[Resolved:] Apple is now sending me a brand new Macbook Pro. I’m guess I’m lucky this happened right when they upgraded the whole line. I’m getting the 15″ with 2.2ghz processor, 2gb ram for free.

Somewhere between Apple, DHL and me, my powerbook got lost. It was meant to be delivered May 30, and after waiting 6 days I finally called DHL who said they’ll start looking around for it.

DHL: So what exactly was in the package?
Me: My Apple Powerbook laptop.
DHL: What color is the power cable?
Me: It’s silver…wait, its a Powerbook, a laptop, which is a computer…NOT a power cable
DH: We’ll begin a search for it and get back to you within 48 hours.

Fake Steve Jobs, can you help me out?

Now for the rant (and backstory):

I take a week off for Memorial Day and go to Lake Travis. Within 30 minutes of getting there, my Powerbook crashed. Luckily I had an old external backup that I could boot from and used that to look around the computer (I could still see and access files on the hard drive, so the drive still worked; it just wouldn’t boot).

I drove 1.5hours to the nearest apple store in Austin, the Barton Creek store. Worst customer service ever. First, they said it would be a 5 hour wait before I could see a genius. Granted, I didn’t make an appointment, but all the Apple stores I’ve been to in Houston never had more than a 1 hour wait. If I have to wait 5 hours – after a 1.5 hour drive – you need more geniuses!

So I make an appointment, drive home, then drive back up the next day. I get there 30 minutes before my appointment (didn’t want to be late and miss it), and once my appointment comes around they say “Sorry, we’re about an hour behind schedule, you’ll need to wait.” WTF, I’ve been waiting, it’s my turn, just tell the asshole with the broken iPod that you need to buy a new one after you run over it with your car.

Finally it’s my turn to see a “genius.” Calling her a genius is a bit of a stretch, more along the lines of “I’ll act like I know more than you but I really don’t know shit about computers.” She took one look at it and said “the hard drive failed.” I say, “no it didn’t, I can see the hard drive and access files on it.” She didn’t believe me, so I did it.

Pissed off, but not wanting to admit she’s wrong, she says “Well it could be a software issue, but I still think the drive is failing.” I asked her to reinstall OSX – that’s why I came in. My install CD was back at home and I was only in Austin on vacation. She said, “You’ll have to buy a copy of OSX before we can do this.” Who ever came up with this retarded idea. You KNOW I own a copy of OSX – I mean it’s the only thing that will run on this PowerPC based computer. Not even Microsoft is this bad when it comes to software problems. My two options are:

1. Say it’s a software problem and buy a copy of OSX from her. Then if it ends up being a hardware problem I still need to get it fixed; or,
2. Say it’s a hardware problem and have Applecare give me a new hard drive. Then I’ll just move the bootable backup I have over to the new drive.

I choose the latter, thinking I’d be safe. I tell her I don’t live in Austin, but Apple will mail it to my house (Great! I won’t have to drive back to Austin to get my laptop). A couple weeks later (today) I still haven’t received it, and DHL officially declared it lost. Great job Apple, you obviously picked the “best in breed” delivery company. Now I get to wait 48 hours for them to tell me they couldn’t find it, then spend the next few weeks going back and forth between Apple and DHL trying to get someone to get me a new laptop.

Apple, I know you’re focused on the iPhone and all, but if you have this much customer service problems right now, imagine how bad it will be when you have 10 million iPhone customers. One of which will not be me.

(Maybe a little more link love to Fake Steve Jobs will get him to notice me)

When AppleTV came out I was really disappointed. I was hoping for something better than a mac mini hooked up to my TV, not simply an iTunes extender. But it is a good first step into the living room of most people (not my living room, I have a PC in there already which can do much more than Apple TV).
What do I see when I look at it? I definitely don’t see a Media Center PC, I see something much better – a thin client.

The next big thing out of Apple (and this is purely speculation) is an AppleTV Server. Merge the current AppleTV with the idea behind Windows Home Server and you have something truly amazing.

Imagine having an AppleTV Server (looks like a Mac Pro) running somewhere in your house, with 802.11n connectivity, space for 4 hot-swappable hard drives, and like 6 tv tuners. That’s it. No monitor, no keyboard, no mouse. This thing is managed through the network.

You create a user account on the Server, and then that user has a Music, Pictures, Movies, and TV Shows folder. It then syncs up with your iTunes OR you can specify to sync from a folder from somewhere else OR just store it on the network. For example, I would have my music and TV shows sync from iTunes, my Pictures sync with my external hd I keep them on, and store my movies on the network drive.

Then you have an AppleTV under every TV, and you have access to all your movies, music, photos, and tv shows (both purchased AND recorded, because the AppleTV Server will let you watch and record live TV) accessible on any TV or computer (through iTunes) in the house.

A big benefit of this setup is it allows you to have backups of all your media on the server in case something happens to your computer, as well as unlimited space potential (running low on space, throw another drive in, or get a bigger one).

Update: Some commentary from CouchApple.tv