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After about a month of having the juice pack air, one day when I went to plug it in, it wouldn’t charged. I thought it might just be a one time thing, so I waited. Then I tried different computers. Same problem. So I then went ahead and took it to a local Apple Store. They told me to contact Mophie. I kind of wish that the local Apple Store could have replaced it for me, but whatever, not that big of a deal.

I went home and logged onto the Mophie site. That is where I saw there Twitter Handle @mophielovesyou. So I talked to the rep of the Twitter account and then was refered to the contact page. I filled out the form, and was off with my day. A few days later, I was emailed from a rep, who followed up with me on the issue. He asked me a few questions, we sent a few emails, nothing hard. The only thing I had to do after explaning my problem was take a picture of the case with the model number clearly showing. Did that. After that, the rep told me about the Policy. If they found no problem, they would ship it back to you for a fee, or if they found a problem, they would replace it for free. I had no problem with this. It wasn’t like I was trying to scam anyone.

I then gave my contact info, and then received a free Pre-Paid UPS shipping label. All I had to do was put it back in the original box with the cord, and send it off. Easy. Went ahead and did that. About a week later, I got an email from Mophie that said they had received the case and would take a look at it. A day later, I got an email that said Mophie would be sending me a replacement for free. Yes! They shipped it right off, and a week later I got it. The case works perfect and I am very happy.

That just goes to show you. Some companies really have great PR. There CS reps were kind and polite and always keeping me up to date on the process. One thing to remeber, is that companies are counting on you not to do anything. You have to contact CS or call them. If you paid for something that stopped working weeks after you got it, get a replacement!

Hey Rob, I noticed you ordered a Mac Pro. I was wondering what your thoughts are on buying a Mac Pro vs putting a ( legally bought ) copy of Snow Leopard on a PC with similar specs to the Mac Pro for less money.

- Andrew

I’ve waited very long, saving my money for the ultimate video editing rig. I finally was able to collect the money, and being it after WWDC, I gave my self the green light to order an 8 core Mac Pro. Now I know there have been rumors of a refresh for a while now, but at this point, I need the computer and I am not going to wait any longer. So, on Friday June 18th, I took the plunge and ordered the Mac Pro.

Now things started off bad in the beging. Before I did anything, I called the credit card compnay to inform them on a large purchase I would be making. They confirmed it and I ordered the machine. Now I understand, CTO is CTO and I also understand I did spec the machine out quite a bit, but keep in mind, it shouldn’t take a week. Here’s my configuration. Ships in 2-4 buisness days. Delivers between June 23rd-June29th

Two 2.26GHz Quad-Core Intel Xe
16GB (8x2GB)
2x NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512MB
640GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/
Two 18x SuperDrives
AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi Card
FINAL CUT EXPRESS.
Apple Magic Mouse
WL KYBRD + USERS GUIDE
Country Kit Mac Pro

Alright, this shouldn’t be anything new. I figured this should be a fast process. I was wrong. The first thing that happened was my credit card being rejected. Not a big deal. They called me, we got the issue taken care of. And instead of the order going in at 1pm it went in at around 3. So I also ended up ordering Apple Care and a Free iPod Touch 8GB. The Apple Care order was complete, iPod Touch Shipped same day, but the Mac Pro was “Not Yet Shipped”

On a side not, I did order through the Apple Education Store.

The weekend went by, everything was fine until around Mid Monday. You might have seen my previous thread, where I was explained that that Monday was the first actual Buisness Day Alright, No worries. Around 8:30am, FedEx comes to deliver the iPod Touch. Great! But still my Mac Pro is “Not Yet Shipped”. I attempted to call Apple, but because of the iPhone 4, I hung up at about 25 min on hold.

Now things didn’t start to go anyplace until Wednsday. It is now Day 3 of 4, and still not yet shipped. The 1-800-MY-APPLE robot tells me it is being “processed”. Now I was almost certain that Apple would at least have it pre-pared for Shipment. Nope. So I give them a call. After 25min on hold, the Rep tells me the info I already know (2-4 business day delivery, est delivery dates) and he says that the order went through fine. I wait and wait. I finally call up around 5 or so, and I explain that my order is still showing: Not Yet Shipped. He assures me it will ship, and even gives me free expedited 2 business day shipping. That kept me good, for a while.

I then called today. Day 4 of 4. Again I understand these orders take time, but when Apple says 2-business days, I expect 2-4 business days. So I decided to call again. This time I had to wait because of the high call volume. I call back getting a rep, hurrying me along, assuring me that the Mac Pro will ship today. Alright whatever. I then call a little later, and I get a rep who again sees my order is still: Not Yet Shipped. He at this point sounds a bit confused. He goes to offer me expiduted shipping, but sees I already have it. He sounds confused. He says he doesn’t know why it hasen’t shipped, but told it me it shoild ship off later today.

7 o’clock rolls around, and my order status has not changed for days. I then call again, 30 min on hold, and get another rep. I explain to her it says 2-4 buisness days, I have gotten no delayed notifcations, and nothing to indicate there is a problem with the order. She then says it should ship tomorrow. Wait that would be a week. You claimed 2-4 business days, you have had plenty of time to build the computer. The Mac Pro hasen;t been updated for a while, there shouldn’t be a shortage of supply. I ask her what happens if it doesn’t ship tomorrow. She says I should call them (which means calling to make it through, sit on hold for 30 min, and then be told to wait until Monday for it to ship). And this is where I am at now.

Now thank you for letting me vent my frustrations. Has this happened to anyone else? Is Apple holding the computer? I paid almost 5k for this machine. I think the machine should get shipping priority. Now have you ever had an experience like this? What do you think? Is there a problem? Is this the sign of a new Mac Pro? Or is it just a mess up? Whatever it is, I am not happy. 

My Apple Fanboy-ism is fading…

First off before we start anything, I will give you guys the specs. Now as far as price goes, you can do the math. I was fortunate to obtain an Education Discount, but as far as the overall cost is concerned, I find the exact price more of a personal matter. If you care that much, do the math.

• Two 2.26GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
• 16GB (8x2GB)
• 640GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
• 2x NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512MB
• Two 18x SuperDrives
• Apple Magic Mouse
• Apple Wireless Keyboard (English) and User’s Guide
• AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi Card with 802.11n
• Final Cut Express preinstalled
• AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac Pro (w/or w/o Display) – Auto-enroll
• Microsoft Office 2008 Student Edition
• Free iPod Touch 8GB

So let’s explain some things

Q: Why a Mac Pro?

A: If you didn’t know, my main source of income is through video editing. I am the main “tech guy” at my school and I do all the video there. From Open Houses, to Special Events, so Sport Games, and even next year with our live morning productions, I do everything. I am editing a football game every weekend in the fall. The Mac Pro is defiantly going to allow me to speed of production time a lot more!

The Mac Pro is also going to allow me to expand to my dreams. If I want to add more RAM, I can. If I want to add another hard drive, I can do so easily. It is so, so convient. This computer will also drive me through college.

Besides all of that I have done the following: I have been Student of The Year ay my school 5 times, this year being my 5th. I just graduated the 8th grade. I also have great grades, straight A’s capping off the end off the year.

Q:Any Accessories?

The only physical accessories I am getting would be a Samsung 24″ LED monitor. I tried really hard to find my current monitor (Samsung Syncmaster 216BW) but couldn’t find it anywhere.

As far as software goes, I am getting Final Cut Express, and Microsoft Office 2008.

Q: Why do you buy your RAM from Apple? OWC and Crucial are way cheaper!

A: In retrospect I should not have ordered 16GB of RAM. I know that is overkill. But when you’re spending over $3k on a computer, Apple does yend to cut you some slack with the RAM.16GB was only $450.

Q: Why 2 Graphics Cards?

A: I am going to run dual monitors. This also gives me flexability to add up to 4 displays at once.

Q: Why not go for 2.66GHz?

A: Out of my budget.

Q: Why 2 Superdrives

A: Streamline Disc Burning. Basically I can burn 2 DVD projects at once by creating a disk image.

Q: Why did you get A wireless keybaord and Magic Mouse? Don’t you already have them?

A: Refer to my Macbook Answer.

Q: Why don’t you add more HDDs?

A: I have about 3TB of external space with FireWire drives. I also have a 500GB network drive.

Q:What are you doing with your Macbook?

A: The Macbook (Mid 2oo7 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB of RAM) will be immediately be sent off to “boot camp” Basically that machine is going to become my TV prodction machine as soon as the school year comes. Basically the ASB will be starting up a live announcements/news program every morning. As the “Geek in Charge” I’ll be bringing in the Macbook running Wirecast as the main backbone behind the project.

But as far as right now, it will get a clean install of Snow Leopard, and then probably just used, for once, as a laptop.

Q: Why go with a desktop?

A: After about 3 weeks of having my Macbook, I knew a laptop just wasen’t for me. Everything I do is done sitting down, typed out on my desk. My Macbook is connected to multiple drives, FireWire Cameras, and of course dual displays. I realized that made no sense for me to get another laptop, besides, the iPad is all I need as far as a laptop goes.

Q: Why are you wasting your money on Apple Care?

A: I thought the same way you did once. Careless, free, and thought I would NEVER need Apple Care. But I was direly mistaken as soon as my Macbook’s Logic Board failed. I payed the price, and forked over the $300 for the repair. It hurt, it hurt.

Q: Why did you get an iPod Touch?

A: It is free with the current promo. Im probably going to sell it.

• I have an iPhone 3G S - I had my “Apple Fanboy Moment” last year holding off on the iPhone 3G and getting the 3G S. I was happy, and still am very happy. The 3G S will still be getting a fully finctional version of iOS 4 with multitasking and all. I also can record videos on the fly and upload them to very easily. I have a 3 mega pixel camera that still works fine. Remember people, this is still a phone.
• I don’t need a Retna display – Yes it looks gorgoues, but all I really do on my 3G S is read email, tweets, and surf the web. I never play back movies on it, that is what my iPad is for.
• I don’t need 720p video recording on my iPhone – Oh it would be nice! I will admit it, but I have a Kodak Zi8, and it is about the same size as the iPhone and it does 108p HD recoding with digital IS and a Macro Mode. Sure it is nice to have the connivence on my iPhone that I am carrying around, But I bring the Zi8 almost everywhere just because the quality is great for the size! We’ll have to see how the 2 stack up!
• Face Time is going to take time to take off - Apple really hit a home run by including  a front facing camera on the iPhone 4 and adding a video calling featue called Face Time, but let’s face it, until enough people have iPhone 4s, and until we are able to do it off of Wifi, and on 3G, there is really no point in getting soon. I am the geekiest person of all my friends and family, I know no one will be pre ordering, or even getting an iPhone 4 in the first year! Who am I going to video call, a demo unit at the Apple store? And a Wifi-Only restricition is just another burrrier that I hate! AT&T is looking for any loop hole they can find to get us to ease up on our data consumption. We saw a few week ago they changed their data plans. C’mon AT&T, improve your network, make people want to use your network and not be forced to use it just because they want to use an iPhone.
• I can tether on my 3GS - Yep, I can. Pretty simply put, I don;t need to buy a new phone for this.
• My Mom and Sister will be switching in a few months, I can wait - My Mom and Sister are coming to an end on there 2 year contract with Verizon and will be jumping ship for an iPhone 4 in just a few months. I can wait just a little while. At least then I can have someone to video chat with! And yes, I am eligible for an upgrade according to AT&T.
• I bought an iPad! - I had another one of my “Apple Fanboy Moments” just last month as I pre-ordered my Wifi iPad, and tracked it overseas to my door step. It was a great experience and I am still enjoying my iPad today!

And this last point it probably the most important one of all….

• I just bought a Mac Pro! - I have been looking for a new editing rig, and this will be it. (Look for a future post explaning why i got ordered a Mac Pro) The Mac Pro is a pretty awesome computer and I must admit, after specing it out, getting the monitors, and other goodies, this thing was not cheap! Far from cheap! So I really don’t have the money to spend on an iPhone 4.

So there you go. There are my reasons why I will not be immediately rushing out to the store and buying an iPhone 4. Now like I said, without a doubt in my mind, I will be getting an iPhone 4 sometime in 2010, but just not right now. I will be interested to see the camera quality and see how exactly well Face Time works. So let me know in the comments, will you be pre-ordering or waiting in line for an iPhone 4, or are you happy with the phone you have now?

In this Daily Mac Tip video, I show you how to unlock those Mac OS X desktop files that just won’t seem to move.

So if you didn’t already know, the theme I am using is a somehwat customized version of the WP Premium Theme, Arthemia. Arthemia is a very powerful which has caused me much pain and headache to configure. Let’s just say it’s certuianly not an “out of the box” theme. I clocked more FTP connection hours in the past frew weeks then I have over the last few months! Besideds all the headache, I really do think the theme is beautufil. It let’s me show off my content right on the fornt page, and it will also encorperate well with the new anouncment.

BETA RELEASE NOTES

One of the new things on the front page would be the catagorries. The categories  give people a little bit easier way of navigating to the content they want to see. As of now, I haven’t put anything (or at least not uch) in some of them, but I am working hard!

Another thing would be Adsense optomazation. The Banners need work, and I am working on fixing that and getting better placement and whatnot.

The image thumbnails gernerated need resizing sometimes. That is another thing being worked on.

Links to all of my socail networks are also coming soon.

The Beta logo will be off soon!

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from Robert Rosenfeld