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Feeling Scammed by Apple

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So I mentioned trading in my MacBook Air as part of my Mac Mini purchase. When the Mini arrived, I did the transfer dance migrating my laptop settings, files, etc over. Then I shipped the Macbook air (In Apple’s provided trade in packaging. You can see in the pic in that post, that the machine at least externally looked pristine. Sadly I didn’t feel the need to take pictures of the laptop from other angles prior to shipping. Why would I? I trust Apple.

Lesson Learned.

During the purchase of the Mini Apple offered $610 for the laptop. I’ve never done their trade-in thing before, opting to sell on eBay, but $610 was a good-ish offer (I felt) and saved me dealing with eBay.

According to their docs, it takes 3 business days to evaluate the trade-in. My Macbook Air arrived in TX 5/27. Much more than 3 business days passed. I got an email 6/10 telling me the laptop was damaged and they were now offering $210. The damage was vague “Delaminating” and no photos or anything were offered to support the claim. I had two choices, take it, or leave it.

I left it.

What kind of bait-n-switch bullshittery is this?

Apple has partnered with a company called phobio. I don’t know how their arrangement works but can only assume they get a better deal by low-balling people, because what other reason would there be?

The MacBook Air arrived, and while I expected it to be a damaged mess I’d have to sell for parts or toss, it was in the exact same perfect condition I’d sent in. It had some smudgey black fingerprints, but otherwise, no damage. Booted up fine.

My initial though (purely speculation) is that somehow low balling me, increases whatever profit is available. I don’t know if Apple then buys these devices from phobios or what? I assumed the laptop would find its way to the refurb store where it for sure would have been offered at over $1,000.

Lesson(s) learned. I was already feeling pretty burned that my $2,000 laptop in less than a year had a largely useless keyboard and Apple’s only remedy was “Take it in for a complimentary replacement” Oh you’ll give me a new shitty keyboard with a shelf life of a year? Awesome.

I had thought that after the 2011 MacBook Pro GPU thing that Apple might take hardware more seriously. I was and am wrong.

Stay tuned for my “Brand new Mac Mini has useless USB A ports” post. I’ll let my blood pressure stabilize before I post that. :)

Meet the Osprey

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Early Sketch of the Osprey

I’ve been working on the first book in a new series. If you love Wil and the crew of the Ghost, you’ll love Jax and the Osprey!

While Wil has the crew of lean on, Jax has his mechanical friends.

The Osprey is a Valerian Coop scout ship. She’s meant for speed, and running away from fights, but don’t let Jax, or the ship’s AI, Skip hear you say that.

I’m working with the same artist who envisioned the Ghost to bring the Osprey to life. I can’t wait to see more of her!

It’s fun to collaboratively design a starship.

WIP Thursday 6/4 – Machete!

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For those that have been reading the Space Rogues series, you know meals/food are important. The crew of the Ghost does a lot during meals. When they have guests/clients, the meals get even more interesting.

The meal is delicious and the conversation light. As Wil and Cynthia clear the dishes he calls to everyone, “Ok, I think it’s time we introduce our guest to the wonders that are Star Wars. We’ll watch them in the appropriate order of course.” He makes a slashing motion, “Machete!” He accents the word, for no one’s benefit but his own.
Jarek Ruus, sitting on the sofa next to Zephyr and Maxim opens his mouth to ask something and Zephyr rests a hand on the older man’s knee, “Don’t ask. The last time this came up it was two days before we actually got to watch them as Wil explained the various preferred watching orders and their merits.”
The older man closes his mouth then says, “I see, very well.”
Bennie at his usual perch on the arm of the large overstuffed chair says, “The end result is that no one cares except him.”
“The order you watch Star Wars is important!” Wil shouts from the sink. “It informs your view of the entire thing.”
Maxim snaps his fingers, “Whatever, hurry up and start whichever one you’re going to start.”
“And bring popcorn!” Bennie adds.

It should also be no surprise that Wil is a pop culture (for him historical) junkie. Much like me.

Space Rogues 7: A guy Walks Into a Bar comes out on October 6th. You can pre-order it now from all of the retailers as well as direct from me.

I don’t own a laptop anymore

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For the first time in twenty-odd years, I don’t own a laptop. This past weekend, I fedex’ed my MacBook Air (With the shitty keyboard. Thanks, Tim Cook) back to apple for trade-in credit on a Mac Mini.

Macbook Air packed up and ready for shipment.

The Mac Mini is great, it’s way more powerful than the MacBook Air, which is a plus, but wasn’t super necessary outside of making video editing and possibly running my upcoming online conferences easier.

I really liked the Air, except for it’s keyboard. I bought it knowing it wasn’t outrageously powerful, which for conference organizing and writing was just fine. Except the keyboard made writing agonizing. keys would repeat, keys would not activate, all randomly and never the same behavior in a row, so my manuscripts would be riddled with repeated words, wrong words that spell check was ok with and outright typos. It was annoying.

Mac migration tool screen.

Writing with the Mac Mini

I had already started moving to my iPad Pro for travel writing; it went to Egypt and Tanzania and was my only device and was just fine. The addition of the Magic Keyboard was the final nail. For a few weeks I’ve been leaving my laptop in my office, docked at the end of the day and just using my iPad around the house (Living room, kitchen island, etc). During the day writing on the Mini vs. the MacBook Air isn’t any different as the Air was docked behind monitors. The Mini is under them.

It’s definitely a little weird, and there are some things that require me getting up and going to the office (Designing book covers, for one) but I think as I get more used to using the Affinity tools on my iPad that might change. Otherwise walking away from my office at the end of the day, leaving the computer there, is kind of nice.

Conferences without a Laptop

This will be the first full week so we’ll see how I feel (not that there’s takebacks, the laptop is enroute to Apple). Right now I’m pretty happy. I think when I get closer to conference time it’ll be a great help running Zoom, and other tools for live streaming.

As I’ve been exploring online conference options I realized that since my MacBook Air would struggle with being a zoom participant (fans roaring, etc) that being host, plus running other tools like Ecamm Live, etc would tax the power little laptop.

Once the world gets back to allowing in-person events, I’ll face the final test of my set up. During the conferences, I do a lot of work at the registration table, or anywhere else, plus at least two times during the event, I am presenting on screen. Thankfully some of my speakers have already blazed the trail on presenting from an iPad.

Welcome Expedition Inc. to the Family

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Expedition Inc Logo

I’ve alluded to it in my newsletter, and I’ve started setting up the back end stuff (Like the Newsletter link to opt into Expedition Inc. Specific news)

I’ve just received book 1 back from the editor and am prepping it for ARC readers (want to be one? Sign up).

This is a bit of a departure while staying in my zone. I don’t want to give away too much, but if you like the dynamic of the crew of the Ghost, you’ll love the Expedition Inc. Team.

Expedition inc. is set on Earth just a little bit in the future. I’m aiming for more action adventure than scifi.

I’m aiming to launch Expedition Inc. #1 – Island of Secrets sometime in the fall.

Coming to a 3D Printer Near You

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Tiny Wil

I’ve never been a table top gamer, ever. No particular reason. I did have miniatures. I’d often buy pre-painted ones from the local hobby store when I was a kid in Torrence.

So, yeah, I like miniatures. So when I stumbled upon Hero Forge, I knew I’d have to design the crew. Fair warning, Hero Forge can be a time suck, even if you’re not into miniatures! It’s so addictive!

Tiny Zephyr

Anyhow, I’ve created the crew in miniature (within the constraints of the system) and I’ve released Wil and Zephyr to start. Right now you have to print them yourself. Your purchase is license to print (but not modify) the characters as much as you like.

My goal is to offer pre-printed miniatures (You still gotta pain ’em), but that’s gonna be a bit, so for now, if you have a printer, go nuts :)

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