Why is it that some people can walk into their local Apple Store with a broken MacBook and walk away with a free replacement, and other people are turned away, with Apple claiming the repair is due to user error… even if it isn’t?
It has less to do with whether or not you actually voided your warranty than if Apple thinks they can prove you voided your warranty. And the most important tool Apple uses to prove you’re responsible for the damage to your own machine? It’s a tool that inspects dents.
I recently switched to a MacBook Air for writing, and it is easily the best Mac I’ve owned in terms of speed and comfort. But, like the sports car your friends assume you’ll sell now that you have kids on the way, the Air is also lacking in space1.
Now, I’m using this 128GB (with 4GB RAM) 13-inch MacBook Air primarily for work, but that doesn’t mean I want to ditch my music, TV shows and photos altogether. Luckily, with modern Internet™ Technology™ I don’t have to. I can use cloud services and a little judicious tidying to make my New York walkup-sized MacBook Air feels like a mansion.
At one point in time, Dom had a beautiful MacBook and iPad that he loved very very much. Then one day, when Dom was out having some fun, thieves broke into his London flat and stole his MacBook and iPad. Assholes.
After calling the police and trying to recover his stolen MacBook and iPad, Dom remembered he had Hidden App installed on the MacBook. And one month later, when the MacBook finally got connected to the Internet again, it started broadcasting all the thieves secrets, from its new home in Iran.
Unfortunately, Iran is a bit out of the police’s jurisdiction, but at least Dom gets to know who his adversary is, incase they ever cross paths at an airport. On top of that, Dom’s created an awesome Tumblr so everyone can know what the thieves are up to.
Here are some of the pictures Dom’s MacBook thieves have taken:
Even though it’d probably be pretty cool, we’ve concluded that a touchscreen MacBook Air or iMac probably wouldn’t be fun to use for an extended period of time, thanks to gorilla arm syndrome.
But what if Apple made an iPad/MacBook Air hybrid? It turns out that Apple has been considering the idea of it for sometime, and based on its patent filings, the iPad/MacBook hybrid would look a lot like some of the PC options that are already on the market.
Sound Cylinder sits atop your Macbook's screen... like a boss.
Rechargeable, portable, and built to live on or under your Mac or iDevice, the Sound Cylinder (SC) speaker is a first from audio maker Definitive Technology (DT), who usually focuses their acoustic talents on high-end home theater equipment.
Sound Cylinder by Definitive Technology Category: Wireless Speakers Works With: iPhone, iPod, iPad, Mac, or anything with Bluetooth Price: $200
But can Definitive Technology, with its years of experience engineering coveted boutique audio, create a portable speaker that usurps the top spot of the much-loved and most-excellent sounding Jawbone Jambox?
They look great, and Michael over at RAWBKNY says that while they are only designed for the non-Retina MacBook Pro right now, he’s tweaking it so it should work on the Retina MacBook Pro and MacBook Airs soon.
We’ve got a review unit on the way to see how well these work, but be warned: replacing every key on your MacBook is likely to be a time consuming process. $40 will get you a set.
Portability and ease of use makes the iPad the perfect product for staying connected – whether you are on the move or in the comfort of your bed. At its core, the iPad is essentially the screen portion of a Macbook with touch capabilities. But there hasn’t been a true keyboard that acts like an external keyboard – one that you can use that keeps the iPad the tablet it was meant to be.
It’s pretty much a forgone conclusion that any time we review a bag or case by Waterfield Designs, we’re going to love them. The San Francisco based company is such a maestro at stripping a cow to its bones then stitching the tanned hide up into a premier laptop or tablet case that dishing out an enthusiastic review of yet another one is starting to feel like a matter of course.
CitySlicker for MacBook by Waterfield Designs Category: Bags/Cases Works With: MacBook Air (11- & 13-inch), MacBook Pro (13- and 15-inch) Price: $129 – $149
So it’s with a profound sense of relief that I can report that Waterfield Design’s CitySlicker MacBook case is the worst thing anyone’s ever made, ever. That includes the Fredseries of movies. Scotch-taped together from what appears to be a beef jerky flavored Fruit Roll-Up, the City Slicker….
*snicker*
Sorry, I couldn’t keep a straight face. Just kidding! The CitySlicker is an awesomely stylish protective case for your MacBook Air that can double as a very streamlined laptop bag or attache case. Oh, and it also makes a pretty awesome lap desk. It’s just as good a product as any that Waterfield has ever made. But it’s definitely not for everyone.
A decade ago, playing a game of Tetris on a flight I was taking to Paris, I remember an irate stewardess telling me quite insistently to stop putting my fellow passengers in danger and turn off my Gameboy. I did, but not before asking her, “Isn’t it time someone Gameboy-proofed these airplanes?” She had nothing to say, because the absurdity was self-evident.
Ten years later, and airplanes still aren’t any more impervious to being taken down by a Gameboy, or an iPhone, or an iPad than they ever were… which is to say, they are just as impervious to being taken down by an electronic device as they ever were, which is technically “not at all” but, as far as the FAA is concerned, “quite likely indeed.”
Luckily, the stupidity may be about to come to an end, at least partially, with a couple of anonymous insiders at the Federal Aviation Administration telling The New York Times that the agency is under tremendous pressure to relax their rules regarding some types of devices during takeoff and landing.
There are some people in China that will do almost anything to get their hands on a new Apple product. One guy even sold his kidney. But if you don’t want to sell a body part, Chinese students have decided to accept some truly horrific loan terms just to buy an iPhone.
If it isn’t already obvious: I’m a huge bike nut. I’ve sold bikes, fixed them, raced on them and even slept on one once (hey, cycling is tiring). So I get pretty excited when fellow bike nuts make something ingenious that’ll let my bike haul my Apple gear. Case in point: Timbuk2’s new Basket Case duffel and their Cog Pannier.
Portability and ease of use makes the iPad the perfect product for staying connected – whether you are on the move or in the comfort of your bed. At its core, the iPad is essentially the screen portion of a Macbook with touch capabilities. But there hasn’t been a true keyboard that acts like an external keyboard – one that you can use that keeps the iPad the tablet it was meant to be.
Apple was caught last year selling Apple Certified refurbished hardware on eBay using the pseudonym Refurbished-Outlet. Allegedly.
The prices and details of these products were generally the same as refurbished products sold on the apple.com site. The products come with a one-year warranty and mobile devices contain a new battery.
But this week it emerged that Apple is lowering the prices on eBay, sometimes by quite a bit. For example, Apple normally charges $999 for a refurbed MacBook Air with 128 GB. But that same system with the same Apple inspection and one-year warranty went on sale in the eBay store for $899. Prices on other hardware products were slashed similarly.
(In addition, we learned, the company as been apparently working with “power sellers” on eBay to sell Apple hardware. For example, until they ran out of the 500 units put up for sale of 13-inch MacBook Pros selling for $999. These are new devices, not refurbished, and Apple is probably using the “channel” to clear out inventory.)
It seems to me that Apple is working behind the scenes to experiment with different models for selling refurbished and excess inventory. I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple was also trying other channels for doing the same thing that we don’t know about. And I also wouldn’t be surprised if refurbished gadgets vanished from the Apple site altogether, and for those items to be sold in the darker alleys of the Internet (like eBay) exclusively instead.
But I think there’s a ginormous opportunity here for embracing “used” in a big way — and it’s something only Apple could pull off.
Wall Street has spent most of the last six months hyperventilating about the future of Apple, chomping at their fingernails and openly wondering if Apple is taking too long to innovate in the post-Jobs era.
Over at the Apple Gazette, Robin Parrish has put together a simple graphic, showing Apple’s historic product pillars. Essentially, if you add it all up, the average time between major product pillars for Apple is three years and ten months.
TC Electronic’s Flashback guitar pedal ($169) is a multitalented piece of gear. Its robust set of delay and loop features make it easy to get lost in hours of guitar playing, but when paired with a Mac or iOS device, it does something no other pedals can do.
There are a couple of different ways to protect your MacBook from abuse, but this is a new one to us. A Reddit user decided that he was tired of the dings and scratches on the front of his 2008 MacBook, so he grabbed a can of Plasti-dip and gave it a nice plastic coating to cover everything up.
It’s either the most brilliant way to cover up your MacBook’s scars, or the absolute worst. We’re not sure. Plasti Dip was originally created to help people rubberize the grips of their tools, but people have started putting it on everything from car bumpers to pieces of art.
Once you’re tired of the plastic coating you can just peel it off, but we think a protective case would be a better idea so you don’t get plastic in your USB port.
Here’s what the MacBook looked like after its final Plasti Dip coating:
Foxconn has reportedly placed a recruitment freeze across most of its factories in China as the company slows production of the iPhone 5, the Financial Times reports. This is believed to be the first such freeze since 2009, and it’s seen as an emphasis of the “weakening demand” for some Apple products. But does the freeze really have anything to do with Apple’s devices?
An Apple retail store in Boulder, Colorado, became the latest target of a “smash and grab” robbery early Saturday morning. A hooded crook threw three rocks through the store’s $100,000 custom glass doors before stealing $64,000 worth of merchandise, including MacBooks, iPads, and iPhones.
Back when I lived in SoCal, I was fixated with the coast. The sand, the surf, the sailboats. In fact, I often sailed out of Oxnard, a sleepy seaside burb just north of Los Angeles, which also happens to hide Mac-friendly bag-maker HEX.
Makes sense, then, that they’d launch the nautically themed Cabana collection, a heavily striped gathering of MacBook carriers and cases, and even an iPhone case. And nothing says “boating” more than a copious helping of stripes. But the bags aren’t just all about looks; they’re also all constructed of tough, water-resistant waxed canvas. I can practically hear the seagulls.
STM has just busted out a whole new range of tech-carrying bags, from small purse-a-likes to hefty schlep-it-all backpacks. But the one I fancy most out of the new lineup is the Velo 2, and not just because it sounds like you’re meant to use it while riding a bike.
Apple has released a new SMC firmware update for the MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air. “This update addresses a rare issue on some Apple notebooks where a battery that has accumulated more than 1000 charge cycles may unexpectedly shut down or stop functioning,” according to Apple. This applies specifically to older batteries, but the update is recommended for all MacBook models.
You can find this new firmware update in the Mac App Store or download it directly from Apple’s website.
Even though Steve's gone, Macworld is still an exciting show.
Macworld/iWorld 2013 is coming in just two days, and Cult of Mac will be there, reporting live from the showfloor.
Macworld has an amazing history of being the launching pad for some world changing products. The iPhone debuted at Macworld. So did the MacBook Air. And iTunes. Again and again, products announced at Macworld have shifted the very pillars of technology.
Macworld is more than just a celebration on everything that is wonderful about iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apps, and the people who use them. It’s a summit that measures the very pulse of Cupertino’s incredible impact upon the world around us. With Apple at the top of it’s game, it’s more important than ever.
Not convinced? Here’s a ten minute history of the last 15 years of Macworld.
Last quarter was bright but the future's even brighter, according to Apple.
Apple just posted one of their most successful financial quarters ever. A bunch of records were broken for iPad sales, iPhone sales, net revenue, and net profit.
Sorting through the pile of information and numbers Tim Cook and Peter Oppenheimer just gave us can make your head spin, so we’ve broken it down for you. Here are the most important numbers you need to know from today’s earnings call:
These snazzy keyboard decals from MyBanana are a relatively cheap and simple way to add a splash of color and protection to your Mac.
Priced at £17 ($27), and available in a number of styles — including Lego bricks and rainbows — the decals are made from a waterproof vinyl that’s designed to last, no matter how often your greasy fingers caress them throughout the day.
If you want to protect your Mac’s keys from everyday wear and tear, these decals could be ideal. But do they work?
Oh man. I know I get a little too excited about device chargers, but the brand new PlugBug World from Twelve South will get even the most anti-gadget of you fired up. It’s a new version of the already clever universal charger, only now it also works anywhere in the world (making it global as well as universal? I don’t know).
