Apple Fanboy Recants After iPhone Troubles

When I got into the line outside my local Apple Store to buy a new iPhone 3G, all the Apple trainers were wearing shirts that read "No pain, All gain".  If it were only true.

An Apple employee was working her way down the line getting customers partially checked in while they stood in line.  After about 30 minutes, she asked me if I had an AT&T account.  When I told her I did, she proceeded to pull up my account only to find that I could not buy an iPhone at the store because I had a corporate discount.  She told me to call an AT&T number and have it cleared.  I made two phone calls to AT&T over the next 30 minutes before they were able to correct my account settings.  Now I was ready to buy my new iphone!

When I made it inside to the sales person, he asked when I bought my current phone.  When I told him 6 months ago, he told me "the iPhone will be $399" instead of $199.  The $199 price is only for new accounts or for accounts over two years old.  He also told me I could go to my local AT&T store to see if one of my other family plan accounts could be used.  Needless to say I was a little upset that the first Apple worker failed to mention the $399 price before I stood in line for over an hour.

Later that day, I headed over to the AT&T store where a very friendly worker explained that one of my phones was eligble for an upgrade.  She explained how to go buy the iPhone on the other account and then come back to her and get the numbers switched so that I could keep my old number on the iPhone.

The next day, I headed back to the Apple store.  This time the line was only thirty minutes and I was walking out the door with my new iPhone 3G after another 15 minutes.  I immediately headed over to the AT&T store and had my numbers switched.  At last, a new iPhone was mine.

The problems resumed the next day when I noticed that Visual Voicemail was not working!  Back to the Apple store where I was told that voicemail was an AT&T problem and that I should call AT&T customer support.  What they did not tell me was that AT&T does not have phone support on Sundays. I guess AT&T customers never have problems on Sundays.  

So, I was off to the AT&T store to see if they could help me.  Once there, the AT&T worker fiddled with the "special access" phone support that he was able to access on Sundays.  After about 15 minutes, they told him to call Apple support!  

The AT&T worker spent about 15 more minutes with Apple support and the Visual Voicemail problem was fixed at last.  Does anyone think it is strange that an AT&T worker could get Apple customer support to fix my iPhone when the Apple Store could not???

A few days later, I started setting up all my email accounts to work with the iPhone.  I expected problems to arise especially with my Microsoft Exchange based work account.  At this point, you might be feeling a bit of dread, I know I was.

Surprise! My Gmail, Yahoo mail, and Outlook email accounts all worked great, but my Mobile Me email would only send but not receive messages.  Since all the others worked great, I assumed that I had set up the Mobile Me account incorrectly.  Time to head back to the Apple Store for some expert help.

The Apple worker tried deleting my Mobile Me account and checked the settings against his own iPhone 3G.  Still no messages would show up in my Mobile Me mailbox.  We even looked online and my Mobile Me mailbox was empty there as well.  

The next step was to go online in the Apple Store and try "chat" support for Mobile Me.  The Apple worker told me that I might be one of the unlucky Mobile Me users that he had been hearing about.  After waiting about 10 minutes, I began a chat session and went through several trouble shooting tricks.  After about 20 more minutes, the Apple support person told me that Apple would be giving me 60 more free days on my Mobile Me account and that they would email me when Mobile Me was fixed.  I went home with my crippled iPhone 3G, but without a working Mobile Me account.

It has been 2 weeks now and I have not received the magic email from Apple telling me that Mobile Me is finally working correctly.  It is amazing to me that Apple can build a great mobile phone but are unable to make their own email program function.  

Perhaps the next t-shirt Apple gives to its workers should say, "All Pain, NO GAIN".

Black Witch Moths in Orange County

Every few years, Black Witch (Ascalapha odorata)
moths may be found in Orange County. Their last visit to our area was in 2004. The moth usually ranges from Brazil to southern Texas and Florida. The huge moths, with wingspans up to 7", are often misidentified as bats when in flight.
Female Black Witch moths have a white band across their wings. The female Black witch pictured above graced my porch on July 27, 2008.

iPhone 2.0

If you gave the first iPhone a pass last summer, your second chance is just a few days away. The new iPhone comes out on July 11th at a store near you. As expected, Apple added GPS and 3G capabilities as well as dropping the price to $199 for the 8G model and $299 for the 16G model.

The price drop is a bit deceptive, because they bumped up the cost on the subscription side. The details are continuing to trickle out about the AT&T subscription agreement. But from what I have read, the low cost of the phone will be partially made up by higher rates for the 2 year plan.

I think many people will like the reduced price for arguably the best smart phone on the market and will put up with the AT&T requirements. At $199 the new iPhone will be too tempting for many people to resist.

So throw away your Blackjack and go stand in line!

FreeRice?

Have you heard about FreeRice? FreeRice delivers free rice to needy people around the world. On the website, students can practice their vocabulary for the SAT and in the process "win" free rice for the needy. The online vocabulary game is fun to play and you feel good about doing something worthwhile for others.

Teachers are using the website with their classes and encouraging their students to get involved!

Vista for Schools?

A friend and mentor recently told me about his district's experience with Microsoft Windows Vista. Last summer, his school district purchased 800 new computers pre-loaded with Windows Vista. After two months of trying to resolve innumerable problems between Vista and various printers, educational software programs, scanners, cameras, and Eagle software, the IT department solved the problems by reformatting the hard drives and installing Windows XP.

Macs anyone?

Teachertube

Are you tired of digging through all the junk on Youtube looking for a video clip for your class? Then try Teachertube.

TeacherTube is Youtube for teachers. The site is very similar to Youtube, but all the videos are submitted for the education audience. So next time you need a video on the physics of golf or a rap on perimeters find them on TeacherTube.

More Outlook Tips

I have collected emails sent out by my school's network administrators. Most of the tips of are general interest to anyone struggling with Outlook.

1. Making a Group in Outlook
Attached you will find directions for making a unique group from the University High Staff group. This is particularly handy if you have a large number of folks from Uni to put into the group such as Certificated, classified, and or DHH .

A copy of this document is stored in the Shared folder as well.
Vol1/Data/Share/How to documents/Outlook
Vol1/Data/Share/Outlook

If you would like the personal touch, please contact me. I am happy to help you.

Kaye K.

2. Getting Winzip
Several of you have already asked me today about getting Winzip installed on computers so that files can be zipped up for Blackboard. Winzip is no longer a freeware program since the company started charging for its use, but don’t worry, all is not lost! Microsoft comes with a free built-in utility to zip files for you and it’s easy to use…

Right click any file(s) you’d like to zip, select SEND TO, then select COMPRESSED (ZIPPED) FOLDER form the list of choices. That’s it! Look for the new zipped folder within the same folder as the original file and upload away!
Marius G.

3. Search feature of MS Outlook
Many of you use the Search feature of MS Outlook, but when performing a search you’re not finding the items you’re searching for even though you can find it manually. Here’s how to fix that:

Go to TOOLS, then OPTIONS, then the PREFERENCES tab. Click the SEARCH OPTIONS button, and in the “Instant Search Pane” section select ALL FOLDERS.

This will allow searching in all the folders rather than just the one currently open.

Marius G.


4. Spruce up your email
There are various ways to spruce up your email.

HTML format means you can add images or other graphics to your email. The drawback is the email’s file size when sending and receiving. If you want to add a photo to your signature like I did (instructions coming up), then you’ll need to make sure HTML is selected.

RICH TEXT format is similar to HTML but less intensive and accepts only certain image formats. Feel free to experiment with this format if you like. I don’t know if it works with adding a signature image.

PLAIN TEXT format is the plainest form of email. No images, no graphics. Just a stripped down version of email. You will not be able to send images unless attached, or view HTML formatted email if they contain images in the body of the email.

Here’s how to enable, disable or otherwise change your own format:
Go to TOOLS, then OPTIONS, then click the Mail Format tab. In “Compose in this message format” select HTML, RICH TEXT, or PLAIN TEXT as desired. If selecting HTML, also uncheck the “reduce the file size of the message…” checkbox
to prevent unwanted formatting removal.
Marius G.

5.Using commas to separate email
Many of you are used to using commas to separate email recipients rather than semi-colons. Well, your day of comma-freedom has arrived, so if you want to use commas, follow me:

Go to TOOLS, then OPTIONS, then PREFERENCES. Click the EMAIL OPTIONS button and then the ADVANCED EMAIL OPTIONS button. Place a checkmark in “Allow comma as address separator”, and the revolution is complete.

Marius G.

6. Here’s how to set up your Notifications settings.. you know, those annoying popups and sounds that let you know you have a new mail in your INBOX. Many of you wanted to know how to disable these features because they come up during Powerpoint presentations, etc.

At top…. Go to TOOLS, then OPTIONS, then PREFERENCES. Click the EMAIL OPTIONS button, then the ADVANCED EMAIL OPTIONS button. Now, review the “When New Items Arrive In My Inbox” section carefully and make your choices which turns them on or off.
- Play a Sound (obviously will play a sound every time new email arrives. No, the sound can’t be changed to play Beethoven’s 5th Symphony.)
- Briefly change the mouse cursor (the cursor will change to a pointing hand briefly)
- Show an envelope icon in the Notifications area (will display a small envelope next to the clock in the bottom right of your screen)
- Display a new mail Desktop Alert (briefly flashes a small notification dialog with the sender’s name and first few words of the email content)

Additionally users can change the duration and transparency of a desktop alert. The duration can be set from 3 seconds to 30 seconds and the transparency can be set from Solid (0%) to almost clear (80%). Once the choices are made, click PREVIEW to preview your settings and make changes to fit your taste. Users can find these settings by clicking the “Desktop Alert Settings” button.

Marius G.

7. Here’s how to manually add email addresses or domain names (companies) to the JUNK MAIL and/or SAFE LIST. You may find this useful if you know the email addresses of friends or outside-IUSD collegues and you want to ensure that their email doesn’t route to the JUNK MAIL folder but into your INBOX.

At top…. Go to TOOLS, then OPTIONS, then PREFERENCES, and click the JUNK EMAIL button. Select the SAFE RECIPIENTS tab and then click the ADD button to manually add complete email addresses or domain names (in this format: @example.com). All email and domain addresses listed here will always go directly to your INBOX (without passing GO or collecting $200).

Marius G

8. In response to the many email questions regarding Microsoft Outlook and making it more user friendly, I will send you all some tidbits of (hopefully) useful information on customizing Outlook to make it perform more to your liking. To make the email shorter and easier to store and find for future reference, I’ll keep each How-to separate and titled appropriately. Please save these by dragging them into your CABINET folder for future reference.

Here’s how to mark incoming mail as Junk or Not Junk (Friendly or Unfriendly):

JUNK MAIL: Any email that ends up in your INBOX that you know is Junk Mail, go ahead and right-click it and select Junk Mail, then select “Add Sender to blocked Sender’s list” (blocks the sender’s email address from future correspondence with you).

FRIENDLY MAIL: Obviously you don’t have to do anything with friendly mail in your INBOX. However, do check your JUNK E-MAIL folder daily to ensure that friendly mail gets routed correctly. When you find friendly email in your JUNK MAIL folder, right click it and select Junk Mail, then make one of two choices:
∑ Add Sender to Safe Sender’s List (all present and future correspondence from this sender will go straight to your INBOX) or,
∑ Add Sender’s Domain (@example.com) to Safe Sender’s List (all present and future correspondence from this Domain (company) will go straight to your INBOX).

Alternately, you can skip the steps for Friendly email by simply dragging the message from the JUNK MAIL folder into your INBOX if you prefer this method, and all future email from the sender will route into your INBOX as well.
Marius G.