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Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

Who is the best person to contact when the Apple Store repeatedly fails to detect or repair a problem?

Here's my friend's kid's problem posted:

1: (Late June) Bought new 13" Macbook pro. LCD display was misaligned. Returned for replacement (10 days, because matte screen models are not kept in stock in-store).

-- At this point, he is alone at an 8-week Computer Science summer program, and since he isn't old enough to drive, all trips to the Apple Store are done via public transportation --

2: (Mid July) Gets the replacement shipped to his dorm. Installs his SSD, and within a few days installs Lion on it. Begins experiencing kernel panics at the rate of 1-2 a day. Decides to wipe and re-install Lion in case the install was borked, but has to install Snow Leopard first for access to the App Store installer ("restore mode" refuses to boot). Install attempts from the included restore DVD fail. Makes a trip to the nearest Apple Store, they determine his restore DVD is a dud, and then it takes them close to 3 hours to reinstall Snow Leopard on his machine (they tell him afterward they spent most of the first two hours trying to reinstall from a 2010 Macbook restore disk before they realized his was a 2011 model). They don't replace his restore DVD.

3: (Late July) Continues getting kernel panics. Calls AppleCare. They decide over the phone that he should have his RAM replaced. The AppleCare rep assures him the local store has RAM in stock and will be able to effect this repair immediately (he actually asked the guy to confirm this specifically). Makes an appointment and trip to the Apple Store, where he is told "We have the RAM in stock for retail sale, but as a replacement part, we're going to have to order it." They take his computer in for repair, takes around 7 days. When he gets it back, a screw is missing from the bottom of the case.

4: (Early-Mid August) Kernel panics are much more rare (still occasional) but the computer is still displaying erratic behavior, sometimes sleeping randomly and sometimes refusing to wake from sleep. Apps crash randomly. He decides to dump Lion altogether and try Snow Leopard, but then realizes he still doesn't have a usable restore DVD. He decides to wait until he's home because our Apple Store seems to be more competent than the one he's been using.

5: (Late August) Takes the laptop to our local Apple Store. Genius fucks around with it and is "unable to reproduce any of the issues." Goes home determined to capture the issues on video.

6: (Early September) Records various problems with his phone as they happen, and one day the laptop shuts itself off and refuses to turn on again. He takes it immediately to the store, where a Genius confirms the thing appears to be dead. However, they refuse to take it in for repair with his SSD in it, and refuse to lend him a pentalobe screwdriver to take it out on the spot (he used the one in his CS program's tech lab for the install). He takes the MacBook home and orders a pentalobe screwdriver off the internet.

7: (Early-Mid September) The next morning, the laptop boots up fine, but continues to exhibit the random sleeps and occasional random crashes. The day he gets the pentalobe driver, he runs a final backup of his computer and realizes it's getting insanely hot. Boots up iStat Pro and it claims a CPU temp of 150� C - that should be impossible (the computer should shut itself down long before that point) and I wouldn't even believe it, except that portions of his Invisible Shield melted on the bottom of the case. He shut it down immediately, let it cool off, and peeled off as much of the Invisible Shield as he could, but there are portions that seem permanently gummed onto the aluminum.

8: (Mid-Late September) Removes his SSD and takes the MacBook Pro to the store for repair. Explains the overheating issue, and asks them to both replace the screw the other Apple Store had left missing, and remove the gummed-on Invisible Shield bits while they're doing the repair. They hold on to his computer for 9 days, and then call him to report "It's working fine, it must have been your SSD."

9: (Late September) Gets his "working" laptop back. It's still in "diagnostic" mode, set up to boot in Verbose mode every time and autolaunching a bunch of diagnostic poo poo on login (they left me with this last week too, when I had my Mini repaired). Goo is still on it ("Not our problem"), though the screw has at least been replaced - and appears to be stuck. He can't remove it no matter how hard he tries. Walks back to the Apple Store, and they explain it's a "locking screw" which has a dab of glue on it to prevent it from coming out, at least without the proper equipment. He points out this leaves him unable to access the RAM or hard drive, which are supposed to be user-servicable parts. They remove the "locking screw" and install a normal one.

10: (Early October) He sends his SSD to OWC for replacement, and tries to use the laptop with the stock drive and the freshly-installed OS to see if it really is the SSD. Erratic behavior continues. Apps, including Finder crash randomly. Within a week of getting the laptop back, the keyboard "dies" - any key he presses, in any app, simply results in a "beeeeep" tone. He walks to the Apple Store immediately, and shows the Genius the issue. Genius wants to take it in for another week for diagnostics again. He instead asks for a replacement computer, per their half-official three times and it's out replacement policy. The genius refuses. Eventually a manager is called in, and the manager also refuses.

He has had this MacBook Pro for a bit over 3 and a half months, and it's been out for "repair" or replacement almost a third of that time. The other two thirds of the time it's been completely unreliable. For a good chunk of his summer CS program he had to borrow his roommate's computer, or risk losing data to a kernel panic. It's been one loving issue after another, and close to a dozen trips to the "Genius" bar and they're flat-out refusing to replace the drat thing, only to take it in for yet another week of "we probably won't find any issues even though they were manifest when you walked in" investigation.

TL/DR: Apple has been dragging their feet for months, unable or unwilling to fix this MacBook Pro, and I want to know who/where the hell is best to escalate this to.

Choadmaster fucked around with this message at 22:34 on Oct 10, 2011

# ¿ Oct 10, 2011 22:28

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 11:52

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

^^^ Edit: The entire past week he's been using it with the stock hard drive, and it's still loving up all over the place. I may just go into the store with him tomorrow and get into it with them (I suspect they're brushing him off because he's a teenager) but an email to the right place is sometimes more effective (and easier!).

Shadowhand00 posted:

Used to be Steve Jobs but now, I suppose you could try just escalating the process through management?

Like I said, the manager refused to do anything about it, other than take it in for repair yet again. Unless you mean call AppleCare and try to keep escalating the problem up the chain; that might be doable but sitting around on the phone for hours to get to the right person is a pain in the rear end. When I had an issue with my Dell monitor (multiple returns and the issue wasn't fixed), someone gave me an email to some customer care executive and one email to her explaining the situation got everything resolved almost instantly (hell, she even upgraded me to a better monitor).

I've had a lot of lovely issues with Apple's support myself, lately. It took two tries to get that Mini repaired, at 8-9 days each, and like I said it came back to me in diagnostic mode (mine was also forced into 1280x768 resolution - nothing else was even available in the prefs!). I was able to fix these on my own by Googling the solution, but for Granny McGee it would have meant yet another trip to the store. Their phone system sucks balls, too - when you call the store, an automated system tells you to tell it what you need, but this "smart" system doesn't give you a menu or anything, so you have to guess what the hell you're supposed to say. I told it I was calling about a repair they were doing, and it connected me to the damned corporate AppleCare and not the people in the store; it took me four tries to find the magic combination of words that let me ring through to the store (at which point the guy told me "there are no repair techs here right now, can they call you back?" and they never did).

... End rant.

Choadmaster fucked around with this message at 22:46 on Oct 10, 2011

# ¿ Oct 10, 2011 22:43

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

FCKGW posted:

Apple phone support is actually pretty good. Call them up, explain the situation you are in and tell them you will accept no less than a replacement at this point.

Also, Tim Cook is actually answering emails, give him a shot. tcook@apple.com

There might be another problem now; I just talked to him again and he told me that when they refused to replace it, he told them that California's Lemon Law (which covers any product sold with a warranty, not just vehicles) requires that they replace it at this point (near as I can tell, this is probably correct... if he were willing to sue them over it).

Apparently as soon as he mentioned the law, the store manager told him they were unable to continue attempting to repair his computer, and that he needed to leave the store and contact their legal department.

That would have been nice to know earlier. I don't know if this is now documented in their records for his case or not, but it might prove a stumbling block if we attempt to contact AppleCare by phone. I guess we'll take a shot at it anyway... And Tim Cook is worth a try, too.

Edit: While posting this, my three-week-old MacBook Air started exhibiting this problem with my HP LP2475w monitor. Apple FTW...

Choadmaster fucked around with this message at 02:15 on Oct 11, 2011

# ¿ Oct 11, 2011 02:08

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

japtor posted:

Did you check for firmware updates? I think someone with a new Mac mini here had a similar problem and the recent round of firmware updates fixed it for him.

Yeah, all the firmware updates were installed. It actually started getting worse and worse today, to the point where the monitor was shutting off completely rather than just blinking off/on. I took it in to the store and the Genius said they couldn't do anything about it, so I just returned my MacBook Air altogether. I'm getting pretty fed up with Apple's poo poo lately. On that note...

Choadmaster posted:

TL/DR: Apple has been dragging their feet for months, unable or unwilling to fix this MacBook Pro, and I want to know who/where the hell is best to escalate this to.

So, I tried the "escalate it via AppleCare" method.

I called AppleCare and asked to speak to Customer Relations. They wouldn't just forward me to CR, they wanted me to talk to a tech first. So I talk to the tech for 10 minutes, who after going through all the records and listening to me talk about the problems, tells me there's nothing he can do other than schedule another repair, and that he'll connect me with his supervisor instead.

... Ten minutes on hold later, I get his "supervisor" and we go through the same poo poo. He looks at all the records, and I explain to him the problems we've been having. After about ten minutes, the conversation ends like this:

Me: We've brought this thing in multiple times, WHILE IT IS EXHIBITING THE PROBLEMS. Your repair techs have seen it with their own eyes, so you know I'm not making this up. You've been unable to fix it, so we want a replacement.
AppleCare: We CANNOT replace your computer until there have been at least three major hardware problems.
Me: We've brought it in more than three times, the issue is YOU NEVER FIND THE PROBLEM... We'll NEVER get to "three major hardware problems" if you never find the problem to begin with.
AppleCare: Sir, according to our records, other than the time your RAM was replaced, every diagnostic we've done has indicated a "software issue."
Me: Every time you've handed it back to us, the tech tells us you didn't find the problem. That gets recorded as a "software issue"?
AppleCare: Well, if they found nothing wrong with the hardware, it was a "software issue." What I suggest we do is schedule you a repair appointment with a third-party authorized repair center so you can get a second opinion.
Me: And what happens if they can't find the cause of the problems? Will we get a replacement then?
AppleCare: I'm sorry, that would indicate a "software issue," and would not qualify you for replacement of the computer.
Me: I need to talk to Customer Relations NOW.

... That finally did it, and they connected me with a very friendly lady who was "on your side in all of this!" Of course, she ends up repeating the exact same poo poo at me. It's a "software issue" so they can't give us a replacement computer. I point out to her that this SOFTWARE ISSUE has survived multiple reinstalls of the OS by their repair techs, and manifests itself during a fresh install (no third-party software or use of migration assistant) so whether or not it really is the software IT'S APPLE'S ISSUE and she just apologizes and says there's nothing they can do other than try to take it in for repair again.

I'm going to head to the legal questions thread in A/T and see if they have any advice on California's "Lemon Law" before I call her back and bring that up...

# ¿ Oct 12, 2011 02:58

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

Sonic Dude posted:

It sounds like you called up and were angry/aggressive, and got stonewalled. Try again but realize you have to make the person on the other end want to give you an exception rather than do the bare minimum and say "nope, it's repair time."

Hey, looks like you were right. He called the Customer Relations lady again himself and tried to sound as disappointed and pitiful as possible (being young probably helps) and she finally offered a full refund. Thanks!

(And now my Mac Mini, which has been in for hardware replacement twice now, has begun kernel panicking again. Will this ever end?)

# ¿ Oct 20, 2011 20:20

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

DEUCE SLUICE posted:

What kind of mini?

2010 model, why? The issue appears to be Bluetooth related (it goes down after my keyboard/mouse start going wonky), but last time they replaced the bluetooth/airport board as well as the logic board and it still seems to be happening. And of course it's not easily reproducible...

# ¿ Oct 22, 2011 10:51

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

Choadmaster posted:

2010 model, why? The issue appears to be Bluetooth related (it goes down after my keyboard/mouse start going wonky), but last time they replaced the bluetooth/airport board as well as the logic board and it still seems to be happening. And of course it's not easily reproducible...

To continue this, I took it back to the Apple Store on Friday, showed the "Genius" a photo I took of the kernel panic happening, with the "trying to reconnect..." Bluetooth utility window in the background (always good to have proof). That was the third time I took it in with this issue. They called me back on Monday and told me to come pick it up; "There's nothing wrong with it that we can find."

I took it home, ran Memtest86 (passed), wiped my drive and reinstalled Lion fresh, and left my external Seagate hard drive disconnected (my last theory was that the drive was somehow causing the kernel panics, so I wanted to make sure to rule that out). Within 24 hours I got another kernel panic, this time with bonus audio glitching! I got that on video and brought it back in to the Apple Store again today.

The "Genius" listens to my story again, watches the video, then looks at me and says, "You know, we've replaced everything in this computer already. There's nothing more we can do. Try a different HDMI cable. Or maybe it's your TV."

Yeah, the same TV and HDMI cable that worked fine with my old G4 Mini, and my 2009 Mini, and this 2010 Mini for past nine months.

:bang:

I'm now waiting for it to kernel panic again whilst connected via my XBox's HDMI cable, then I will call corporate and ask for a replacement.

# ¿ Oct 26, 2011 21:58

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

Factory Factory posted:

Believe it or not, I had an HDMI cable give my Windows PC huge weird errors and even a bluescreen after I accidentally crimped it one day moving my desk. Swapped the cable and everything went back to absolutely fine.

Well, anything is possible I suppose, especially if the cable has been physically damaged/shorted. I never mess with my cables though, as it means unmounting the tv from the wall and moving cabinetry just to get to them. Unless a (mammalian) mouse caused the problem... I'll find out soon, I hope.

In high school, my friend's mom ran over his PS2 controller cord with the vacuum and just taped it back up. That thing flat-out killed three PS2s (his and two friends') before he realized the controller was shorted out.

Edit: Also, it would be strange for that to manifest specifically as a problem with bluetooth device connections, I would think.

Choadmaster fucked around with this message at 22:27 on Oct 26, 2011

# ¿ Oct 26, 2011 22:21

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

Factory Factory posted:

Believe it or not, I had an HDMI cable give my Windows PC huge weird errors and even a bluescreen after I accidentally crimped it one day moving my desk. Swapped the cable and everything went back to absolutely fine.

Well, I got another kernel panic while using the different hdmi cable. As an added bonus, I had my optical audio cable disconnected at the time, and there was no video/audio playing (since this Mac is my media center, every lockup so far has - coincidentally - been while watching video). I got the usual Bluetooth reconnection issue just before the panic, so at that point I was 100% sure it was he Bluetooth card, but I was still unable to reproduce it on demand.

I ended up stumbling over the "solution" to proving there was a problem completely by accident. I moved the mini to my room to more easily gently caress around with it, and attempted to connect to my wifi (it's normally wired at the tv). Lo and behold, it fails to connect. I feel totally stupid to not have tested this before, because Bluetooth and wifi are on the same card in the mini; how did it never occur to me to test wifi?? (Of course, you could say the same about the loving techs whose job it was to fix this problem in the first place.)

I schlepped the thing back down to the store today, now that I've got reproducible, unambiguous proof of a problem, and they actually took it in for repair this time. I pray this is the last time...

# ¿ Oct 29, 2011 07:26

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

Toe Rag posted:

How good is Apple with intermittent hardware issues? The display on my Mid-2011 21" iMac is not waking every 2-3 days (maybe every ~30 screen wakes), forcing me to reboot, which is kind of annoying. I can't find anything in the logs indicating anything wrong, and when I connect via VNC/Screen Sharing, the display still doesn't wake up, so I know it's not a problem with the keyboard or mouse disconnecting. Logs also show the VNC connection being successful.

A friend of mine had the same issue with his MacBook Pro (wouldn't wake from sleep) and kept getting it returned to him with "unable for reproduce the issue." He actually ran directly to the store with it a couple times when it happened, just to prove to them it did happen. The tech would acknowledge it wasn't working correctly, take it in for repair, and then hand it back days/a week later "unable to reproduce..."

The regional/offsite repair place it'll go to if you send it in will do a more thorough job, from what I hear. One of my Minis was kernel panicking intermittently (and by that I mean I couldn't track down a certain set of steps that would cause it, though there was a 100% chance it would say "keyboard disconnected" and then panic at some point if I used it more than a few hours). After having it returned to me multiple times "unable to reproduce," I was finally able to reproduce a related issue when trying to connect it to a WPA2-protected wifi router. I explained this to the tech in-store, and he told me they don't even have any way of testing that on site (they don't have access to a protected wifi connection)! I almost had to call up AppleCare directly and ask to send it in (according to the tech, they can only send in laptops from the Apple Store - anything else the customer has to call in and request a prepaid shipping box. Now that's service!) until we discovered the bug was reproducible on unprotected wifi as well. * The tech said they do much more thorough testing with lots of additional equipment at the regional repair center.

TL/DR: In my experience, they won't do poo poo for you unless they can consistently reproduce the problem. Sorry for the long rant, but I've been to the store and/or called AppleCare close to a dozen times in the past couple months and they were NEVER any help until I could come up with a set of steps that would reproduce the problem 100% of the time in their specific testing conditions.

_{* More rant: This turned out to be an issue with the bluetooth/airport card WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT I REPEATEDLY TOLD THEM I SUSPECTED WAS THE ISSUE. I even brought in my bluetooth keyboard/trackpad one of the many times I brought it in, so they could try to use that to reproduce the bug. They refused, because they don't want to be responsible for losing accessories and "we have our own mice and keyboards." Well, wouldn't you know, they were never able to reproduce my problem because they kept using a wired keyboard and mouse. Fuckers.}

# ¿ Dec 5, 2011 09:25

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

1997 posted:

You could have easily escalated this to their lead or one of their managers and things would have been better. It sucks that it happened the way it did, but it doesn't really sound like you did much to push the issue.

When my friend was having his issue, he escalated it to the manager twice. The second time, he pointed out the California lemon law (the text of which Apple prints on the back of every repair order you sign here in CA) required he get a replacement after they'd held it for so long without being able to repair the issue. She told him to call the legal department and kicked him out of the store.

Based on advice here, we escalated it through AppleCare instead, but at first even at the highest level they kept repeating, "there were no problems found in the hardware, so it must be a software issue. We don't replace computers based on a software issue" (this despite the fact that the issue presented itself within an hour on a 100% fresh install with no 3rd party software and persisted itself through multiple OS reinstalls by the Apple techs). Someone here recommended calling again and just sounding really disappointed in Apple's hardware rather than being confrontational about the specific issue, and lo and behold that actually worked.

As for mine, after the 4th attempted repair I was about to call AppleCare and escalate my issue up the chain the same way when I happened to discover the reproducible wifi issue. They replaced parts like crazy after that and gave up a week and a half later - I did at least eventually get a newer model Mini for all my trouble!

# ¿ Dec 6, 2011 12:59

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

I'm upgrading my 2009 Mac Pro with more ram, a couple SSDs, USB 3 & eSATA, etc... I wasn't really planning on upgrading my graphics card, but I figure I might as well ask and find out if there is any reason to, just in case. Mine has the NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 with 512 MB of memory. I don't do any gaming, just lots of Photoshop/Indesign/Fireworks/Xcode work. Is there any reason at all for me to upgrade the graphics card?

# ¿ Jan 23, 2012 00:30

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

duck monster posted:

Apples moisture policy needs to seriously gently caress off. I took in a 3 month old mbp with a hosed trackpad and they returned it to me the next day saying it was full of coffee stains. I got them to open it for me to show me and they couldn't actually show me where it was (cos there wasn't any I have never drunk coffee anywhere near it), but apparently some judas fucker sensor was tripped that was showing liquid damage.

Anyway, later on I discovered that IT DEFINATELY WASN'T liquid damage, rather mechanical damage to an internal ribbon cable.

Regardless I'm putting a case together to drag their rear end into the Trade practices commission. This sort of bullshit might fly with some dumbass turtleneck wearing graphic artist. However I'm an experienced technician, and it loving won't work with me.

gently caress you apple.

Apple is already in the midst of a class-action suit (more) over this issue (well, specifically with iOS devices). As for getting the repair done, if you INSIST there was no liquid damage, and there's no other evidence of liquid damage, leaked Genius Bar instructions indicate the company wants their reps to accept the repair. You can always try calling AppleCare if your local Apple Store employees are being dicks about it. I've had to do so multiple times (about other issues).

# ¿ Jan 27, 2012 11:53

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

Refurbs come in a box :confused:

.

Also, they come with a full warranty and are really no different from new. But for just 34 bucks more, do your thing...

# ¿ Jan 31, 2012 05:05

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

illcendiary posted:

To be fair, they come in a plain brown box. At least my girlfriend's did. I can see something like that possibly making a difference in the resale market, and for $34 bucks it's no biggie.

My roommate's came nicely packaged in a normal iMac box. Weird.

# ¿ Jan 31, 2012 12:19

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

flyboi posted:

These monitors are hooked up over DVI through a converter which makes me wonder if I need to get display port-capable monitors, and if it would even fix my issue.

Thoughts? Are there any monitors that are mini display port that AREN'T the apple display?

I used to get this all the time on my 2009 Mac Pro. Obnoxious as gently caress. It sort of started happening less and less over the years and now it never happens anymore (?!). Bad news though, it was with an HP monitor with a displayport connector, so that's not likely to help you any.

# ¿ Feb 3, 2012 07:26

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

Also useful: option + arrow keys (left or right) to jump word by word. I use it all the time. (Option + Up/Down goes to the beginning/end of a line, as does Command + Left/Right)

# ¿ Feb 11, 2012 03:48

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

NotHet posted:

I've got a MBP Mid 2010 (MacBookPro6,2) and I want to get an 128GB SSD.
What is the current consensus on drives? Performance is obviously important, but I don't want to end up with some buggy lovely chipset.

I was thinking the Crucial M4, thoughts?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148448

I'm liking my OCZ Vertex 3, FWIW. ($150 w/ rebate at Newegg.)

# ¿ Feb 22, 2012 09:55

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

KidDynamite posted:

Is it bad for me to use my macbook air to transfer pictures(in raw and jpg) from my SDHC card to my External HD? I notice that I have to "securely" delete everything and it takes a long time to do so for 16 GB worth of pictures. Is that affecting my SSD life?

Why do you have to securely delete everything? If there isn't some security reason for it, just reformat the card in-camera when you're done (every pro photographer I know reformats rather than just erasing the files. It ensures a clean slate and minimizes potential for camera write errors).

# ¿ Feb 29, 2012 22:30

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

illcendiary posted:

My guess is that they're just passing along the cost of someone potentially buying one $69 drive and using it for multiple Lion installs (which is less of a risk with a digital download).

The USB-stick version allows you to (legitimately) install Lion on any Mac regardless of previous OS, rather than being an "upgrade" from Snow Leopard only. Still a ripoff; should have been $45 in my opinion.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2012 07:15

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

KingEup posted:

What's the best way to get a cursor on the iPad?

Form your right finger and thumb into a backwards L shape, with your remaining fingers somewhat curled in (but not tightly balled up like you're making a fist) then hover that hand momentarily over your iPad.

The standard link-clicking cursor (see below) should appear hovering over the content of your iPad (note: iPad cursor is ultra-high-res and hopefully 3D). You can use it to click links, buttons, and drag-to-scroll. Other features may be discovered by using different cursor styles.

Only registered members can see post attachments!

# ¿ Mar 9, 2012 09:05

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

cbirdsong posted:

The version of Civ V on the Mac is pretty poorly optimized. It runs orders of magnitude better in boot camp.

This is true to the point that I found it completely unplayable (on a Mac Proo, no less). Granted maybe they updated/fixed it a bit since I gave up on it a year ago.

I'd definitely go for the 27". But I'd also wait a few more months, as it seems highly likely there will be an Ivy Bridge update in the near future.

# ¿ Mar 28, 2012 20:57

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

You'd be crazy to buy a Mac Pro right now, unless you were in dire straits. They're nearly 2 years old at this point (it's hard to believe Apple let things go so long without a refresh!). There's no way they aren't being refreshed by this summer (unless some of the rumors are right and they're dropping that model altogether).

# ¿ Mar 28, 2012 23:34

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

Binary Badger posted:

If you told them you had upgraded to Lion then they're the dicks. Most of the time when they replace hard drives the techs get a choice of ordering preloaded drives with SL or Lion on them. So for them to not even try to look to see what you have already (they can do it with a net boot) is just inexcusable.

Every single time I've taken a Mac in for repair they've made sure to ask me what version of the OS I'm running so it can be returned to me with the correct OS (they even ask in cases where they aren't expecting to have to reformat or replace the drive, just in case). It sounds to me like the people at his local store are massively incompetent. Calling AppleCare directly and complaining might get things done better and faster at this point.

On an amusing note, the geniuses at my store always use the OS reinstall as an attempt to give you a free upgrade: "is this running Leopard or Snow Leopard? I'm entering Snow Leopard into the system, is that correct? *wink wink, nudge nudge*". Of course if you ever need to reinstall you'd have to go out and buy it anyway...

# ¿ Apr 8, 2012 21:19

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

NESguerilla posted:

Is there any disadvantage to buying from Amazon instead of Apple? Just realized I don't have to pay taxes on it if I order via Amazon so that seems like the way to go.

No student discount from Amazon as far as I know. That's generally a better savings than not paying sales tax (depending on tax rates and the student discount on that particular product obviously), assuming of course that you're qualified for a student discount (not that they actually do anything to confirm your student status if you buy online, unless they changed that recently).

# ¿ May 6, 2012 22:32

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

PDP-1 posted:

Yeah, that's the thing I'm trying to avoid. The little dude is freaky smart for his age and has taken a shine to computers in general, so we'd like to direct any birthday present money toward something he will like that will also be educational. If his parents weren't both mac-centric graphics designers who are bewildered by a PC, he'd be getting a $300 netbook. Unfortunately Apple doesn't really cater to that low-end market.

Does it have to be a laptop? A refurb Mini would be pretty cheap, and there'd be no chance of him dropping it.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2012 13:17

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

hamza posted:

E: Also, don't know if it's true or not, but I was also told that the same algorithm that websites use to determine if your credit card number is a possible Visa/MC/AmEx whatever can also be used to generate a random CC number that may or may not be assigned to an actual card.

Generating "valid" CC numbers is easy, yes. Back in the early days of AOL my junior high friends and I used number generators to get endless ~~porn~~ free trials (you needed to enter a CC number to activate the trial, but they never checked it until your free month was up so it didn't matter that none of the numbers were valid).

# ¿ Jun 14, 2012 04:58

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

So those of you who have played with the retina MBP already: how smooth are the animations (ie to/from fullscreen, expose, etc) and how quickly do apps launch?

So far only one person in this thread has mentioned jerky animations, but the demo MBP at my local store is jerky as gently caress, and even basic apps take three or four bounces to open (even off a hard drive that would be surprising, but off SSD it's unforgivable).

# ¿ Jun 15, 2012 23:46

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

I really find it hard to believe its supposed to operate that way, which is why I'm asking for other people's experiences with them. Maybe there's something wrong with the demo unit at my store or something. But I am going to wait and see...

# ¿ Jun 16, 2012 00:04

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

A friend if mine just happened to get a retina MBP today and reports no slowness or jerky animations at all, even at the intermediate resolutions. Maybe the store demo model I looked at was having issues.

# ¿ Jun 16, 2012 05:54

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

Mug posted:

I just discovered that press the "End" key on a mac keyboard scrolls to the bottom of the website you are viewing, instead of the end of the line of text you are typing on, what the gently caress?

"Home" and "End" are treated as scrolling commands, not commands that move the text insertion point around. They are grouped with Page Up and Page Down, after all. You move the text insertion point around using the arrow keys.

Useful commands to move around the insertion point:
Option-Left/Right Arrow: Jump word by word
Option-Up/Down Arrow: Jump paragraph by paragraph
Command-Left/Right Arrow: Jump to beginning/end of line
Command-Up/Down Arrow: Jump to beginning/end of text

If there's one to move sentence by sentence, I don't know it. Edit: did a little Googling to see if there is such key combo and it looks like there isn't. Did discover a couple more interesting ones though:

Option-Delete: Delete whole word
Command-Delete: Delete whole line

Choadmaster fucked around with this message at 08:34 on Jul 7, 2012

# ¿ Jul 7, 2012 08:30

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

AlphaDog posted:

Yeah, that's what I thought too.

We took it to an Apple Store and waited for nearly 3 hours when they were "testing" it. It "failed" a graphics-related test, and they said that couldn't possibly be true, so they got a few other people to come and test it again (3 or 4 times) until it "passed", then said they'd hold on to it "for more testing". A few days later, they returned it saying that they "could not replicate the issue" and therefore there was nothing wrong with it. Apparently they didn't read the error logs, and they didn't take the printouts that I'd brought with me.

I'm pretty disgusted by the whole situation, to be perfectly honest. What was the test it "failed" multiple times before "passing"? Why do you even do a test if you're going to keep repeating it until it miraculously says all is well? Why couldn't they replicate the well-documented issue? Why did they not want to read/keep the error reports I printed for them (which all pointed to the same issue)? If that was because they'd read the error log, then having read the error log, why would they say "it's fine"?

I'm guessing that it was because it was nearly at the end of the REP period and given that she got pissed off and waited a few weeks before doing anything further, that period has now expired.

I went through this runaround with a bad Mac Mini for months. Constant freezes and kernel panics and they wouldn't fix poo poo because they couldn't figure out what was wrong with it. Without a specific hardware issue to point to, they consider it a software error and that's "not our problem" (yes, even when you point out to them it's their drat software, too!).

If you're in California or a state with similar warranty laws, it may not matter if the warranty period expired; if you brought the machine in with that issue before the warranty ended and they failed to fix it, you are probably still covered until they do.

You can try calling AppleCare and escalating the issue up the chain, but that didn't help me at all.

What will help you most is if you can pin down some way to quickly and consistently reproduce the freeze/panic/crash every time. Once you have that, and it's reproducible even after a clean install and/or network boot from a known good system at the Genious Bar, they'll have to acknowledge it. (I eventually got my Mini replaced when I discovered it couldn't connect to certain wifi networks at all.)

# ¿ Jul 9, 2012 01:29

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

Call Applecare and escalate the issue up the management chain if necessary. If they can't get it to connect to their own routers (especially after a network boot from one of their known-good OS installs, which I assume they tried at the genius bar...?) it's clearly an issue with the iMac itself. Point this out repeatedly if necessary.

# ¿ Jul 26, 2012 17:28

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

lol internet. posted:

So.. I got an email stating the 100 back to school gift card was shipped out the 17th of July and should be delivered the 24th.

It's now the 30th.. should I be worried someone stole it in the mail?

Contact them, tell them what happened and ask them to send out a new one. Shouldn't be a problem (I've never tried with Apple but I've have other gift cards replaced easily enough).

# ¿ Jul 31, 2012 07:25

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

Bimmi posted:

That is an option, but if the same issue is just going to keep reoccurring it seems kind of pointless. That's why I'm wondering how common this sort of thing is.

3 unsuccessful hardware repairs and they give you a new computer. One would assume your weird [apparently more common than I thought] splotch probably won't rear it's head again on a completely different piece of hardware.

Edit: Missed Legdiian's post there; edited for accuracy.

Choadmaster fucked around with this message at 01:24 on Aug 28, 2012

# ¿ Aug 28, 2012 00:45

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

^^^ Didn't catch that post of yours before I wrote mine. I've never heard of that issue and I work on Macs for some of my living. Given its relative rarity (hundreds of people bitching on a support thread does not make a problem "common" when you're looking at a scale of ten million+ sales per year) swapping the computer out for completely new hardware would still most likely do the trick.

chupacabraTERROR posted:

Oh no, they're not immediately updating their massive creative suite for your first generation high-end laptop?! A few months until an update? Definitely getting hosed here.

They were discussing the rest of the Creative Suite, not Photoshop, with estimates for at least a year before some kind of update, not a few months.

And take this as an example:
The multiprocessor Power Mac 9600MP came out in 1997; Adobe Indesign 1.0 was released in 1999; the dual Power Mac G4 came out in 2001; dual-core Intel processors started showing up in 2006 model Macs; CS3 was released in 2007; every Mac released in 2007 or later has had at least two cores.

In 2010, with the release of CS5, Indesign was finally able to render files in a background thread (so that for example you can export one large book and keep working on another), and that's not even something that required multicore machines to work to begin with. On top of that, even as of CS6 (released in 2012), Indesign will not use more than one core when rendering documents. With a 12-core Mac Pro, it should be capable of rendering 12 pages simultaneously, thus turning a 20-minute rendering job into an approximately 2-minute rendering job.

I could go on about other CS apps (like Fireworks and the millions of bugs, crashers, and interface glitches that have persisted ever since Adobe bought out Macromedia) but really that's enough. The only app Adobe pays any serious attention to is Photoshop (to stick with my earlier example, note Photoshop DID get basic multiprocessor support in 1997 and that has been continuously improved on since). When professional designers speak of being screwed by Adobe and predict more such screwing in the future, they predict from a solid foundation.

Choadmaster fucked around with this message at 01:29 on Aug 28, 2012

# ¿ Aug 28, 2012 01:22

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

Yeast posted:

Jumping in to say this is not true. To be eligible for a CRU, you machine needs to have several major components replaced, however this is no magic number or frequencies of repairs.

It's up to the Genius and Family Room manager / Customer Rep at Apple Care to make that call.

This contradicts what the geniuses at my store have told me is official policy (and I and couple other people I know have gotten replacement computers after major component replacement #3). They were actually using it to DENY me a replacement ("Your computer has been in for repair more than three times, but because we couldn't reproduce the issue, we didn't *replace any hardware* and therefore you haven't had 3 component replacements yet..."), though eventually they did reproduce the issue and do enough component replacements to give me a new Mini.

It wouldn't surprise me, of course, if AppleCare tried to deny replacements as often as possible anyway; it's expensive. You might have to be insistent about it.

# ¿ Aug 28, 2012 19:15

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

Syano posted:

EDIT: And its not like its going to be anything insane like a retina mini fridge.

I have a normal-size Kenmore fridge at home, and that thing has ultra-high-res 3D with touch interaction, temperature simulation, and smellovision (sometimes that's more bad than good). It's so realistic it's nearly unreal. If Apple can pack that same technology into a "mini" size that would use less energy, be more "retina," and could be installed in my dorm room that would be loving sweet! If they could do food installs online over the iTunes store that would totally be the killer app too (maybe that's why we're getting a new iTunes in a couple weeks?!! :neckbeard:

# ¿ Oct 15, 2012 22:42

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

Edit: d'oh

# ¿ Oct 24, 2012 07:01

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 11:52

Choadmaster: Oct 7, 2004; I don't care how snug they fit, you're nuts!

MrMeowMeow posted:

Anyone have experience using an iPad as a Point-of-Sale for a business? I saw this and it looks pretty neat:

I helped set up an iPad-based POS system using POSLavu for a friend of mine. How did it go? One year later they dumped the iPads and switched back to an "old" and far more robust POS system by Micros (who incidentally are running an awesome discount for people who are ditching the iPad).

Here's the thing about iPad-based POS systems:
1) They are incredibly immature (the iPad has only been around for 2.5 years), lacking features (occasionally BASIC ones) and being prone to crashes and glitches. Most of the companies making these apps are so small that the CEO and/or programmers often double as the sales or tech support staff.
2) Integration with specialized hardware like receipt printers is not straightforward and can be terribly unreliable.
3) Most require an internet connection to work (some can work offline temporarily) and all your transactions and other info is stored in "the cloud" (the POS company's servers, for which they charge you a monthly fee).
4) Documentation is typically crappy and hard to find (really this should be a subsection of point 1). Hell, even the websites for these POS apps are generally lacking in any detail, only mentioning the major bullet points.

For a small bike shop with presumably basic needs, (1) may not be a huge problem. For a restaurant or retail store with dozens or hundreds of different items, coupons, tax requirements, etc. it can be a bitch.

(2) is an issue regardless of your shop's size, but obviously the more hardware you have the more likely you are to have to deal with failures (we had multiple locations with a total of four registers and seven printers; I was called out to fix poo poo on a weekly basis).

It's point (3) that was the big issue for us. POSLavu, for example, has no offline mode (ShopKeep can work offline temporarily). Everything must go through POSLavu's servers at all times. Frequently poo poo just wouldn't work and their support would blame it on our internet connection, though our internet was fine (usually their servers were down, but at least one time this was caused by a bug they'd introduced in an update, but they continued blaming our internet right up until the moment their bugfix update showed up on the App Store). The last straw for us was when their servers went down for an entire day; every single POSLavu customer on the planet was unable to process any transactions that day except by pen and paper (how POSLavu is still in business I can't tell you). But even with a temporary offline mode, you are ultimately beholden to the vendor's cloud. Be careful.

As for (4) ... As an example, try to find something on shopkeep.com about the aforementioned offline mode. You won't. I only know it exists because I googled it and came up with this page that mentions it in passing. How does it work? Are there limitations? Pretty much every question you will have (and you will have sudden and unexpected issues) boils down to "call them and hope the support guy (whose documentation is probably equally as lovely) knows the answer off the top of his head - and if it's after hours at their support desk, hope you can get by without knowing the answer at all."

All that said, I haven't tried ShopKeep specifically. It was on the top of my list of iPad-based alternatives when we were ditching POSLavu, before we decided to scrap the iPads altogether (interesting note from an ease-of-use standpoint: Everyone working the registers cheered when the iPads went away. The interface on the Micros may be less "shiny" but it is far more straightforward and easy to use). Your use case sounds far more basic than ours, which means you're less likely to run into trouble.

In any case, good luck.

Edit: clarification

Choadmaster fucked around with this message at 05:52 on Oct 31, 2012

# ¿ Oct 31, 2012 05:47

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > Mac Hardware - 5k Supremacy

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