Listen to today’s show here! 
MC20060314.mp3 [22.2mb 00:48:25 64kbps]
A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Show 126. Vista will not boot on MacIntels. Multipass purchase option added for iTunes video. Apples 30th birthday plans. Apple setting up tech support in India. New Apple Retail Store in Reno, Nevada. Apple releases another security update. New French law may say “au revoir” to iTunes France. Follow-up on Tesco Apple Mini Stores. Follow-up on FrontRow Enabler 1.2.1. Listener thoughts and impressions of the 17″ iMac Core Duo. Will Apple build iSights into Cinema Displays? How to disable Dashboard to free up memory, the Widget Killer. Tips and tricks to manage podcasts in main iTunes library. Using multiple Macs with Apple IR remotes, remote pairing.
New music, Come Back Home by Timothy Paul
Promo for the Pease and Heintz Podcast
I was having fun on this job! You had all this energy, and all these crazy ideas… and you kept taking your pants off.
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Wonderfullllllllll
Thanks a lot
Adam
wow… i commented about possible iSights a day ago… not complaining about it, just mostly surprised at myself
As much as I like British-based things, I’d rather not have Tescos around. I just think there’s too many such stores around already.
Having small stores inside Tesco is a good thing trust me.
Mac are few and far between over here, and the more exposure the better!
That said there is over 4,000,000 people living in Ireland, but not evn oen Apple Store. Please give Ireland apple stores. It’s an important time for apple and Ireland needs at least 3 store to start.
The only reason that Macs are few and far between here is because there nowhere to see them, at least there’s nowhere to see any new Macs!
Here’s how I disable dashboard
alias nodash=’defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES;killall Dock’
i saw that whole daily show/colbert report(pronounced repore), and i was kind of miffed bout that cause on the comedy central website you can get most of the show segments minus some small things, every day they air for free, now your not able to download them but you can view them and if you just like to watch the show for what it has to offer than i think that would be enough but the fact that they are free there and have to pay for them on itunes is kinda bogus i think
Here in the UK, Tech Support 1st line is already in India! Simple things they are fine about, but you have to spell things time and time again, they don’t understand main things and when you ask them to pass to 2nd line, they refuse. Apple UK don’t seem to like to keep there customers happy, take your money then give you c**p support, now they are going to do it to you guy in the US. Good Luck!
cool
I’ve got to say that your support of Apple is going a little far when you ask us to accept their outsourcing tech support like it’s some matter of faith. Yes, lots of other companies are doing it but since when does Apple follow the lemmings?
Check out this article on CNN Money
“The hidden cost of outsourcing”
http://money.cnn.com/2006/03/01/magazines/business2/costofoutsourceing/index.htm
RE: Apple stores. There is a store in Kelowna BC that sells nothing but Apple products. Simply Computing does all Apple warranty repairs as well as sell Apple products. So I agree with Adam when he says that even though the Tesco stores are not an “Official Apple” store, it is convenient. It works. Apple is Apple, the product speaks for itself.
Ruth, I haven’t listened to today’s MacCast, but this isn’t really “outsourcing”. First of all, Apple is not letting go any of their support staff in the US, Canada or Ireland! They are simply expanding, and actually hiring more people in the US, Canada and Ireland as well.
Secondly, the facility in India will be Apple owned and operated, and will not be an outsourced facility that somebody else runs for them.
Lastly, Apple computers are sold worldwide, and have (for example) a 4% market share in India. These people also require support.
About WidgetKiller:
the workflow is the wrong way round, it first turns on/off widgets and then asks if you want to do it!
About remote pairing:
I wasn’t able to pair my remote and iMac. AppleCare support said I should reinstall OS X. I didn’t want to do that so I found a work-around:
1) boot OS X from another partition/drive and pair there.
2) reboot from your normal partition.
3) don’t “unpair” or you’ll have to repeat the process.
Have a nice day :-)
Having a call center in India is not JUST a cost-saving move. I carpool with a woman from India and she says that call center jobs are considered fairly high prestige jobs. Conversely, if you hear that a fellow American works at a call center, what do you think? (“Loser!”) In India, they use the same hiring pattern for call centers that they use for high civil-service jobs. They also train them in American accents so many of us will be unaware that we are making an overseas call.
Ultimately, if the quality is good, it is a good move for Apple. I’m reserving judgment until I see how it works out.
Personally my problem with Indian call centers is i simply do not understand what they are saying. I have to ask them to repeat themselves over and over again. I am fed up with it. It is difficult not to end up coming across rude to them. Clear and coherent English please.
One of my best mates is Indian (british born and livig in London). He forgot to make a credit card payment, and the call from the Indian call centre was all out rude. (So nothing to do with being Indian, just being raised in India with appalling customer service)
Any company that does this = very cheap.
Oh and by the way, in India high prestige jobs are medicine etc. Call centre jobs are not highly regarded (in well educated circles) – though there is a lot of poverty in India & call centre work is better than sweeping the streets..
Also there are highly educated IT people in India
(and by the way – most of india = hindu, not muslim)
We bought two g5 imacs two years ago in Japan for our publishing business. One has gone back for repairs twice for the problems you have been discussing and the other failed yesterday for the third time. This may be an Apple marketing strategy since we had to buy a new G5 to substitute while the ailing machine is in the shop. Apple Japan doesn’t charge us for the fixes (they shouldn’t), but the hassles are very disruptive. So far so good on my new MacBook Pro, which arrived yesterday. I’ve fallen in love again!
re: outsourcing tier 1 to Bangalore. Adam, I put a call into Apple’s tech support for my sick Powermac G5. I talked to Steve (he used an alias instead of his real east Indian name) on my first call and later on another call to a gentleman named Kumar and felt that the tier 1 support they both gave to me was just fine. They were both very professional and followed their tier 1 training very well. When Kumar had to escalate, I got the next level of support and that person was most likely in a more expensive support center, e.g. US, Canada or Ireland.
I’m happy so far with the outsourced tier 1 call center support. I felt that the two tier 1 call center support personnel I talked to were very easy to understand as well.
So once again you’re giving a free pass to Apple over the whole out sourcing thing. Word has it there are a bunch of .NET developers just lining up for your job in India right now.. Let’s see how you feel about it then shall we.
It’s Aperture thinking….
Apple wants Front Row to be added value with new hardware. Their current thinking is the folks will buy new hardware to get Front Row.
What do you mean by double patch?
A framework replaces a framework. What is a double patch?
If you put an iSight in the new panels how would you put 2 30 inch displays side by side? You wouldn’t be in front of middle of the panel. Apple should keep the costs down on the displays not increase them by putting iSights in them. What’s wrong with an iSight that I can move around from machine to machine instead of buying an iSight into every piece of hardware. Should for portable systems the built in iSights are cool but surely it’s not necessary on a desktop system.
Just make smart playlist that excludes podcasts.
Regarding iTunes. One thing I find annoying about iTunes Music Store is that I can only subscribe to podcasts one at a time. When I do this it means having to navigate all the way back to where I found the podcast because when you go back to the store it no longer remembers where you were when you last subscribed. I would like to be able to subscribe to podcasts in a batch.
I agree, subscribing only one podcast at a time is a bit of a chore.
Aside from that, what ticks me is that PC users can, if they try hard, run OSX on their machines and we can’t run windows.
I know running OSX on anything other than a mac is illegal, with that in mind, what is the legality of hacking windows to run on a mac? Hmm…I guess that is illegal too.
Its all over guys,
http://www.onmac.net
Windows XP now can dual boot on an Intel Mac
i can confirm this tommorow
Asking us to support Apple in it’s decision to out source its phone support and suggesting that if we don’t we’re not true Mac fans is going a bit too far. This is a busines practice that many, many find highly distasteful and/or aggravating. Why should people who feel this way support decisions to broaden the practice?
I don’t know if every call to a tech support has been to an out soruced department or not, but I can tell that the ones I have recognized as such have been some of the most infuriating experiences in my life. I definitely don’t want to see a company that I love start doing somthing that I’m strongly against. Does taht mean I hate Apple altogether now? Of course not. I’m simply very saddened that they would take this route. I’ll continue to support them, but I will be letting them know how much I disagree with their out sourcing tech support calls.
Some breaking news for you:
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/03/16/mac_boots_xp_contest_won/
http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/16/xp-on-x86-is-official-narf-gets-paid/
also here:
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6050524.html
comment: these are exciting times. (I’m not sure why – I love OS X but I can’t help thinking this will drive more sales… people buy macs to run windows, then play with Mac OS X, realise how amazing it is & ditch windows)
anyway, It’s incredible that someone has achieved this!
Quote taken from usenet, very relevant:
> As I’ve said elsewhere, the ability to boot Windows is a safety net for
> those whom aspire to a potential better way, but are fearful that maybe
> the grass isn’t really greener on the other side. Try OS X, and if they
> don’t like it, fall back to Windows without the need to new hardware.
> Sorted.
>
> Call me a zealot to your heart’s content, but it is IMHO that the later
> scenario would not be the prevalent one. Given the two OS’s on the same
> hardware, and equal viability for the individual’s uses, I firlmly
> believe OS X would become the majority’s favourite, and Windows would
> move into the background.
>
> —
If I am paying 250 for Apple Care, then I think that I would like to talk to someone that dosen’t speak brocken English. I also have a compaq and their INDIA tech support was HORRIBLE. I just hope Apple dosen’t turn into this. I am disappointed that Apple would actually do this.
I really hope that Apple keeps the April 1st announcements, which we all expect, very very hush hush. To be honest the day Apple, if ever, comes out with an ipod with a virtual click wheel will be a bummer in the sense that it will not be a total surprise.
In some ways, I don’t really like rumor sites and rumor ‘news’ as it really spoils what otherwise can be very surprising and announcements.
So Adam, I really hope you keep things concerning announcements predictions and such really low key. Let’s just be surprised.
Anyway I am sure you will keep your word and let things just pass.
Keep up the GREAT work…we love the podcast. Definitely one of my favorites if not my absolute favorite.
You guys have to check out the 10 minute video on Win Xp on the Mac
Go to iTunes, search for ‘MacBreak’
It’s superb. They have win xp up and running on a Mac Mini
http://twit.tv/mb4#comment
You can get it here too!
Why bother with XP though…this is very interesting though I must say!
Windows XP Working perfect here on an iMac Intel :0
now back to OS X :)
I still fail to understand what all the excitment is over Windows XP booting on a Mac is. I can understand why with some like Adam wanting to do some work at home on the mac, but isn’t the Windows OS part of the reason many of us are attracted to macs in the first place?
Well i’m LOVING it :)
usefull for certain things especially gameing,
About outsourcing the Apple support, im from Sweden, when i like to talk to the support. I usually end up i Ireland, and it´s not allways the person i talk with is from Sweden, sometimes they are from like Denmark or Norway, but it will work, dont worry.
Residents in India are higly educated people and they speak good english.
Ilkka