Sep 2007
Steve Jobs Makes Good
As you all have heard by now, the iPhone 8gb price
has dropped by $200 just 60 days since its release.
Many Apple customers are upset including myself. I
was just about to contact my store and demand a
credit. If that didn't work, then you still can
return the iPhone for up to 90 days from the date of
purchase and pay the 10% restocking fee. Then you
could purchase a new iPhone at the lower cost and
still be ahead. Only problem there is having to
possibly be without a phone for a short while.
Now, Steve Jobs released this statement on the Apple web site about offering a $100 credit to early adopters of the iPhone. I think its fair:
To all iPhone customers:
I have received hundreds of emails from iPhone customers who are upset about Apple dropping the price of iPhone by $200 two months after it went on sale. After reading every one of these emails, I have some observations and conclusions.
First, I am sure that we are making the correct decision to lower the price of the 8GB iPhone from $599 to $399, and that now is the right time to do it. iPhone is a breakthrough product, and we have the chance to 'go for it' this holiday season. iPhone is so far ahead of the competition, and now it will be affordable by even more customers. It benefits both Apple and every iPhone user to get as many new customers as possible in the iPhone 'tent'. We strongly believe the $399 price will help us do just that this holiday season.
Second, being in technology for 30+ years I can attest to the fact that the technology road is bumpy. There is always change and improvement, and there is always someone who bought a product before a particular cutoff date and misses the new price or the new operating system or the new whatever. This is life in the technology lane. If you always wait for the next price cut or to buy the new improved model, you'll never buy any technology product because there is always something better and less expensive on the horizon. The good news is that if you buy products from companies that support them well, like Apple tries to do, you will receive years of useful and satisfying service from them even as newer models are introduced.
Third, even though we are making the right decision to lower the price of iPhone, and even though the technology road is bumpy, we need to do a better job taking care of our early iPhone customers as we aggressively go after new ones with a lower price. Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these.
Therefore, we have decided to offer every iPhone customer who purchased an iPhone from either Apple or AT&T, and who is not receiving a rebate or any other consideration, a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product at an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store. Details are still being worked out and will be posted on Apple's website next week. Stay tuned.
We want to do the right thing for our valued iPhone customers. We apologize for disappointing some of you, and we are doing our best to live up to your high expectations of Apple.
Steve Jobs
Apple CEO
Now, Steve Jobs released this statement on the Apple web site about offering a $100 credit to early adopters of the iPhone. I think its fair:
To all iPhone customers:
I have received hundreds of emails from iPhone customers who are upset about Apple dropping the price of iPhone by $200 two months after it went on sale. After reading every one of these emails, I have some observations and conclusions.
First, I am sure that we are making the correct decision to lower the price of the 8GB iPhone from $599 to $399, and that now is the right time to do it. iPhone is a breakthrough product, and we have the chance to 'go for it' this holiday season. iPhone is so far ahead of the competition, and now it will be affordable by even more customers. It benefits both Apple and every iPhone user to get as many new customers as possible in the iPhone 'tent'. We strongly believe the $399 price will help us do just that this holiday season.
Second, being in technology for 30+ years I can attest to the fact that the technology road is bumpy. There is always change and improvement, and there is always someone who bought a product before a particular cutoff date and misses the new price or the new operating system or the new whatever. This is life in the technology lane. If you always wait for the next price cut or to buy the new improved model, you'll never buy any technology product because there is always something better and less expensive on the horizon. The good news is that if you buy products from companies that support them well, like Apple tries to do, you will receive years of useful and satisfying service from them even as newer models are introduced.
Third, even though we are making the right decision to lower the price of iPhone, and even though the technology road is bumpy, we need to do a better job taking care of our early iPhone customers as we aggressively go after new ones with a lower price. Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these.
Therefore, we have decided to offer every iPhone customer who purchased an iPhone from either Apple or AT&T, and who is not receiving a rebate or any other consideration, a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product at an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store. Details are still being worked out and will be posted on Apple's website next week. Stay tuned.
We want to do the right thing for our valued iPhone customers. We apologize for disappointing some of you, and we are doing our best to live up to your high expectations of Apple.
Steve Jobs
Apple CEO
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Apple Releases New iPods & More
Today, Apple upgraded it's entire iPod line from top
to bottom. You now get many more features for much
less than before along with new design points. The
entry line of iPods, the shuffle, now comes in 5 new
colors. The iPod nano now is smaller and a bit wider
but supports video and games. The original iPod is
now the iPod classic and is thinner along with
capacities up to 160gb. That's up to 40,000 songs in
your pocket.
The hot new announcement today is the iPod touch. Its basically an iPhone in every way but without the phone functionality. And with capacities up to 16gb. It also supports WiFi access now and sports the Safari web browser, YouTube access, syncs with yout contacts and calendar, and more.
The iPhone, along with the iPod touch, now have a new feature, WiFi iTunes Store. You can now browse the iTunes Store, preview music, purchase, and download songs directly to your iPod touch and/or iPhone. The iPhone, via an upgraded version of iTunes software (being released tonight), now supports Ringtones and you can create your own ringtones as well from the purchased music downloads.
Apple is now partnering with Starbucks Coffee to offer free WiFi access to the iTunes Store from the Starbucks coffee shops. Now, when you enter a Starbucks, your iPod touch or iPhone will sense the Starbucks WiFi network, automatically login, and present you with a Starbucks icon on your iPod function. It will display the current playing song in the store and the previous 10 songs played. You can preview those songs and if you like it, you can purchase and download it directly from within Starbucks. Apple also surprised everyone by dropping the 4gb version of the iPhone and reducing the price of the 8gb iPhone from $599 to $399!
You can see all the lateset iPods and iPhone at the Apple iPod+iTunes site.
The hot new announcement today is the iPod touch. Its basically an iPhone in every way but without the phone functionality. And with capacities up to 16gb. It also supports WiFi access now and sports the Safari web browser, YouTube access, syncs with yout contacts and calendar, and more.
The iPhone, along with the iPod touch, now have a new feature, WiFi iTunes Store. You can now browse the iTunes Store, preview music, purchase, and download songs directly to your iPod touch and/or iPhone. The iPhone, via an upgraded version of iTunes software (being released tonight), now supports Ringtones and you can create your own ringtones as well from the purchased music downloads.
Apple is now partnering with Starbucks Coffee to offer free WiFi access to the iTunes Store from the Starbucks coffee shops. Now, when you enter a Starbucks, your iPod touch or iPhone will sense the Starbucks WiFi network, automatically login, and present you with a Starbucks icon on your iPod function. It will display the current playing song in the store and the previous 10 songs played. You can preview those songs and if you like it, you can purchase and download it directly from within Starbucks. Apple also surprised everyone by dropping the 4gb version of the iPhone and reducing the price of the 8gb iPhone from $599 to $399!
You can see all the lateset iPods and iPhone at the Apple iPod+iTunes site.
What's New with DriveSavers
04 September 2007 18:51 Filed in: Tech News
Magnetic Avalanche
When a consumer buys a new high capacity, top of the line hard drive, one of the first things they think is, "Wow, I have tons of space...and it's screaming fast too!" The last thing on the happy purchaser's mind is not about how it works. After all, it is quite complicated and best left to those who develop and build drives.
Scientists have found that these rapidly-spinning drives could potentially be vulnerable to a "magnetic avalanche." In basic terms, this would be the result of electrons spinning so fast that they cause their neighboring atom's electrons to "flip bits" and thus, cause corruption.
Disk drive manufacturers have been creating new designs and using new materials to prevent magnetic avalanches from occurring. During the manufacturing process, they use an effect known as "damping" which is the process of quieting the drive down or reducing its vibration by making sure that spinning parts spin continuously at the correct rate and stabilizing the magnetism inside a drive.
The reality of having a drive suffer from this condition is slim, as it is ideally resolved during manufacturing. If, however, one did slip through the cracks and suffered a failure like this, it is unclear if the data would be recoverable.
There is nothing you can do to prevent a magnetic avalanche, and there is no way to tell if you this is the issue you are experiencing. Our advice-if you are going to sell a "screaming fast, super large drive", perhaps sell two. And teach your customer how to back up on the second one!
When a consumer buys a new high capacity, top of the line hard drive, one of the first things they think is, "Wow, I have tons of space...and it's screaming fast too!" The last thing on the happy purchaser's mind is not about how it works. After all, it is quite complicated and best left to those who develop and build drives.
Scientists have found that these rapidly-spinning drives could potentially be vulnerable to a "magnetic avalanche." In basic terms, this would be the result of electrons spinning so fast that they cause their neighboring atom's electrons to "flip bits" and thus, cause corruption.
Disk drive manufacturers have been creating new designs and using new materials to prevent magnetic avalanches from occurring. During the manufacturing process, they use an effect known as "damping" which is the process of quieting the drive down or reducing its vibration by making sure that spinning parts spin continuously at the correct rate and stabilizing the magnetism inside a drive.
The reality of having a drive suffer from this condition is slim, as it is ideally resolved during manufacturing. If, however, one did slip through the cracks and suffered a failure like this, it is unclear if the data would be recoverable.
There is nothing you can do to prevent a magnetic avalanche, and there is no way to tell if you this is the issue you are experiencing. Our advice-if you are going to sell a "screaming fast, super large drive", perhaps sell two. And teach your customer how to back up on the second one!
DriveSavers Tip of the Month
04 September 2007 18:49 Filed in: Tech Tips
Easy to Use . . . . . . Easy to Lose
Who doesn't have a USB "thumb" or "key" drive these days? They are easy to use, great for data backup, relatively inexpensive and can be purchased almost anywhere. They even come in designer colors! Did we mention they are easy to lose? Data that is.
The reason these devices mount on any computer is that most are formatted with the FAT32 file system. This is the most common and compatible file system today. However, it is not the most stable.
Just like any storage device, USB drives can fail if not cared for properly. It is common for users to cause corruption by unplug them without dismounting them first. They can also have physical issues. They can be forgotten in pockets and end up in the wash-or worse-in the dryer full of static electricity.
DriveSavers recovers data anywhere from these little USB "thumb" drives to micro drives on up to massive 2TB desktop drives.
Make sure to follow the correct procedure to dismount your USB device. Treat it with care. In the event that you do lose data or can't access the device. . . give us a call.
Who doesn't have a USB "thumb" or "key" drive these days? They are easy to use, great for data backup, relatively inexpensive and can be purchased almost anywhere. They even come in designer colors! Did we mention they are easy to lose? Data that is.
The reason these devices mount on any computer is that most are formatted with the FAT32 file system. This is the most common and compatible file system today. However, it is not the most stable.
Just like any storage device, USB drives can fail if not cared for properly. It is common for users to cause corruption by unplug them without dismounting them first. They can also have physical issues. They can be forgotten in pockets and end up in the wash-or worse-in the dryer full of static electricity.
DriveSavers recovers data anywhere from these little USB "thumb" drives to micro drives on up to massive 2TB desktop drives.
Make sure to follow the correct procedure to dismount your USB device. Treat it with care. In the event that you do lose data or can't access the device. . . give us a call.
Disk-aster of the Month
04 September 2007 18:47 Filed in: Tech News
The Doctor Can Help You Now
Corinne Cox is the office manager for Family Doctors of Vicksburg, MI, a 20-person medical facility. Like all things mechanical, her hard drive gave up the ghost one day, taking with it vital financial records including patient billing and payroll.
Corinne remained calm because she personally had a daily backup procedure in place. Every day at 5 PM, she would pull the backup tape and store it offsite for additional security and protection. When her IT people checked the backup system, they found that the server was corrupted and had not been making a back up of their system for several months. The reality began to sink in-without this data, she wouldn't be able to pay co-workers and doctors or invoice the patients.
"Our entire practice was unable to function without our data, I literally felt physically ill", says Corinne. Like many of the drives that come to DriveSavers, this specific drive suffered from media damage and required the heads and actuator assembly to be replaced through extensive microsurgery in an effort to temporarily repair the drive.
Three days later, the Family Doctors office received its data and was back in business. Of the experience Corinne shared, "The stress of losing this data was devastating. I hope other people will learn from my experience that even though you think you're backing up, it's important check and confirm that everything's working as it should."
Corinne Cox is the office manager for Family Doctors of Vicksburg, MI, a 20-person medical facility. Like all things mechanical, her hard drive gave up the ghost one day, taking with it vital financial records including patient billing and payroll.
Corinne remained calm because she personally had a daily backup procedure in place. Every day at 5 PM, she would pull the backup tape and store it offsite for additional security and protection. When her IT people checked the backup system, they found that the server was corrupted and had not been making a back up of their system for several months. The reality began to sink in-without this data, she wouldn't be able to pay co-workers and doctors or invoice the patients.
"Our entire practice was unable to function without our data, I literally felt physically ill", says Corinne. Like many of the drives that come to DriveSavers, this specific drive suffered from media damage and required the heads and actuator assembly to be replaced through extensive microsurgery in an effort to temporarily repair the drive.
Three days later, the Family Doctors office received its data and was back in business. Of the experience Corinne shared, "The stress of losing this data was devastating. I hope other people will learn from my experience that even though you think you're backing up, it's important check and confirm that everything's working as it should."