It’s bad enough when your computer dies and needs to be replaced without having the daunting task of getting your new working environment to be identical to the one you’re familiar with — not to mention getting all of your data moved over, as well.

That’s what I faced when my MacBook Pro display was impossible to use, deemed un-fixable by Apple and my Apple approved service centre earlier this week and the decision was made to ship me a replacement unit (thank you AppleCare!).  The fact that the new system was to be the latest and greatest technology was only moderate consolation to the work that lay ahead.

That’s when the service tech told me that if I use the Leopard OS backup utility called Time Machine, I would be prompted during the installation process if I would like to migrate data from a Time Machine backup.  I’ve been a religious Time Machine user since I upgraded to Leopard in January so I felt the fear of the migration lift a little.

My replacement system arrived today.  I powered it on shortly after 4:00pm and followed the setup prompts.  Sure enough, within a couple of minutes I was asked if I wanted to migrate data from my Time Machine backup (if I had one).  I plugged my Time Machine drive into the computer and selected all of the available options (user data, applications, settings and some Mac files).  It calculated a 3 hour copy time for roughly 170Gb of data.  Perfect!

I picked up my daughters from camp, took one to her music lesson, hung out with the other, took them to the grocery store, went home, had a family dinner, hung out for a bit and then checked on my system.  All of the data and apps had been copied.

I checked for system updates and found there were a few to be applied including the Leopard 10.5.4 upgrade (I guess system updates don’t migrate).   While those updates were downloading I went through all of my applications and discovered that I had been negligent updating some so I downloaded and applied those updates.  Unfortunately, some of my apps also needed to have their license strings re-applied, perhaps because of the new hardware.  That’s a pain because I can’t find the serial number for one of them.

It’s now 9:40pm.  It took about 5 hours to get my new system running with my working environment exactly as I like it — complete with all of my applications and data (all 170Gb worth).  Most of that work was done for me and I didn’t have to be here for it.  I can’t imagine how long it would have taken me if I needed to manually reinstall everything and copy the data I required from the old system.

If you’re not already using Time Machine, what are you waiting for?

I joined the legions of enthusiastic iPhone owners last week when I powered-up my brand new smartphone.  This week I join the chorus of iPhone owners who wonder about how, in entering the smartphone market with a much anticipated product, Apple went so far without going the distance.

• No way to Copy/Cut/Paste  - Probably the best known of the iPhone’s shortcomings is the absence of functionality that’s so basic and expected, it’s analogous to having a laptop permanently fixed to a desk.

• Notes that don’t synchronize - The Notes interface in the iPhone is great.  Somehow, Apple overlooked the ability to synchronize Notes with Stickies on Mac computers.

• To-do list… where is it? - This one is also shocking.  It’s a smartphone and PDA and (forget synchronizing) there’s no application to track to-do lists.

I had a Palm Pilot some time ago.  It was a fraction of the appliance the iPhone is and still managed to have the core features of a basic PDA.  I hope that Apple addresses these gaps, soon, or that the community steps up and covers for Apple.

All that said, I love my iPhone.  I find the interface to be second-to-none and I’m grateful to be able to synchronize it with my Mac (something that my Blackberry gave me grief with).  Knowing that the three issues I identified are probably only software issues, I’m confident that they can be addressed in an upgrade.

Three years ago, I proudly announced to everyone who asked that I did not own an iPod, nor did I intend to ever own one. I was a supporter of the underdog, the iRiver, thank you very much.

In August 2006, I realized that interface and integration was everything and bought a Video iPod.

There was balance in my life, though. I was still a PC user and, while the idea of owning a Mac was appealing, I was more than happy with my HP Pavillion laptop.

In September 2006, my laptop was stolen during a break-in at our home. That next week I replaced my HP with a MacBook Pro. While I still use PCs, I must admit that computing is more fun on the Mac.

Yesterday, after a frustrating run trying to get my Blackberry to sync properly with my Mac, I received and unwrapped (those of you with one will know that the packaging is a huge part of the experience) an iPhone.

Convergence is a good thing. For the first time, when I leave the house with my portable media player, personal data assistant and portable phone, I’ll carry only one thing.

Try as I might, I have not been able to sync my Blackberry’s calendar with my computer for over a week. I’ve even wiped my Blackberry clean and started fresh.

Accepting defeat, I decided it was time to call Rogers Wireless for some help and just like it was seven and eight months ago (see here and here) Rogers is experiencing higher than normal call volumes. This time the wait is reportedly in excess of thirty-five minutes so customer service has actually continued its disintegration.

Perhaps the delay in bringing the iPhone to the Rogers network has to do with Apple’s concern about the inadequate customer service.

Photo: watz

In a bold move, EMI and Apple are making music by some EMI artists — including Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones and Coldplay — available on the iTunes music store free of DRM (Digital Rights Management) controls and at a higher quality of audio encoding (256kbps, AAC).

While this looks and sounds like a move in the right direction, there is a cost increase of 102% 30% over the normal iTunes per-song charge.

Update: I mistakenly applied the DRM-free video price as the DRM-free music price — hence the earlier miscalculation of a 102% increase in price.  The correct increase is 30%.  I have corrected the body and title of this post.   Thanks, Marc, for catching that.

It wasn’t fun. However, my MacBook Pro is networked, again, after all of the WWAN support update 1.0 stability-related issues. My AirPort is rock solid, again. How? These are the steps I followed:

• Backed up my data — by the way, unlike PC, Mac overwrites old backups with new ones, deleting files from the backup destination if they no longer exist on the source. Be sure to do a complete backup to a fresh destination.

• Made sure I have a lot of disk space. I think I needed about 10Gb.

• Booted my computer from the installation CDs and did an Archive install, preserving user preferences. Note, this also saves all of your installed applications except the ones that are dependent on some kernel components (e.g. Parliant’s Phone Valet).

• Rebooted my computer.

• Used a wired connection (because my AirPort was not working), to be able to download and install the first wave of software updates.

• Reset the password of my wireless network.

• Hey! Finally! A wireless connection that restores itself from sleep!

• Used the AirPort connection to install the second wave up software updates — UNCHECKED THE APPLE WWAN SUPPORT UPDATE 1.0 AND AIRPORT EXTREME UPDATES.

• Copied back files I had to delete for space.

• Confirmed everything is working.

• Removed the Archived System folder.

This took me about four hours to figure out and complete - the longest piece being the archive installation from CDs. Thanks a million to Maurizio Ortolani for all of his help and patience.

I have confirmed with Apple that there is no way to permanently ignore any software updates. The tech told me that doing so would require Apple to rewrite the server application that serves the updates. I argue that it can be a software setting on the Mac (e.g. ignore this update) - just don’t mess with my AirPort anymore.

Well, this is a frustrating experience.

Despite the encouraging comments that suggest the AirPort Express update of March 8 has worked for many people, it did NOT fix my AirPort stability issues.  My wireless network does not restore itself when my Mac “wakes up” - although, I am able to restore the network by disabling then re-enabling my AirPort.

Apple insists that this is not a hardware problem on my Mac and has suggested that I “Do an archive install” of OSX, preserving user preferences.  If that doesn’t work, the tech suggested that I blow it all away and start over.

This is not the way I had planned on spending my weekend.

Thanks to Nick for alerting me to the March 8 release of the AirPort Extreme Update 2007-002 by Apple. According the the notes, this update “contains an additional non-security fix for a compatibility issue when using certain third-party access points configured to use WEP”. If that includes WPA, the grief that 2007-001 caused me should be over.

I followed up with Apple this morning on my trouble report on the WWAN update.  The technician said the Apple engineering is investigating a connection between the update and certain models of Intel Macs and wireless routers.

You can help Apple troubleshoot and solve the problem by helping them collect as much relevant information as possible.  If you are having Airport connection stability and reliability issues since installing the WWAN update of February 19th, open a ticket with Apple and send them the results of your system profile.

On February 19, my Mac started to prompt me to install the newly release WWAN support 1.0 update for OSX. Since the update referenced hardware I do not use, I dutifully ignored the request to apply it. Unfortunately, there was no way to select “permanently ignore”.

Yesterday, the inevitable happened. I accidentally clicked on Install and the update began. I let it run its course figuring that since the update didn’t apply to me, I could hardly expect it to cause any problems. I was wrong. Since the patch was applied, I have not been able to maintain an Airport connection on my Mac. I am able to establish one, and then it drops, inexplicably and unannounced. I have tried everything under the sun and have found that the only way to restore the network connection is to reboot my system.

I spent 45 minutes on the phone with Apple technical support this evening. While they did not confirm to me that there is a problem, the second-line technician did acknowledge that they are investigating a large number of similar reports.

My advice… do not install the WWAN Support 1.0 update.

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