Category Archives: Bad Behavior

Apple’s Automatic iPhone Backups Suck

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iTunes is supposed to make a backup of your iPhone settings and data every time you sync, but I’ve already been burned twice by their crappy software.

First time I tried restoring my phone to fix a problem with no sound coming out of the earpiece. It didn’t help (plugging and unplugging the headphones several times did), but I found out that they don’t backup and restore the photos you take on your iPhone. Idiots.

Second time I decided to restore my phone before installing the 1.1.1 update, just to be on the safe side. This time, it started restoring the iPhone while the activation process still seemed to be underway. A few minutes later I get an error message on my computer that there was a problem restoring from backup because their was a timeout. No option to try again. I went ahead and tried syncing my phone. It updated bookmarks and contacts, because those were synced with desktop applications, but my e-mail account settings, my favorite contacts, my calendar, all my notes and pretty much every other setting was gone. I was going to try restoring the phone again, but iTunes only keeps one backup, and from the associated times on the backup, it had gone ahead and created a new backup from my iPhone after all the data went missing.

WTF, Apple? I thought your stuff was supposed to just work.

Maybe you should open the iPhone up to 3rd party developers, because you aren’t doing a very good job on your own.

Update: This post is old. iPhone backups are much better now.

Apple sucks ass

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Apparently Apple has started inserting cryptographic checksums in the DB of music stored on iPods. This breaks 3rd party software for managing your iPod music library, tying the iPod to iTunes.

I’m sure there are a lot of bad reasons for implementing this, like keeping people from creating applications that let people share music directly between WiFi enabled iPod’s and iPhones.

I use iTunes, I own Apple stock, but really, this is complete customer hostile crap. Screw them.

Buyer Beware: Consumer Reports

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I subscribed to the Consumer Reports website quite a while ago. I think I signed up for a one month subscription because I had a specific need, and then decided to let it ride another month, because I was planning on making another big purchase.

Skip forward a year or two to today. I’m looking for articles on new autos and I realize that I’m probably still on a month to month subscription. I start digging around and realize I’ve probably been paying 2x as much annually as I have to. Nice of a consumer magazine not to let me know that I might want to change my subscription. Even cell phone companies have been known to do better about letting customers know how to save some money.

Next I try to find a way to change my subscription from monthly to annual. I can’t find any way to do it without jumping through the hoop of canceling and resubscribing, so I look for a way to contact a customer service rep. Can’t find a way to do that either.

It just goes to show, ya can’t trust no one.

Update: After a little more digging, I found a way to contact customer service. After I did, they suggested some help topics that might answer my question. One of them was about upgrading from a monthly to an annual subscription. I clicked, followed the instructions and found myself at a dead end. The option to upgrade my subscription was no where to be found on the page they directed me to.

Microsoft Windows Vista Rattled my Dog

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I hate to do another Microsoft related post, but the truth must get out. Microsoft Vista scared my poor dog. It started about half an hour ago, and she’s still anxiously running about the house, panting and whimpering.

I couldn’t figure out what the ruckus was. At first I thought federal troops were lobbing artillery and precision bombs into Seattle’s liberal enclaves, trying to eliminate opposition to the president and his policies. Then I thought maybe Mt Rainier had erupted. Nothing on the news about either one though, so I started doing some searching on the web and found out that Microsoft was throwing a fireworks show to promote Vista. Must have been a big one too. Sounded louder than the 4th of July show that they do in the same area of town.