Marianne Schultz

the musings of a geeky girl

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Geeky girl strikes out at Genius Bar

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I wrote about my experience getting a Rev. B (the second update to the model, for those of you uninitiated in Apple geek speak) MacBook Air last November. I promptly declared it perfect, and frankly, overlooked an issue that has become more glaring the more I use it: gray lines on the display. MacNN wrote about this issue in December and there has been much discussion on the MacRumors.com forum dedicated to the MacBook Air about it. So, I finally decided to take it into an Apple store to see if anything could be done about it. I’ll be honest – the only viable solution in my head was a replacement, and if a screen replacement was going to be offered, I was going to decline. I have horrible luck with these sorts of things and I envisioned it coming back to me with multiple dings and scratches and even more prominent gray lines on the screen. No, thank you.

A bit tricky to see here, but the damn things are there! Grrr!
(Photo courtesy of Macrumors.com)
I traipse happily into my local Apple store Friday afternoon just in time for my appointment. Unfortunately, the Genius I get is absolutely unsympathetic to my plight, claiming to barely seen the lines, thinking that they could actually be part of the screen’s anti-glare coating, though he retracted this when I pointed out it has a glossy screen and they’re not visible when the screen is off. He was completely immune to my geek girl charm, even though I was wearing my Nerds 4 Ever shirt and my stylish-yet-serious glasses (they’re Versace, biotch!). I must be losing my touch.
He offered to replace the screen, which would take 3 to 5 days. I begged off since, a.) I can’t do with my Mac for that long at this time (or for any amount of time, as sad as that sounds), and b.) as I mentioned, I’m not letting anyone manhandle my beloved MacBook Air. So, I’ll live with the lines. They don’t bother me too much unless I’m thinking about it and they’re not an issue at all when I have it connected to my 20″ Cinema Display, which I use as my main display, of course.
At any rate, it does appear to be a widespread issue – it’s noted in a couple of discussion threads at the Apple Support forums here and here, on a ZDNet review of the MacBook Air here, and in the aforementioned MacRumors forums here. Now, I’m not the kind of girl who goes to start petitions and picket lines when I’m riled up about something, but I have half a mind to add my support to others experiencing this issue to get Apple to address it. I’ve never seen these lines on any of the previous Mac portables I’ve used (multiple MacBooks and PowerBooks over the years) and I don’t think they’re normal. What bothers me most is that I paid $2,500 for this computer, and while I don’t expect perfection in every unit that comes off of a production line, I don’t expect to see a widespread issue like this manifest itself. I’ve read of some folks who open up their new Macs while they’re still at the store to check it over before they leave with it. I think I’m going to start doing that the next time I get a new Mac…

Must. Get. iPhone. 3G S.

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I’ve already said that I definitely plan on getting the new iPhone 3G S. However, how I do it this time around is going to be a bit different. See, I waited in line at an Apple or an AT&T store to get my first-generation iPhone and my first iPhone 3G. This time around, I’m not eligible for upgrade pricing from AT&T to get the 32GB iPhone 3G S for $299 (which doesn’t surprise me and does not cause me to complain since they subsidized my first iPhone 3G less than a year ago), so I’m going to try to get it through a kind friend with family in New Zealand where they will hopefully be sold in a factory-unlocked state again. However, I still may get one from AT&T on launch date and then just return it before the 30-day return period is up. I’m not sure I can bear not having the latest iPhone for at least a little while after it’s released.

Also, I’m pursuing this sneaky method of getting an iPhone 3G S because I don’t want to sign up for another 2 years with AT&T. While I have no plans to switch providers, I’m tired enough of them that I don’t want to be stuck with them. I still remember the change in text messaging from the first-generation iPhone to the iPhone 3G. With the first-generation iPhone, 200 text messages were included for free with the data plan, and this changed with the iPhone 3G, requiring $5/month to get 200 text messages. So, in addition to the $10/month bump in the cost of the data plan, you had to pay $5/month more to get the same number of text messages, adding up to an additional $180 per year in plan costs to go from the first-generation iPhone to the iPhone 3G. Bastards.

Now that you know about my devious iPhone 3G S obtainment plan, I must say that I am in iPhone heaven right about now what with the final 3.0 version coming out soon and the TomTom and Navigon navigation apps due out soon. I’ve used TomTom devices and software for years now, but I think I’ll also check out Navigon’s to see if I like it more. I know TomTom is putting out a cradle to go with theirs, but suction-cup window mounts inevitably drive me batty by falling off no matter what I do and I already have a ProClip mount in my car that I’d rather keep using. However, the TomTom window mount accessory will have one major thing in its favor – its own GPS receiver to supplement the iPhone’s. I imagine this will result in better GPS reception and tracking while you’re on the move, providing an advantage over the Navigon app. Hmmm, I don’t know. What if I buy the Navigon app but find that the iPhone’s GPS chip isn’t really robust enough to provide solid navigation? Then I’d have to buy the TomTom app to go with the GPS-boosted cradle. I suppose I should wait for reviews, or get impatient and just do my own review to see. 😉
TomTom has put their iPhone app and cradle video up on YouTube:
On the Mac front, I’m not entirely thrilled about the substantially-lowered price of the MacBook Air considering what I paid for mine in November, but I am happy about the $29 upgrade price for Snow Leopard. As I type this, my husband’s MacBook appears to have gone tits up, and I’m trying to duplicate his hard drive before I need to do anything drastic to fix it. He’s running Tiger and did not have Time Machine to automatically back up his data, and I think it’s high time to get him to Leopard, or Snow Leopard at this point, to remedy this situation since he’s apparently bound and determined to not back up on his own. Which I’ve told him he should do. Several times. How bad would it be if I made up an “I told you so” song and sing it to him repeatedly when he gets home from work today? Are we talking wife-strangling bad? Or just I-won’t-speak-to-you-for-a-few-days bad? It would be really helpful to know this in advance. 

I’ll never buy refurbished again – wireless modem EPIC FAIL

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My wireless modem (the USBConnect Mercury made by Sierra Wireless) arrived last night and though I wasn’t able to try it out right away without a USB extension cable (I’ve ordered one but it hasn’t arrived yet), I did download the software from Sierra Wireless’s site to be prepared for it. At work this morning, I borrowed a cable and tried it out, and it worked brilliantly for all of 10 seconds, and then abruptly stopped working. I did immediately think that something went wrong with the modem internally, but valiantly tried to troubleshoot and get it working again. In the end, I spent far too much time trying to get it to work and Sierra Wireless support deemed it broken and eligible for return after much angst and irritation on my part. 

I had to go through a round of troubleshooting with AT&T tech support first, which was absolutely USELESS. The script-driven and inattentive support specialist kept sending me PC instructions and gave me information in direct conflict with what I’d found on Sierra Wireless’s site own support site. Idiots. Needless to say, I gave the worst possible scores and scathing commentary in the customer feedback survey right after, not that it will actually change anything about how they operate…

I have purchased refurbished items before and had no problems. The best example was a Blackberry 8700c from AT&T a couple of years ago that looked brand new and performed flawlessly. My refurbished stuff luck has apparently run out, though I think I’ll have no choice but to get another refurbished modem as a replacement for this one. I need to look at AT&T’s policies first to see if I need to return this by mail or if I can simply bring it to a local store to get a replacement. At this rate, it will be some long, convoluted process that will require me to package it in exactly 3.79 sheets of bubble wrap in a blue box sent via unicycle courier. Ugh.

I caved and bought a wireless USB modem

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I’m not quite sure why I agonized over this decision for so long since it’s not like me to be wishy-washy about gadgets I want to buy. But I caved today after yet another commute on the train without Wi-Fi onboard this morning. I shake my fist at you, MBTA!

Although I got free 2-day shipping with my order, I’m quite sure AT&T won’t get around to sending it out until after Christmas, so it will be a little while. This gives me time to find a USB extension cable since I’m nearly positive it won’t fit into the USB port on my MacBook Air with its limited clearance. RadioShack, I shall hunt thee with a vengeance.
Hmmm, I should do a review on this modem. When I Googled for information on it, there wasn’t much in the way of reviews, so there’s definitely a dearth of detailed information from a user’s point of view on it on the interwebs. Geeky girl to the rescue!

I spoke too soon…

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Yesterday, I complained in my blog (compblogged? blained?) that the MBTA seemed unlikely to get around to actually wiring the commuter rail cars with Wi-Fi as they’d previously announced. Well, I was wrong. This very morning, 2 cars on my train had been transformed into moving orange billboards for AT&T Wi-Fi. Once on board, I whipped out my MacBook Air and connected to the network and tried to load a page. I waited. And waited some more. And then… the page finally loaded. Having free Wi-Fi is good, but if it’s always this dog-slow, I will still be considering a USB modem for my Mac. I get better speeds tethering my Mac to my iPhone 3G along the same route than what I saw on the train’s Wi-Fi network this morning. WTF?

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