These tips come straight from Apple, but they are a handy reference if you want to play around with the flash and timing countdown for Photobooth
The other night I noticed a promotion where I could download for free the season finale from Lost, Desperate Housewives, and Grey’s Anatomy. I of course did download those episodes, what can I say I’m a sucker for free.
The next day I went and checked my email. Apple had charged me 1.99 plus tax for each episode. It came to approximately $11.74 (Each episode had sneak peeks at the following seasons episodes). I immediately went and checked my bank account to see if I was charged. Unfortunately my suspicions were accurate. I was billed for those free videos.
I didn’t bother much with it because it was about 12 bucks and if I needed the money I could always dispute the charge with the bank and have it the next day.
Saturday morning I woke up to an email from apple themselves….
It was a great and truly unexpected surprise. Not only did they refund my amount they also gave me three free credits.
Thank you iTunes Store!
I realize that I’ve been delaying a review on the ministack v2 I purchased from Other World Computing for quite sometime. I keep rewriting because I’ve not been as satsified with my review as I have been of the ministack. Keep on the lookout for it because it will be soon.
I know it seems as if all I can talk about lately is macZOT! and even though I do love their service I have been keeping busy with other things as well.
I decided it was time to purhase a new computer. Apple was able to introduce their updated line of intel iMac’s and MacBookPro’s early to consumers. As I had an iSight and Monitor; and still love my iBook G4 neither the iMac or MacBookPro suited my needs. However, some bloggers will recant as the worst Apple announcement ever as Steve Jobs introdued the updated mac mini and I instantly fell in love.
However some people were not impressed and their complaints consisted of two items:
As I play games about three times a year the last point was moot in my decision making criteria. I weighed my options after some deliberation bought the new intel mini with my Apple Developer Connection discount.
So far the mini has been perfect. Small form factor, excellent power for my needs, dvd burner and the general coolness factor is exellent. I was left with one question, what to do with my old computer….
My old computer was a MDD Power Mac that was upgraded to the hilt. I upgraded the ram, hd, and even added a dvd burner. It was truly my first great computer. I’m not sure if the greatness could be attributed to the hardware or the operating system but its purchase was something I never regretted. The one thing that drove me crazy about it was the fan noise. It was unfortunately extremely common with that model.
I thought about listing the item on ebay and saw that they were going for around $600 – $700 bucks (almost the purchase price of my new mini) and then I was told of a company out of Tampa called Mac of All Trades. Their website had a contact form to fill out if you were interested in selling your computer. It wanted the computer specs and any upgrades that were performed on it. I filled it out on a Friday night and recieved a Purchase Order the following morning. I agreed to their acquisition of my computer and set up arrangements to ship it to them. They received my computer on a Thursay and by the following Monday I had my check from them. It was an amazing transaction and I wil certainly look to do business with them in the future.
As I said the mini has been perfect and impressive with its size and power, the one thing I neglected to do was increase the hard drive past the standard 80 gigs. After determining my music and photo collection was close to 30 gigs I went looking for an external hard drive solution and Other World Computing came to the rescue with their ministack v2.
In the next entry I’ll walk through the install and setup process and give my thoughts about the ministack v2. Unfortunately I have to head back to work as the lunch break is almost over.
I know second post in the matter of minutes but I really want to take the time to explain how much I enjoyed my first MysteryZOT and the whole macZOT process.
macZOT works with shareware developers to lower the registration fee and then passes the savings along to their site viewers. You don’t have to be a lifetime subscriber to take advantage. You can sign up on the day they have a piece of software you want.
I began my infatuation with them during the whole AppZapper blog spree. The basic premise was to get a certain number of bloggers to mention macZOT and they’d pass along an amazing piece of shareware to everyone who participated in the contest either by blogging or sending an email requesting the software.
After getting the AppZapper for free I was hooked. I check the site out daily to see what software they have available. This past week they had their second mysteryZOT. I didn’t get a chance to participate in the first one, and had $15.00 setting around I could waste.
I don’t try out a lot of miscellaneous shareware because I tend to stick to what I know and like. I thought the mysteryZOT would introduce me to some different shareware developers and if I didn’t like what I was given it was only $15.00. Typically a mysteryZOT ends in a day. This time around they were able to pack more bang for your buck and extended the promotion. A few people complained (about the extension of a day) but I don’t see their point. It was just an extra day. If you can’t stand that kind of suspense I don’t know how you make it through life. MysterZOT is like buying a lotto ticket however you win every time with the MysteryZOT.
Right now I am testing marsEdit and ecto to update my blog. Hopefully soon they will feature both marsEdit and ecto so I can grab a license at a discount.
MacZOT is for Mac users
The fun people over at MacZot! are trying to give away a free application today. If 259 bloggers mention this the program AppZapper will be given away free. The best part of this program is that it completely removes your application! It does not leave any orpahned files anywhere in your mac.
Hello all,
I have an Apple bluetooth keyboard and mouse i’d like to part with. They’ve been lightly used and will be cleaned before sending. I prefer the wired keyboard and mouse so there is nothing wrong with these. Normally these two items together would be close to 120 bucks. I’d like to sell them for 70. I still have the boxes they came in.
Shipping would be upto the buyer but all reasonable offers will be entertained. Let me know if you are interested.
Dear Apple Computer,
I’ve had the most unusual apple experience since I switched back in 2000. First let me explain. I purchased an iBook on 02/16/05, I did not purchase AppleCare because I knew I had a year to buy it before the warranty expired.
On February 15th I called the Apple Store to purchase AppleCare. I explained to my representative that I needed to have it activated today as tomorrow the warranty expired. I was assured that it would in fact be activated and that it wouldn’t be an issue. He then transferred me to Kim in AppleCare. Kim explained that because I didn’t have an enrollment number she couldn’t help me but said that it would most likely be activated within the next 20 minutes and to call back in check. I waited twenty minutes and called back and I again spoke with Kim. She reassured me that it was activated and I was set to go. She gave me my computers serial number so I could check online.
I hung up and was satisfied that I had AppleCare on my iBook. I began to check online by entering the serial number into your support page. It kept returning with no AppleCare installed. This happened until I got home, and was nervous so I again called AppleCare. This time I spoke with Monique. Monique informed me that AppleCare was not activated on my iBook and that in order to have it covered I needed to purchase it with her so it would be immediately activated on my account. Again, I purchased AppleCare this time through Monique and she explained to me that I would need to call the Apple Store back and speak to Solutions Support in order to have the original AppleCare cancelled.
In this experience I spoke with with four different people five times. If I had believed Kim my iBook would not have been covered and I would have had AppleCare shipped to me that was unusable. I understand and will take some blame for waiting until the day before my warranty expired to purchase AppleCare. However, waiting until the day before to purchase AppleCare should not have ultimately ended in a very un-Apple experience that I suffered through. My suggestion would be to have anyone who is seeking to purchase AppleCare through the store at the same time your AppleCare experts are available to transfer them to that department so the warranty becomes activated instantly.
Please pass along warm wishes and my gratitude to Monique she turned this experience around and provided the excellent customer service that many of your AppleCare specialists should strive to achieve.
Sincerely,
Shawn