Apple Tech Support
Software
MarsEdit or Ecto?
Oct 19th
I’m looking for comments from both MarsEdit and Ecto users.
I would like to be able to pick one or the other for full time WordPress blogging. Make sure when making comments you indicate what service (WordPress) you use with either of these two apps.
They both have good looking interfaces and functionality appears to be similar. So you power users let me and everyone else know what you think.
Please be clear about which app you speak of and if you have comparison stories share those as well.
NetShare
Aug 16th
When NetShare became available on the App Store (the second time 8/1/2008) I bought it and downloaded it. I hadn’t even tried to set it up or use it. Within an hour of downloading it the apps on my iPhone stopped opening. So I did a restore to my iPhone which took more than an hour. Everything looked good but when I went to open an app on my iPhone it wouldn’t. So I went into iTunes and told it to not sync apps, therefore removing them. Then I syncing again to reinstall them. It didn’t work, the apps on my iPhone still wouldn’t open. I decided to delete all of the apps from iTunes, re-download them and then reinstall them on my iPhone.
Hours later I had re-downloaded all my apps except one, NetShare, why? Because it wasn’t available anymore. Apple had for the second time pulled the app from the store. Only they removed my ability to download it even though I bought it.
After sending iTunes Support a message that I was unable to re-download NetShare they sent me this reply on 8/4/2008.
Dear Rob,
Thank you for purchasing from the iTunes Store. I apologize for the inconvenience, but I am unable to add “NetShare” back to your account.
The iTunes Store is not responsible for the loss of purchases and encourages customers to back up their purchases regularly. If an item needs to be replaced, you can restore your purchases from the backup and avoid the need to purchase replacement copies of titles from your collection.
Additionally, please make back up copies of your new purchases on a regular basis. These articles explain the backup process:
How to back up your media in iTunes
http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n302392
Use a Smart Playlist to make regular backups of your music in iTunes
http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n93474
iTunes: How to backup and restore playlists
http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n93763
To learn more about purchasing on the iTunes Store, choose “iTunes Help” from the pull-down Help menu in iTunes. Click “Purchasing music, video, and more” on the right.
The iTunes Store Terms of Sale is available for your review at:
http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/us/sales.html
Thank you for your understanding Rob. We appreciate your business and look forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
Eric
iTunes Store Customer Support
Their reply being completely unacceptable I replied back with this message today (8/16/2008 8:09 PM).
Your reply is unacceptable. The reply is basically saying “Thank you for buying from the App Store but you can’t have what you paid for.”
I did download the app one time but due to problems with my iPhone I cleaned out my apps from iTunes because they wouldn’t open on my iPhone at the time. I then redownloaded them all except NetShare because it was no longer available.
But why is it not available to me when I bought it? I understand that it’s not for sale anymore, but I should still be able to download it. Like I can every other app I bought.
You’re letting the fact that it was pulled from the store carry more weight than the fact that a customer bought it and would like to download it.
It doesn’t even matter if I had not downloaded it or if I had downloaded it 10 times. I’ve had the iTunes store allow me to redownload music that I hadn’t backed up before my HD died.
If you’re not using the magic kill switch on this app and giving everyone who bought it a refund then I should be able to download it again.
I don’t want a refund I want what I paid for. Please re-add NetShare back to my “Check for Purchases” so I can have it back.
Thanks
Within 5 minutes of sending that message I received this email (8/16/2008 8:14 PM).
Dear Rob Jones,
iTunes has issued you a full or partial refund for your payment.
Message from merchant: memo
—————————————————————-
Original Payment Details
—————————————————————-
Date Payment Sent: Aug. 1, 2008
Amount: $10.69 USD
At first I didn’t think that I could have received a refund that quickly from a message that was 5 minutes old until I received this message from Apple (8/16/2008 8:31 PM)
Dear Rob,
Yes, I understand that you want it back, but it simply isn’t going to happen. It is no longer available. That means it doesn’t exist, thus, cannot be downloaded again. What your asking for is basically the same as going to your local car dealership and telling them that you should be able to buy a model of car from them that they stopped making and selling, just because you had one before.
Please accept my sincere apologies for any inconvenience this download has caused however. I have taken the liberty of refunding your purchase of $9.99 plus any applicable sales tax. The credit will be posted to your account shortly. Unfortunately, as I stated, I can’t add the item back to your account for download.
I hope the information I’ve provided proves to be helpful to you Rob, and thank you for your understanding.
Thank you for being a valued iTunes Store customer. We appreciate your business and hope you have a wonderful day.
Sincerely,
Eric
iTunes Store Customer Support
Wow, his analogy is so wrong I don’t even know where to begin. Apple did exactly what I said I didn’t want which was give me a refund and didn’t do what I asked for which was re-download NetShare.
WordPress is making my head spin
Jul 27th
I just figured out how to add forms to my new WordPress website and my head is spinning with ideas.
I certainly won’t be able to rebuilt any (RapidWeaver) form heavy clients sites soon but the prospect is there.
Right now the hardest part is waiting for theme developers to update their themes to be compatible with WordPress 2.6. A few free themes work and look great while others are broken and that makes it difficult to choose. I think I changed my theme today 10 times.
Themes is an area where RapidWeaver is currently ahead. Most WordPress themes have a single color, the same theme in a different color is completely seperate file and appears as a separate theme. RapidWeaver solved that problem a couple years ago when they incorporated the ability to modify most of the colors for any new theme.
Some WordPress themes have settings thay can be changed but nowhere near the level of RapidWeaver. I’ll just work around that until both WordPress and its theme developers catch up.
Once I have a good grasp of most aspects of WordPress then I only have to convert my other blog, my daughter’s blog, my other daughter’s blog and my wife’s blog.
From RapidWeaver to WordPress
Jul 25th
I’ve been using RapidWeaver for my own sites and client sites for 4 years. I’m not a coder but I have taken the time to learn some code to customize my sites. RapidWeaver is an awesome website tool, which has benefited many of my clients. However, my sites are blogs, and while RW produces great blog pages they are missing a few features that I want.
The main drawback to a RW blog is that it’s machine dependent, meaning which ever machine your RW project file is on is the only one that can update the site or blog. In some cases, changes to the RW project require it to republish the entire blog (hundreds of posts). There are options and plugins that allow for some of the functionality to be added to RW but I finally decided I wanted a more flexible solution.
WordPress, after spending some time online looking for database driven sites I concluded WordPress was best for my needs. Since yesterday I’ve replicated the majority of the layout options I had before and I’m very satisfied.
More importantly than the layout is the ability to post to my blog from just about anywhere. For instance this post is being created from my iPhone while I sit outside with my dog. However, I could post from almost any computer on the internet, that’s the flexibility I was looking for.
I’m going to take the time to manually port all of my RW blog posts to my new WP blog. There isn’t a tool to import directly from RW. I’m OK with that, it will give me the opportunity to make sure they are correctly input.
So far I’ve made sure that my homepage is current, only a few hundred old posts to port.
You Know You’re a RapidWeaver Addict When?
Apr 14th
You know you’re a RapidWeaver addict when you visit MacUpdate or VersionTracker and get excited when you see the word Rapid!!!
This happens to me regularly. I visit MacUpdate and see the word Rapid and get excited until I realize it has nothing to do with RapidWeaver.
I love the Themes and Plugins being developed for this application. I even buy the ones I don’t currently have a use for yet. Cause I want to play with them.
Do you feel like YourHead is out of control?
Nov 24th
YourHead has a new beta for Carousel. You can’t have it, but I can because of this post. WooHoo
Click the ON button to go where no mammal has gone before.
