Here is that ad we made. We threw it together to explain some of the problems businesses are having activating their iPhone’s. Businesses are left to only use the iPhone as a paperweight. We put this together in an evening, so expect a little more in our next mockeries. Enjoy, we had some fun making it.

Video: iPhone Commerical Spoof 1

About two weeks ago I broke down, again. By that I mean Apple’s shiny dark magic took over my thought process. I did not even know what happened; it was like I was in a trance. I found myself standing outside an Apple store with an iPhone in my right hand and my soul in the other. I turned around to look into the store and all that I saw were droves of people that looked the same, everyone was just a walking Gap commercial. I then saw myself in the window; I had my black hood up with my black Boston cap on, and my black down vest on. I looked like I usually do, but something happened to me at that moment. I knew in my heart I was different then these people, I was an individual, not some drone. But what the hell was I doing buying this novelty that I swore I would never touch ever again? I walked through the mall talking to myself and my conscience was fighting itself. Deep down my heart was telling me to go back and return it. One side was saying “Yo dude, this device is going to bring so much trouble in you life”, and the other was saying to me “All your friends will finally think you are cool”.  Steve Jobs and the Cupertino soul reapers got the best of me that day, but it will never happen again!

So once I purchased the phone I wanted to activate it. I wanted to activate the iPhone with our tax id number so I could charge it to the business. Well obviously the iTunes activation process would not allow that. So I had some extra time one day and drove over to the local AT&T store. I wanted to ask them a couple of questions and see if I could activate the iPhone with the tax id number. I was told by the AT&T rep that it is possible, so he gave me instructions on how to do it. So I went home hopped onto iTunes activation to see if it would work, nope no dice.

So I give AT&T customer support a phone call, I spoke to nice gentlemen and he transferred me directly to the AT&T iPhone division. I guess it was too late because they were not home. So I am starting to get pretty frustrated. I obviously do not want to activate this thing under my own social. I have had my identity stolen once before so now I am very weary of giving it out for anything. So the next day I run over to the same AT&T store, the store is packed. So I head on over to another AT&T store in our local mall. The customer support rep pretty much refused to look at me. He told me he could not help me at all, honestly he did not even look at me. I was just amazed at how poor his customer service was. So he tells me I need to go to the Apple store and talk to them. So I go back to the Apple store I purchased the phone at. I wait in line for about 20 minutes to talk to one of the Apple rep’s, he tells me that he has never heard of anyone activating the iPhone with a tax id number. I asked him how do businesses activate the iPhone then? He responded by telling my “they don’t, corporations have to have each individual user activate it under their own social security number, and they just use the companies billing address instead of their own home address.” He also told me that this was an AT&T matter not Apple’s. He gave me the AT&T customer support number I originally called. I was so furious at that moment. So I went back home, sat down and tried to relax. I told myself I would try one more time to get this activated.

So two days later I went to the original AT&T store thinking I might get lucky and find the original AT&T rep that told me I could activate it with a tax id number. Well no luck, but I did get a rep that seemed really informed on how to activate it with a tax id, he actually told me that he just did for a customer two days ago. So I am pretty excited at this point. So he is telling my how to do it on iTunes. He tells me I first have to have an AT&T number and account. So he signs me up with a 2 year contract and gives me a number and an extra nokia phone just in case I have some problems with the activation at first. He tells me when I start the activation process on iTunes that I need to put that “I am replacing an AT&T phone with the iPhone”. So I do so, I proceed to enter my AT&T mobile number he gave me and my zip code. He also told me “instead of entering the last four of your social enter the last four of your tax id number”. After that I hit the activation button, at this point I am on cloud nine, finally I will have this thing up and running! I wait about a minute and I get a message saying “iTunes cannot activate this phone with the current credit information.” I try it one more time, same thing happens. I am going crazy at this point!!

I call the AT&T store back, and that last rep I spoke to answered the phone. I proceed to tell him what is going on. He tells me to try again in the morning, and proceeds to pitch me wood to get me off the phone. At this point I am ready to drive my car into the store. So I call AT&T customer support. I finally find someone that really knows her stuff. She was amazing. I proceeded to tell her about my past week and all of the drama that occurred. She starts to apologize, and then I tell her what the last rep told me. She flat out said that he took me. She said in no possible way can you activate your iPhone with a tax id. She said even the largest corporations cannot do it. She told me Disney could not even do it. They had to have their employees activate them with their own social and bill the company. At this point I was just dumb founded.

She took all my information down; she took the last reps information down as well. She cancelled my two year plan, and told me the rep most likely lied to me so he could get a commission. She told me even if I cancelled my account he would get credit for the sign up. She was a breath of fresh air. She and I chatted for about 10 minutes on how lame the activation process is for businesses. She fully agreed with me that Apple could have sold a lot more iPhones if they would allow tax id activations.  

So at this point I feel better, I still have the iPhone, still not activated, and I am most likely going to take it back. I should have listened to my conscience, at this point the allure and luster has worn off. I still love my ppc6700 with my hacked WM6 rom; I will be sticking with that until I can get the HTC touch via Sprint. 

So again Apple almost gives me a heart attack, the stress this device caused me was incredible. Some of you will say “why don’t you just use your SSN to activate it”. Because I have principles, and I will not give in just to get a novelty.

Oh and to top it all off I have the last AT&T in store rep on tape telling me how to do everything, from start to finish. I also have the nice lady I spoke to last on tape. If anyone from AT&T or Apple would like to hear them then feel free to contact us. I don’t think it is necessary for us to release these tapes publicly; we don’t want anyone to get in trouble.

The Geekery’s own iPhone commercial will be published in about an about 30 minutes or so.  

We here at The Geekery have problems of staying on topic with our posts. So we are enjoying our themed week posts. So next week we are dedicating a week to “rants”. Rants about everything we despise about technology and the companies that fuel certain technologies. This next week will be a fun week so stay tuned. We will cover everyone from Apple to Zobo, knowing us it will probably be all about Apple, and maybe a little more about Comcast . I have added more fuel to my Apple fire, man oh man have I. I want to begin now so very badly!

Planning to dual-boot with your Intel based PCs with Apple’s OS X Leopard, or just want to install Leopard on your Intel PCs? Well here is how you do it: the crew at OSx86 scene managed to break the barrier with Leopard and found a way to install it in Intel-powered PCs, and just the day before the launch of the highly acclaimed OS. Installing Leopard on an Intel based pc requires the following items: burnable DVD and USB thumb drive.

OSx86 managed to work out two installation methods, first of which uses a DVD-RW to mount a DVD image of the OS, or just setting up a partition to load the install files from. The steps may look difficult at first glance, but the how-to steps are thoroughly outlined so there shouldn’t be any problems in trying it out.

Still want to make Windows walk the plank? Check out that list first before deciding to install Leopard first.

My experience is mixed, obviously their are some driver issues, but nothing a little hunting a pecking wont fix. But right now I am running Leopard pretty flawlessly, not really any huge issues that have came up. Most users have experienced a very long install time; I as well have experienced that same problem. It took close to 1 hour and 45 minutes to do the install. 

Overall I am pretty happy with the results; I am impressed with the tools that OSx86 crews have developed as well, kudos to them. I am currently living in a Windows based world, and it is sometimes is nice to venture out to something different, but Leopard really is not that different. Time machine is neat, but really that is about. You will never be able to knock Apple’s UI’s, but I personally don’t feel like anything is that different from other recent Mac builds. One thing I can say is that Apple is trying to make the switch easier for Windows users. I find myself eerily intrigued by the new finder, which some what resembles explorer.

Now the last question I face myself is if I would do this to my other machines? The answer is yes. Their are a lot of features that I absolutely love with OSX that I just cannot do with Vista, and vice versa. OSX is like that weekend vacation, its soothing, calm, and fun. But when it comes to the work week Windows is God, so I love them both, I will be doing this to most of my machines, but I think I might wait a little longer to do it though. OSx86 promises better builds that are a bit tighter in the code department.

Now all I have to do is get Ubuntu 7.10 back up and running again, anyone up for a tri-boot? 

I have a quick question for everyone that purchases Apple products, what the hell are you thinking?

Over the past couple of years Apple has had so many dangerous faulty products that harm you; I just don’t understand why people purchase their products anymore. I myself have fallen for Apple’s tricks numerous times. They get you with the sleek and stylish products, they advertise with actors and musicians, they make you think all is well in the world of Apple. But all is not well. We as consumers are blinded by actual good products these days. Yes the iPhone is an absolute marvel, this is undeniable, but over the years the iPod, iMac, and PowerBooks have just been a consumer nightmare. It’s a crap shoot now days to get a product from Apple that works to its full functionality as advertised.

I am not angered by the innovative UI’s or even ease of functionality. Apple’s UI’s are usually the best compared to other products in the sector they are in (except for this), what I am talking about are the actual devices, the hardware. Do you sacrifice health, safety and sanity just for something that is slick and stylish? Obviously the overwhelming rate of which these Apple products sell at are the end answer. So I ask myself why? I feel like since I purchased my faulty iPod touch I have seen more and more people bringing up the fact that Apple’s hardware simply blows, in more ways then one. So let’s take a journey into Apples sometime scary and shady past and present of hardware failure…….

2002: We will start with the past, with the eMac. The eMac was made essentially for public education purposes but was soon released later to the public. Well this gem had a ton of issues, we first start with a thing called raster shift. Raster shift can mean a lot of things, but in this case it meant only about half of the screen was viewable. Then we add the attraction to static because of lexan like plastic. Then later down the road owners discovered that the motherboards in the eMac were riddled with bad capacitors.

Raster shift at is finest moment. Don’t forget these piles were intended for our public schools.

2004: Nothing like a little MagSafe melting, lets add a little fire. Everyone that owns an Apple notebook knows about that MagSafe power adapter. It’s a neat little feature included in all Powerbook power adapters. It creates a magnetic connection to the power input. It’s a neat feature, but none the less it catches on fire.

2005: The macbook, what a disaster. This one would take just too long to describe. So click here to see a laundry list of problems it had. This device might be close to the worst.

2006: The start of something scary, the original iPods start to get their bloat on. Just like the macbooks, and PowerBooks, the batteries were starting to bloat up from the battery. What happened next was inevitable, iPod nano’s started to blow up and catch on fire while they were being charged. These issues are still happening to this day!

2006: Welcome to Judgment day, computers are finally trying to kill us. (I knew we should have listened to Sarah Conner) Now PowerBooks are trying to drive hot molten Lithium Ion into your body.

2007: Present day, we are now riddled with the same problems of the past, just with new devices. People are complaining of dead screens and tilted screens in about every version of the iPod, the new iMac screens are an utter disaster (raster shift again?). Just simply poor build quality with every device.

So why do we all still purchase their devices? I think we buy from them because Apple still makes us feel warm, fuzzy and unique. They have excellent customer service and great marketing. But overall Apple has fixes for these issues usually pretty quick. I have only listed a small fraction of the faulty products Apple has made, but for that list they have came out with a fix for each one. Frustration and anger overcome my thought process every time I purchase a DOA device. I will on longer purchase Apple products until I feel that Cupertino wants to make an effort in proper build quality. I have been burned to many times by Apple, no pun intended.

So I leave you with this question, why purchase a device that will leave you frustrated, stressed, burnt, and possibly blind?

Sorry for the childish title, but I am genuinely upset today. The other day I thought I would get a nice gift for my fiancé, just because. So I go on down to the closest Apple store at our local mall. I walk in and was nicely greeted by a younger attractive female Apple employee , she asks me if she could help with anything, and I told her that I would like to purchase an iPod Touch. So she grabs one from the back and then I proceed to check out. Before I pull out of the mall’s parking lot I get it out of the box to make sure it powers up. But I really just wanted to play with it before I handed it over to my fiancé. So it powers up fine, and the UI is glorious.

I get home and I am so excited to give it to her, but before I give it to her I was going to load a bunch of her favorite tunes. So I take it out of the box once again, plug it in via USB, power it on, and then hear this weird sound. I instantly knew it was dead.

So I called Apple support, and once again was helped by a very nice technician. The technician and I came to the conclusion that the device would not power up properly. The tech told me I could either send it in, or I could take it back to my local Apple store. I pack everything back up and drive back to the mall and tell them it is dead and they go through the process of trying to get it to boot up. I was so upset at that point I told them I just wanted my money back and I did not want to exchange the device. 

I had plans for a great review of the iPod Touch, but after I saw some of the recent articles of the iPod touch being either DOA or people getting a dead touch screens it made me think a little more about the iPod Touch and Apple.

They usually have great products, the concepts, the user friendly UI’s, but the actual hardware sometime just “Sucks”! With all the reports of bad touch screens, bad monitors in the new iMac’s, bad batteries in everything, overheating in the notebooks; it just makes me go mad. But I have found out why consumers keep on going back to Apple, it’s because of the employees, the support, and just how friendly and attractive their employees at the point of purchase are. But today I’m not going to be that sucker, we are sticking it out with our Zunes! Sorry Apple.

It looks like those iPhone price cuts were just the thing Apple needed to drive sales, as this weekend Apple’s iPhone reached the 1 million sold mark. “One million iPhones in 74 days-it took almost two years to achieve this milestone with iPod,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We can’t wait to get this revolutionary product into the hands of even more customers this holiday season.”

While reaching this milestone may seem like great news for Apple (and in most ways, it is) there is one downside to that number that is not mentioned in Apple’s press release – namely, Steve jobs promised all iPhone buyers (pre-last week’s price drop announcement) that they would receive a $100 credit to the Apple Store.

Generously assuming that the $200 price drop brought in another 150,000 iPhones customers last week, and that maybe 50,000 folks who bought iPhones in the 2 weeks leading up to the price drop may have gone ahead and gotten their $200 back from Apple during their 14-day price protection policy, that still leaves 800,000 potential iPhone owners (myself included) that will be looking for $100 back from Apple. That adds up to a potential $80,000,000 hit Apple would have to take.

Now, of course, Apple knows not everyone will take advantage of the $100 store credit, and, in order to use it, you have to be buying something at the Apple store anyway, so odds are Apple will make some money off the credits to help lessen the hit, but still, that is a staggering number when you think about it, and it makes you wonder if Apple would have done better to hold off on the price drop a month or so and wait until they had a 16GB version of the iPhone out to justify the drop in price of the 8 GB version.

Well today Saint Steve came out and said everyone that purchased the iPhone before two weeks ago will be getting a $100 Apple Store credit. In an effort to possibly be the coolest CEO around in the public eye only to follow behind this bloke, what is the business world saying about Apple and this on again- off again tactic in creating positive revenue for the company?

From a shareholder’s perspective these have been two really bad days for Apple. Today they closed 1.75 down from yesterday, and it started to decline after Jobs came out with his public apology. Honestly what was Apple thinking, did they suddenly think everyone would forget that they just paid $599 for their iPhone? Granted it is a brilliant move to sell more units, but did they think all of the iPhone users would just take it? Does Apple no longer have a CFO, or any market analysts working for them? They do, and his name is Peter Oppenheimer and he probably has a contract out on Steve Jobs. As I was looking for his name I completely forgot Al Gore is a board member for Apple (weird fact, thought you should know, very off topic).

I guess we won’t really know how all of this will affect Apple and the long haul of the iPhone. Will profits continue to rise or will they fizzle out? If it was me I would not have given anyone their money back. “Its technology” just like Steve said, as time progresses, prices change, tough luck!

But deep, deep, down I think this is a good thing for Apple and the PR machine, this was a gracious move on Apple’s part. They didn’t need to do it and usually something like this would only happen if they had a court order backing the users for Apple to give some money back. But Steve Jobs and Apple do it again, they just amaze me.

I have a message, actually more of a complaint to Apple, if I complain enough can I get my $175 back since you lost me $175 today with my shares of AAPL with that stupid announcement?

That’s what I thought Steve!

I don’t want to start another company feud post, but does anyone think Microsoft would do something like this, by giving back to their community?

We all know Steve Jobs and Apple hate the handicapped, but now they seem to hate money and profit. I was not really excited today at all about the new release of the iPod line up thinking all we would see is a fat ugly nano. I was pleasantly surprised by what Apple brought to the table, and miffed on why Apple dropped the price of the 8GB iPhone from $599.00 to $399.00. They are fazing the 4gb iPhone out, and now you could scoop it up for a very lightweight price of $299. I am simply amazed. Do I dare go so far to make the statement of saying that the iPhone is actually “affordable”…?

But really now it is one of the cheapest smartphones on the block….. I feel strange and very funny inside now. But now I ask a question only the likes of BMW drivers and G5 owners can answer, has the iPhone lost some of its luster because of the price drop? I mean Apple is the brand that caters to only the chosen ones, what is a Soho lad to do?

But overall this is an awesome leap for Apple, it puts them way, way ahead of everyone. I think $399 is the price they should have originally had for the 8GB version, it would have been insane. Apple also launched their new WIFI iTunes store as well.

This time around Steve-O and the boys at Apple really pulled off one hell of a hat trick today.

Congrats to Apple, and I wish the best of luck to any company that tries to compete with Apple in any of these industry sectors, you face a long and hard road ahead of you!

Take a gander at the new lineup of the iPods!

On another note, I think I am going to go buy an iPhone now, please no hate mail.

YAWN, actually it might be kind of neat seeing what the new lineup of iPod’s are going to be like. Hopefully they don’t come out with the “fat pod” everyone hates. So tomorrow at 10AM PDT we will start to post as the day progresses.  Hopefully Steve is not as boring like his last keynote.