Comments for Alaskan Apple Users Group Blog

Comment on Available Now: ThinkFlood RedEye mini, Portable Universal Remote for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch by Vader

Vader — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:22:53 +0000

Press Release from ThinkFlood:

Recall of RedEye mini Lot C0101
We regret to announce a full recall of RedEye mini units bearing serial numbers beginning with C0101. We have determined that there is a high likelihood that these units will fail. Customers who purchased may choose to receive either a replacement unit from the next lot (D0102) or a full refund of their purchase.

Failures are the result of vibrations which cause wiring between the headphone jack and the mini’s printed circuit board to break or to create short circuits with other components. In the original design of the RedEye mini, the headphone jack is soldered directly to the printed circuit board, preventing the printed circuit board from moving relative to the headphone jack, as shown in the following photo of a prototype unit.

The manufacturer of the C0101 lot felt that it was too difficult to solder the headphone jack to the printed circuit board in this fashion. As a result, we approved a design change that would allow the circuit board to be secured to the plastic enclosure by a permanent adhesive, thus keeping the printed circuit board fixed and preventing vibrations from stressing the wiring.

We began to see an alarming number of tested units fail “in the field,” so on Thursday, 22 July 2010 we opened up some of these units to discover that the circuit boards were secured with a relatively small dot of low-tack foam tape. As a result of being improperly secured, circuit boards are coming loose from their housings and being jostled about. As they shake, wires become loose and break, or come in contact with other components on the board, resulting in erratic behavior of the unit.

Based upon what we are seeing with these units secured by foam tape, we believe it is only a matter of time before many of these printed circuit boards will separate from the plastic enclosure and begin to float freely. Rather than wait for these units to fail, we feel that the best alternative is to replace them as soon as possible.

As we had quality concerns before, we were already in the process of transitioning RedEye mini manufacturing to a new contractor. On Friday, 23 July 2010 an engineering team from our new supplier visited the manufacturer of the C0101 lot to take over all supplies, tooling, and other materials necessary to begin producing new RedEye mini units. Going forward, all RedEye mini units will be made in accordance with the original design, having the headphone jack securely soldered to the printed circuit board to prevent vibration failures.

We sincerely apologize for both the inconvenience and the delays that we have caused our customers with this oversight. Unfortunate though it has been, this has been a learning experience for us, and we hope to win back your confidence as we improve our control over the manufacturing process.

Customers who purchased a mini from lot C0101 will automatically receive a replacement unit at no cost once new units are available. Those who wish to receive a refund should send an email to support@thinkflood.com and specify their original order number.

Comment on The all new iPhone 4 @ August 4th AAUG Mtg! by Vader

Vader — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 12:55:57 +0000

Looks like good news to iPhone 4 users. Free cases!
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jwMmRFoQ2S-wXmBf19NHNoqPo_MwD9H0DCH82

Comment on iPhone and iPad games for review by Vader

Vader — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 12:53:21 +0000

Members can email me as well. I’ve been acquiring stuff for the club as of late and I’m looking for work! Email christofteberg@gmail.com.

Comment on The Get a Mac tribute collection by Vader

Vader — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 14:14:45 +0000

Nice! I’ll miss these ads, they were about the only product advertisements that I actually enjoyed on TV.

Comment on iPhone and iPad games for review by zzaletel

zzaletel — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 05:54:41 +0000

If you see a game you’re interested in reviewing, send Gary a note and we’ll do what we can to get it for review.

Comment on iPhone and iPad games for review by grrttrdsll

grrttrdsll — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 07:55:09 +0000

Is there any chance we will be doing this for Mac games? iPad and iPod touch are great, but those aren’t the only gaming capable devices.

Comment on Roxio Popcorn 4 by actvid

actvid — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 23:40:07 +0000

Great review on Popcorn. I will look closer in to this program. I have heard about this program for sometime. I use Roxio’s Toast and Apple’s Compressor and other free compression programs to encode HD, DVD, analog and DV to use on the web, email and presentation programs. Nice detail in the what it does and does not do. I like simple too. Yet sometimes for my business I have to tweek. But for most projects simple is best.

Comment on Office Mac 2008 Business Edition by Ron Schoedel

Ron Schoedel — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:50:25 +0000

I’ve been using Office 2008, the special media edition, and agree that this is by far the nicest version of MS Office, ever. I never used VBA or Macros. I’ll be interested to see what comes out in 2011, as they’ve got a great foundation with 2008.

Comment on TurboTax for Home and Business by Rob

Rob — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 19:06:21 +0000

This seems like a pretty good software package.

Comment on Ben Kerosky’s Top 5 iPad Articles by Rob

Rob — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 19:05:47 +0000

Brilliant articles. Thanks for the round up.

Comment on Cold Weather Photography by Tweets that mention Alaskan Apple Users Group Blog | Cold Weather Photography -- Topsy.com

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 06:56:19 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Janet DeVore, Infomanager. Infomanager said: Cold Weather Photography tips and tricks from the Alaskan Apple Users Group Blog http://ow.ly/14KCb [...]

Comment on Photoshop Lightroom 2 for Dummies by Rob Sylvan

Rob Sylvan — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 23:29:56 +0000

Wow. I’m completely humbled by your kind and thoughtful review. Thank you.

Comment on Mini Battery Pack and Charger for iPhone and iPod by john

john — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:49:02 +0000

I also bought this product. it will charge my iphone only when connected through usb and attached to a power source. when I disconnect from usb , battery does not make a connection . any suggestions? And the charger when attached to iphone will still make connection and charge with the case attached .

Comment on MacDrive 7 for Windows by Tim

Tim — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 22:15:16 +0000

I want to purchase an external drive that I can use for both my PC and my MacBook Pro. I do not want to partition the drive but use folder names to know what data goes with what machine. If I use the MacDrive 7 software mentioned on the PC, I envision formatting the external drive to the Mac format and using the internal drives of the Mac for Mac work and the PC drive for PC work. Then I could store finished work on the Mac formatted external drive. Would I then be able to move PC files from the external drive to the internal PC drive in the PC format. Or am I thinking this all wrong. Please help.

Comment on Freeway 5 Pro by Kym

Kym — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 20:27:26 +0000

I’ve been looking for a reasonably thorough comparison of Freeway Pro to DW & RW, and this is it. Thanks!

Comment on Kensington SlimBlade Trackball Mouse with Bluetooth Wireless by James Thompson

James Thompson — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 15:57:13 +0000

Well, when I got this mouse as a christmas gift, I was skeptical. I am one of those few people who prefer to use trackballs instead of a standard mouse, so I was giving it a try. At first, it worked great. But after about 10 minutes, the mouse refuses to comunicate with my laptop, a Dell XPS with Vista. From what I’ve read, there shouldn’t be any problems with using this combination. Even my computer expert was stumped. I definately give this mouse a lousy rating. If a person can’t even connect the mouse to his computer, all the fancy bells and whistles are worthless.

Comment on Focal Digital Camera Guides: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi/450D by tammy

tammy — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 04:20:40 +0000

i need help to be able to take pictures and hold camera away from the eye finder and see them on lcd screen only during taking any pictures. can you please help out with the information provided?? my camera model is a cannon rebel xsi eos.

thanks,
tammy

Comment on Freeway 5 Pro by Jim

Jim — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 04:06:39 +0000

Thanks for the review, Rob. It’s nice to get an unbiased opinion of software prior to the purchase.

Jim

Comment on MacDrive 7 for Windows by M

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:17:25 +0000

You should not have any problem accessing any drive regardless of the file structure Mac or Windows under VMFusion Just remember to have VMFusion set to share that particular drive.

Comment on RapidWeaver 4.2.1 by Rob

Rob — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 19:22:00 +0000

Ah, just answered my own question. From the RapidWeaver website:

Upgrade Information

If you own RapidWeaver 3.6.x then version 4.2 is a free upgrade. You won’t need to re-enter your serial, you can simply download version 4 and get weaving right away.

If you own RapidWeaver 3.5 or earlier you’ll need to buy an upgrade, this costs just $30 and can be purchased via our online Store.