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.

Sorry I had to post this. Its just too funny.

Anyone remember this keynote? I do.

Well what did you expect? Nothing was too much of a secret. But this is going to get some of you mac fans furious, but I am not one to consider feelings most of the time. Sorry that’s just me.

Well I had this long touching post written the day of Apples release of the new imac’s and .mac updates, but I never posted it. The reasons why I didn’t post it are many, but only one phrase sums it up for me, UN-IMPRESSIVE!

Yes the new imacs are pretty, just like the last ones. Yes the new keyboards are sleek. Yes some of the new software updates are neat. But did we expect anything different? It makes no sense to me why Apple would come out with all of these updates on the heels of the release of the Jesus phone. Why wouldn’t you release the new platform devices first, like the imac before you release the industry changing IPhone. I was so excited for the release of the new imacs, I really thought they would do something to trump the greatness of the IPhone, but that obviously did not happen. I thought just maybe they had a trick up their sleeve, but nothing.

Now I know a lot of people are saying that the new imacs are going to be great, which they most likely are. But I am just saying the announcement and keynote were just not exciting at all. I simply was not impressed. The thing is that we were and still in awe of the IPhone, so once again I ask the question why didn’t you come out with the new updates for the imacs and .mac first ???

Well today at 10:00 AM PDT Apple will be opening its headquarters doors. What will they talk about. I am pretty sure they are going to talk about the new release of the iMacs, maybe the new NANO. Nobody knows. But you can be certain that I will be writing away as information starts pouring in. So T minus 1hour 30 minutes.

Apple’s unofficially official iPhone tool is a paperclip?? According to an iPhone user that sent his handset in for warranty service, it arrived back with this highly technical piece of equipment, with a piece of paper that included a visual instruction. If this is actually true then I have to throw out a serious WTF IGod.

Hurry up HTC ,I need a Kaiser. I need a new phone, my ppc6700 weighs to much!

The question I have for you all is, what works for the ladies these days? I have always hated buying flowers or candy and things that really can never be used ever again. So my question to YOU the female gender of today, what do women like these days? Well Phillips and Swarokvski’s think that women now want blinged out gadgets. Yes I just wrote blinged, not even sure that’s a word, or really what it means other then just stuff that shines and sparkles.

What I have done here is compiled a group of gadgets that I might think the ladies might like. I for see a future of women that no longer need flowers to feel loved, but gadgets, lots of gadgets.

Phillips and Swarokvski’s USB jewel encrusted pendant $79-$200. 

Color Motorola Pebl : $ depend on contract

Clique Hue HD webcam: $79.99 

ColorWare pre-painted IPhone: $649

One thing I think many men would agree on would be that if a women were into gadgets that the man would spend far, far more on her then he would if he bought flowers. You see I would feel better about buying a $200 jewel encrusted USB drive rather then $50 on some flowers that will die in 5 days. Plus you could throw in a dope ass mix tape on that jump drive.

So if the ladies could make some comments about these gadgets, and if any of these would actually interest you that would be great. So ladies lets make a push for gadgets, no more killing the earth with your greedy flower plucking, lets start a new gift giving trend…..GADGETS!!!

With United Airlines (NASDAQ: UAUA) finally clocking in a steady stream of profits in this second quarter they decided to give some of it back to its customers in the way of some really, really nice amenities. They call this new program The International United Business Experience. They will be the first US carrier to offer full blown lay flat beds in business class. As well as getting the new nifty seats you will be immersed into a world of gadgetry. Each seat offers on-demand audio and video with more then 150 hours of movies and TV, they will be supplied with a 15.4 LCD. They will offer up to 2o channels of stored XM audio. You even get an area to charge your IPOD (What no Zune support :x), all of these services will be offered in up to 14 languages as well.

International United Business seat amenities will include:

• Forward- and rear-facing seats configured to allow customers to completely recline 180º to a full 6-foot, 4-inch bed
• Four-way lumbar support and six-way adjustable headrest
• An ottoman providing additional storage for a laptop or other personal items
• Ergonomically designed tray table that comfortably accommodates a laptop and other items
• iPod adapter that enables customers to play their own music and videos on the seat’s entertainment unit while recharging the iPod
• Universal Serial Bus (USB) port to charge personal electronic devices, such as personal digital assistants, mobile phones and digital cameras
• Standard 110v power outlets requiring no adapter
• Adjustable LED reading light with dimmer
• Noise cancelling headphones

Expect to start seeing these changes done early fall on all of the international fleet of 97 wide-body B767’s, B747 and the B777 (mmmm triple 7) aircraft’s.

I know who I will be flying with when I fly international.

More info at UAL’s site . Rumors are flying around that Apple and UAL are working on some slick amenities as for the futur.

I say full steam United, its great to see a US airline back in the running internationally and out of chapter 11.