Works fine for me as of 7:59 am CDT Wednesday morning. If it doesn't, try going to the Amazon entry (also hyperlinked above) and clicking on 'special officers,' then on the thumbnail of the rebate image listed on that page.
I'd not get extremely worked up over SpyMac's website. In my experience, they are perhaps the most inaccurate and outlandish of the Mac rumor sites. Or hadn't you heard of the "iWalk" fiasco?:-)
If you'd like to let Mr. Jobs know that you would like Apple to offer an upgrade fee for Mac OS X, you can now sign a petition online. Perhaps if there's enough signatures...
Calls to the Apple Mac OS Up-to-Date program at
800-335-9258 confirm that at the current time, no upgrade price will be offered for Mac OS 10.2 between now and August 24. In other words, prior OS X users will have to buy a whole new copy of the operating system.
However, when you mentioned that Apple is soliciting comments regarding their upgrade policy, I called, and confirmed: they are indeed soliciting comments. I imagine this means there may be a possibility of Apple rescinding its decision.
The operator took my name, telephone number, and comments, and agreed that she personally expected a "great deal of feedback, and not all of it will be warm and fuzzy." She urged me, several times over, to continue monitoring the website to monitor this as it develops.
It's your decision as to whether an impolite approach will be admired for its passion, but I'd speak courteously yet from the heart: remember that the operators answering your call aren't the ones who made the decision. Themes I touched on were the fact that people's loyalty to Apple can be lost if it shows itself as willing to screw over its user base for money. Most people, I said, would not have a problem with some upgrade fee, but to make us repurchase the program is a decision that will greatly damage Apple's reputation amidst its users.
In recent news, MSNBC also reported that Steve Jobs has a terminal illness, the USDOJ and all individual states are dropping charges and reimbursing Microsoft for court costs, and that Bill Gates has a remarkable sexual charisma that especially attracts supermodels.
I'm a bit disturbed with Apple, in that the QuickTime upgrades have lately marched in lockstep with system upgrades.
If you had upgraded to Mac OS X, QuickTime 5 was part of that new system. QTPro v4 users found their v4 keys worthless as a result of the OS upgrade, but they didn't have much choice unless they wanted to stay with OS 9.
Now, we have Jaguar around the bend. QT 6 will no doubt automatically be installed when people upgrade their OS to Jaguar. It will be interesting to see if users have a mechanism for not installing QT6, or for reinstalling QTPro v5.
Users shouldn't be forced to not upgrade their OS if they don't want to lose functionality they paid for, several times over, now.
Apple is being as bad as CESoft with their upgrade policy...:(
I'm a bit new to the Slashdot moderation system, but I'm a bit disturbed that I've been labeled a troll thanks to some anonymous (and error-prone, evidently) moderator.
Certainly, the understanding NOW is that it is not MacMall's fault. However, this was not clear at the outset, and at the time of this post, I was attempting to provide information by which people could contact the alleged perpetrators without having to do the research themselves.
I am not certain enough of Slashdot's moderation system to know whether this complaint is valid or not, or whether the situation can (or should) be rectified, or indeed, whether this is even that big of a deal.
But frankly, I don't appreciate being called a troll. I've been on the Internet or BBSs since I was a young teenager, almost 20 years ago, and I have not engaged in trollish behavior.
Nor, frankly, did I do so here. Someone was a little trigger-happy with the moderation points, with all due respect.
It appears that the thieves have shown themselves. If you type in "http://macslash.com," you hit a series of forwarding pages that bounce you as follows:
http://www.pcmall.com/macmall/default.asp?adcamp ai gn=external,zwb12166
http://www.macmall.com/macmall/default.asp?adcam pa ign=external,zwb12166
(And, as far as I can tell, that's it. Lynx.trace logs are not easy to read!)
In the end, you are redirected to an outfit called Creative Computers, which appears to run websites called MacMall and PCMall. The WHOIS entry makes reference to a technical/administrative contact named Simon Abuyounes, whose direct line is (310) 225-2800, ext. 5651. His fax is (310) 630-3462.
They are located at 2555 West 190th Street in Torrance, California (90504). You can reach them at (310) 354-5600, but why not use one of their toll-free numbers?
Their sales number is (800) 222-2808; their government sales number is (800) 323-2704; their education sales number is (800) 328-2793; and their technical support numbers are (800) 760-0300 and (800) 727-7579. Only the first number is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week; the others have certain times they're open. For international customers, the line to call evidently is (01) 310-225-2600.
Slashdot Mirror
Works fine for me as of 7:59 am CDT Wednesday morning. If it doesn't, try going to the Amazon entry (also hyperlinked above) and clicking on 'special officers,' then on the thumbnail of the rebate image listed on that page.
I'd not get extremely worked up over SpyMac's website. In my experience, they are perhaps the most inaccurate and outlandish of the Mac rumor sites. Or hadn't you heard of the "iWalk" fiasco? :-)
If you'd like to let Mr. Jobs know that you would like Apple to offer an upgrade fee for Mac OS X, you can now sign a petition online. Perhaps if there's enough signatures ...
Calls to the Apple Mac OS Up-to-Date program at 800-335-9258 confirm that at the current time, no upgrade price will be offered for Mac OS 10.2 between now and August 24. In other words, prior OS X users will have to buy a whole new copy of the operating system.
However, when you mentioned that Apple is soliciting comments regarding their upgrade policy, I called, and confirmed: they are indeed soliciting comments. I imagine this means there may be a possibility of Apple rescinding its decision.
The operator took my name, telephone number, and comments, and agreed that she personally expected a "great deal of feedback, and not all of it will be warm and fuzzy." She urged me, several times over, to continue monitoring the website to monitor this as it develops.
It's your decision as to whether an impolite approach will be admired for its passion, but I'd speak courteously yet from the heart: remember that the operators answering your call aren't the ones who made the decision. Themes I touched on were the fact that people's loyalty to Apple can be lost if it shows itself as willing to screw over its user base for money. Most people, I said, would not have a problem with some upgrade fee, but to make us repurchase the program is a decision that will greatly damage Apple's reputation amidst its users.
In recent news, MSNBC also reported that Steve Jobs has a terminal illness, the USDOJ and all individual states are dropping charges and reimbursing Microsoft for court costs, and that Bill Gates has a remarkable sexual charisma that especially attracts supermodels.
...
More from Bill Gates' fantasies at 11
I'm a bit disturbed with Apple, in that the QuickTime upgrades have lately marched in lockstep with system upgrades.
... :(
If you had upgraded to Mac OS X, QuickTime 5 was part of that new system. QTPro v4 users found their v4 keys worthless as a result of the OS upgrade, but they didn't have much choice unless they wanted to stay with OS 9.
Now, we have Jaguar around the bend. QT 6 will no doubt automatically be installed when people upgrade their OS to Jaguar. It will be interesting to see if users have a mechanism for not installing QT6, or for reinstalling QTPro v5.
Users shouldn't be forced to not upgrade their OS if they don't want to lose functionality they paid for, several times over, now.
Apple is being as bad as CESoft with their upgrade policy
I'm a bit new to the Slashdot moderation system, but I'm a bit disturbed that I've been labeled a troll thanks to some anonymous (and error-prone, evidently) moderator.
Certainly, the understanding NOW is that it is not MacMall's fault. However, this was not clear at the outset, and at the time of this post, I was attempting to provide information by which people could contact the alleged perpetrators without having to do the research themselves.
I am not certain enough of Slashdot's moderation system to know whether this complaint is valid or not, or whether the situation can (or should) be rectified, or indeed, whether this is even that big of a deal.
But frankly, I don't appreciate being called a troll. I've been on the Internet or BBSs since I was a young teenager, almost 20 years ago, and I have not engaged in trollish behavior.
Nor, frankly, did I do so here. Someone was a little trigger-happy with the moderation points, with all due respect.
It appears that the thieves have shown themselves. If you type in "http://macslash.com," you hit a series of forwarding pages that bounce you as follows:
(And, as far as I can tell, that's it. Lynx.trace logs are not easy to read!)
In the end, you are redirected to an outfit called Creative Computers, which appears to run websites called MacMall and PCMall. The WHOIS entry makes reference to a technical/administrative contact named Simon Abuyounes, whose direct line is (310) 225-2800, ext. 5651. His fax is (310) 630-3462.
They are located at 2555 West 190th Street in Torrance, California (90504). You can reach them at (310) 354-5600, but why not use one of their toll-free numbers?
Their sales number is (800) 222-2808; their government sales number is (800) 323-2704; their education sales number is (800) 328-2793; and their technical support numbers are (800) 760-0300 and (800) 727-7579. Only the first number is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week; the others have certain times they're open. For international customers, the line to call evidently is (01) 310-225-2600.
E-mail address include macmallsales@macmall.com, customerservice@macmall.com, mactech@macmall.com, and webmaster@macmall.com. Other valid e-mail addresses from their feedback form include sales@macmall.com, maccorpsales@macmall.com, and mmtech@macmall.com.