It Always Has
This article in today’s Honolulu Advertiser is right in line with the media’s reputation for fear mongering rather than solution reporting. If the concern is really to stop the drop in tourism, and tourist spending, then the negative talk must stop.

STOP IT!
Stop telling us how bad things are in general and start telling us specifically how good some people are doing in spite of the challenge of a few less customers. Focus on the 86% that are here rather than the 14% that are not. The negative news reporting creates an excuse for those doing poorly, their bosses begin to buy it, and things get worse. Before you know it the good customers (86%) are being ignored because of the ones (14%) who are not here. People coming to Hawaii for a vacation are not concerned about the price of gas! They want a pleasant memory of Hawaii; give it to them!
I have a computer chock full of positive evidence that opportunity is as good as it ever has been. Unless you are accustomed to doing business with 100% of the people here (maybe ABC Stores) your customers are still here; take good care of them!

Opportunity Abounds
This is the sort of e-mail that I love to get in the morning;

Aloha Ron,
Yesterdays total sale’s at Ala Moana was a record breaking total for a non Christmas day, and it appears this month’s total for the 3 stores could be as well.  Awesome!
Curtis

Hawaiian Accessories is a 20 year old company, so setting records is nothing to be taken lightly. For me this acheivement is especially rewarding haven taken this company “under my arm” personally just a few short months ago. Curtis started doing all of the things we suggest. In addition to the Morning Report, we started having monthly Success Rallies, Monthly Contests, and Opprtunity Shopping. We revised the compensation program, hired new people, and gave them the attention needed.
The next time that someone tells you that business is “slow”, just send him or her a link to this post, or better yet give me a call. This is a great time to stand out above the rest.

Light… But a Lightweight
I gave my new MacBook Air the “acid test” the past few days by taking it to Maui. Fortunately this was only a “one nighter”. There were numerous times that I was longing for my Sony Vaio. One was when trying to work with Excel. The Apple version just doesn’t work as well. Then came Internet connecting. Although I bought an Apple ethernet converter, it wouldn’t work in my hotel room. The Westin in-room wireless got me on line alright, and I was able to receive e- mail, but couldn’t send any out.

Three things saved the day; one was gotomypc, the others were my Sprint Wireless Card and iPhone; all products I had before buying the MacBook Air. I was also dissappoited by the lack of free wireless connections. The Island Air terminal at Honolulu Airport claimed a wireless service, but wanted $9 for a connection. Here again I used the Sprint Card.
It appears that about the only advantage I have found so far is the weight, and get this; the nifty keyboard light seems to have stopped working. Now that’s a bit soon for a three week old machine. I am off to the Apple Store to see what they say about that one. Stay tuned…

Maybe Mobileyou
As I continue to struggle with various aspects of Apple’s new Mobileme service I am reminded of just how critical a new product can be to a company’s success and reputation.
I found the iPhone to be such a wonderful tool that I spent $3,300 in the Apple Store for a computer that I don’t need (I already have four and I can’t even type). My thinking was that once I learned how to use it that I might switch over to Mac exclusively; that would mean thousands of dollars more for Apple and many strong referrals from me.
BUT, after spending several hundred dollars more trying to get a $99 a year add-on working, I now find myself sorry that I ever walked into the Mac Store. What a shame! In addition to the time and money I have spent with “experts” trying to make this thing work, I have also spent a great deal of time reading up on what others have to say about Mobileme. Mac Forums has a poll showing 246 users responing to the question, “Are you satisfied with Mobileme?” The results were, 127 (51.63%) saying “No”, and 119 (48.37%) saying “Yes”.
I had numerous people send me a link to this article by Walter Mossberg, who said, “If Apple does get MobileMe working smoothly, it could be a terrific service. But its way too ragged now.”
Then I got a link to this article written by David Pouge in the New York Times entitled, Apple’s MobileMess. This article talked mostly about the problems with Mobileme e-mail, which I haven’t even attempted to use yet.
Fortunately, my problems are pretty much behind me. I still have a minor issue or two, but nothing I cannot live with until the “Mobilemess” is straightened out, but I still have a bad taste in my mouth for the Apple employees at the “Genius Bar” that set it up wrong to begin with. Yes, first impressions are lasting impressions.

Rolf Nordahl at MacMouse
Several people reading this Blog recomended that I go see Rolf at MacMouse. I was hesitant because of the complicity to synching with my PC, so I went to everyone but Rolf. MY MISTAKE!

“Aha!”
As Rolf took my computer in hand, I immediately sensed that I am now dealing with someone who knows this thing. I was also impressed by his willingness to listen to me, rather than race ahead of me thinking that he knew where we were going. You would think I would get that at the Mac Genius Bar, but NOT!

“Hmmmm”
How would you feel should you require surgery and the doctor went to Google to figure out what to do? That is the feeling I have been experiencing at the Mac Store. In less time (and for a lot less money) than I have spent elsewhere, Rolf was able to diagnose, and more importantly, repair the problem. It all came down to one wrong box checked in the Mobileme preferences. His words were, “It’s simply Apple’s arrogance in assuming that the iCal in the MacBook Air would be my master calendar, and not Outlook on my PC.” The fact that I told them that repeatedly is irrelavent at this point. It’s working, and I am back in business.
The bottom line here is that when you need someone to look at your Mac, call MacMouse. Rolf will know what to do.

WOW! She Really Knows Her Mac Stuff
I have known Kristy Kim for several years, working for clients of mine. When she saw me at Crema in the Honolulu Design Center today, laboring over my MacBook Air, she jumped right in and showed me things that the “geniuses” at the Mac Store couldn’t. I was amazed. She said, “I know all about Mac, I have used one since high school”.  

After having just spent another frustrating hour at a “One-to-One” Mac Store session, where all I got out of it was the purchase of a wireless mouse and ethernet cable adapter; two things I asked for.
And when I commented that I need to get the Mobileme working on my computer, Barbara said, “Amen! I can’t even get my own working”. That didn’t give me very much confidence, but did explain why NO ONE has been able to get it working for me.

It was exciting and rewarding to watch Kristy (on her lunch hour) actually teach me something. She covered more than I can remember, but some simple things like getting my address book sorted by first name; something they couldn’t do at the Mac Store, she did it within seconds.
She not only showed me some slick shortcuts, but typed them out for me. They are making a big difference already. I am posting them here for any neophyte Mac users like me, or perhaps even some more experienced folks at the “genius bar” that might appreciate a little added, useful knowlege to share with their customers.

Command W – Close Window
Command Q – Quit Application
Command F – Find
Command L – Open location (this also works on PCs)
Command T – Open Tab
Command N – Open New Window
Command S – Save

And for Easy Screen Printing;
Command + Shift + 3 – Captures the Screen and saves it to the Desktop as a PDF
Command + Shift + 4 – Captures a portion of the screen and saves it to the Desktop as a PDF

This all came between bites of Kristy’s lunch in a matter of minutes.

NEXT!
As for the experts, the next to get a shot at helping me is Rolf Nordahl and his team at MacMouse Club on Monday morning. Stay tuned…

Just when I thought…
I was so happy with my beloved iPhone, so much so in fact that I bought a MacBook Air computer. As it turned out I spent $3,300 to turn my life upside down. I spent an added $300 on SuperGeeks to rescue me, and I truly thought things were looking better, but instead they are getting worse.
My spiritual ups and downs are all detailed in the blog posts prior to this one, so I won’t bother repeating them. I woke up this morning fairly happy about the whole mess, knowing that it was going to be straightened out, but…

This is How I Feel Tonight
I’m far from a quitter, but I am emotionally and mentally exhausted; and ready to throw in the towel on this Mobileme piece of @!~#! My calendar dates keep vanishing on me mysteriously, and the latest is that now my iPhone won’t send or receive e-mail. All of this has been happening without me or anyone else touching anything today.
I have an 8 AM One-to-One meeting at the “Genius Bar” in the Mac Store in the morning. None of the “genuises” that I have met so far seem to know anything about getting the Mobileme working. If this one can’t either I hope he or she can shut it off and get me back to the manual synching I was doing before this so called improved process.

Until then… Stay tuned in, I WILL keep you posted.

It’s Working… almost;
After several days of frustration after the Apple Store lost all of my contact and calendar information on my iPhone, like Humpty Dumpty, I am finally put back together again.

“It’s a bird… it’s a plane…”
I know just how the victims in the Superman movie felt when Clark Kent stepped into that phone booth and came out a different person, just in time to save the day, and change the tone of this Blog.

Super Geek to the Rescue
Troy Nichols broke free this afternoon to rescue me from my new Mobileme disaster. In little more than an hour he had everything (well amost everything) working as it is supposed to. Most importantly he got my contacts and calendar back into my iPhone within minutes and then moved on to tackle the new Mobileme software that is intended to synch my iPhone, Desktop PC and MacBook Air simultaneously and wirelessly. It appears that Apple may have releaseed this software a tad too soon as there are still a few glithches, the biggest being that it doesn’t synch my calendar to their own product, the MacBook Air. It does synch (sort of) to the iPhone, and I can go to Mobil.com and see everything, so until I am totally “in” business, I am no longer “out of business”.

Troy Nichols - Head Technician - SuperGeeks
Most impressive of all was Troy’s departing comment. He said, “I am going to buy Mobileme today for myself. I will do some studying and tinkering with it, and once I get it all figured out I will give you a call to polish off the job.” That gives me the confidence to look forward to his next visit. It also gives me some things to talk about when I visit the Mac Store next.

Stay tuned… As Yogi Berra once said, “It ain’t over till it’s over.” That’s where it stands…

“How Many Do I Need Anyway?”
I found myself asking this question this morning.
I also discovered that there are a lot of people out there debating the issue; PC or MAC? With 95% of the business world using PC, I though it was all over for MAC, but then came the iPhone.
Judging from the e-mail I got this morning, I am not the only one out there that has been lured to MAC as a result of getting an iPhone. If you are caught up in that debate, be sure to read the two posts prior to this one.
It may also be enlightening for you to read this e-mail exchange I had this morning from a person I have as much respect for as anyone. In this exhange I refer to him as XXX, but he is very real.

Dateline Wednesday 7/16/08:

From: XXX
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 2:41 AM
To: itseasy@hawaii.rr.com
Subject: RE: Big Gamble… Follow up…

Bummer.  I was so excited about my iphone that I bought my wife a MacBook for Christmas thinking that I’d give it a try myself and then convert myself to a mac once I got the hang of it. In the end though, I decided that for business purposes the operating system and software simply wasn’t as good as windows. It works, but it hangs up sometimes (just like a PC) and is not as easy for me to “tinker” with when something isn’t going right (at least it wasn’t for me).

Three guys in my office use them too and here’s what I’ve observed….

One of the guys is an artist and photographer, uses only mac hardware, and loves it. It seems to work great for him.

Another guy is virtually computer illiterate and uses his mac primarily for email and loves it. He doesn’t do any scheduling, spreadsheets, Word documents, or much of anything else with it, yet he does seem to have plenty of technical problems. However, he still swears by it. I think he really just enjoys the form factor and “street cred” of the hardware.

The third guy switched to a mac after getting excited by his iphone, and it has been all but a disaster for him. He uses his computer pretty hard with business apps (Microsoft Office, etc.) and is always having difficulty. He creates complicated Word documents that don’t always translate nicely into the PC version of Word, which is a pain when he is collaborating with others in our office, our law office, or just about anyone else in the business world. He can’t get Entourage to work well (that’s microsoft’s version of Outlook for the mac) and is extremely frustrated by its lack of features. And mac’s mail program simply doesn’t cut it for him. It’s not nearly as useful in the business environment as Outlook and doesn’t do a nice integration with Microsoft Exchange, the email server most businesses use. It seems that every week he comes up with some new shortcoming that we can’t figure out a good solution for. My guess is that if we had a mac expert in the office he’d be doing better, but since 95% of the business world uses PC’s, true mac experts in the office are hard to come by.

So in the end, even though I love the hardware (except for the touchpad), and even though I love the idea of an easier to use, better set of software, I’m staying with the PC. I started as an Apple guy in college and would love to be able to make the switch, but in my opinion the overhead is simply too much.

That said, in a one computer office like yours, if you can get the right expert help, you may end up loving it. I’ll be interested to hear how the experiment turns out.

My Reply:

Aloha XXX,
This is very enlightening. I don’t know if you are old enough to remember the VHS – Beta War; but I am reminded of the great Yogi Berra quote: “This is like déjà vu all over again.”
I have two clients that have PC’s in their office and travel with the MacBook Air; both are happy campers. Since I already own this puppy, love the look and weight, I think I will go that way.
The e-mail is working. Now I just need to get my beloved iPhone back! I have a “Super Geek” coming over here tomorrow that is supposedly expert on all three; PC, iPhone and MAC; we’ll see.
It was the installation of “mobileme” that shut things down. When working, it “supposedly” will synch my e-mail, calendars, photos, contacts and more automatically and wirelessly on the iPhone, PC and AirBook Mac whenever, and wherever I do anything on any one of them. Sounds good, but… as I said, we’ll see.
Ron

Then…

From: XXX
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 9:37 AM
To: itseasy@hawaii.rr.com
Subject: RE: Big Gamble… Follow up…

Ron,
I don’t blame you for wanting that awesome form factor. I’ll bet if you’ve really got a true expert, you can make it work. Let me know what you think in a month or so. I’m still a little tempted myself…

My Reply:

XXX,
You know that you can count on that!
Ron

Should I Just Toss It?
Well, we got off to a rocky start, could not get e-mail working, could not get the disc drive working, could not keep my cool. I packed this puppy up and headed to the MAC Store to give them a chance to save the day.
A gracious tech showed me that I had the disc drive upside down, and the wrong boxes checked to load my e-mail into the MAC. Within minutes he had the disc drive working and e-mail flowing in. I started to get excited.

He loaded up the Microsoft Office Software and updated it along with an iTunes update. Next was the synching the iPhone to the MAC computer with the “mobileme” software I had purchased the day before. That’s when the wheels came off. I lost all of my contacts and complete calendar from the iPhone rather than synching them into the MAC. And this was at the “genius bar”. He said, “No problem, just go home and open iTunes, go to the Informatioin Tab, look to the bottom of the tab, and check Replace information on device for your e-mail, Calendars and contacts, and they will all go from your PC into the MAC and iPhone.”
This wouldn’t be the first computer I tossed out the window, but it would be the longest fall, and there could be someone below, so I didn’t toss it, but I sure wanted to.
So now, 8 hours of non-stop frustration later, I have a worthless iPhone, and get this; the e-mail no longer works on the MAC. Now I need to find a MAC geek that knows PC as well, understands all that I am dealing with here, and will come to my home, preferrably tomorrow and get me back in business.

PLEASE!!!