Technology: July 2010 Archives

White MacBook top case replaced without question

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By James Lockman on July 26, 2010 8:07 PM 0 0 Vote 0 Votes
White MacBook laptop

Image via Wikipedia

I took Arthur's white MacBook to the Apple Store today to see about getting the top case replaced. The earlier white MacBooks (I have a black one) are susceptible to failure of the top case near where you rest the heels of your hands. In Maine, where the white MacBook is the Maine Learning Technology Initiative's computer of choice, there are a lot of white MacBooks around.

The top case contains the keyboard and the track pad, and it rests inside and slightly on top of the edge of the bottom case. The screen bezel has two little ridges in it that keep the screen from touching the keyboard when the computer is closed. When these computers go in a bag (like the bags that come with the computers when they are part of the MLTI...), there is additional pressure that gets applied to the top case by these ridges. The result is catastrophic failure of the plastic where the ridge touches the plastic.

I brought the computer in, and they took it without question. Quoting the Problem Description/Diagnosis  portion of the Genius Bar Work Authorization,
Issue: Customer states there are cracks in the top case
Steps to Reproduce: Observed cracks at the bar
Proposed Resolution: Replace top case
Total cost: $0.00

Makes sense to me! I left the computer at the bar around 12:45 pm, expecting to get a call tomorrow. I got the call at 2:00 pm, telling me that the repair was complete. Go Apple!

In addition to the top case, the repaired computer also has a new screen bezel that includes the camera. AJ reports crisper images from the camera. Another benefit for him is that the case had become wracked as it compressed, making it difficult to eject CDs and DVDs from the slot loading drive. Discs now glide in and out with ease.

It is important to note that this computer was repaired without question and without an Apple Care contract. While I haven't been able to find notice of a replacement program at apple.com, this seems to be the real deal, at least in Maine.
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New promotional video for CS-Magic: Styling Buttons in Flash Catalyst

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By James Lockman on July 24, 2010 8:52 AM 0 0 Vote 0 Votes
Here's the second in a series of short videos featuring Flash Catalyst. It talks about buttons and how to reuse and style them.

iOS 4 upgrade nightmare

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By James Lockman on July 19, 2010 5:44 PM 0 0 Vote 0 Votes
So, here I sit, in the Apple Store in South Portland, Maine, while my wife's new iPhone 3GS (we both had our 3GS phones replaced due to case cracking yesterday) continues to not work properly.

Upon replacing the phone and restoring it from the last backup, the phone (now iOS 4.01; the backup was iOS 4, and the phone was OS 3.x until a day or so before the swap.) exhibits the following symptoms:
  • Safari crashes when visiting any site
  • App Store crashes when updating the one app that needs updating
  • We determined that other apps that depend on the network may or may not fail; there isn't a definite correlation between what makes them crash.
So, we restored the phone to factory new, and then synced it with her computer. 

Initially, surfing the web crashed Safari, but we wiped out the bookmarks and the cached pages and cookies, and we could surf the web. Yay! Although we could surf the web, we couldn't set up any email accounts. Boo! Google Apps (gMail, actually) claimed that the password was wrong, but I was able to setup the same account on my iPhone without any trouble. Quite easily, in fact.

I then removed all of the apps from the phone in the hope that there was an app that was causing the conflict with iOS 4. That didn't do the job. 

Taking up all the space at the Genius bar...
Out came another brand-new iPhone 3GS, and we moved the SIM card and began the restore process. Unfortunately, the phone was iOS 3, so it had to be upgraded to iOS4 before we could continue. Unfortunately, the phone failed the OS upgrade, with the ever helpful "Unknown error."

Moving the new new phone to another computer for restore, it failed, so we declared it DOA. Now, back to the one we got yesterday for another try.

After restoring it to factory new, we were unable to surf the web. So, now I have had three different iPhone geniuses poring over the phone, and all are puzzled.

Next, we take the new phone (not the DOA one from today, but the replacement from yesterday) and restore it to new phone state, without ever connecting it to my wife's computer. In this factory new state, the phone wouldn't run Safari! Now, we have at least a diagnosis: the new phone has some issue with its network hardware that prevents it from working properly. Unfortunately, between my wife and I, we have exhausted the on-hand phones, so there is no replacement phone available. One was ordered, and should arrive tomorrow or Wednesday.

All in all, we had three computers attached to several iPhones in different combinations for over three and a half hours with a diagnosis, but no satisfaction. Now, the new phone is back to its hobbled state, able to work as a phone and get email, but unable to surf the web.
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Promotional video for my Flash Catalyst webinar at cs-magic.com

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By James Lockman on July 18, 2010 11:16 AM 0 0 Vote 0 Votes

In this teaser, we convert an Illustrator file to Flash Catalyst. The project is an e-book reader made specifically for Alice in Wonderland. Learn more at cs-magic.com

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iOS 4.01 gives me larger but FEWER bars

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By James Lockman on July 15, 2010 5:19 PM 0 0 Vote 0 Votes
Once again, I am left scratching my head by an Apple update. First, we are told that the algorithm used to calculate how many bars to display for signal strength was flawed, and that the number of bars shown did not correspond properly to the signal strength. Then, we were told that in order to make signal strength clearer to the user, Apple would increase the size of the bars that the iPhone would display.

I installed iOS4 just now, and was struck by two things:
  • First, the bars are indeed a little bigger. Now, I won't be left wondering whether one bar (which looked like an underscore) was really zero bars.
  • Second, the number of bars my iPhone 3GS displays in my dining room is now LESS than it was prior to the update. 
So, I guess that for me, the phone was giving me an optimistic response to signal strength before the update, and now it's telling me truthfully how lousy my AT&T coverage is.
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Consumer Reports passes on iPhone 4; Apple should take a hint from Honda

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By James Lockman on July 12, 2010 11:34 PM 0 0 Vote 0 Votes
Consumer Reports has decided to not recommend the iPhone 4 due to what it calls an antenna design flaw.


This is in direct conflict with Apple's unbelievable letter to the public that the phone's problems are with the software that displays how many bars you have, and not with the antenna design. Come on, Apple, fess up and fix the problem. It's a sign of a good company that makes exciting products and keeps the public energized about its brand. It a sign of a great company that owns up to its mistakes and fixes them before they become a public relations nightmare.

Look at Toyota. Their recall problems over the last year are legendary. However, have you heard that Honda has had similar recalls? Sure thing, my Honda Odyssey and a whole slew of other Honda cars were recalled for braking and transmission problems. Hmm, sound familiar? The thing is, though, that Honda reached out to us owners through the mail and through communication from the dealer to get us in to the dealer and get the problems solved. I didn't have to learn about it on the evening news, and I feel a lot better about my Honda.

I believe that Apple's customers would feel a lot better about their iPhone 4 purchase (and, of course, future technology purchases from Apple) if it would take steps now to fix the phones and get new ones into the hands of its customers.
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Flex 4 Framework and Flash Builder CS5 rev for Mobile

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By James Lockman on July 3, 2010 7:47 AM 0 0 Vote 0 Votes
Adobe pushed out updates to Flash Builder CS5 and made available the Flex 4.1 SDK the other day. #AdobeCP

This release updates the Rapid Application Development environment to Flash Player 10.1, which opens the door for mobile Flex development. According to Adobe, some of the improvements include:
  • The new Layout Mirroring feature for repurposing Flex UIs for deployment in right-to-left locales
  • Native support for Flash Player 10.1 and AIR 2 in the Flex SDK
  • Native support in Flash Builder 4.0.1 for building apps targeting SDK 4.1, AIR 2 or FP 10.1 
  • Many critical bugfixes and enhancement requests for both Flex SDK and Flash Builder 
Adobe also released Hero, its latest iteration of the Flex SDK. Read about it here. It is intended to unify the development paths for desktop and mobile, and provides a single framework for developing Rich Internet Applications as well as desktop applications based on AIR2.

I am in the midst of creating a mobile application, and we have been complaining internally about how easy it would be if only Flex (Flash Builder) supported Flash Player 10.1. Targeting Android and Blackberry devices, we now can create one app using Flex and AIR rather than several different apps with different development kits. It is true that the player isn't ready on the devices, but by the time we're done with the App, Flash Player 10.1 should be widely deployed on Android and RIM as well as Palm and others.


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