Returning the iphone4.
As I pulled into the parking lot of the La Encantada Mall I noticed I was not in Kansas anymore. I parked my mini van among a sea of S.U.V’s and Smart cars. I pilled all my kids out of the car and headed to the apple store. Once we got into the apple store I saw more employee’s on the sales floor than all of a single best buy store and yet I couldnt get a single person to help me. My wife finaly tracked down and stopped a employee as he was coming out of the back room. She asked him if he could help us. He looked around the store as if he was trying to find a way out of helping us. He then sighed and agreed to help us. We pulled out all four of our iPhones (two new ones and two old one). I explained to the “Genius” that we wanted to return the two new ones and re-activate our old ones. He then looked at me puzzled as if to say “why would you want to return such a great product.” He claimed he didnt know how to do that and had to go in back and ask how. He then disappeared to the back room to where I expect they keep the real “geniuses” locked up. As he was gone I turned to my wife and told her “I cant believe no one has never tried to return one of these”. She then said “Perhaps people keep them to stay with the other sheep.”
When he finaly returned he said that he could return the new phones but could not re-activate the old one. At this point I was already a little upset about how he was looking down his nose at us. I told him “You deactivated them when we got the new ones why cant you re-activate them.” He could not give us a answer. I would have asked for a manager but I just wanted to get my money back and get the heck out of there. As he was returning the two phones my wife asked him if he could erase all the info from the phones. She didnt want anyone to get our pictures, music, videos or notpad. He said “Nobody will look at your data.” As if we are just suppose to trust him. I then grabbed both the phones and erased the data from both of them in less than the time it took him to return them. He then gave us the reciept and we walked out. As we walked out we breathed a sigh of relief. It was finaly over.
On our way to the car we were trying to think of the nearest AT&T store. We both were drawing a blank. By sheer reflex I pulled out my old iPhone to look one up. The laugh was on me. No service. DUH!! We drove down the street and found a free Wi-Fi signal and looked one up. When we got to AT&T they were real nice. I explained to them what I needed to do. They then asked “why didnt apple re-activate them” I laughed and said I have no idea. They explained I would have to buy new SIM cards. I explained to them that “that will not work for me”. They then made a few phone calls and managed to give them to me for free. The AT&T store just wanted to make me happy and that went a long way. But not good enough to keep me as a customer. Lets hope the droid x is better. So far it is.
It’s a friggin Laser Printer…
Newegg is selling a Samsung Laser Printer for $49.99 if you use EMCYVYN35 at checkout. You’ll also need to sign up for their newsletter, but it’s a smoking deal no matter how you look at it.
Replacement cartridges are a bit pricey, but getting your old ones refilled would be fine on a simple printer like this.
Blogging is hard work…
It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything here. Mainly because we’ve been working on a replacement site for AZ Computer Guru and the Radio Show. So a fancy new website and blog are on the way. The other factor is just time… and the lack thereof. If you know anyone that would like to help contribute the the site with Technical or Computer related articles, let me know. In the mean time here is an interesting use of medical technology.
Reviews
If you have used our services, or listened to the show, please take a moment to write a review. It would really help us out.
Cheap Software
Ok, you’re looking for software without so much of that pesky cost involved in the purchase. You’re probably also not all that interested in going to jail or being fined for downloading pirated software. Queue the following sites!
We know you’re not making a profit, this economy is serious business! But what if that’s how you intended it in the first place? Yup for you registered non-profit organizations you have Tech Soup. Tech Soup will get you just about anything you need, and stupid cheap prices. You might end up making a profit, then you’re screwed.
OTHERS :
There are lots of people looking for cheap copies of XP. I can’t really explain why, but they are. Getting the right copy of the software depends on the machine you’re installing it on mostly. If you are looking for a cheap copy of XP, take a moment to register here and post a message about how you intend to use it. I’ll try to respond with a link to the right place to buy it. Be sure to include the type of machine you’re going to be installing it on.
Response to Caller – Large File Downloads
There are times when you need to download some ridiculously large files. In the case of this week’s caller AutoCad. When trying to do this with a slower connection, like DSL you may find it failing. This program, although shareware is pretty good at dealing with that hassle. In the event of failure it will allow you to resume a broken download, and will also look for alternative connections to help speed up the file retrieval. It does a bunch of other cool stuff too. Like being able to grab all files at once from a website, and right click integration is nice too.
http://download.cnet.com/GetRight/3000-2071_4-10005533.html
Hope this works for you.
iPad review
iPad review
So far I am really impressed with the iPad. I have been excited for
weeks for it to come out, but at the same time I was expecting to be
disappointed. For example I thought the typing on the landscape
virtual keyboard was going to be a pain in the butt. Even when I took
it out of the box and saw the keyboard for the first time I thought to
myself “no way”. But then I started to type on it. Believe it or not I
was able to type on it with very little problems. In fact I am typing
this on it now. I have to say apple did real good work on it.
Over the past few days I have heard a few big news web sites say that
it is a kindle. Well they obviously have not touched a iPad. The iPad
does so much more. To call it a kindle is like calling a bike a car.
Yes they both get you someplace but wouldn’t you rather get there
faster, with ac, a radio, and perhaps a video player (for your
passengers)? Does the kindle have a web browser? Yes it does but how
well does it reproduce the web site? The iPad shows it to you like it
was meant to be viewed. That’s not to mention that it’s in full color.
The crispness of the screen is nothing short of amazing.
What about the things the kindle doesn’t have? Well let’s see. How
about the ability to watch netflix movies. This free application blew
my mind. When I first downloaded it I thought for sure it was just a
iPad version of the iPhone app. Well to my surprise you can watch
streaming movies. There is also a ABC app. With this app you can watch
ABC tv shows. I wouldn’t be surprised if fox and and the other major
networks have apps coming out soon. And if I can’t find a good movie
on netflix or I am already cought up on Lost then I can just watch a
movie that I have downloaded in my Library. How about playing a game.
Yes there are hundreds of games out right now made for the iPad and I
have to say they are pretty good. The graphics are clean and clear.
The UI is very easy to use. Let me see you do any of that on the
kindle.
How about something the kindle can do. In fact the very thing it is
suppose to be the best at. Let’s look at reading a book. The kindle
has a monochrome screen. So what you see is grey with black lettering.
Now this is not hard on the eyes. In fact if you had not ever used a
color screen before it would be fine. The UI it has to do simple
things like going to the next page is just that… Simple. Now the
iPad on the other hand has a backlit fully color screen. I have
already read a few books on it and i can say I have not had any eye
strain. Not only that but I can read in bed without having to have a
light on. That alone is a marriage saver. Lol. The UI that the iPad
has on it’s books is beautiful. Want to turn a page? Grab the corner
of the page and flip it. At first glance it looks like it is automatic
but if you slowly flip the page it goes with your finger. I know it may
not seem like much but when you are reading a 500 plus page book it
makes it that much more enjoyable. If the iPad did only book reading I
would say it was worth it. The one thing that I thought the Kindle would have beat the iPad at would be the book library because it is amazon and it has been out longer. But to my surprise amazon made a Kindle application for the iPad. That alone to me is amazon amitting defeat. If they thought the Kindle would still hold a place in the reader market they would not have done that. But good for them knowing a good thing when they see one.
Predictions… Here is how I see this play out. Within the next five years I believe apple will no longer sell computers. All they will sell will be what is called ” electronics.” This includes smart phones mp3 players and of course the iPad. I doubt they are making enough money on their computers to keep it going for much longer. If they didn’t charge as much as they do for the computers they would have stopped selling them a long time ago. If they are smart they will just let Microsoft and soon to be Google battle it out in the PC world and focus only on the consumer electronics.
Overall I can say the iPad is a great product. It reminds me of star wars or star trek. They would carry around these touch screen data pads for their day to day use but they still had a computer at there desk to do the heavy lifting. One of the guys down at the shop went as far as saying that other than World of Warcraft he could only use the iPad for his day to day use. I don’t see that being far from the truth. Can’t wait to see what apple comes out with next…
Deleting Personal Data when off-loading your Mac – For @SuzisCorner
Go into System Preferences and click on Accounts. Click the lock to make changes and then enter your password and click OK. Click the plus button to create a new account and select Administrator from the menu when entering the new account information. Once this is done log out of your account and into the new one you created. At that point you can go back into accounts and remove your account by highlighting it and clicking the minus button. You can choose the option here to delete the home folder, which will delete all of your files. But if you want to be more secure choose the “Do Not Change Home Folder” option. Then you can drag your user folder to the trash and do a Secure Empty Trash. This way the new owner could not recover any of your deleted files. Do that if you have any sensitive information on the computer and want the added security.
Clicking on Mailto: links (gmail)
As promised, here is the utility I was talking about on the show.
http://toolbar.google.com/gmail-helper/notifier_windows.html
With this running you will be notified about new emails in your Gmail account, and when you click on a mailto: link gmail will launch.
The FCC is now providing an online Speed Test
As part of the FCC’s move towards broadband access for the entire country, they have provided a free tool that will allow you to get data on your current internet speeds.