Month: June 2006

I buy a lot of Mac hardware. A lot. I do make a lot of use out of my machines. They’re in operation probably 18 hours a day. They’re not left in conditions that would cause overheating (hard to imagine something overheating in Ireland anyway).

Okay, maybe not a lot compared to a Mac-based university department, but a lot of Macs nonetheless. (Something to do with owning a Mac-based company or two) I’ve had a mixed bag of hardware recently. A top of the range 1 GHz Titanium PowerBook with a bad superdrive and logic board. A top of the range 1.25 GHz Aluminium PowerBook that had three replacement logic boards, one hard drive and an optical drive. A top of the range 1.67 GHz Aluminium PowerBook which has had a logic board and optical drive and keyboard assembly replaced so far and the logic board has just failed again. A top of the range Macbook Pro which had to be replaced almost immediately due a problem where it would die upon “waking” from sleep and the new Macbook Pro has had a logic board replacement already.

Back in December, I wrote a letter to Apple to highlight the continued problems with my Powerbooks. A very nice man called back and reassured me about the efficacy of Apple hardware. I declined the offer of some free software and said I’d call him directly WHEN the unit failed again. This was a bit of a change – thinking about hardware failure as “when” and not “if”. I ended up calling him when Apple were a bit slow off the mark with my brand new top of the range MacBook Pro had serious difficulties. It’s relevant to note at this point that this MacBook Pro is not being used by me. It runs too hot and so I was using the PowerBook full time.

And then two days ago, it refused to wake from sleep. And upon being shut off, then wouldn’t boot. Diagnosis shows that the logic board has failed. Power is getting through fine. It’s just undead. And yes, it’s STILL within it’s first year warranty.

Apple says they will replace it. With a bottom of the range MacBook Pro. Lower end processor. Lower end graphics card. Lower end hard drive. Lower end RAM. With no trimmings. Nevermind that I’ll have to replace my PCMCIA hardware, and that the extra battery I have is now useless. Same goes for my extra gig of RAM and seeing as the MacBook Pro doesn’t have a FireWire 800 port, my FW800 stuff as well. I’d have to wait for an ExpressCard FW800 adapter.

As I mentioned I already have a previous top of the range MacBook Pro. And I’m not particularly happy with it either. The better wireless range is barely satisfactory when your hands suffer from heat fatigue just from typing on it. And the whining from the processors? I’m inspired to point you at Daniel Jalkut’s MacBook Pro Complaints page which is always good for a laugh. Mine has never been THIS bad, but it’s close.

So the PowerBook goes back in for repair. Again. And can you guess on whether I’m going to buy AppleCare for it?

You betcha.

Addendum: I reckon I’d have accepted a low end MacBook Pro if they’d offered one with a glossy screen and a modem

Mac-Sys now have a blog. It’s just getting started and not linked from the main page as they build up some content but it’s certainly there.

Mac-Sys Ltd was started 3 years ago (this week) by yours truly and is currently the only Apple Authorised Service Provider in Northern Ireland. The team there are some of the best guys I’ve ever worked with. You can’t buy enthusiasm like that.

Their blog will cover tips and tricks, how to deal with a dropped iPod or Powerbook, what to do if your Mac is crashing continuously and other useful tidbits. It’ll hopefully usher in a few more business blogs too as there are several PC companies who use Mac-Sys for Mac servicing (put it like this – any company in NI that says they can fix Macs or iPods? They bring them up to Mallusk to see Mac-Sys!)

Mac-Sys also had a preview of SyncBridge yesterday and they were really pleased with it. “Really really nice” was one of the comments made. As they’re a beta site, it’s nice to hear that kind of feedback. Mac-Sys is a heavy user of iCal for group scheduling via WebDAV and they know how primitive a solution that is so SyncBridge has been something they’ve been waiting for.

While we’re talking about anniversaries, this summer will be the 8th birthday of NiMUG, the Northern Ireland Mac User Group.

When I was writing RPGs, it was my opinion that we should always have one book “in production”, one about to “launch”, one “in research” and one “winding down” in sales. This, I thought, would ensure that we always had plenty to work on while, at the same time, making sure there was enough money coming into cover costs. As it happened some of the books sold really well, some sold poorly and some sold like hot cakes (in chronological order) and I could have made it a career, if I’d wanted. It didn’t work out that way but it was my first taste of sales, resource planning, production and demand. It was also my first taste of “Real Artists Ship” which is something that I’ll always remember.

Last night in the wee small hours, we debated the release schedule and also the finished products we would release. I’d like to take a moment to ask you, the reader, what you think we should finish first. These are still just “codenames” so bear with us.

• SyncBridge
• SyncBridge GE
• SyncBridge 30

Enticing?

Technorati Tags: syncbridge

SyncBridge is the flagship product. The application that will enable you to share and edit the calendars of family, friends and colleagues all using iCal. It’s the biggest product of the three, with the most complexity and obviously the most features! I’m using it at the moment and the flexibility over iCal/WebDAV is simply amazing! I know it’s been “nearly done” for a while now but we want to make sure it’s rock solid for deployment!

SyncBridge GE is the edition of SyncBridge that will allow you to view and edit your Google Calendar from the relative safety of iCal. Progress on this has been very quick and we reckon we could release very soon.

SyncBridge 30 is the edition of SyncBridge that will allow you to use iCal to view and edit your 30Boxes calendars. We’ve needed to feed back some changes to the 30Boxes team at 83Degrees and we’re getting good results from them.

I guess I’m asking you, the readers, what you use. Which has the greatest urgency for you? Do you want SyncBridge immediately so that you can get sharig those calendars with friends and family? Do you want to get jiggy with Google Calendar and be able to edit it and view it offline froma rich desktop client? Are you a big fan of 30 Boxes and can’t consider any other online calendaring solution? Is there another online calendar that you simply cannot do without? We will listen.

After that, we’ll be wanting to talk to you again about other itches that need scratched. Would you care to suggest any? If you poke us, we’ll likely leak some future product ideas in the comments 🙂