On-Site Service and Support for Apple Macintosh Computers

This FAQ, posted on www.macintouch.com, covers a wide range of questions and details about the upcoming iPad. As with most Macintouch postings, I would expect this FAQ to be continuously updated as they learn more details.

Did I get your attention? I get many calls from people who tell me that their Mac is slow. There can be many causes for this, but a common solution is simply to restart your Mac, by selecting the Restart command under the Apple menu. If this doesn't solve the problem, then we need to look deeper.

A new client recently called to tell me that the Apple Mail program was not working. When I arrived, I saw that Mail would stall to a blank screen when launched. I also noticed that the program itself had a date stamp that was probably too old for the verion of Mac OS X that was installed.

When I asked about this, I was told that the Mail program had been accidentally deleted, and so before calling me, they called Apple for help. Apple had them reinstall the Mail program from the original installation disc that came with the iMac. This was the problem. The iMac was running Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard" whereas the original discs contained Mac OS X v10.4 "Tiger". The Tiger version of Mail is not compatible with Leopard. Clearly, Apple did not ask the right questions before telling my client how to proceed. Needless to say, I solved the problem.

A client was planning to upgrade to Snow Leopard. Before doing so, he went to the Apple Store to ask if his applications would be compatible. The genius didn't know if they were and didn't know how to find out.

When I arrived to do the Snow Leopard installation, I knew how to find the answers.

Amazon has announced Kindle for Mac, a free application that lets readers enjoy Kindle books on their Mac computers. If you already own a Kindle, it's unclear to me why you would want to read your books on your Mac. But if you don't own an eBook reader, but are considering one (e.g. an iPad), Kindle for Mac allows you to sort-of try one out, with the free eBooks for the Kindle that Amazon provides. All Kindle functions are not yet available with Kindle for Mac, and it only works on an Intel Mac with Mac OS X v10.5 or later.

All the good and bad inside the world of Apple.

iPad: The Most Open eReader - 3/26/2010