Phil Clarke

Experience at the Genius Bar

June 8, 2009

Apple Genius Bar Logo

After almost five months of pretty heavy usage, my iPhone decided to give up. Although the phone still worked properly the screen was barely visible and contained all kinds of streaking vertical lines. Since I was outside of the country when this happened I called my cellular company (Rogers) and setup an appointment to bring it in and get a floater. Fortunately a friend on Twitter advised me that it would be better to make an appointment at the genius bar since I was still within the warranty period.

Making an appointment with the genius bar (http://www.apple.ca/retail/geniusbar/) was quite painless. You simply pick the store you would like the appointment at and then input your personal information. The web site will then come back with a list of open times you can select from.

When I got the store I had to register so they would know I was there. The appointment was set for 7:00PM and I did not get to see my genius until 7:20PM. He actually apologized for running late and noted they were short staffed that night. In the next few minutes I was reminded of how Apple shines and was thrilled with the level of service provided. The genius informed me he had never seen this happen before and actually apologized again for the inconvenience. He then went to the back of the store and got me a replacement. There were no further questions, no hassles — just one signature and a new iPhone.

When I got home I plugged the new phone into the computer and was able to restore the phone just as it was prior. This made me realize again how much I love Apple and that if there is such a thing as an Apple tax it is worth every penny. Had this been a Blackberry/other smartphone I believe it would have been days before I was up and running again. Even then I likely be installing software and tweaking settings for several more days.

Have you been to the genius bar? If so what was your experience?

Genius Bar Experience & Renewed Faith in Apple!

May 17, 2009

0 Comments

After almost five months of pretty heavy usage, my iPhone decided to give up. Although the phone still worked properly, the screen was barely visible and contained all kinds of streaking vertical lines. Since I was outside of the country when this happened, I called my cellular company (Rogers) and setu p an appointment to bring it in and get a floater. Fortunately, a friend on Twitter advised me that it would be better to make an appointment at the genius bar since I was still within the warranty period.

Making an appointment with the genius bar (http://www.apple.ca/retail/geniusbar/) was quite painless. You simply pick the store you would like the appointment at and then input your personal information. The web site will then come back with a list of open times you can select from.

When I got the store I had to register so they would know I was there. The appointment was set for 7:00PM and I did not get to see my genius until 7:20PM. He actually apologized for running late and noted they were short staffed that night. In the next few minutes I was reminded of how Apple shines and thrilled with the level of service provided. The genius informed me had never seen this happen before and actually apologized again for the inconvenience. He then went to the back of the store and got me a replacement. There were no further questions, no hassles just one signature and a new iPhone.

When I got home I plugged the new phone into the computer and was able to restore the phone just as it was automatically. This made me realize again how much I love Apple and that if there is such a thing as an Apple tax it is worth every penny. Had this been a Blackberry/other smartphone I believe it would have been days before I was up and running again. Even then I likely be installing software and tweaking settings for several more days.

Have you been to the genius bar? If so what was your experience?

[photo by: Christopher Chan]

Beejive IM for the iPhone

May 2, 2009

0 Comments

Looking to bring instant messaging (IM) to your iPhone? You have most likely come across Beejive IM by now. You will have also likely suffered from a bit of a shock when you saw the price and wondered if it is really worth it or not. Ultimately you will have to make that decision for yourself but in this brief review we will show you what you get and that Beejive IM is more of a service than just an
application.

Beejive IM offers a rich array of settings which can be found under the Settings application on the iPhone (see screenshots below). Some of the nicer features include the ability to use groups, hide offline contacts and alter most aspects of how the interface will look. At the bottom of the settings you will find a section Â labelled “œNetwork and Push” which is where Beejive IM truly starts to shine.

Due to limitations Apple has placed on the iPhone applications cannot run in the background. This has been a bit of a killer for instant messenger applications that really only work if they are always running. To overcome this Beejive IM keeps you logged in via their servers (up to 24 hours) and sends you email alerts when you get new messages. If you couple this with push email you will know immediately when you have new messages. The messages that arrive also have a
convenient button allowing you to open Beejive IM immediately from the email. When you factor in the this ability to always appear online and never miss a message you quickly realize Beejive is offering quite a service which helps justify some of the cost.

As far as the actual chat interface goes it could not be slicker. This application is well thought out and makes optimal use of all the iPhone has to offer. Adding new accounts is straightforward and you quickly become unaware of which chat protocol you are using to talk to your different contacts. Chat clients often fall apart when you start chatting with multiple people as it becomes a bit of a burden switching between chat sessions. Beejive beat this by coming up with a simple chat switcher (almost like CMD-TAB in OSX or ALT-TAB in Windows). You can even optionally set Beejive IM to switch chats based on a gentle shake.

The one time I had to contact Beejive (Apple replaced my iPhone and Beejive IM detected something fishy) they responded quickly and helped me resolve the issue.

In summary if you are an instant messaging addict we fully recommend Beejive IM even at full price. For people who are more casual users of instant messaging you may want to wait until the next promotion. Until Apple actually packages some form of iChat into the iPhone Beejive IM will likely be kind of the hill.