So for a few months now the headphones on my iPhone have not been working properly… music comes out of them but I can’t use the line mic that was included with them. I imagined all sorts of problems, faults with the wireing, faults with the button etc etc… what I didn’t do was look it up online or drop by Vodafone (or mention it to my buddy Dean or his lovely wife Veronica,  when I was up in Wellington. You know, the couple who worked at a premium Mac retailer). 

So it finally bugged me enough to drop by the Vodafone store.. the nice man there (HI AARON!) said “oh, it’s probably lint and proceeded to pick out a huge piece from the headphone jack. He gave it to me and said “there you can go home and make a jersey”. Works like new. 

Which brings me to two questions:

1. Why is vodafone’s instore and email help so good when their telephone support is such utter complete crap? 
2. Why don’t cases for the iPhone ship with a little flap to cover the headphone jack?

In January Apple released the January Software Update for iPod Touch. Let’s leave aside the fact that you have to pay $20 for it, and talk about the update stream.

They’re using iTunes to push it on you, so that you can then buy it through the store and update right away. This is smart, this is easy etc etc. I’m all for it.

The problem is that, for a number of reasons, I just don’t have the $20 to spend right now.

No problem right? I click “Remind me later” or whatever…

And then I get caught in a circle of the same damn screen and I can’t actually control the contents of my iPod.

I wrote an email to Apple about this, they replied very quickly telling me that they were sorry and they were working to fix this problem.

While I’m not a fan boy by any extent*, I love Apple products. I’ve never bought any other kind of computer, I prefer to work on them, I currently have six (in various states of repair) around our house. I like how the OS works, I like the hardware, I like the industrial design (hmm. MB I am a fan boy).

All of this to say that I have used tons of Macs, both personally and professionally. I’ve owned at least 15, I’ve worked with and done simple upgrades on just about every Mac since the LCII. So it is with this experience that I say this: The mighty mouse’s track ball? It sucks.

Oh, when it works it’s amazing. It’s wonderful. The side to side and diagonal tracking? Cool beyond all measure. The up and down? Crisp.

It’s just that it is flaky as all get out.

Look, I don’t wash my hands before I use my computer. I’ve been known to snack at my desk. This is probably bad. It breaks rules of computing. But if this were a jailable offense, we’d have to build really, really big jails.

The mechanism is located under the ball. It’s enclosed. There is no way at it. So food particles, body grease, cat hair, whatever gets in there. It gets between the ball and the mechanism. The ball stops working. Or it skids. Or it goes up by not down. Or down but not up.

Apple’s solution. Hold the mouse upside down and rub it back and forth vigorously.

What. The. Hell?

This is one time that hte design failed.

*Jobs is about as god like as any other CEO of a major company, the constant sniping at the corporate uses of the PC, while amusing, are probably off putting, plus IT’S A COMPANY PEOPLE.