Consumerist

This Best Buy coupon for free Apple software for students isn’t a very good deal after all—you can get educational discounts at the Apple store, and through September 15th you can get a free iPod Touch or Nano with your computer purchase. Our advice: skip Best Buy and go directly through Apple. (Thanks to Matt and yasth!)

iphone 3g

Apple Doesn't Know How To Handle The MobileMe Crisis

By cwalters 7.24.08

It’s amazing that Apple doesn’t recognize this situation. This is an airplane that’s stuck on the runway for hours with no food or working bathroom. And the pilot doesn’t come on the P.A. system to tell the customers what the problem is, what’s being done to fix it, how much longer they might be stuck, and how he empathizes with their plight. Instead, he comes on once every three hours to repeat the same thing: “We apologize for the inconvenience.”

apple

HP Won't Issue New Drivers For Leopard, Tells You To Buy A New Printer

By consumeristcarey 3.15.08

Matt’s Officejet 6110 scans perfectly under Ubuntu, but won’t play nice with Leopard. When Matt called HP for support, he was told that the company has no plans to issue new drivers so he should just buy a new printer. To soften the blow, the tech mentioned HP’s trade-in program, which would give Matt a whopping $16 for his printer.

lawsuits

By cwalters 2.27.08

../../../..//2008/02/27/a-couple-of-weeks-1/

A couple of weeks ago we wrote about the Windows Vista hearing, where Microsoft executives were shown to have complained internally about the misleading “Vista Capable” campaign. The judge has granted the case class action status. [Computerworld]

apple

QuickBooks' Latest Update Destroyed Mac Users' Desktops

By cwalters 1.10.08

Here’s one reason to use an online service to store financial data: no buggy updates to deal with.* Intuit’s December update for 2006 and 2007 versions of QuickBooks Pro on the Mac platform wiped the user’s Desktop folder and anything stored there. The company released a patch, but it didn’t work if you launched QuickBooks while connected to a wireless hotspot, oops. The latest patch, so far as we can tell, simply disables any further updates to the application—on January 3rd the company “began automatically feeding a patch to Mac QuickBooks users that permanently switches off the program’s upgrade mechanism to prevent a repetition of a data disaster.” In the meantime, since they can’t offer a way to fix the deleted Desktop folders, they’re offering rebates to users who buy a copy of the data recovery program Data Rescue II.

windows

Who Should And Shouldn't Buy A Mac

By consumerist.com 11.19.07

Walter Mossberg wrote a guide for buying a Mac and we like the parts that say who should and who shouldn’t get one. Mac vs PC debates are highly personal, often end in bloodshed, and usually make no sense, so it’s nice to see a rational discussion of each system’s attributes. In the end, it really matters what kind of user you are, and what your price point is…

apple

Consumerist Advanced

By consumerist.com 9.1.07

apple

Does Comcast Hate Mac And Firefox?

By Meg Marco 7.18.07

You’d think the country’s largest ISP would embrace customers who use Firefox and Safari. Or maybe you wouldn’t. Tech.Blorge blogger David says they “hate” Mac and Firefox. Strong words!

readers

Balance Your Budget With iBank (Mac)

By consumerist.com 6.27.07

iBank is a friendly-looking budgeting software program for Mac with a diverse set of robust features.

apple

Apple Denying Warranty Repairs? E-mail Steve Jobs.

By Meg Marco 6.22.07

By far the most common “Apple” complaint we get at Consumerist is about our readers being denied warranty repairs because of some sort of “damage”.

apple

Canon Treats Digital Rebel XT Owner Like Pawnshop Scavenger

By consumerist.com 5.11.07

Consumerist alum Joel Johnson has a beef with Canon and their decision to treat him, the proud purchaser of Canon Digital Rebel XT, like he found the camera in a dumpster.

apple

Quicken Claims To Sync With Bank Of America. It Does, Unless You Have Quicken For Mac.

By consumerist.com 2.11.07

Despite holdings of almost $1.5 trillion, Bank of America, the largest bank in America, won’t sync with users of Quicken for Mac. Reader Philip, who spent $65 on Quicken, writes to tell us how Intuit’s website advertises such compatibility.

apple

Best of Both Worlds

By Meg Marco 11.13.06

ZDNet is reporting that MacMall is selling Macbooks that are pre-loaded with both Windows XP and MacOS. You can get your dual boot system in two flavors: Apple’s free BootCamp 1.1 which allows you to boot either operating system, or Nova Development’s Parallels Desktop … which allows you to run both at the same time.

justin long

Apple Fires Smug Fanboy

By Meg Marco 11.10.06

You knew it was coming. Apple has said goodbye to Justin Long A.K.A. “Mac”, whom Seth Stevenson of Slate called:

mac enthusiasts

Mac Enthusiasts Becoming Less Enthusiastic

By Meg Marco 10.27.06

Photo by Nathan Makan.

apple

Dubliner Threatens Apple With “Walk of Shame” Across Ireland, Gets New Mac 90 Min Later

By consumerist.com 8.24.06

Last week, a Dublin man grew so frustrated with Apple not sending him a replacement iMac that he threatened to walk across Ireland. He bet that he could strap his Mac to his back and reach Cork, the closest Apple repair center, faster than they could arrange pickup of his broken Apple.

Welcome to the Consumerist Archives

Mac