My Dead Time Capsule Will Get Replaced.Yay!

I just spoke with an AppleCare customer service agent today who finally confirmed that I will be getting a replacement for my broken Time Capsule. Needless to say, I'm pretty happy about that. :)

Looking around the net, there seem to be a lot of different stories from people about having their dead TCs replaced. Some seem to not have that much trouble, while others just give up eventually and have their units fixed by an unauthorized service provider. My advice is to get in touch with a customer service agent. If you don't have AppleCare and your Time Capsule is out of warranty, ask the reseller where you got the Time Capsule from who you can get in touch to get a replacement request. The reseller I bought my Time Capsule from was pretty helpful. Apart from me calling up Apple's customer service, one of the supervisors was getting in touch with them as well to help work the issues out (I purchased my Time Capsule from Senco Link Technologies. I purchased my MacBook Pro from them as well and am pretty happy with their after-sales support.)

So now, my concern is whether this replacement that I will get is going to last longer or if it's going to go the same route as my first Time Capsule. I guess I'll just have to wait and see (either in another 17 months, or if and when Apple does acknowledge this issue and sheds some light on what's causing these failures). In the meantime, I think I'll be getting an external HD and will just hook it up to the Time Capsule and back up to that one instead. I know it defeats the purpose of having a Time Capsule in the first place, but I might as well be on the safe side.

My Dead Time Capsule

I purchased a 1TB Apple Time Capsule sometime in May of 2008. My old router was becoming increasingly unreliable (kept dropping connections, needed to reboot it often), and I liked the idea of being able to conveniently do wireless backups in the Time Capsule's built-in hard drive. It was a great product. Rarely ever had to reboot it. It was pretty easy to set up and use. And being able to access the files in the Time Capsule hard drive from any of the Macs at home was pretty convenient. How I wish I could still say that I am enjoying the benefits of using this product, but I can't. Because a couple of days ago, my Time Capsule just died on me. I came home one night and found that I couldn't connect to the internet because my computer couldn't detect the home wireless network. I checked out my Time Capsule to find that the power light wasn't on. I tried switching outlets to no avail. It was simply dead. A $499 dollar product that I've had for only around 17 months just died.

Warranty: 12 months. Great...

So, fine, I'll just send it to the service center and pay for the parts and repairs. I assumed it was just the power supply that needed to be fixed so I was hopeful that it wouldn't cost me a fortune. But then, when I sent it for repairs, the engineer tells me that Apple does not allow authorized service centers to fix broken Time Capsule power supplies. They will simply replace it, but only IF it's still within some kind of warranty coverage. How great is that? You have a really expensive machine that's broken and is not even 2 years old. They won't replace it if the warranty has expired. But they won't fix it either. So what you have now is just a really expensive paperweight. I asked the engineer if there really wasn't anything else that could be done, and I was told that they would see what they could do and get back to me.

So in the meantime, I did a little web search on broken Time Capsule power supplies. And to my surprise, I found that numerous other people were having the same problem. Within around 17 or so months of purchasing their Time Capsules, it simply just died abruptly. A topic in the Apple discussion board was filled with replies by people and their dead Time Capsule stories. I even found a website dedicated to dead Time Capsules (http://timecapsuledead.org/) where users can register the death of their wifi router and backup device. Last time I checked, it had 626 entries. Hopefully this site and the issue at hand gets more exposure, and hopefully Apple will respond to this situation accordingly.

And as for my situation, I was fortunately able to find an article on the web that informed me that currently active Mac AppleCare agreements actually also cover Time Capsules (as well as certain other peripherals) that are used with a Mac computer under the AppleCare warranty. I was able to phone the Apple hotline and was told that I could receive a replacement since I have an active AppleCare agreement for my MacBook Pro. So as of now, according to the last customer service agent I spoke with, I should be getting a replacement. And if I do get that replacement, I just hope I won't be experiencing the same thing after another 17 months.

Telestream Releases ScreenFlow 2.0

Mac screencasters rejoice! Just a few months after TechSmith releases Camtasia for Mac, here comes Telestream with version 2 of their highly popular screencasting application, ScreenFlow. I tried out Camtasia when it was released but held off on purchasing a copy after I heard that ScreenFlow 2.0 was coming out soon. Although I was pretty impressed with Camtasia for Mac, there were a couple of features that I was hoping it would have but did not - such as mouse callouts (highlighting/putting focus on the mouse pointer and its actions in order to emphasize it), for example, which has been part of ScreenFlow since version 1.0. And now that version 2 is available, I will be testing it out to see how it compares with Camtasia for Mac so I can finally make a decision as to which one I should get. I think it's great that there's finally some real competition going on in the Mac screencasting arena. Hopefully, this will mean that both companies will work even harder to try and improve their respective applications. And ultimately, Mac screencasters will have better options to choose from.

Check out ScreenFlow.

Apple Unveils New iMac

The new iMac looks amazing! I'm loving it immensely (but only from afar. lol)! :D And that 27 inch display... WOW! The wireless, multi-touch mouse is pretty cool too. I'm always amazed at the innovations they keep coming out with. Watch the [video].

Camtasia For Mac Is Now Available

Great news for all you Mac users waiting for TechSmith's Camtasia for Mac! This long awaited app is now available. For a limited time, you can purchase a copy at a discounted price of $99(USD) (the full price is at $149(USD)). Head on over to techsmith.com/camtasiamac to find out more!

You might also be interested to check out:
- TechSmith's free Camtasia for Mac tutorials
- a comparison chart between Camtasia Studio for Windows and Camtasia for Mac to see which features are available exclusively for the Windows or the Mac version, and which ones are available for both

I've just downloaded the free, fully functional 30-day trial version and can't wait to try it out!

Camtasia For The Mac Coming Soon

I just checked the TechSmith (makers of the popular Camtasia screen recording software) blog and was pleasantly surprised to find an announcement that Camtasia is finally going to be available for the Mac. After months of not hearing anything about the status of the project's development, they've announced that Camtasia for the Mac will finally be available on August 25, 2009 at a special introductory price of $99(USD)! Great! This offer will last through the end of 2009, and after that, MSRP will be $149. I was pleasantly surprised with this bit of information. I was expecting the price to be much higher. Camtasia Studio for Windows costs $299(USD) so I was almost certain that the this release for the Mac will be priced higher. As of this post I don't think there's any info on the TechSmith website that explains in detail the features of Camtasia: Mac, but I hope that the lower price does not mean that the Mac version will have fewer features than its Windows counterpart. Either way, I'm definitely excited for the release. You can watch out for more announcements on their Twitter page, or you can subscribe to email updates on Mac-related TechSmith announcements.

How NOT To Sell A Used iPhone

Would you by this?

Transfer Songs And Videos From Your iPod To Your Mac

If you're looking for an application that will let you copy songs and videos from your iPod (yes, including the iTouch) or iPhone to your computer, then you might want to take a look at Pod to Mac, developed by Chris Devor. This one is obviously just for Mac users, but PC users, don't despair - the developer also has a version for the PC, aptly named Pod to PC. Both apps are free.

Getting The PS3 Eye To Work On A Mac

User TheBlueHour from YouTube has a nice little video that shows how he was able to make the PlayStation Eye work on a Mac.

Woz Is "The Mac Mastermind"???

Steve Wozniak will be on "Dancing with the Stars". LOL :D

Mac vs PC: Transformers Edition

by Nick Greenlee

[watch higher quality version]