Shot Across the Bow » Apple http://www.shotacrossthebow.net Only ONE Warning Shot...! Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:10:11 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 en hourly 1 Best Buy Big FAIL on Charging Higher than Suggested Retail Prices http://www.shotacrossthebow.net/2009/12/31/best-buy-big-fail-on-charging-higher-than-suggested-retail-prices/ http://www.shotacrossthebow.net/2009/12/31/best-buy-big-fail-on-charging-higher-than-suggested-retail-prices/#comments Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:08:07 +0000 admin http://www.shotacrossthebow.net/?p=68 Ok, so I have never been a huge fan of Best Buy.  Their geek squad is much to be desired, I have never known them to actually fix anything, just reinstall, and their customer service absolutely stinks, called them checking on a geek squad order for a friend and they hung up on me twice meaning I had to go to the store and do a face to face, and now I am starting to see that Best Buy is charging higher than the manufacturer does.

Case in point, I purchased an Apple TV from Best Buy a few months ago.  I normally go to Apple for that stuff, but I was there and I was getting a TV so why not, should be the same price Apple charges….ahhhhh, NO!  They charged me $299, and Apple was charging $229…hmmmm.  So I brought back my receipt and a copy of the apple site showing them that they charge alot more than Apple does and the Manager said “We can do that”.  Well, yes you can or I am bringing this back and buying it from the manufacturer for less.  Then the Manager told me, “Oh, thats a mistake on the shelf, it should be the same price that Apple sells it for and it should have rung up right…we will have that fixed today”.

Well, it never got fixed and from what I can tell, Best Buy is now charging basically $10 over manufacturer list.  Don’t believe me, check this out http://bit.ly/5t7jLx and http://bit.ly/2VDB4V.  There’s both Best Buys price and Apples price for the same product.  Maybe this is a fluke, lets check another item….was looking for a receipt scanner, Neat makes one, lets look at this one by Neat http://bit.ly/13j9ks, now lets see what Best Buy charges for the same product http://bit.ly/5a4UV3.  Well thats $20 more at best buy than the Manufacturer.

Now mind you, Best Buy does have sales where their prices are lower than the Manufacturer list price, but I have never known them to be higher than the Manufacturer.  I guess the moral of the story is, be a smart shopper, do price comparison shopping, and make sure you go to the customer service department in the store and get a price match.  I did, and I always will.

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]]> http://www.shotacrossthebow.net/2009/12/31/best-buy-big-fail-on-charging-higher-than-suggested-retail-prices/feed/ 0 Droid Does When Iphone Doesn’t! http://www.shotacrossthebow.net/2009/11/09/droid-does-when-iphone-doesnt/ http://www.shotacrossthebow.net/2009/11/09/droid-does-when-iphone-doesnt/#comments Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:45:51 +0000 admin http://www.shotacrossthebow.net/?p=64 Well, I knew it was just a matter of time until something came along and started to give Iphone a moment to pause and reflect on its surroundings.  I am sure that the Droid is just that Phone/software.  I have not seen the phone in person, but from what I can tell, the phone is surely gonna make everyone pause and check it out.  I will most likely go to Best Buy and see what it looks like and play with it a bit.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my Iphone, but in a world of open source versus closed systems…the Droid is head and heals above the Iphone.  If they can do it all right, the Iphone and Apple, may have to make some serious changes to their Iphone Strategy.  The world is getting smaller…and there is a new sheriff in town, and he goes by the Name of DROID!

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]]> http://www.shotacrossthebow.net/2009/11/09/droid-does-when-iphone-doesnt/feed/ 1 AT&T finally turns on Iphone MMS, then it Craps out http://www.shotacrossthebow.net/2009/09/27/att-finally-turns-on-iphone-mms-then-it-craps-out/ http://www.shotacrossthebow.net/2009/09/27/att-finally-turns-on-iphone-mms-then-it-craps-out/#comments Sun, 27 Sep 2009 15:56:07 +0000 admin http://www.shotacrossthebow.net/?p=54 attsucksOk, so now this is truley unbelievalble.  AT&T, in all their fantastic wisdom and greatness (gag), has finally turned on a feature that everybody and their uncle has had on their phone since the stone ages, MMS for the Iphone, and it works….yeah.  One day later, AT&T crashes and now it is down…booooo!  Here is the part I do not understand, AT&T took their sweet time to get it up and running and make sure they had the bandwidth to handle the so called load on the system, after they finally figured that everything was in place, and I remind you, they have this running on all other phones on AT&T so this is not rocket science, the system is down, there is some kind of latency issue with no ETA for repair.

AT&T, the only reason you are still around, is because you have the exclusivity of the Iphone.  When that ends, unless you get your act together, I doubt if you will be able to compete.

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]]> http://www.shotacrossthebow.net/2009/09/27/att-finally-turns-on-iphone-mms-then-it-craps-out/feed/ 0 Update to Engineer Commiting Suicide after Losing Iphone 4G http://www.shotacrossthebow.net/2009/07/29/update-to-engineer-commiting-suicide-after-losing-iphone-4g/ http://www.shotacrossthebow.net/2009/07/29/update-to-engineer-commiting-suicide-after-losing-iphone-4g/#comments Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:26:24 +0000 admin http://www.shotacrossthebow.net/?p=45 badappleWell, this gets even more ridiculous and heinous, it turns out the compensation for the poor mans family was a meager $44,000 plus an Apple Laptop…Are you kidding me APPLE!!!!!  Why not throw in an Iphone as well, he lets rub some more salt in the wound.  That is really ridiculous!  But it seems that some things are changing now and Apple has upped the ante to a whole $52,600 + $4385 per year there after.  Wow, now that is a hell of a payout Apple, don’t you spend that on one of your Apple Developer presentations…Pay Up and Knock off this crap, you basically abused the guy, he killed himself due to shame, and now you spit in his face…I think to make this fair, you need to send them an Apple MacBook Pro 17, that should even things up!

here is the excerpt from engadget:

“Foxconn hasn’t exactly been helping itself much lately in the sad case of an employee of the company who committed suicide after apparently misplacing an iPhone prototype, with it first noting that the worker had a history of misplacing such prototypes, and then going on to offer his family a rather meager compensation of $44,000 and a free Apple laptop. It now looks to be trying to improve things somewhat, however, with a Foxconn official saying that the company has now agreed to pay Sun Danyong’s parents 360,000 yuan (or about $52,600) in compensation up front, plus an additional 30,000 yuan (or $4,385) every year thereafter. Of course, that official is speaking on the condition of anonymity, so things could still well change, and it goes without saying that this likely won’t be the last we hear of this story.”

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]]> http://www.shotacrossthebow.net/2009/07/29/update-to-engineer-commiting-suicide-after-losing-iphone-4g/feed/ 0 AT&T not Ready for Some Iphone Features…WTF http://www.shotacrossthebow.net/2009/06/28/att-not-ready-for-some-iphone-features-wtf/ http://www.shotacrossthebow.net/2009/06/28/att-not-ready-for-some-iphone-features-wtf/#comments Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:58:38 +0000 admin http://www.shotacrossthebow.net/?p=39 iphone3gs-1Ok, so I should have written this a week or so ago when the Iphone software was released, but I didn’t.  In either event, it turns out that Apple has finally included MMS and tethering into the Iphone software.  So why is AT&T not ready for the Iphone?  I really have no idea.  This is AT&T’s flagship phone, they should be standing behind the scenes getting everything ready for use with the phone since more than 50% of AT&T’s customer base seems to have Iphone’s so you would think that they would be ready, right, wrong!

For some hairbrain reason, AT&T is not ready and will not be ready until the end of Summer sometime.  But lets not give AT&T all the spotlight, lets give Apple a little too.  After all, Apple is finally programing in MMS into the software, a feature that many inferior phones can do and have so for years!

Oh, and the Iphone 3GS, should I be impressed with that phone.  Where is the forward facing camera, 32-64Gb memory, 5MP camera, I guess I will have to wait for those since it seems that Apple releases a few tiny improvements to the hardware and then milk as much money as they can out of their fan base.  Yes I am a fan, but I just can justify paying for a new phone because of a magnetic compass.  The Iphone 3GS is suppose to be faster, I think just a bit, and the camera is suppose to be a 3.2MP up from the 2MP, and the base memory is 16GB up from the 8Gb, but it is just not compelling enough for me to take the plunge.

So I will hold off, and wait until Apple and AT&T stop trying to milk their customers out of a ton of money and start offering what is available in many other phone already on the market.

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]]> http://www.shotacrossthebow.net/2009/06/28/att-not-ready-for-some-iphone-features-wtf/feed/ 0 Whats up Apple, Did you Jailbreak your Own Phone! http://www.shotacrossthebow.net/2009/05/31/whats-up-apple-did-you-jailbreak-your-own-phone/ http://www.shotacrossthebow.net/2009/05/31/whats-up-apple-did-you-jailbreak-your-own-phone/#comments Sun, 31 May 2009 19:02:24 +0000 admin http://www.shotacrossthebow.net/?p=21 Well, it seems that although Apple doesn’t want to have anyone Jailbreak their phone because it is Illegal (that is what Apple says, but the courts say differently), Apple’s latest patent from the Apple Atty’s show a Jailbroken Phone in the submission.  Either someone goofed up or….well, someone goofed up.  Apple Atty’s included a graphic as displayed below of a screen shot with applications (circled in Red) that are available only on Jailbroken Phones and not apps’s from the Apple App Store.

Oh well Apple, you sure you want to stick to your guns and say that Jailbreaking is Illegal….I thought not!

applepatentjbc

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]]> http://www.shotacrossthebow.net/2009/05/31/whats-up-apple-did-you-jailbreak-your-own-phone/feed/ 0 Iphone vs Palm Pre…Apple just a bit nervous http://www.shotacrossthebow.net/2009/05/31/iphone-vs-palm-pre-apple-just-a-bit-nervous/ http://www.shotacrossthebow.net/2009/05/31/iphone-vs-palm-pre-apple-just-a-bit-nervous/#comments Sun, 31 May 2009 18:57:51 +0000 admin http://www.shotacrossthebow.net/?p=17 iphone_versus_palm_pre_photoSo now we have all this hoopla about the new Iphone 3.0 os that is going to be announced tomorrow.  We are all gonna get a sneak preview of what is supposedly to come.  One note, Apple has said that all the “stuff” that the Palm Pre had over the Iphone is all gonna be erased with the new OS.  Why that sounds like Apple is a bit worried about the Palm Pre launch.  They actually should be.  The Palm Pre is a fine looking piece of technology and it doesn’t have the holier than though company behind it.  Palm is fighting for its life with this one product and they have to come out of the shoot with something that is going to wow us…and I think they have.

Apple on the other hand, has gotten fat, dumb, and happy with their sales of their phone and that has been no real competition.  This does change the tides and Apple, in order to stay dominate, needs to wow everyone again with delivering what the consumers have been demanding for some time now.  We are on Version 3.0 and we still do not have cut and paste although this version is suppose to finally bring it to us.  But Apple has been caulky for some time now and Palm is going to wipe that grin right off their faces if they don’t pay attention to what is going on.  Thank you Palm for bringing real competition to a market that is dominated by a single player, and Apple, you should be ashamed of yourself for crucifying people who want to do more with their phone and therefore jailbreak it so they can do just that.  It is not illegal to jailbreak your phone so stop being such a cry baby and grown up.  Cause if you don’t stop, we’re gonna come over there and give you something to cry about….

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