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- Time Capsule Memorial Web Site Launches, Shames Apple
Enterprising Apple customers unhappy with the inexplicable death of their Time Capsules have taken matters into their own hands and launched a dedicated web site to record and discuss their experiences. It's called The Apple Time Capsule Memorial Register, and it's hauntingly beautiful.
The site has been created to provide a central support hub for Time Capsule customers who have suffered the sudden death of their devices, but feel neglected or ignored by Apple, which has yet to acknowledge there’s even a problem.
It seems the main culprit in most cases of Time Capsule Death are fried capacitors. Users are reporting that the lack of adequate ventilation/cooling in the Time Capsules causes the capacitors to run very hot and, eventually, die. For affected customers, "eventually" turns out to be approximately 18 months.
Here's the introduction from the site:
Your Apple Time Capsule has died. You are now faced with the difficult, but important, need to mourn.
To show that you're not alone in this process, we've opened the Apple Time Capsule Memorial Register. Please take a moment and submit a few details of your beloved Time Capsule. You will instantly notice it will make you feel better but will also help others facing the same difficult period in their lives.
And hopefully, this register will also provide a reliable overview of the scale of the premature passing of Apple's "server grade" backup solution.
Apple is accomplished in the art of making us part with our money in return for its beautiful, shiny products. It is somewhat less accomplished in admitting when things have gone wrong with those beautiful, shiny products. The recent drama surrounding the problems caused by the iPhone OS 3.1 update illustrates just how slow and stubbornly silent Apple can be when it comes to reacting to glaringly obvious problems with its products. Over 140 comments on that article tell me that the “coma” problem I wrote about last month — caused by OS 3.1 and experienced almost exclusively on iPhone 3G's — was much, much more than just the "sporadic issue" Apple casually labeled it in the release notes for iPhone OS 3.1.2. Incidentally, to the best of my knowledge, that short line in the 3.1.2 release notes remains the only "official" confirmation from Apple that there was anything wrong.
Ticking Timebombs
The Time Capsule is one of Apple's more indispensable peripherals; it offers hassle-free, automatic, over-the-air backups along with reasonable storage capacities. Sure, there are cheaper ways to emulate what a Time Capsule does, but the convenience of its simple set-it-and-forget-it nature makes the added expense seem justified.
Imagine, then, the pain when a well-used Time Capsule croaks, taking up to 18 months' worth of incremental backups with it. I don't mind admitting that the thought of it strikes fear into my heart. I use two Time Capsules every hour of every day. They've proven invaluable to me a handful of times. But these reported problems are making me think of dusting off my old external USB LaCies. I can’t help thinking that I don’t own two Time Capsules; I own two ticking Time bombs.
Apple still hasn’t acknowledged there's a design problem with the Time Capsules. I wonder whether sites like The Apple Time Capsule Memorial Register could do a sufficient job of shaming Apple into admitting there’s an issue worthy of investigation. At the very least, a perfunctory "We're working on it" would be better than nothing.
In Q3, NewNet focus turns to business models and search. Read the, "NewNet Q3 Wrap-up."
Переслать - VMware Fusion 3 to Debut by End of October
In the ever leap-frogging world of desktop virtualization for the Mac, VMware has announced that it will make its next hop (I won’t venture to say who’s ahead at this juncture) by the end of October…or the 27th, if you go by its blog. So in just a few weeks, version 3 of Fusion will be available for mass consumption. Some of the announced features are as follows.
The big news, of course, is Snow Leopard optimization, where Fusion jumps onto the 64-bit bandwagon. This should bring some interesting performance boosts to those who use virtualized environments heavily. As a regular Windows VM user (by necessity) I’m really looking forward to this!
If, on the other hand, you’re a Windows user stuck in a Macintosh machine, you’ll be glad to know that Fusion 3 is the first to support Windows Aero and Flip 3D features found in Windows 7. From my perspective, this is cool, but when I run Windows in a VM, it’s bare bones, and just for the program or two that I require. But I’m sure this capability will make some people quite happy.
There is also greatly improved graphics support. I’m not much of a PC gamer, and as such don’t follow these terms very much, so straight from the release, VMware Fusion 3 is the “first to support DirectX 9 Shader Model 3.0 3D graphics and now adds support for OpenGL 2.1.” Sounds neat.
Presumably taking a cue from the competition, there’s “Switching Made Easy,” so that you can now migrate to OS X by converting your Windows installation to a VMware Fusion image, easier than ever before. (My guess is that someone will make it even easier if we wait a few more months. Rib-bit.)
And there are other optimizations, too, along with a nicely redesigned way of accessing the Windows Start menu without having need for the Task bar onscreen.
All in all, it sounds like a set of updates to an already solid virtualization platform. If you’re in the market for such a product, version 3 of Fusion will cost $79.99. If you’re a current paid user, an upgrade will set you back $39.99. I use both Parallels and Fusion (at work and home, respectively) and like both well enough. I’ve been using the Parallels 5 beta, and it’s pretty nice. But while I haven’t had the chance to toy with Fusion 3 yet, I’m quite intrigued, and will be getting the upgrade. If you’ve already invested in one camp or the other, I can’t say (yet) if jumping ship for the other would be a worthwhile investment. Check back later after I’ve got my hands on the updates, as I’ll try to put some perspective to this topic.
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