Seinfeld Back in the Apple Fold, In "Curb"

The Jerry Seinfeld - Bill Gates ads were an undeniable flop (although the second one showed promise). At the time, I wondered about the choice of Seinfeld, as he was a definite Mac user in his TV show. Money talks, right?

Anyway, Steve Jobs welcomes back Jerry, as on a recent episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," Jerry is seen behind his desk with (gasp) a MacBook in front of him. Yes, yes, just because someone endorses a product doesn't mean they really use it regularly.

After all, does anyone really think Tiger Woods uses Buicks on a regular basis?

A bad TV week for Microsoft, as they also decided that Family Guy (or rather, a live special via Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane) was not the right show to advertise Windows 7 on. Hey, you can bet that special will have great ratings, Microsoft. A big loss for you, not so much for Family Guy.

Best Buy Palms Off Used Laptop As New

A San Francisco Bay Area resident received a surprise when she opened her brand new laptop that she purchased from Best Buy. The laptop was used, and full of someone else's files.

It was Nancy Hole's first Laptop. Her niece, Maureen O' Rourke took her to Best Buy and helped with the purchase. However, when they unboxed the laptop, there were a lot of things missing. No documentation, discs, or anything. And upon booting up the system, they noticed there were photos and other things on the laptop dated Aug. 9th, a month before Hole made her purchase.

Worse, rather than taking the laptop back, Best Buy offered them a $50 gift card for her "inconvenience." Hole had to go to a local consumer action service via her local TV station to get what she should have gotten in the first place: a new laptop.

Interestingly, Hole had the Geek Squad set up the PC. For what? A boxed laptop needs to be turned on and a few things filled out. At any rate, with the help of the consumer watchdog, Hole was refunded the Geek Squad charge and also was given another $130 for her inconvenience.

What is most surprising is that Best Buy had to be "convinced" to give Hole a new laptop. Still, it's a warning: don't assume what you buy as new is really new.

Apple TV 3.0, iTunes 9.0.2 Released "Yes, It Breaks Pre Sync"

Apple has released a new version of iTunes, 9.0.2. While admittedly the release has higher aspirations than messing with the Palm Pre, such as adding support for Apple TV 3.0, a new dark background option for Grid View, and additional accessibility support, it does indeed break the Pre's iTunes sync capability, as well.

Apple TV 3.0, released earlier, adds new UI and as well as support for the iTunes Extras (movies) and iTunes LP (music) formats. From the press release:

Apple® today introduced new Apple TV® 3.0 software featuring a redesigned main menu that makes navigating your favorite content simpler and faster, and makes enjoying the largest selection of on-demand HD movie rentals and purchases, HD TV shows, music and podcasts from the iTunes® Store even better on your TV. You can now enjoy iTunes Extras and iTunes LP in stunning fullscreen with your Apple TV, as well as listen to Genius Mixes and Internet radio through your home theater system. The new Apple TV software is available immediately free of charge to existing Apple TV owners, and Apple TV with 160GB capacity is available for just $229.

The redesigned main menu on Apple TV gives you instant access to your favorite content. Recently rented or purchased movies, as well as other content including TV shows, music, podcasts, photos and YouTube, are accessible directly from the new main menu. The new software also allows Apple TV users to enjoy stunning fullscreen iTunes Extras and iTunes LP, including great new movie titles such as “Star Trek” or classics like “The Wizard of Oz” and albums such as Taylor Swift’s “Fearless (Platinum Edition)” and Jack Johnson’s “En Concert.” iTunes Extras gives movie fans great additional content such as deleted scenes, interviews and interactive galleries. iTunes LP is the next evolution of the music album, delivering a rich, immersive experience for select albums on the iTunes Store by combining beautiful design with expanded visual features like live performance videos, lyrics, artwork, liner notes, interviews, photos, album credits and more.

Now Apple TV users can enjoy Genius Mixes through their home theater system and listen to up to 12 endless mixes of songs that go great together, automatically generated from their iTunes library. Customers can also enjoy Internet radio, allowing them to browse and listen to thousands of Internet radio stations, as well as tag favorite stations to listen to later. Apple TV’s support of HD photos is enhanced with iPhoto Events, which simplifies finding your favorite photos on Apple TV, as well as iPhoto® Faces, which gives access to photos organized by people identified in iPhoto.