I’ve known far too many people with MacBooks that have had their drives take a dump on them. According to a post over on Gizmodo, Apple is now stepping up to replace said drives, albeit with a bit of hoop jumping:

MacBooks bought between 2006 and 2007 could be eligible for a free hard drive replacement, with Apple dodging a guilty admission, stating that “a very small percentage…may fail under certain conditions.” If you own a white or black MacBook bought between 2006 and 2007, with either a 1.83GHz, 3Ghz, or 2.16GHz processor and 60GB, 80GB, 100GB, 120GB or 160GB, you may be in luck. Or out of luck—as you have to prove the hard drive actually has failed.

Read the complete article here, or contact your local Apple store to see if your drive is covered.

When Michael, from the 10centsworth.com blog found that his hard drive had taken a dump on his Macbook, he also found out that his machine was out of warranty. On his blog he posts about the experience of having an Apple store employee taking pity on his poor soul and ‘faking that it was still under warranty‘ to get his hard drive replaced.

My heart sank. I didn’t have the money to replace a hard-drive. He asked what I’d like to do, and I told him I really didn’t have any other option than to just wait until I could afford it. I’m not really sure if he could see something in my countenance, but he held up his finger and told me to wait for a moment. He walked into the back for a few minutes, then came out and told me that he’d just go ahead and “pretend” I had the warranty on my computer, and replace it for free, and even told me he would replace the crack in the keyboard that I got months previous from setting it down a little bit too hard.

If you own Mac gear, you’ll likely need a Genius Bar visit at some point. As to whether or not you agree with the dude helping out on an out of warranty machine…well, I won’t try to sway you, but I do believe in customer service, so I say two thumbs up. Hopefully Apple doesn’t track this guy down and can him.

In the past couple months, I’ve needed to hit up the Genius bar myself with the following results.

1. Volume switch fell off my iPhone – just barely out of warranty, and they replaced the phone for free.

2. Developed a single pixel line down the right side of my screen on my 17″ Macbook Pro — out of warranty, no luck. Estimated $500 repair to replace…still living with the line.

3. 2nd Gen Macbook Air hinge was getting wonky – well within warranty, they replaced the entire display assembly. HOWEVER, when I got it back, the case was tweaked and wouldn’t sit flat AND my sound was no longer working. Took it back, the replaced the bottom case, and sound card. I’m pretty sure that one turned out to be a complete replacement.

4. While in picking up the MBA, I asked about a missing plastic foot for my 17″ MBP, and they said they couldn’t just give me one, but to bring it back in and they’d replace it for free. Hopefully that means even if it’s out of warranty, since I lost a second one this week….

Gotta say, for my money, the Genius Bar has done a great job and taken care of my gear.

Via the Consumerist

Steve Jobs holds the new Apple iPad - image via Engadget.

This is the device everyone has been waiting for. Is it the one we’ve been waiting for here at TweakOSX? Well, that’s up in the air as of yet…but the keynote isn’t quite over yet…so here’s what we know so far:

• half-inch thick and weighs just 1.5 pounds,
• 9.7-inch capacitive touchscreen IPS LCD display
• custom 1GHz Apple “A4″ chip
• 10-hour battery life and a month of standby
• 16, 32, and 64GB sizes
• 30-pin Dock connector
• speaker and microphone
• Bluetooth, and 802.11n WiFi
• accelerometer
• compass.

The iPad runs iPhone apps out of the box — either pixel-for-pixel in a window, or pixel-doubled fullscreen. Developers can also target the new screen size using the updated iPhone OS SDK (available today) and take advantage of the sexy full screen.

UPDATE:

iPad also comes in a 3G version with data plans of

$14.99 for 250 mb of transer
$29.99 for unlimited data transfer

$499 for 16GB

32GB is $599

64GB is $799.

3G models cost an extra $130.

$629, 729, and 829 with 3G.

Follow live blogs today at:

http://live.gdgt.com/2010/01/27/live-apple-come-see-our-latest-creation-tablet-event-coverage/

http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/27/live-from-the-apple-tablet-latest-creation-event/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/27/live-from-the-apple-tablet-latest-creation-event/

As a wannabe musician, I’m always on the lookout for cool things to merge the worlds of technology and music creation, especially when it’s something portable. There have been various pocket instruments that have been released for the iPhone, and BeatMaker, which lets you sequence, but my heart lies with recording actual instruments…and today I got to try out Fourtrack, which does just that.

Fourtrack is simple to use. You fire up the app, “Arm” a track to enable it to record, hit the record button, and go. You can use it with the built in microphone on the iPhone, or use a thirdpart mic for iPhone or iPod touch. Once you’re done recording your track, you can arm another track, and monitor the first track through headphones while you record the next. You can do this for up to 4 tracks.

Read the rest of this entry »

The new MacBooks, MacBook Pros, and 24″ Cinema Display (floor model only) showed up at our Apple store, so we popped in and gave them a good lookin’ over to see if there was anything we couldn’t live without. After nearly getting the book when Ryan set off the anti-theft alarm on the MacBook he was fondling, we noted the following impressions.

MacBook

Paul says: – I like the new, more Air-like design in both shape and finish. Also, this machine definitely feels peppier than our previous-gen MacBook. Still stuck with the same 1280×800 resolution as before, which is a little bit disappointing.

Ryan says: – I really like the new design, more than I thought I would based on the initial pictures.  I, like Paul, wish the display resolution was tighter. Noticeably quicker than previous models and felt like it blew the MacBook Air out of the water speed-wise. This is almost a MacBook Air replacement for my light and portable machine, but not quite. An interesting note, I didn’t find the new trackpad much different than the current one. It’s bigger, but all they’ve really done is created the bottom edge so it tips down effectively hiding the button. That feature wasn’t as impressive to me hands on as it was when Jobs pitched it.

MacBook Pro

Paul says: – I could be drinking the dual video card Kool-aid, but the new MBP definitely feels peppy with all apps that I could open. Again, I like the new sleeker look, and really like the easy access to the hard drive. Since I currently use the 17″ high resolution model, I’m not sure I could move down to the lower resolution of the 15″, but that size factor is always tempting.

Ryan says: – I have similar comments to how I felt about the MacBook. Great design. Gorgeous screen. Love all the connectors on one side. I also like the new keyboard style, picking up the Air and MacBook design. If I were buying today, I think this is what I’d go with given the nice balance between portability and power.

24″ LED Cinema Display

Paul says: – Apple is calling this display ‘the must-have MacBook accessory,’ and I think I’m buying the hype. The new display is bright and crisp, and looks good from a design perspective. I also like the new three-in-one mag safe connector that has power, usb, and mini display port connectors in one dock-like cable. Built in camera, mic, speakers and usb ports are definitely handy, and my wife will love that it’s ‘the greenest display’ from Apple yet.

Ryan says: – Let me just say, I’m in love with Apple displays…yet I don’t own one. I don’t know that this will be the one I’ll buy. It’s a beautiful display. I also love the new connector cable on one hand, and am disappointed on the other. I can’t use this display, out of the box, with any of my current Macs. Also, no 30″ option (my current dream display)…yet.

Hands On Conclusion

Paul says: – When the 24″ displays hit in November, I could be tempted to try them out alongside a MacBook. (You have to get one with the other, since the new displays only use the mini displayport at this time.) Until the MacBook Pros get the 17″ refresh as was noted in the announcement, I probably would not be tempted to go with the 15″ at this time.

Ryan says: – All in all, I was a little disappointed on announcement day. Steve spoke and I was left wanting more. I love the refresh on some of the products, but I really wanted something substantially new. I suppose I could be tempted by a refreshed 17″ MacBook Pro and possibly the 24″ LED display to go on my desk at the office where I’d only use the notebook/display combo, but other than that, there’s not a lot that makes me want to move out of current Macs and into new gear. Other than the usual “new gear happy” feeling of cracking open something fresh

Just saw over on Engadget that Apple has confirmed the rumored notebook event, and it looks like some new notebooks will be announced on October 14th!

MacRumors had already released supposed shots of the new case/flightdeck of upcoming notebooks, and there have been many whisperings around the etherworld about new machines.

What else can they change? Thinner? Lighter? Faster? What are you looking for in a new MacBook or MacBook Pro?

Honestly, with the economic crisis at hand, and an election looming, people seem to be acting just flat out crazy. According to this report, the normally peaceful suburban town of Winnetka, IL is still reeling following the news Monday that a local resident, whose name is being withheld by police pending a full investigation, left an iPhone unattended for more than three hours in a car parked in the hot sun.

“”Security cameras have shown that the iPhone had been in the car—with the doors locked and the windows rolled up—since 1 p.m. Due to the tragic and highly emotional nature of this case, we cannot say any more at this time.”

They make people take tests to obtain a license to drive, but there is no test to own and care for an iPhone. Maybe we need stricter guidelines as to who can just walk in and purchase one of these precious gifts from above.

Click for full article.

I purchased and downloaded Intua’s Beatmaker when it first released earlier in the year. This “mobile music creation studio” that runs on the iPhone is easily one of the most sophisticated, if not the most complicated apps I’ve downloaded for the iPhone so far. While it’s been fun to press buttons and make drum and sequence sounds come out of the iPhone, I have to admit that I haven’t really learned to use this tool beyond very basic tinkering.

This week, as a drummer was out of town, I contemplated using BeatMaker to program up some of the tracks for the performance, but I realized I didn’t have the know how to adequately put songs together and needed to learn how to not only create patterns, but also assemble songs. BeatMaker is a different animal than GarageBand, ProTools, or Logic, my normal music creation tools. I looked to the Intua website, and found these videos, but sadly, they don’t have much in the way of instruction, so much as just a visual demonstration of capabilities. In this next video, they show how to assemble a song from patterns, but the dude is just flying around the screen without saying anything else.

I’ve since downloaded the latest version, as well as the latest updated version of the manual, and have finally determined to tame the beast that is BeatMaker. Stay tuned for my series on using the BeatMaker program and understanding the interface.

Flickr has launched a new iPhone Optimized version of it’s site, and so far, it’s not too shabby. If you’ve been using programs like Exposure to access Flickr on the iPhone, you may very well prefer to use the mobile version now.

You can’t edit, or use the Organizr, but pretty much everything else is available through the site as normal. This is almost like a lighter, sleeker version of Flickr, meant to perform well on your iPhone. Call it Flickr Lite.

Those heavy duty Flickr users out there will have to decide if this is a decent version of Flickr for you or not. I only use it occasionally, but do enjoy it for the ability to quickly load and show off an iPhone photo.

This may just fit the bill. Share your experiences about the iPhone optimzed Flickr on the iPhone.

Dang. 2 minutes compared to 2 hours. Really, that’s all I got to say. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Love comin’ back for the iPhone.