iTunes 12 - why?

For whatever reason, Apple decided we no longer need a sidebar.

Not only did it disappear from the default view in prior versions, it has now completely been eliminated, and cannot be turned back on.

This is the kind of issue that could drive me to switch.

AT&T Vistual Voicemail suddenly not working on iPhone 5S w/ iOS 7

Yesterday I received a few client calls, but I noticed that the phone wasn't showing voicemails for these calls.  I assumed that the clients had decided not to leave messages, but I called them anyway.

Of course, the clients had left messages.  My phone simply didn't tell me.  So, after dealing with those calls, I called the voicemail service manually and sure enough, there were three client voicemails.

Over the past 24 hours, I've spent about 2 1/2 hours so far on the phone with AT&T's tech support to try to resolve this issue.  They've reset it several times on their side, I've had to re-establish voicemail service on my side (including a BOATLOAD of re-recorded outgoing messages) and now it simply ISN'T working - at all.  Callers don't hear a message, and when I call in I get an error.

One of the tech support reps suggested I should erase my phone.  I told her that would NOT resolve the issue, particularly since I'm getting errors when I call the service.

UPDATE: It's now working, and they gave me a $25 credit for the inconvenience. :)
 

iTunes Ping - Review

Apple recently released a new music-centric social networking service called "Ping".  At the moment, it looks half-baked at best, useless at worst.

Here's some of the things I think are wrong or missing as of now:
1. Another "walled garden" that's separate from other social networks, especially facebook.  I think this is the biggest failing - searching for friends who participate in the service by their names or email addresses one-by-one SUCKS.  Period.
2. The artists that are participating are relatively sparse at this point, and I suspect Apple recruited those who are there.  Also, independent artists can't setup an "Artist" profile on their own - currently they've got to setup a personal account profile.
3. The "following" of specific artists isn't integrated properly with their iTunes store listing.  If a particular artist is for sale on the iTunes, you should be able to follow them from there, regardless of whether they have setup an artist profile in Ping.

When Steve Jobs demoed the new iTunes "Ping" social networking service, it had Facebook friend finding.  Apparently the feature was pulled last minute because Apple used a Facebook API without approval.  Even if that feature was still there, it's not enough.  The status updates, etc. should be fully integrated into Facebook.  If iTunes Ping remains a separate social network, it will fail.

iPhone 4 "Bumper" case refunds

Apple recently announced that since the iPhone 4's antenna design appears to be the cause of signal loss, they're refunding money to anyone who purchased a "bumper" case.

I just got the following, twice, since I bought two:


Dear Apple Customer,

Apple recently announced that iPhone 4 customers who purchased an iPhone 4 Bumper are eligible for a full refund.

As of today, we have automatically processed your refund.

Thank you for choosing Apple.

Sincerely,
Apple Online Store Support

Something I noticed while waiting at the Apple Store

I arrived at the apple store at approximately 8pm.  (Dropped the phone at 7:20 or so.)

I was standing at the Genius Bar from 8:05 until 8:40 or so.

During that time, at least TEN iPads were sold.  Hmm...

AT&T borked the iPhone 4 pre-orders

As you may be aware, AT&T's servers were not ready for the massive demand for the iPhone 4.

Like a good fanboy, I was all ready to pre-order an iPhone 4 on the morning of June 15th.  I started on Apple's Online Store, and noticed that it kept hanging when it would try to verify my eligibility for the upgrade.  So after about 50 attempts (and re-entering my info that many times), I figured it was worth trying to do it on AT&T's site.  After about 20 attempts, it appeared to go through.  Or so I thought.

Because I was doing so much at once, right after the order went through, my browser crashed.  This prevented me from printing the order confirmation.  So I had no order number, no confirmation of any kind.  I only remembered seeing "Thank you for your order."

Because I didn't trust the way it happened, I decided to try the Apple Online Store again.  After about 4 attempts, that worked as well.  Unfortunately, by that point it was saying that pre-orders would be delivered by July 2 as opposed to June 24. :(  Of course, if both orders go through, that means I'll have spent around $700 after taxes as opposed to $350. :(

I got an email confirmation from Apple almost immediately, but nothing from AT&T.  I therefore resigned myself to having to wait another 2 weeks.  I also assumed that the AT&T order just didn't go through.  Later in the day I got an email from AT&T saying there was a problem with the credit card, and that the order would be canceled if they didn't get new/correct credit card info.  I called the number in the email and waited 35 minutes on hold before the system told me basically "sorry, we're too busy, call back later".  I tried several times after that, for a grand total of about an hour-and-a-half on hold.  This morning I actually got through - to a human being!

There's nothing wrong with the card - it's a debit card and the balance is more than sufficient for this purchase.  However, for some reason their system kept rejecting it.  So I gave the rep my business debit card, which worked.  She told me that from what she could see on the system, it looked like my order would in fact arrive on June 24.  I thanked her and hung up.

So now I just wait and see.  Will I receive an iPhone 4 from AT&T on June 24?  Will Apple send me one on July 2?  Will I end up with two?  Time will tell.