Tuesday June 3
 
12:24
 
How Is This For Crazy Customer Service?

On 11th May I bought a new iMac. A week or so later, I noticed irregular fan noise. After comparing with other iMacs in the store and hearing no similar sound, I decided to take my Mac back. Under Apple’s rules, a machine that has problems within 14 days will be replaced with a new one.

Apple said that the noise was “within normal limits”, so they wouldn’t replace the 10 day old machine. They would, they said, replace the fans however. When I queried the decision, they told me they had compared it directly with another iMac in their workshop (same building). I asked if I could hear that comparison myself and they refused.

This seemed deeply suspicious - why would they agree to replace the fans if there was no problem? Why would they refuse a comparison of my machine with another? A comparison would surely clear up whether there was problem or not.

I wasn’t particularly pleased about repairing a 10 day old machine, but Apple gave me no other option. I was even less pleased when to be told I’d have to lug the machine back home, then come back again when the fans were in stock. Apple could collect and deliver, they told me, but I would be without the machine for up to 5 days.

So I lugged the machine back home, and then on Friday I lugged it back to the Apple store. A 24″ iMac isn’t a light beast, you know.

On Saturday I returned back to the Apple store to pick up the machine. I carried it back home and promptly opened it - eager to hear whether it was now quieter.

Imaging my horror that before I even got it plugged in, I noticed that the screen was dirty on the INSIDE. Big streaks inside the glass on the front of the iMac - presumable from wiping the screen with a dirty cloth - and no way I could remove them. After two trips lugging an almost new (now 3 weeks) iMac to and from the Apple store, I would have to take it back once more to be cleaned.

It was 8.30pm and the store closed at 9, so I didn’t have time to pack the iMac up and take it back to the store - but I did race back there myself. The staff there change daily, so I wanted someone who was familiar with my machine, and I wanted to raise the issue immediately.

At the Apple Store, I was told that I should bring the machine back for them to clean the screen (surprise surprise) - but that it could take “a few days” because “you didn’t book it in and we don’t know what the workload of the technicians is”. I shouldn’t need to book it in. It shouldn’t need cleaning.

It wouldn’t be an understatement to say I was fuming. A machine which has a problem within 14 days should be replaced according to Apple’s rules (told to me verbally when calling the Apple support line). I’d accepted a fan replacement because they had denied a machine replacement. Now after carrying the machine back and forward twice, I would be forced to do it again, and be without the machine for several days.

After pointing this out to the manager several times, eventually he agreed to replace the machine completely. As you’ll recall, I was concerned about getting a machine with a bad LCD pixel when I bought my iMac, so once again I asked explicitly if I could check the replacement machine. He agreed.

And there was a bad pixel on the screen.

The manager’s response: One bad pixel is “within normal limits” (that phrase again). We will not open another iMac for you to check. Either you accept this machine or refund.

I tried to reason with him: Obviously I wont accept a machine that I know has a bad pixel. So I should refund and then come back to buy again? That means another iMac will be opened anyway, so why not just open one now?

He wouldn’t budge and the store was closing, so I returned home. Before packing up the iMac I switched it on to check the fan noise and was greeted with a huge racket. From the fan? No. After bootup I found that the technicians had left in an Apple diagnostic DVD. So not only had they not bothered to clean the glass properly, but they hadn’t even removed their test DVD.

Next morning I returned to the store with my iMac. This time there was a different manager in store, a senior manager apparently. I explained to him what had happened, explained that I would rather stay with Apple because if I refund the machine, I would be forced to abandon Apple completely and return to Windows. He offered to open another iMac to check the screen.

Thankfully the new iMac had no screen problems. Half an hour later, memory swapped over and the assurance that they would zero-format the old hard drive (I could come back 8 hours later to check), I was leaving the store with the new machine. Shortly after that, the machine was plugged in and restoring my previous iMac setup from Time Machine.

The thing that gets me about this isn’t that Apple didn’t replace the machine after 10 days. It’s the shoddy repair service and the response of “accept a machine with a bad pixel or refund”.

What confidence can one have in Apple’s repair service if they leave the inside of a screen dirty and don’t even take out diagnostic DVDs?

What sense does it make to say “accept a machine with a bad pixel [in exchange for your machine which had a perfect screen before we cocked it up] or refund” - especially when I could refund and buy another one, rather than accepting one I know that has a bad pixel.

In the end, I have my new iMac, it’s working well, and I’m pleased that I don’t have to return to a Windows only world. I’m also pleased that I got lucky and talked with a manager who sorted out the issue rather than aggravated it. It’s not all rosy though. I now have less confidence in Apple’s repair service and quality control. Eyal’s MacBook Pro video display died recently after an Apple firmware update, and from searching around the forums looking for others that had the same issue, it seems that Apple has instructed some people out of warranty that they need to pay to get the issue fixed. Further, it seems that every time Apple bumps a version of the operating system (eg 10.4 to 10.5), a bunch of software breaks - software that shouldn’t break, such as Adobe Lightroom, Nikon Capture DX (”a data loss bug”), etc.

Mac just works - so we have been told. I notice today that I can’t find such a reference on the Apple website, except limiting it to wireless and things you connect to your mac: “Unlike other computers that require you to spend hours configuring devices, a Mac connects to your digital camera, wireless device, or external drive and just works. Really.” If Apple are not careful with their quality control, they’ll slip down the track of being as dodgy as Windows.

Monday June 2
 
14:48
 
When Will Real Multi-Touch Come To The Mac?

When I bought my iMac, I had one concern: that it will soon be replaced with a multi-touch iMac.

In the end I went ahead with the iMac on the basis that the MacBook Air multi-touch is limited to the trackpad, and the MacBook doesn’t even have that.

But…

When I put my iMac in to be repaired (don’t ask!), the iMac was described on the repair form as “iMac Early 2008″. That looks very much like there will be a new iMac model this year.

Then this article, found via Eyal’s blog, talks about multi-touch coming in Windows 7. Another sign?

If Window 7 is anything like the PANTS of XP Tablet or Windows Media, Apple will have nothing to worry about - but I’m sure that they will want to get in ahead of Microsoft and have a proper touchy-feeling MacOS X out there to capitalise on the anti-Vista sentiment - I was faced with having to resort back to a Windows only world this weekend and I didn’t like it.

The main challenge I see is the screen: the coating on my Kohjinsha SA1 leaves the screen looking fuzzy; I’m sure Apple will want to keep a glossy screen and have it touchy. They will also surely want to modify the OS so that it can take real advantage of touch - rather than the Microsoft pen based approach.

What would be really cool is if the iMacs could be upgraded to multi-touch. This isn’t as crazy as it sounds - the new iMacs have a removable glass cover over the display. That glass could easily be swapped over for touchy glass.. :)

Wednesday May 28
 
19:35
 
PC On Mac On PC - II

I came into work today, set up the LG Mac, and got a bit of a shock: working Bluetooth PAN.

That made for a very happy day. I smiled and beamed as I surfed the net using Safari on Mac OS X, while sharing the connection to Windows XP via VMWare Fusion. I smiled and beamed even more as I hooked up a second LCD and found I could extend the desktop. With two displays, I could run full screen XP on one display and Mac OS X on the second display. Splendid.

The day of the virtual machine has really come. I now routinely run Mac OS X at home (on my iMac) with XP running in a virtual machine - and it is not even close to noticeable that XP is running on a simulated PC. There is no lag - no slowdown. I can burn even DVDs from XP using Nero with no issues. It’s nice.

Why bother? Well one thing I like is the separation of risk. My “life” is the Mac - it’s where I surf the internet, chat, listen to music, watch movies.

The virtual machine running XP is my sandbox. My Korean sandbox. It’s where I run all those Korean apps that don’t work on the Mac - such as the KTF app which lets me send and receive Korean SMS messages.

The great thing is that whatever I install under XP, it doesn’t affect the Mac at all. That may seem obvious - but it’s deeper than it first seems.

While XP bloats with background processes over time (especially from Korean websites) and there’s nothing you can do except try to manage it - now I can switch off everything XP related at the touch of a switch, just by closing down the virtual machine. When in a Windows only world, I sometimes wished there was a “switch off all the background crap” button. Now I have one.

Or if I want to try a new application I’ve downloaded from the internet, I can simply fire up a second XP session. I can try out the software and if I don’t like it, never install it on my main XP session. Less crap from installing and uninstalling over and over. Sure I could do that by having two XP installations on a PC rather than two virtual PC installations - but here I can have both running at the same time, drag and drop files between them, pause them. I can create new virtual machines easily, cloning from standard installs.

If I have a friend staying, I can give them their own XP virtual machine. When they want to use the computer, I simply full-screen that virtual machine - and they instantly have their own machine. I don’t need to worry about them accessing my personal data. They don’t need to worry about me accessing their personal data - we simply delete the machine when they are gone. I could even install XP in Korean or Japanese or whatever language so that they don’t have to struggle with English.

So I’m pleased to have this virtual world running on my LG Mac. I’ve tried running VMWare under XP, and it just doesn’t have the same fluidity and speed. On Mac OS X, it just works.

The only downside today? The “sleep” hack I found for the LG internal keyboard doesn’t seem very reliable - sometimes not waking from sleep, etc. Since I use a USB keyboard at work anyway, I’m happy to accept just leaving the internal keyboard and sleep alone.

Wednesday May 28
 
15:06
 
How To Delete A GPT Protective Partition

I reformatted one of my USB hard drives as Mac OS Extended format the other day to try as a backup for Time Machine, and today converted it back to PC format. Stuck on the beginning of the disk I found a 200MB “GPT Protective Partition”.

I’ve no idea what it is, but I know it’s not necessary. Being space conscious, I wanted to remove it - but I also wanted to remove it on “safety” grounds: it causes problems with Partition Magic (which can’t even reinitialise the disk), and, I think, XP. I don’t want to copy files onto that disk and then later find out there are problems accessing it because of the GPT Protective Partition.

Here’s how to remove it:

1. In XP, run: cmd
2. diskpart
3. list disk
4. select disk # (the number from the list)
5. clean
6. In XP, run: compmgmt.msc and select Disk Management
7. Look for the disk which says “Not Initialized”, right click, then select Initialize Disk
8. Select OK to confirm
9. Right click on the Unallocated space and select “New Partition…”
10. Partition as required

Tuesday May 27
 
22:45
 
PC On Mac On PC

How cool is this? My LG LW25 laptop running NATIVE Mac OS X - ie, running Mac OS X on a plain old PC.

Not only that, but within Mac OS, my old PC setup (C: drive) is now running as a “Virtual PC” under VMWare Fusion.

PC on Mac On PC. Lovely!

This is all thanks to Kalyway 10.5.2 (one of the ways to install OS X on a PC) and VMWare Fusion (virtual machine software). The only pain is internet access - I can’t get the Mac to talk Bluetooth PAN with my phone. I can, however, get Bluetooth running under VMWare Fusion and access the internet via my phone that way. I need to work out a way to let Mac OS share the internet connection.

Notes for anyone with an LG LW25 wanting to attempt this (and who has found this page from Google):
- The keyboard does not work during installation - you need a USB keyboard.
- After installing and booting into Mac OS X, you need to Sleep and then Wake Mac OS X. The keyboard will then work. All LG laptops have keyboard issues with Mac OS X at the moment.
- Internal Ethernet LAN and Wireless LAN do not work. I believe there’s a project in place to get drivers for the Wireless LAN working (it is standard Intel). Most people simply buy another LAN card (one that is known to work) and install it.
- Sound is working.
- Sometimes hangs during shutdown - not a big deal.
- I tried Leo4All and others, Kalyway is the only one that I could get to work with the keyboard, sleep, and sound. Make sure you click Customise when installing to select the correct drivers (eg, Intel 950 graphics card).