The local Apple Store (Westlake, Ohio) just refused to sell me one of their ( $29 !) accessory adapters tax-exempt “unless purchased with a computer!” My local government agency forbids us to pay sales tax on any purchase made for the agency; it upsets the state auditors. The store manager (and Apple policy?) represented their own retail practices as Ohio Sales Tax law and tried to convince me he was correct. He repeatedly said, “we checked; it’s Ohio law!” Is this what they do to prevent “small” tax-exempt sales from taking up too much sales staff time? If the manager or some other staffer would have just made the sale, it would have taken way less time (and cost less) than our extended discussion about whether the “not accessories” rule originates with the state of Ohio or with Apple, Inc.! What might actually speed customer interaction is installing an old-fashioned cash register with a person to run it; I didn’t need to consult with a sales person, I just wanted to pay for a little adapter and be on my way! Store policy made that impossible. So what’s the point in us shopping at our local Apple Retail Store for accessories when I’ll have to go to Target, or Best Buy, or order online from CDW-G? The exchange took an otherwise pleasant visit to their shiny store and flushed it down the toilet. Bought the darned thing at the local (Ohio) Best Buy using my store-issued tax-exempt card, no problem… there.
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Well, well, well… the new release of the WordPress App for Apple iOS is good! I’ve used it several times now to manage comments and post replies. I’m even composing this entire brief post on my iPod Touch! The app doesn’t “hang” now and I’ve not had to reset my Touch; that’s the way it ought to be and should have been from the beginning. Thanks, WordPress, for fixing it!
Apple iBook G4. Credit: Apple Inc.
Someone donated a cool little Apple iBook G4 (ca. 2006) to our Friends group. At first the recipients thought it was dead. Turning it over to me resulted in a functioning computer ready for sale to benefit the group.
A cautionary tale is, however, in order:
Once I got the notebook booted I started looking around on its hard drive and checking the machine’s applications. Nice: Mac OS-X ver. 10.5.8. All of the Apple basics. Very good. Wi-Fi access — hmmmm…… what’s this in the Safari browser? The former owner’s Gmail account… OPEN! And her Amazon.com account login! Gad!! Between those two things, plus the identity information she failed to remove from the Mac, I could have purchased no end of items and produced no limit of trouble for the goodhearted Ms. K. Yikes! Thank goodness the Mac wasn’t sold to some bad guy!
I instantly logged out of Gmail, erased the browser history, cleared her identity information. Ideally the hard drive should have been formatted but, with no OS installation discs, that would have reduced the used computer’s sale value to near zero. Clearly, however, the former owner’s level of risk has been vastly reduced through the little bit of work I did in her stead.
And if the Friends can’t sell the little Mac, I hope to buy it!
I just learned WordPress released an updated version of their Apple iOS iPod and iPad app. Customers write the update corrects several serious and frustrating issues that plagued earlier releases. So I’ve reinstalled the app and we’ll see how it goes. Third time’s the charm?
I’ve just downloaded the WordPress iOS app for my Apple iPod Touch. Writing a full blog entry on the tiny onscreen keyboard is agony. Writing and managing comments? Hmmmm… It has possibilities. Besides, it’s free! Thanks, WordPress!
UPDATE: The WordPress iOS App officially sucks and has been deleted from my iPod Touch. It repeatedly hung, failed to recognize and hold my authentication information, and even required a hard reset of my Touch on one occasion. Blech!
I've begun my transition from many years as a Palm PDA user to, now, the owner of a brand new, third generation, 32 GB Apple iPod Touch. Palm is out of the PDA business, having moved along to the SmartPhone sector. They're also holding on for dear life, despite the widely-admired qualities of their new phones and operating system. Very sad. My trusty Palm TX still does its job but without OS or application upgrades from Palm it's not up to today's standards. I like my TX but I'm beginning to love the Touch. I've already set up the Touch to synch wirelessly with my Google Calendar — I've gotta say that's very cool. Next I'll purchase the Touch version of my "eWallet" app to encrypt and store my many account numbers and passwords; when that happens I'll have replicated (and improved upon) all of the basic Palm functions I was using. The Palm was terrible with email but I've set up the Touch to work with GMail and it's sweet! The Palm's browser was not very good, either. The Safari browser is fast, presents most pages very well, but its Touch navigation takes some getting used to. I've also installed a nifty astronomy app purchased through the iTunes Store. So we're on our way. Music? I guess I could use it for that too.
When we arrived at Best Buy to make the iPod purchase the store was just about to open for the day. There was a longish line outside and for a moment I wondered why. Then I remembered: The Apple iPad release! It wasn't a huge crowd, maybe 25 people, and they were orderly as they eagerly filed into the store and waited in another line to pick up their shiny new devices. I didn't get to see the iPad but hope to visit again or go to one of the area's two Apple Stores to take a look. Talk about cool!
We stayed home this Easter Day venturing out only to pick up a few grocery items. She then retreated to her office to slave away at our tax returns. I took a nap, did some stuff online, and explored the innards of an old microwave oven seeking to restore it to operation: I think it needs a fuse and a switch. Tasha spent much of the day on a newly-favorited chair near the patio window looking and acting like the cat we have known so long. She lost some weight through her recent ordeal but actually looks better for it –Dr. B. says her current 9 lbs.+ weight is not worrisome and, indeed, we believe it's probably better for her than when she tipped the scales at 11 to 12 pounds. Lately she's been sociable, out in the open (not hiding), not scratching excessively, and sometimes getting the "cat-crazies" tearing around the house at full gallop for no particular reason. Yup, that's normal for a cat. Good to see it again.
PhotonStopper 