Alright, this is absurd… I got my iPhone 3G two weeks ago.  Out of the box, it had a dead pixel.  As I suspected he would, the guy at the AT&T store told me that I’d have to talk to Apple about it.  Given my previous experience with Apple support and customer service (http://www.spoontwisted.com/apple-support-apple-care-apple-retail/), I decided to just deal with the dead pixel.  After all, who wants a refurbished iPhone for the price of a new one?  Not I.

Yesterday, I noticed a relatively short battery life on my phone.  Charged it up (second time in a day), and waited.  6 hours later, it was dead again.  Mind you, this is with 1 phone call and 4-5 text messages.

Even now as I sit here at my desk at work, my phone has been off the charger for less than an hour, and the battery indicator is already creeping down.  That’s not a good sign, folks…

So now, I know what I must do.  I will now have to go to the Apple Store and talk to a “Genius” about my issue.  He/she will most likely insult me for using Windows, and try to blame the problem on me.  I may have to make more than one visit to the Apple Store, or worse, call AppleCare’s 800 number (-shudder-).

I’ll keep you updated on the bulls**t I will likely face with the “support” that Apple renders…

Okay, this one falls on you, AT&T.

I am in the market to switch to AT&T, in order to get an iPhone 3G. Now, I have T-Mobile. I have had them for nearly 4 years, after switching from AT&T around the time of the Cingular merger.

I have not had a single problem with T-Mobile.

Reluctantly, I walk in to the AT&T store to inquire about switching, and getting the iPhone. AT&T wants a $750 deposit from me, just to establish service! Now, I don’t have polished credit, so I can justify them asking for a deposit, but $750?!

That’s almost 2 car payments. That’s more than double the deposit ON MY APARTMENT. Now, not only will they explain to me why the deposit is so high, but they also will not back off of it.

Does anyone else find this unreasonable?

Apple, you would have sold an iPhone to me if AT&T had a more reasonable policy on deposits for service. Maybe you should consider asking them to change their sales tactics. After all, you’re losing money on this, too.

Here are some other examples of people unable to get the iPhone because of AT&T’s deposit policy:
http://www.nickstarr.com/2007/01/10/the-iphone-to-cost-1349/
http://consumerist.com/tag/iphone/?i=5020924&t=help-att-wants-a-750-deposit-but-i-really-want-an-iphone
http://consumerist.com/381767/att-fails-to-provide-service-holds-750-deposit-hostage-for-two-months

Fair? I think not.

So, in preparation for the release of the iPhone 3G (which comes out tomorrow, July 11, 2008), Apple has released an update to iTunes to add support for the new features, and some more.

At the leaast, they’ve added the App Store and a new feature that allows you to control your iTunes remotely from anywhere with a wi-fi connection.  That’s cool and all (okay, so it’s REALLY cool), but I still use Windows Vista, and Apple still hasn’t been able to make iTunes work correctly with the Vista Aero interface…

Since Windows Vista came out over a year and a half ago, iTunes has had this problem (see screenshot below).  C’mon Apple, will you fix it?  Pretty please?  With a cherry on top?

So you want to switch from Windows Vista back to Windows XP, eh?

I have one thing to say about that: You’re dumb.

I know your “computer whiz” friend and the Apple Switch commercials want you to think it’s what everyone is doing, and it’s the best decision. But it’s not. Windows Vista has been out for almost a year (Business release date: 11/15/06; Consumer release date: 1/25/07), and I’ve been using it since March. Sure, it has some quirks (takes longer than desired to finish booting, looks/works a little different than XP), but what version of Windows doesn’t? It also has it’s advantages (better memory management, better multi-processor/64-bit support, faster API).

Chances are, if you’ve upgraded your computer to Vista, the reason it “sucks” is that your computer was built 4 years ago with the intent of running Windows XP, and simply doesn’t meet Vista’s requirements. If you’ve bought a new computer, and it sucks, I’m willing to bet you bought the bottom-notch model to save money, and you have a miniscule amount of RAM to work with, and probably only Windows Vista Home Basic.

Am I right? I bought an HP Pavilion dv9230us in March. Sure, it was a little pricy (after all, it is a high performance notebook), but a desktop with the same specs would have been dirt cheap. It came with Vista Home Premium, which I promptly upgraded to Vista Ultimate.

Since I have gotten Windows Vista:

- I have never seen a Blue Screen of Death
- I have NOT had to reinstall
- I have been able to leave my computer on for weeks on end, only putting it in standby to travel between work and home.
- I have had exactly 3 programs that were not compatible with Vista, and since then, all three have new versions that are.

All of these things would have been only pipe dreams with Windows XP.

And you know I’m right.

Stop being a pansy, get more RAM, get a new computer, tell your computer whiz friend to bite it, and don’t listen to the Apple commercials. I know Apple would have you believe that it’s what everyone else is doing, but it’s not. Look at the stats. According to w3schools, the amount of people who use windows Vista on the web increases by nearly 1% every month. Wanna know how much Apple’s users increase every month? Fractions of a percent. Fractions. As a matter of fact, their usage has increased by 0.1% since January. Eat that, Apple.

And your computer whiz friend probably doesn’t know what he’s talking about. As a matter of fact, I’d say it’s safe to say that most of those guys have no idea what they are talking about most of the time. If you really want to know something, either use your brain and look it up, or pay a professional to fix it.

Seriously.

And while you’re at it, switch to Firefox. Internet Explorer sucks. And so does Safari. Trust me, I’m a web developer, I know these things.

Steve, get on the ball. I know you hate Windows Vista and swear that 10.5 will make Vista look like a thing of that past (although I personally believe that 10.5 will be 10.4 with a few extra features, I don’t see what the big deal is), but you’ve got to support your Vista using iPod owners… If I buy a brand new computer right now, it will likely have Windows Vista on it. So I am setting everything up, and I go to Apple’s site to get iTunes so I can sync my ba-dass music library to my iPod. What do you know, it is still only compatible with Windows 2000/XP. Why?

Vista has been out for home overs for almost 2 months. You, Apple, had a few years to prepare for the shift, much like everyone else did. Why didn’t you? Are you too caught up in your “Apple Switch” commercials to realize that the vast majority of market share still lies with you competitor? Here’s an idea, make your Windows using iPod owners happy with the product they bought from you. Don’t slack on compatibility! Since iTunes 7 first came out it has been nothing but a disaster for Windows users.

Come on Steve, you can do it! -goo-chee-goo-chee-goooooo-

Today, 7.1 came out, and still no sign of Vista compatibility…