Archive for April, 2010

The Yellow Tinted 27 inch iMac From Apple

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

A couple of months ago my old trustworthy 20-inch Core Duo iMac gave up and called it quits. It was a lovely machine that has served me well over the years.

After convincing my better half of the benefit of stuffing yet another device with a display in our home I pulled the trigger and ordered the 27-inch iMac at the Apple store. Before hand I had heard about the display problems, but many reports indicated that week 9 seemed to be the week that Apple finally addressed the problem successfully.

However, the first iMac arrived and right away it was obvious that it was a lemon. A big yellowish spot at the bottom right part of the screen was far from what I expected from an Apple product being promoted on the display quality among other things.the 27 inch imac with yellow tint issue Luckily the Apple support went as smoothly as always and a replacement was arranged no questions asked (this should have been a warning, they knew they still had a problem).

I was promised the unit would get an extra check before it shipped out as it was a replacement and of course we all wanted to avoid another lemon. The day came and the replacement arrived – to my huge disappointment this machine also suffered from a yellow tint although not closely as bad as the first machine. On top of the tint there was also a faint shadow visible across the bottom (although very hard to see in everyday use).

I expected more from an Apple product

To cut the story short I have received 4 machines in all, and the 2nd version I got is still the best. I have previously owned 5 macs before the 27 Inch, and all of the machines have been wonderful. This experience has been way below Apples standard, and they really have a problem at their hands. I am a customer with money in my hands wanting to buy the product advertised but they can’t deliver.

To be fair I have kept the 2nd machine and received a 100 Euro refund. Actually I couldn’t care less about the 100 euro. All I wanted was the product advertised.

Note: Apart from the display issue, that is not evident in everyday use, the machine kicks ass and is fantastic to work on. Once they get the displays fixed this machine is a winner.

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Lesson Learned: Pay Walls Do not Work

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

When Rupert Murdoch earlier this year announced his plans for creating a so- called “pay wall” around the web sites of his company’s media operations, commentators ran amok in a race to predict the future outcome of the plan.

“Our website does not threaten our paper – it protects it”

Personally I think the idea has had failure written all over it from day one, but much as many other bystanders with an opinion I did not have any numbers or facts to back up my predictions – now I do.

On April 19th 2010 DMGT, the company behind the most visited online newspaper in the UK, The Daily Mail, announced their experiences at their annual investor day meeting. Martin Clark of Daily Mail told the audience what many spectators, knew all along, that “People pay for the convenience of print in recognition of the special cost of production and delivery of a tangible product and because they purchase it WHOLE.” He went on to saying that people expect news to be free except for print, and at the same time acknowledging that even though the journalists provide content to both the offline and the online platform, the ball game is very different indeed.

How publishers can make money online

So How Does the Daily Mail Make a Profit?

Not much of a surprise here – they make their money off ads. Actually they are up 131% in ad-revenue from last year. Size does matter in this game, and it appears that the Daily Mail is winning at the moment. Giving away content for free is the key to success in this case. By focusing on creating repeat visitors they have created a loyal audience – 78% of whom does not buy the print paper, but the readers who actually buy the paper AND visit the website buys twice as many copies as the reader who does not visit the website. In other words the free content on the website is helping their print business.

“Our website does not threaten our paper – it protects it” – Martin Clark

You can read all the slides from the meeting in the pdf linked below

Download pdf

Posted in Business, Online | View Comments

How to Use Netflix on the iPad From Outside the US

Monday, April 19th, 2010

So recently I got myself an iPad brought over to Denmark by a friend of mine. Armed with a couple of US gift cards for the iTunes store I soon got access to the app store and the large amount of apps ready for the iPad on launch day.

One of these apps was the Netflix app. For those who don’t know, Netflix is an online streaming service that gives users access to a large amount of movies and tv-shows. Sort of like Blockbuster on steroids – but without the late fees.

But Wait I can’t see the Netflix app in the App Store?

That is because the app is only available in the US version of the App Store. In order to get access to it you need to change your account to an US account. Apple will check your credit card to see if you are from the US or not when signing up for the US store. Thankfully you can also get access by using a US iTunes giftcard as payment instead of a credit card. All you need to do is go to eBay and get a giftcard and redeem it: Get a giftcard here.

Anyhow, since Netflix is provided for US customers only the app can’t be used from Europe. To the rescue comes our good old friend VPN. After doing a bit of research I came across Hide My Ass VPN.

Setting up the connection is pretty easy. Go to Settings > General > Network > VPN and put in your account info from Hide My Ass and off you go. Here I have chosen the San Francisco connection – once you have ordered the connection here you will receive a mail with all the info for the servers with username and password.

Netflix for iPad works if you set up a VPN connection on the iPad

As a sidenote this works for the ABC app, Pandora radio too – basically it works for all apps restricted to use in the Usa only. So you are in Europe, Asia or anywhere else outside the us then VPN is the way to go.

Get the Hide My Ass package here.

Extra info for the Netflix signup: Install the app from Hide My Ass on your computer and connect to a VPN server in the US before you start the sign up process for Netflix. When you need to input a zip code simply use a 5 digit zip code – any will do.  Sign up for Netflix here

Posted in iPad, Netflix, Tutorial | View Comments

Free Buttons for Photoshop – Give Away

Sunday, April 18th, 2010

I thought I would celebrate the fact that I finally got a blog up and running by starting the blog off with a little free give away.

The main reason for me putting up a blog is the fact that I am going freelance very soon. This has led me to review my own workflow and in the process I have noticed that I have too many repetitive tasks involved in creating my designs.

Much like a good chef creates base stocks as a foundation to his creations I have started creating base templates for grids, buttons and controls that I normally create from the ground up each time.

Please note that these act as a base from where I can adjust to the needs of the each individual site design. The templates don’t save me hours, but it does set me of to a good start and leaves me time to pay even more attention to the details in the design.

So go ahead and download the photoshop template below and let me know if you have any suggestions for other templates in the comments.

Download the template here

Free button template for photoshop

Posted in Give away, Photoshop, Template | View Comments