Diversification And Legacy Data

I’m told that I’m a very loyal customer. That I’m loyal to Apple, Starbucks, Portland Fruit West, etc. — very few companies receive my business, and those who do receive my business receive a lot of it. Instead of making things complicated by buying from a diverse array of companies I keep things very simple by only buying from a handful.

There are many benefits to not diversifying yourself in computing platforms, and probably the most clear example of why it’s good to stick with one company is legacy data. Apple is what I know, so I’m going to try to stick to it for this blog post, though most of what follows can be said about other large companies which provide a wide array of services.

TL;DR: Through backups, my iPhone 5s and iPad Air have a data trail that dates back to 2006 with my MacBook Pro.

In 2007 I synced my brand new iPod touch with my MacBook Pro, and moved over .Mac mail, Calendar Events, Contacts, and Music/Movies. Every iOS device I’ve purchased since my iPod touch has been set up using backup data from the iOS device preceding it. I’ve actually gone through four generations of backups setting up new devices.

1. 1. My iPhone 3G was just my iPod touch in a new shell.
2. 2. My iPad and iPhone 4 were copies of my iPhone 3G in different shells.
3. 3. My iPad 3 was a copy of my iPad.
4. 4. My iPhone 5s, iPad mini and iPad Air are really just copies of my iPhone 4 and iPad 3, but they can also be considered simply grown up versions of my 2007 iPod touch.

(In addition, my iPhone 5s and iPad Air seamlessly share a remarkable amount of data with each other through iCloud.)

If I mixed things up with an Android device now and then, and if I used a different Mail service, 3rd party Contacts, Calendar, Notes, web browsers, office suites, photo management apps, etc., I could have moved over everything from device to device regardless of platform. The problem is it would require more work than I’d like! There’s beauty in simplicity.

Diversification is an important part of our development as humans. It’s great to travel and be around people who aren’t like you, who take you out of your comfort zone and force you to develop new ideas of culture and humanity. What I’ve learned traveling is that people are at a base level the same everywhere, although there are differences which have been imposed through the arc of time. When you immerse yourself in a culture other than your own, you can learn those impositions and adopt the ideas that you like, making yourself a truly unique individual.

Where diversification falls short of being important for development, is in our product purchases. You see people who have an iPhone, a Samsung Android tablet, and a Dell Windows PC, and use Yahoo! e-mail. This can be in the name of diversification, that different platforms have different benefits, and that it’s generally a bad idea to put all your faith in a single company in case it goes out of business.

As far as Apple goes, however, it’s very far from shutting down with its $151 billion in the bank and all. And the more companies you tie yourself to, the greater the chance you’ll find some services you rely on disappearing. It’s important to measure everything such as functionality, profitability, and how the company has handled product/service transitions in the past. From what I’ve measured Apple is the company I feel safe relying on.

Goodbye, Mac

Well, it finally happened. Prior to early last week I used my MacBook Pro probably once every month (at most) for solid FTP access for my self-hosted sites. That use case is no longer, as I picked up Diet Coda [App Store link] for iPad, which is abnormally fantastic. I no longer need my Mac to edit/upload files in FTP.

Goodbye, MacBook Pro. It’s been a fun seven years. May you find peace in your shelf.

“Apple Is Doomed”

The sentiment that Apple is a failing company is expressed seemingly everywhere. Blogs, news sites, TV news stations, the water cooler; it’s hard to avoid the message that Apple is being obliterated by Samsung and Google. As a former Apple representative (at Portland State University) and current Apple fan and observer, all of this nonsense sometimes drives me insane. Apple isn’t flailing like a fish out of water, it’s one of the strongest companies in the world.

The iPhone 5 singlehandedly increases the U.S. GDP by .5%.

But.

IPHONE COULD GO WAY OF BLACKBERRY?

This narrative that Apple — the most profitable company in the world — is sinking into oblivion is a-series-of-words-I-shouldn’t-say-here.

However profit isn’t the only way to evaluate a company; we have to look at its accomplishments, too. What follows is a short list of Apple’s activity in 2012:

Two new 9.7″ iPads, introducing the most impressive display ever on a portable device.

An addition to Apple’s iPad lineup: the iPad mini.

A new iPhone with a completely new design.

Completely redesigned iPod nano and iPod touch.

Redesigned 13″ and 15″ MacBook Pros featuring retina displays.

An extremely redesigned iMac.

Two brand new operating systems; iOS 6 and Max OSX 10.8. Three if you include iPod nano’s “nano OS”.

Even more updates to its software and services; iTunes, iCloud, etc.

Apple also designed and introduced a new processor, the A6 chip (and its A6X variant for the 4th gen iPad) — it also introduced the A5X for the 3rd gen iPad and a redesigned A5 for the reduced-price iPad 2.

And the MacBook Airs, Mac mini, and Apple TV received spec bumps.

And that’s just a top-of-my-head list. That doesn’t include things such as iTunes Store milestones, Apple’s strategic acquisitions, advertising, retail improvements, data-center-building, and everything else that Apple does with its money.

Apple has been busy. It’s far from sitting on its laurels and letting its competition pass it by. The idea that Apple is doomed is outright maddening, and it would be nice for the nonsense to end.

25: I Finally Updated The “About” Page

1. A Habitable Planet Might Be Only 13 Light Years Away

Eryn Brow, LA Times:

Scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., said Wednesday morning that an “Earth-like” planet — that is, a small rocky planet warm enough to have liquid water on its surface and potentially capable of hosting life — could be as close as 13 light-years away.

The biggest question in my mind is how we would decide who gets to move to this mystery planet and when it would happen. My guess is that, sometime in the far away future when technology has advanced and the earth is doomed, the upper class will be the first to make the journey. The middle class will be reluctantly included to retain a decent population (are there enough rich people having sex to keep a planet habited for the long term?).

Unfortunately, the lower class will be left to A) get hit by an asteroid, B) be consumed by the Sun when it becomes a red giant, or C) kill each other off fighting for the remaining non-perishable foods.

2. Letterpress Copied For Android

One of the best word games for iOS, Letterpress [App Store link] has been outright ripped off [Google Play link] by an Android developer. The name, gameplay, and even color scheme has been stolen. There are few things as shameful that one can do as a developer.

via @TwoLivesLeft on Twitter (which is via @mattgemmell on Twitter)

3. Gay Marriage Passes The British House Of Commons

Well it’s nearing full-on official. Again, I ask, why does the US have to be so behind the UK in something as basic as equality?

via Daring Fireball

4. Good Riddance, Westboro Baptist Church

Two more members of the Westboro Baptist Church are out of there, and apparently are now outspoken against it.

Welcome to the world, Megan and Grace Phelps. Do not count on it to easily forgive your former actions, however. You’ve got a lot of families of deceased children relatives to apologize to.

5. DreamWorks To Layoff Staff Because Moviegoers Don’t Like Its Films

Kristen Acuna, Business Insider:

Rumors are circulating that there’s about to be layoffs at DreamWorks Animation.
Cuts are expected to come to the studio’s production, technology, and overhead departments, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
…
The changed film schedule follows the underwhelming performance of “Rise of the Guardians” last fall. Though the film eventually earned $300 million worldwide (thanks to a $200 million cushion from the foreign box office), its opening weekend was $23.8 million.

This is sad. While I haven’t enjoyed every single DreamWorks animated film that I’ve seen, hearing of layoffs in an industry that I care about is depressing. I wish the best for any DreamWorks employee that does get laid off, assuming that this rumor turns out to be true.

via FlipBoard [App Store link]

6. Shocker: A Girl Wants Justin Bieber To Stay Single

Admittedly, I have a whole lot of fun reading Justin Bieber gossip.

And admittedly, I do it primarily because it drives my friends insane.

via @cambio on Twitter

7. Is TV The Future Of Film?

“Celluloid Liberation Front” at IndieWire thinks that, because of the financial possibilities, filmmakers will move to creating TV shows instead of movies. As proof he/she cites shows like The Wire, Mad Men, and Breaking Bad.

I’m not sure if I buy this idea though, because it assumes that filmmakers work for money over art, and I’d wager it’s the reverse. But, what do I know?

via FlipBoard

8. Angry Birds Cartoon In The Spring?

There are signs of the apocalypse. This could be one of ’em!

What scares me the most, however, is this final quote:

Jordan Crook, TechCrunch:

Further down the line, Rovio has plans for a full-length Angry Birds feature film.

Moan.

9. Not-So-Secret Secret Drones

It was revealed that the New York Times and The Washington Post covered up a CIA drone base for the Obama administration. It’s an odd cover up, however, since Fox News of all organizations already reported on it.

I’m not sure what’s worse, news outlets covering up stories at the request of our government, or the fact that our government requested it. Ignoring that, it’s a bit of an odd cover up since the story isn’t new; in fact I’d argue that the story has become worse now that we know our government worked with journalists to cover it up.

via @AdrianChen on Twitter

10. iPad mini, Month One

I picked up my first iPad mini (I exchanged the black model for the white model later) on January 3rd, and by my calculations I’ve been an iPad mini user for more than a month. For a month I’ve used both my 3rd generation iPad and iPad mini together, and there’s one question I haven’t answered yet: If I could only have one iPad, which one would I choose?

Thus far I’ve discussed at length the benefits of each iPad, but I haven’t taken a black or white stance. Would I choose the large iPad for its productivity chops, or the iPad mini for its “consumption” savvy and superior design? Going further, if I could only recommend a single iPad to the general population, which would I recommend and why?

If I could only have a single iPad, it would be the large iPad without question. The iPad mini is fine for basic typing, but it’s — how do you say? — f**k-all for long form typing. I type a lot of words every single day, and while it can certainly be done on the iPad mini, it would be cumbersome and my documents would be riddled with typos.

At the end of the day, the large iPad can do everything that the iPad mini does, although it does “consumption” tasks a little bit worse. So when measuring my needs, I need a productivity device more than a “makes many tasks easier and fun device”.

But which device would I recommend to the general population if I ignored individuals’ needs? I’d selfishly recommend the larger iPad. I want iPads to replace traditional computers outright, and for anyone wanting to be productive the larger iPad is the iPad for that. If everyone goes iPad mini, traditional computers will be around for a while because a lot of people type up more stuff than e-mails.

And there are other people that need to draw, or create and edit music or videos, and the list goes on. After a month of use I’m convinced that the iPad mini isn’t the device for that stuff, at least not yet or in the near future. Eventually new UIs will surface and the way we use our devices will change, but until then the iPad mini is overwhelmingly a “consumption” device.

Divergence

When I picked up my iPad mini, my personal reasoning was that it would be the travel iPad and my 3rd gen iPad would effectively act as a desktop computer for me. Honestly, the idea was that I’d be able to shave even more weight off of me when I’m away from home.

Whether fortunately or unfortunately, or both, my iPad mini hasn’t ended my 3rd gen iPad’s presence outside of my home. I now travel with both, so the initial goal was to shave off weight failed miserably as now my bag is heavier. 3rd gen iPad, iPad mini, and chargers for my two iPads and iPhone. It’s kind of mental.

The more I use both iPads, the more they diverge in use cases, and the more it’s beneficial to carry around both.

Apple advertises the iPad mini as just like a full-sized iPad, only smaller, which I’m beginning to think that that’s deceptive. The two devices are incredibly different in usage and complement each other to create a near-perfect computing setup. Some examples:

The large iPad has a full-sized keyboard which is easy to type on. The iPad mini’s keyboard is too small for long form typing and that alone eliminates it as the traditional computer replacement that the large iPad is.

On the other hand, the large iPad is too big and heavy for leisurely “consumption” of information. Whereas one can hold an iPad mini in a single hand for hours and scroll or flip through pages with the other, the large iPad commands two hands or a surface to support for long periods.

Returning to productivity, the iPad mini is too small to effectively create big Keynote presentations, where the large canvas on the big iPad is perfect for manipulating objects. The exact same thing applies to spreadsheets, music creation, and drawing.

If we turn to gaming, we also return to the fact that the large iPad is kind of relegated to tables or other surfaces. It’s fine at tabletop games like Monopoly, but one of my favorites, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy? The large iPad’s size makes it less fun. The iPad mini’s handheld-ability transforms the game into something super fun.

In my line of hobby — writing — the iPad mini’s casual browsing chops makes finding news and inspiration a breeze. It outright speeds me up and frees up a bit of my time in each day. The large iPad alone caused me to be slower, and if I used the iPad mini alone I’d be an even slower blogger than that.

But that’s just me. However if one assumes that the majority of people don’t do more than web browsing, email, office productivity stuff, and some games on the side, a large iPad and iPad mini is effectively the perfect computing setup. In the future when iPads get more horsepower and a Wacom digitizer built in, and more size options, two iPads combined will make the perfect computing setup for nearly everybody.

What I’m most curious about is if Apple actually believes that the large iPad and iPad mini truly are “two of a kind”. Either Apple has its own ideas or it’s intentionally making the iPad mini seem like something it isn’t, which in my experience is a mistake.

21.5: We Got The Beat

Honestly the title has nothing to do with the following article, it’s just the song I’m listening to at the moment which happens to rock.

I mentioned recently that I’m planning on outright removing traditional web browsers from my life (with very few exceptions), and I don’t think that I explained why. I hope that this entry can make my stance crystal clear so that we can have an understanding.

I have a history of abandoning technologies and services that I view as being on the way out. Be it Adobe Flash, traditional computers (with exceptions), and even e-mail (with exceptions), I’ve consistently put my money where my mouth is. I’ve inconvenienced myself for a bit of time, but I’m vindicated with Flash and traditional computers.

As far as I can see, e-mail too is on its path towards irrelevance, meaning that I need to find more dying technologies to get rid of. Based on my own observations the next thing to die is traditional web browsers. Dedicated service apps — from social networking to media to news — are the future and I aim to help show people why traditional web browsers are antiquated comparably.

At the moment I’m thinking up a list of rules for myself and others to follow once written and published. Getting rid of traditional web browsers is so much more complex and harder than any other tech I’ve shelved because, at least at present, they’re integral to our lives.

I’ve learned recently, however, that traditional web browsers slow me down in the face of apps dedicated to services like Flipboard. Finding news is so much faster with that than it ever can be using a traditional web browser; I’ve been a fool to avoid Flipboard as long as I have simply because of its dumb animation.

The Flipboard, Tweetbot, TechCrunch, and Pocket [iTunes links] iOS apps are what make this blog possible. (slightly) unkommon was a slow-to-publish, aimless mess before I decided to start waning off of the Safari web browser to find information.

Today I can A) find approximately 20 articles that interest me, B) narrow them down to nine, C) write a paragraph or two about each one, D) write a 300-to-500 word post about something random, and E) edit it all in less than three hours. I find that kind of phenomenal, particularly as a junior writer. I can credit having an iPad mini as a companion to my big iPad as speeding me up, but the real stars are the news and information apps.

As always, the only way to usher in the future is to live in it prematurely. Be the change that you want to see in the world, and you can move mountains; at least that’s what I believe. And traditional web browsers will almost cease to exist in the future that I want to see.

21: Paying The Bills

1. Unlocking Phones Is Illegal Again

I’m not sure that this was ever a concern of mine, but this is an example of the US government just not getting the tech industry. I feel slightly ignorant since the decision to make unlocking phones illegal today happened in October, but one thing is clear: Jailbreakers beware.

via FlipBoard for iOS

2. Mean Girls Is Amanda Seyfriend’s Best Work, So Says Amanda Seyfried

Yesterday I basically raved about Amanda Seyfried, and she’s already in the news again; this time for telling IndieWire the film that she considers her best work.

I’ve just worked a long time. I’ve gotten a lot of cool opportunities here and there and I’ve made some good choices with the help of my amazing team…. I still look back at ‘Mean Girls’ as my best work.

I guess that I need to watch Mean Girls again.

via FlipBoard for iOS

3. Django Unchained Tied To Pulp Fiction

Now this is cool. Apparently Quentin Tarantino links his films together in little, pretty unnoticeable ways. Christopher Walken’s character in Pulp Fiction is a descendant to a gang member named in Django Unchained. It’s very interesting, and of course something that Tarantino would do.

via FlipBoard for iOS

4. Miley Cyrus Eats Pizza, Gets Sick

Honestly I’m slightly biased because I have a strong distaste for “Hannah Montana”; Miley Cyrus’s use of my name led to me being teased a lot by my friends. Some people outright called me “Hannah”, others who knew my nickname “Tanner” called me “Tannah Montana”, and it’s been very irritating.

So as far as I’m concerned, Cyrus getting sick from eating pizza is definitely news. Normally I don’t like to hear that people get sick, but in this case it’s awesome.

via @cambio on Twitter

5. Steve Wozniak Hates The Steve Jobs Movie (So Far)

Any Apple fan could have told you that the trailer for jOBS looks to be inaccurate, but no one has more authority than Steve Wozniak himself. So what does Wozniak have to say?

“Admin”, Studio Briefing:

in two emails to the Gizmodo tech site, has pronounced it “Totally wrong.” In fact, he said, he was “embarrassed” by the entire clip. What actually happened in real life, he said, is that he had been “inspired by the values of the Homebrew Computer Club” to build an affordable computer. “Steve J. wasn’t around and didn’t attend the club,” he pointed out. “Steve came from selling surplus parts at HalTed [and] always saw a way to make a quick buck off my designs.” As for how he himself was portrayed in the film by Josh Gad: “I never looked like a professional. We were both kids. Our relationship was so different than what was portrayed. … I never wore a tie back then. I wore blue jeans and the same style blue button-up shirt every day of my life.”

Not surprising at all. Tap or click here (YouTube link) to watch the clip in question.

via IMDb

6. Android Redefines Feature Phones

Preston de Guise, unsane.info:

Android is going into two entirely different markets when it comes to mobile phones. There’s the area everyone focuses on – smartphones. That’s where people get confused over number of phones sold vs web usage coming from the phones. Then there’s the other market – the market where the cheaper Android phones are going head to head against the feature phones.

And this is why Android’s market share means next to nothing. Android is a smartphone OS, but that doesn’t mean the phones it powers are deserving of the title.

I’d wager that if you were to remove the people who only use their Android phone to make phone calls and txt friends, the iPhone would have a higher share if the smartphone market than Android phones. But that’s just my guess.

7. Rumor: The Next iPad (5th Gen) To Look Like iPad mini

I use both a 5th gen iPad and an iPad mini; in fact at this moment I’m using the two side-by-side. It’s honestly disgusting how much better the iPad mini looks. It’s solid. It’s beautiful. It f***ing glistens in the light.

Apple should be ashamed that the iPad mini — which costs $170 less than the 5th gen iPad — looks so much better in comparison. If the 5th gen iPad doesn’t take design cues from the iPad mini, it will be a tragedy.

This rumor had better come to fruition.

via FlipBoard for iOS

8. Men Commit More Research Fraud Than Women

Now this is interesting albeit maybe unsurprising. Apparently, of researchers who commit fraud of one sort or another, 2/3 are men.

I say that this is “maybe unsurprising” because, while I don’t know the numbers, I’m guessing that male researchers outweigh female researchers. If A) there are more male researchers than female researchers, and B) we assume that each gender is equally ethical, then C) females would likely commit an equal amount of fraud as males.

Of course I have no proof of my above guess, so take it as the speculation that it is.

via @dougcoulson on Twitter

9. Apple Terminates Relationship With Chinese Manufacturer Because Of Underage Labor

Apple fired Guangdong Real Faith Pingzhou Electronics — one of its suppliers — for employing underage kids. Good for Apple.

I’m surprised that the headline of the original article doesn’t read “Apple Responsible For Layoffs In China”.

via FlipBoard for iOS

10. Paying For Articles

Despite me writing basically for free, I’ve long held the belief that writers deserve to be paid for their work. This stuff isn’t easy; it’s a job, paid or otherwise. My mom classifies blogging for yourself as an internship, which is a good way to think about it. I’m not getting paid but I am gaining experience and learning something new every day.

But even internships are considered “work”, and internships do lead to paying gigs in the future. Or so they should.

Some of my favorite blogs are written by writers who go unpaid. These are people who pour their heart out into onto the web sometimes every single day, putting in an hour or two or three, and receive nothing in return except satisfaction. Last I checked, satisfaction alone doesn’t pay a single bill, which is kind of unfortunate.

Some writers have a large enough audience where they can plaster ads on their site and make at least a little bit of money in ad revenue. That’s all fine and well, however the problem that I see is that our readers become a product that we’re selling to advertisers, which isn’t cool. If I’m going to earn money, I should be selling my articles, not selling you.

Unfortunately that isn’t reality, and sometime in the near term (1-2 years) ads will go up on unkommon.net, at least until I’m comfortable asking you to pay for my articles. I’m hoping that I never lose sight of my goal which is to make money in an honest fashion.

To remind me of my goal I do outright pay for some of my news, The Magazine and Matter. Those two publications are very good, and the reason they are very good is that they have to be worth paying for. With ad-based compensation, we only need to be good enough to drive traffic. If we’re asking you to pay us, our work better be outright fantastic otherwise you’ll go elsewhere.

If you’re a regular reader, and you spend four minutes on my blog every day of the week (in the future when I write more) on average, that’s two hours of entertainment that I’m giving you each month. The cost of a two hour movie in theaters is $10. Now, the cost of movies is overpriced, so if we’re comparing just time of entertainment, this blog probably deserves $4 each month from each daily reader.

Obviously I’m not good enough to ask $4 each month from anybody yet, but when I am good enough, that’s probably going to be what I ask to read articles here. Just a multi-year heads up. ;-) In the interim you should pay for other articles that are worth paying for; don’t be intimidated, trust me, those articles will usually be better than anything ad-based. Because they have to be.

19: Help A Brother Out

1. Record Sales, Record Revenues, Record Profits: Apple Stock Down 10%

The stock market is a joke.

I wonder how much Apple’s share price would go up if Apple reported that it had 100% market share in phones and tablets but it gave the devices away for free and lost billions. Its stock would probably be through the roof.

2. Joseph Gordon-Levitt Not Appearing in Man Of Steel As Batman

Mike Sampson, Screen Crush:

‘Man of Steel‘ will feature a post-credits scene cameo from Joseph Gordon-Levitt who will introduce himself as the new Batman! That was the sexy rumor from late-2012 and the explanation for how Warner Bros. would kickstart the ‘Justice League‘ buzz. Unfortunately it’s not true.

How tragic.

(Where’s a sarcasm emoticon when you need one?)

via FlipBoard for iOS

3. Batman Rebooted In 2017?

Speaking of Batman, apparently we might see the next take on the franchise in 2017. Only if Man Of Steel is successful, though; which makes no sense, but Hollywood will do what Hollywood does.

via FlipBoard for iOS

4. Nintendo: “We’re Sorry (Now Take This And Leave Us Alone)”

Not going to lie, I’m a Nintendo fan and wear my Pokéwalker proud. I’ve had every Nintendo console from the SNES upwards — except the Wii U which I really want — so, full disclosure there.

The company has been embarrassing with the Wii U though, and as much as I want one, the public presentations that I’ve seen and now this apology is just sad. Nintendo should be long finished with these new Mario, Zelda, Yoshi, and Super Smash Bros. games, and not “working on them“.

Nintendo is the best developer for its gaming systems by far, and it needs to release a very steady stream of titles at least for the near term.

via FlipBoard for iOS

5. Odd How Things Work

Back on Apple’s hit in the stock market, apparently with today’s report, Apple has brought in “the largest corporate earnings in the history of the earth“.

Either I’m having a dream where things are backwards, or the investors that are tanking Apple’s stock price are outright mental.

via DaringFireball

6. Quora Offers A Blogging Tool

Liz Gannes, All Things D:

So Quora is inverting itself, and offering a basic blogging tool, starting today.
This isn’t blog service with custom layouts and nifty widgets. It’s not a full competitor to WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr or even Medium. It’s a place to write good stuff and get read by the Quora audience.

Chalk this up as interesting and kind of cool.

via FlipBoard for iOS

7. “Can you press the shutter when I look most compromised?”

This is even more interesting and more cool.

via @jim_napier on Twitter

8. Google Redesigning Image Search… For Keyboards

I’m all for redesigning things for the better, but I’m not sure that, in 2013, designing websites to be enhanced when using physical keyboards is forward-thinking. Especially for a company like Google which knows that the world is moving to touch-based systems.

via @iHKDesign on Twitter

9. Ray Liotta In The Muppets… Again

It seems as if every week there’s more exciting news about the next Muppets movie. I’m starting to worry that all of this good news will hype us fans up way too much and we’ll be disappointed in the end.

via FlipBoard for iOS

10. Caring

As you may be aware depending on how often you frequent this blog, I basically dropped my iPad (3rd gen) and it basically cracked which basically voided the warranty. Undeterred, I took it to my local Apple Store the following day to see if Apple would replace it for me. The iPad did have mild light bleed, so I had hoped that the “Genius” assigned to help me would overlook the grossly voided warranty and write it off as defective.

I walked out of the Apple Store fifteen minutes after I walked in, with a brand new, crack free 3rd gen iPad in hand. The bill should have cost me $299, but the Genius at the Apple Store ignored the voided warranty and gave me the new iPad for free. $299 effectively handed to me just-like-that.

And some people wonder why I always return to Apple for my computer purchases.

Obviously your mileage may vary and some Apple Store employees might not want to help you, but I’d wager that those people are the exception to the rule. Apple genuinely cares about its customers and would like to see them be repeat customers.

I don’t necessarily feel that I’ve earned the replacement iPad I’m typing this entry on; I feel slightly vindicated but only because I have friends who got amusement from my iPad cracking (“It wouldn’t have happened if it was in a case! Haha!”). I didn’t deserve a $299 replacement for free because of a mistake that I made, but Apple thinks that I should have it.

Apple effectively told my aforementioned friends to piss off, in so many words.

To people who think that this is an anomaly: If Apple’s policy was to outright not help out customers in self-inflicted distress, a lot of employees would be fired. Clearly there is a “bend the rules if you feel like it” clause somewhere in there.

Apple Replaced My iPad For Free

Cracking your screen isn’t exactly covered under warranty, but a Genius at my local Apple Store sympathized and outright replaced my cracked iPad with a scratch-free new one.

Unfortunately my iPad cracking kept me up all night and I got no sleep, so I’m going to get around to doing that now. Regular entries resume tomorrow, I’m back in business!

Montana

18: Oh No! My iPad (3rd Gen) Fell And Cracked! :(

Well. Thankfully I at least gathered articles for today’s entry. I was saying goodbye to a cute girl and my iPad was on my lap, and it slipped and fell to the floor. The result:

Hopefully Apple replaces it. Fingers crossed. I’m too in shock to write blurbs on the nine news articles I want you to check out, so what follows is just a few links. I’m stunned.

1. Wrath Of The Titans Insults Intelligence

2. Intel (Finally) Ramping Up Investment In Mobile

3. How To Limit iOS Device Time For Your Kids

4. Pope Benedict XVI Tweets In Latin

5. iPad or iPad mini?

6. iPhone 5 Jailbreak “Behind The Scenes”

7. First Kick-Ass 2 Photo

8. Surprise: Google Doesn’t Like Microsoft

9. Anti-Apple Anger