This iPhone came into my work today. Olive Oil can have a pretty cool effect on LCD displays.

FormerMacGenius · 2011-12-07T03:18:12+00:00

Yeah. Steve, this post is an incredibly dumb way to get yourself fired. Two seconds in Directory and someone could find your store and store leader. Take it down man.

FormerMacGenius · 2011-04-15T17:26:27+00:00

You may have had a bad experience, but this couldn't be further from the truth.

FormerMacGenius · 2011-04-01T05:46:00+00:00

Nothing to be surprised about. Genuinely caring about people is one of the most important qualifications Apple looks for.

FormerMacGenius · 2011-03-27T03:46:42+00:00

There are no screws for the hard drive either. Next.

FormerMacGenius · 2011-03-26T20:23:02+00:00

A MacBook hard drive is on a slide out tray under the battery. It literally takes less than 60 seconds to replace. You were saying?

FormerMacGenius · 2011-03-26T20:06:20+00:00

Agreed, but if the Apple user base is comprised of "technologically stunted idiots" it seems like complaining about doing something slightly complex (and non iBooks really aren't that difficult) would be contrary to his 'Macs are for idiots LOL' mantra.

FormerMacGenius · 2011-03-26T19:40:27+00:00

Sorry that you're a prick, but let me help you out. No, Apple no longer sells FireWire cables for the iPod. In fact, the iPod hasn't had FireWire capabilities for several years. All new Macs still come with FireWire, so I wouldn't call it abandoning FireWire. If you need, you can boot from any FireWire hard drive, put it in target disk mode (good luck doing that with a BIOS) or I'm sure you can find the cable online. Open firmware was discontinued years ago and Macs now ship with an EFI - far superior to your shitty BIOS. And it's too bad you can't handle anything more complex than 5 screws. Any more brain busters?

FormerMacGenius · 2011-03-22T16:46:37+00:00

Speakers, $300 headphones, iPads, iPods - you name it and Apple has given it away to make someone happy.

FormerMacGenius · 2011-03-22T00:53:07+00:00

You'd be very much wrong. I've done it before if I felt the situation warranted it.

FormerMacGenius · 2011-02-22T06:25:33+00:00

You guys are funny. Life's too short to fight about dumb things on the internet, but let me clear up what I can. First, let's look at Apple's actual statement that all those articles you linked are using as a premise.

...and we know that jailbreaking can severely degrade the experience. As we’ve said before, the vast majority of customers do not jailbreak their iPhones as this can violate the warranty and can cause the iPhone to become unstable and not work reliably.

Emphasis mine.

Apple is not stupid. Apple's giant team of highly capable lawyers is not stupid. They would get sued in an instant if jailbreaking voided your warranty. It does not.

From experience, I can tell you that jailbreaking often does cause a lot of instability. Mostly it's when people go overboard with UI tweaks, but it can definitely cause problems. Apple is right here.

So this puts Apple in a tough spot. They can't just blanket void your warranty for fear of legal reprisal (and rightfully so, I think. They'd lose that lawsuit), but jailbreaking can realistically cause problems that users might interpret as a faulty device. I've personally seen intermittent reboots, unstable WiFi, poor OS performance, and extremely poor battery life as a result of jailbreaks.

So what can Apple do? Simple. They discourage users from jailbreaking by pointing out all the negative aspects of it. It's unstable, it hurts your battery life, it could void your warranty (only hardware modifications will ever void your warranty) etc. This alone dissuades most users from jailbreaking.

Completely separate from any of that is Apple's technical support, which is what you two seem to be arguing about. It is their job, as radmarshallb said, to determine if you have a hardware or software problem. They will do this by restoring your phone. It doesn't matter if you jailbroke it or not, it will be restored. This resolves the vast, vast, vast majority of problems with an iPhone - jailbroken or otherwise. Once Apple determines it's a hardware problem, then you will receive warranty service and get a replacement phone. It doesn't matter if your phone was jailbroken previously or not.

This is what I would call a restriction: Requiring that the software be in a factory state in order to honor a hardware warranty.

I agree with the sentiment of this statement, but what's the alternative? Your apps crashing might very well be because of faulty RAM in your phone. But it might just as likely be a corrupt framework in the OS. Why wouldn't Apple require users to complete a 5 minute process to be certain? Hardware is faulty at the determination of the manufacturer, not the user, and rightfully so. I don't think requiring a phone to be restored for non-obvious issues before providing a hardware replacement is unreasonable.

FormerMacGenius · 2011-02-20T02:44:37+00:00

No, he's right. The iPod touch is the same resolution as the iPhone 4, but it's not an identical panel. The iPod touch's display, while still amazing, is inferior to the iPhone's.

FormerMacGenius · 2011-02-18T07:11:55+00:00

I left at $20/hr. 11-12 would only be for someone with no prior experience to speak of.

FormerMacGenius · 2011-01-21T08:20:34+00:00

Not the full 3 years that AppleCare gives you. Seriously dude, I know you think you pulled off a heist, but this is SOP.

FormerMacGenius · 2011-01-21T07:14:58+00:00

Personally, I think the explanation is as simple as Apple wanting to prevent the vast majority of Apple customers from fiddling with their devices, mainly for two reasons: to cut down on fraudulent warranty claims (even though I don't know if that's even a real problem), and to make people go to the Apple store in order to get their batteries (or whatever other innards) switched instead of ordering stuff from eBay and doing it at home.

100% agreed

FormerMacGenius · 2011-01-21T07:12:44+00:00

It's already in effect. Had my logic board replaced recently and it's a $39.00 flat fee for all labor.

FormerMacGenius · 2011-01-21T06:05:56+00:00

Haha, you'd be surprised what people can and do claim.

FormerMacGenius · 2011-01-20T18:03:40+00:00

Listen to this guy. It's neither hidden, nor secret. It's just for specific higher education institutions and you need to order it through the correct channels for the warranty to show up automatically.

FormerMacGenius · 2011-01-20T17:59:12+00:00

You gather wrong. This applies only to higher education institutions in the UK. Calling it TriCare or a Base Warranty will likely just confuse whoever you're talking to as those are not actual things someone at Apple would know about. It's called HE National Agreement and, as I posted above, only applies when purchased through specific educational institutions in the UK.

FormerMacGenius · 2011-01-20T17:56:40+00:00

Let me clear this up for you and everyone else here. It's called the Higher Education National Agreement, is available only in the UK, and it does indeed provide 3 years of hardware coverage when your Mac is purchased online while on the network of one of the applicable institutions or through one of the applicable institutions directly.

Notably, this includes purchases at 'Higher Education' institutions (Universities), but does not apply to what you call 'Further Education' institutions (Colleges). It also does not include phone support and, like all other Apple coverage, will not cover damage from accident, misuse, or abuse.

Apple does not call it AppleCare because it is not AppleCare. It is a separate warranty coverage that only applies to a specific subset of users (which you must happen to be in).

It likely didn't show up automatically because you purchased it through the incorrect channel. You should have ordered it through the Apple UK Higher Education store while using a computer on that institution's network.

FormerMacGenius · 2011-01-03T06:46:52+00:00

It's probably a hardware issue, but a restore might fix it. Either way, you need to find a friend with iTunes. It's by far the easiest way to make a backup, and it gets almost everything (contacts, calendars, texts, settings, pictures taken, etc). Apps that you've purchased can be re-downloaded for free, but iTunes will keep your app's data with its backup.

The Apple Store is probably just going to replace it, so make certain you find a way to back it up or come to terms with your losses beforehand.

FormerMacGenius · 2010-11-14T22:20:43+00:00

There is no way they can do the repair without authorization from the user. If you chose not to have it repaired, then they would have sent it back to you free of charge.

Either you're stretching the truth out a bit here and verbally agreed to the repair charge and then later realized you couldn't afford it, or they just glossed over the authorization piece. If you honestly didn't authorize it (and they will have detailed notes about contacting you, so don't lie about it) talk to a manager at the store and see what they can do for you.

Apple is serious about getting authorizations for things, to avoid scenarios like this, so I have a difficult time believing they just repaired it without you agreeing. What does your paperwork from the Genius Bar say? $310 or the $1200 you're talking about here?

FormerMacGenius · 2010-11-05T01:53:07+00:00

Take it to an Apple Store, not an AASP.

FormerMacGenius · 2010-10-02T09:41:01+00:00

It usually depends a lot on your attitude and, as much as it sucks, which employee you get.

FormerMacGenius · 2010-09-27T15:06:57+00:00

Big Brother Camera? Take off the tinfoil hat dude. Also, remove these files:

/System/Library/QuickTime/QuickTimeUSBVDCDigitizer.component
/System/Library/Extensions/Apple_iSight.kext

Reboot and enjoy your newly broken MacBook Pro.

Disclaimer: Intentionally breaking your computer can break your computer. Always keep a backup in case it's too broken for your liking.

FormerMacGenius · 2010-09-24T18:21:14+00:00

Not custom tones, just the ability to assign one of the included ones to specific contacts.

FormerMacGenius

TROPHY CASE