A couple of days ago I needed to transfer a large file and did not have a usb key handy. So I remembered that I liked an app called Datacase in the App Store. I bought it and started using it. However it did not work well on iPhone OS 3.1. So I bought another application as well. I felt that I should be eligible for a refund, how can you not keep your app maintained? I searched google for “How to get a refund app store” and found this link. Since this is not my work I felt it was appropriate to link to the original post as well as post the (Mona’s) directions.
These are the steps I followed to request a refund:
Open iTunes
Log on to your account
Go to purchase history
Report a problem
Fill out form with reason for refund (nicely)
Wait
I did that and got a confirmation email (it’s always great to know your request is in). After a day or two I got a nice email from Mike at the App Store. It said that all sales are final however, they would refund me this one time. I felt so relieved and happy. Thanks Mona for your directions, and Apple for being able to honor my request.
I finally got my iPhone today, Here is the screen that I saw in iTunes, Since not many people in North America get to see it I thought I might share. I’m really excited for the 3gs since I got the data plan from Rogers. I will be taking full advantage of the capabilities of the phone and data plan!
Today I finally took a plunge and bought a white 32gb factory unlocked iPhone 3GS from eBay. However after I found many auctions and wanted to get the best price since I was about to spend $1,000 CAD. I noticed a couple of the Australian and Hong Kong sellers said to check out their auctions which were listed on their country’s respective eBay site. They claimed that eBay US was charging more fees, and in turn that’s why it was more expensive on the US site. Their claims are true. However I took their advice and took it a bit further to get my cheaper iPhone. I went on both eBay.com.hk and eBay.com.au and searched there (on eBay Hong Kong click on the English beta icon on the right hand side of the bar at the top). I don’t know why some eBay listings never trickle through to other eBay sites, since you can still view them through any eBay site if you just search for the auction number. However I found the cheapest one at the time on eBay Hong Kong. I saved about $20-$30 from the Australian counterpart. The Seller has 100% feedback and all buyers are extremely happy with his practices. In case you can not find his auctions here is one of the auction numbers, you can just paste it in the search bar in any eBay site and it will take you straight to it. Please note this is for the 32gb factory unlocked iPhone 3GS. The seller always has black in stock, but you must contact him for white. eBay Auction ID: 260474046905
Thanks to Engadget, I am now aware that the 10.6.1 update is out for snow leopard. It fixes a handfull of issues, however the most important one was the adobe flash update that patches up a security hole that hackers could have exploited. You can now install via Software update.
Today has been a day I have been really looking forward to, because Steve Wozniak aka “The Woz” came to speak about technology at Concordia University. He started off by just talking and then he started answering Questions. I really enjoyed his session at Concordia because I got a better understanding of him and how he operates. I say this because he is someone to look up to. His work speaks for itself as well as his attitude.
I use my computer a lot. That is what bought it for. However there are ways to help keep it running well. By maintaining your computer the stress on the hardware is less, which in turn means your computer will probably last longer and operate better. If you know any other things to keep a mac running well please comment, as I am still a somewhat new to the mac scene.
1. Weekly Run of OnyX. I like OnyX because it is free, simple, and automated. I just let it do its thing. I highlight everything in the Automation Tab (Maintenance, Rebuilding, Cleaning). It takes a while, and afterwards the computer might run a bit slow for a while, because it is rebuilding a lot of indexes.
2. Weekly or Monthly Defragment. Since I am constantly Downloading, Uploading, Copying, Moving, and Deleting Files, my fragmentation will likely start to affect my hard drive’s performance. There is a huge debate all over the interwebs about if defragmentation is really needed for OS X. I feel that it is. What defragmentation does, is move files on the hard drive closer (and in better locations) so that the hard drive does not have to search for them all over the place. This will speed up performance and also keep your drive functioning longer. I am currently using the demo of Drive Genius 2 to do this.
Because of the rise of YouTube and video tutorials, screen-casting programs have become very popular. I have used screen capture programs in the past, however now they just don’t cut it. Screen-casting software not only captures, but it also allows editing. As a blogger, I sometimes create screen-casts tutorials, which require quick and painless publishing. I recently switched from PC to Mac because Macs make a lot of things easier to do. The main reason I believe this is because of Apple’s simplistic approach. I have started using Telestream’s ScreenFlow, which follows this simplistic approach (simple yet powerful). It had a very small learning curve of about five to ten minutes.
ScreenFlow Pre Recording Countdown (Click For Full Size Image)
Features
ScreenFlow supports high-resolution screens with ease. If you have multiple screens ScreenFlow gives the option of selecting the required source. The feature that I believe differentiates ScreenFlow from all other Mac screen-casting software is the ability to “Callout” a window after recording is over. This is no simple zooming technique, it actually makes the window larger compared to everything else on the screen. This could be handy in case you did not know you want to Callout a window before finishing recording. One of my favorite things about ScreenFlow is the way it saves project files. Every project file contains all files needed to open the project in one package. That way files are not all over your hard drive. When you are constantly moving, copying, deleting, and creating new files having one file per project is helpful for organizational reasons.
ScreenFlow Workspace (Click For Full Size Image)
Support
When contacting Telestream’s support I always received a fast effective response, which shows the Telestream team is there to stand behind their product. I have found some small inconveniences that I have reported to Telestream hopefully they can accommodate for fixes soon (At the time of writing this post the version I am using is 1.5.2). Firstly you must add a video or audio effect for each clip separately, you cannot just drag it from one clip to another. When adding an additional recording with the “Close ScreenFlow before recording option” selected without saving the entire project prior. It will ask you to save the project, but then it won’t record you must to go back and select add additional recording again. Another feature I feel would make ScreenFlow even more amazing would be the ability to blur out personal information such as usernames and passwords. I have received a reply from the support team looking into all these issues for the next version.
As a screen-casting program ScreenFlow ticks off all the boxes I need. It is a very powerful yet easy to use program. I can create screen-casts fast. I am glad the Telestream team made it very simple and not a full-blown video editing solution. This way the application file size stays small (13 Megabytes), the program does not get too complicated, and performs what it does very well. On a final note I noticed that Telestream have made this program amazing by building it systematically. First they got the basics down and slowly they add features as opposed to building it with all the features they can think of. That way the program not only works better, but also is formulated better. I would recommend it for any Mac user that needs to produce screen casts. You can Try and Buy ScreenFlow on Telestream’s Website ($99).
Ps. If you have any questions or are confused by anything in this review and would like an answer, please comment and I’ll do my best to respond.
Yesterday I was on Gizmodo and I saw this post. I saw this picture and I laughed for the good part of a minute! (click on the picture to see the full size). I had to post it, since it was technically part of my day. Credit to Gizmodo for the Picture wherever they found or took the picture!
To figure out which version of Leopard you are running. Click on the apple logo in the top left of the screen and click about this mac. (Below is an Example)
The Version of the operating sytem will be displayed like this (mine is currently 10.5.6)
Address Book
Improves reliability of Address Book syncing with iPhone and other devices and applications.
AirPort
Improves the reliability of AirPort connections, including improvements when roaming in large wireless networks with an Intel-based Mac.
Client management
Improves reliability of synchronizing files on a portable home directory.
Fixes an issue in Mac OS X 10.5.4 and 10.5.5 in which managed users may not see printers that use the Generic PPD.
Client computers that use UUID-based ByHost preferences now respect managed Screen Saver settings.
iChat
Addresses an issue that could cause an encryption alert to appear in the chat window.
Setting your iChat status to “invisible” via AppleScript no longer logs you out of iChat.
Resolves an issue in which pasting text from a Microsoft Office document could insert an image rather than text.
Graphics
Includes general improvements to gaming performance.
Includes graphics improvements for iChat, Cover Flow, Aperture, and iTunes.
Includes fixes for possible graphics distortion issues with certain ATI graphics cards.
Mail
Includes overall performance and reliability fixes.
Improves Connection Doctor accuracy.
Fixes an issue that could cause messages identified as junk to remain in the inbox.
Fixes an issue that could cause Mail to append a character to the file extension of an attachment.
Addresses an issue that could prevent Mail from quitting.
Improves reliability when printing PDF attachments.
MobileMe
Contacts, calendars, and bookmarks on a Mac automatically sync within a minute of the change being made on the computer, another device, or the web at me.com.
Networking
Improves Apple File Service performance, especially when using a home directory hosted on an AFP server. Important: If you are using Mac OS X 10.5.6 (client) to connect to a Mac OS X Server 10.4-based server, it is strongly recommended that you update the server to Mac OS X Server version 10.4.11.
Improves the performance and reliability of TCP connections.
Improves reliability and performance for AT&T 3G cards.
Updates the ssh Terminal command for compatibility with more ssh servers.
Printing
Improves printing for the Adobe CS3 application suite.
Improves printing for USB-based Brother and Canon printers.
Parental Controls
Addresses an issue in which a parentally-controlled account could be unable to access the iTunes Store.
Includes general fixes for time limits.
Resolves an issue that prevented adding allowed websites from Safari via drag and drop.
Time Machine
Fixes issues that could cause Time Machine to state the backup volume could not be found.
Improves Time Machine reliability with Time Capsule.
Safari
Improves compatibility with web proxy servers.
General
Includes Mac OS X security improvements. See this website for more information.
Addresses inaccuracies with Calculator when the Mac OS X language is set to German or Swiss German.
Improves the performance and reliability of Chess.
Improves DVD Player performance and reliability.
Performance improvements for iCal are included.
Fixes an issue when running the New iCal Events Automator action as an applet.
Adds a Trackpad System Preference pane for portable Macs.
Improves compatibility with smart cards such as the U.S. Department of Defense Common Access Card.
Updates time zone data and Daylight Saving Time rules for several countries.
