Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Dead iPad, New iPad

Over the weekend, my iPad died. Actually, it didn't completely die, but it wouldn't charge, which meant I only had a few hours of use left in it. It also wouldn't sync with my computer. Fortunately, I had synced recently enough so almost everything was backed up. I checked online and several people recommended a soft reboot (holding down the power and start buttons until it restarts), but that didn't help. I took it to the Apple Store (in the Towson Mall after making an appointment at the Genius Bar). They checked it out and confirmed that it wasn't getting anything out of the port. They noticed a ding in the back (I have no idea how that got there because I have been very careful with it) and said that that probably caused the damage and wasn't generally covered under the warranty. However, they swapped it for a new (refurbished) one anyway for free. After confirming that the new one synced fine with my computer and was restored from my computer, we cleared the old one. The only cost was a new case I bought to try to prevent any damage to the new one.

I was very pleased with the great service from the Genius Bar. If you go, try to go before normal store hours (they have appointments before the store opens) because the place went from calm and serene to a zoo very quickly.

Finally, I mentioned to another employee that I got great service at the Genius Bar and asked if they accept tips, but she said that they generally don't (although she didn't make it sound like a hard-and-fast rule); she suggested that my thanks to the person who helped me would be enough.

David Marcovitz

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

iPad Screenshot

I was looking for some information about something for the iPad, and I came across a new trick. You can take a picture of the screen (screenshot) of your iPad by pressing the two buttons simultaneously. You should hear a camera shutter sound, and the picture gets saved in your Photos. It's not the most amazing thing in the world, but I find screenshots to be very useful on my computer for all kinds of things. If nothing else, it will be helpful for people writing tutorials about how to use the iPad.

David Marcovitz