though, I do not support your UID (universal identification) being tracked for web use. I do not support it being mandatory for non-official (non-government) purposes, but I think it should be available to purposes such as that for those that don't mind their web surfing being tracked. This is just like how I support Bush in his wire tapping craziness... I personally have nothing to hide. If you do, maybe we should be worried about you.
Dell includes ‘safety’ cords
Dell has lots of safety cords attached to their machines. They realize that using any form of Windows, some people may have the urge to throw their computer off their desk, or even worse, out a window. Dell has thought of this, and made this act very difficult to accomplish.
Way to go there.... err... Dell.... errrrr.....
What to do with my Summer?
I picked up the local Silicon Valley entertainment/weekend newspaper to see what all goes on around here on the weekends. I thought it would be nice to maybe go out and here some live music. While browsing the pages, I came across a small ad with a biplane to catch my attention. This weekend (Memorial Day weekend) there is an airshow! With my huge infatuation with planes, I don't remember ever really going to an airshow. I'd have to check with the parents though... So the 44th Annual Watsonville Fly-in and air show is this weekend, and that's where you will find me. I plan on going Friday evening for airshow at dusk, then all day saturday to watch the planes fly and take lots of pictures with my new camera. I am unbelievably excited! After discovering the show in Watsonville, I started searching online for more airshows around me. I found Airshows Calendar.com. I scheduled out the ones that are relatively near me. It should be a good time. In addition, I decided I wanted to run some more races. I love the feeling of finishing a race with hundreds of other people. It is an accomplishment, who doesn't like that? On Sunday, June 1st, I am registered for the Ready, Set, G! 5K Fun Run at the Golden Gate Park up in San Francisco. So my goal... (ready for this)... I want to run the half marathon in the San Francisco Marathon on August 2nd. Think that's crazy? I sure do... More interns are also starting to show up at Apple. Soon there will be intramural sports teams forming and site seeing trips to different areas. My summer is getting busy! I don't mind though. Have any suggestions of things to add to my agenda? Let me know!
Hello from California
Dear Readers,
I am finally in California. The drive was very long, but an enjoyable one. Once arriving in the Cupertino/Sunnyvale area, the apartment search didn't seem to go as smoothly as hoped at first, but in the end, I think things have worked out very nicely. I have a new apartment in Sunnyvale that is in a gorgeous complex with a heated swimming pool, tennis court, sand volleyball court, club house and everything. I am also about 3 miles away from Apple, so hopefully I'll be able to find a bicycle to ride to work.
I came with no furniture but have a nearly fully furnished apartment now after a trip to IKEA. That place is crazy. So much to look at. There are so many fun little "small" purchases that they can add up very quickly. My Dad and I also ate lunch/dinner there which was pretty good.
I start work for Apple on Monday. I am looking forward to it.
Right now, I'm exhausted. All the moving and searching for anything and everything has worn me out. I'm sitting on my new futon that is calling my name to sleep. Cheers from California!
Jason