As Apple quickly picks up more and more dedicated Apple users, the Apple Store and their retail service offerings are frequently overloaded. MacMedics is often able to complete Apple Limited Warranty and AppleCare repairs in as little as 24 hours. See our posting on this topic here.

In the meantime we continue to collect excellent reviews from the anonymous Apple Service surveys as well as from Google and Yelp.

Here’s our most recent review from our client, Evan:

“I Had the toplid of my MacBook Pro replaced under warranty. Was effortless, they diagnosed it properly and gave me the time of day. The whole staff was very friendly and accommodating and the store was near empty, which is a welcome change from the busy and annoying Apple Stores and their notorious “Genius” Bar service in the back. Highly recommended!‎”

Thanks to friend of MacMedics, Mario Armstrong for inviting Dana Stibolt, Owner and Founder of MacMedics onto The Mario Armstrong on XM Radio channel 169 last week.

It was a fun talk about a really serious subject. The majority of the radio visit was focused on the MacMedics 5 Rules of Data Preservation and Protection, which can be reviewed at our web page, http://www.HardDrivesDie.com.

You can listen to the segment here. If you’d like to download the MP3 file and listen to it in iTunes, just hold down “Option” and click the link to download the file.

The interview starts at 7:45 into the recording.

Apple released a new line up of iMacs and Mac Pros today. They also announced a new 27″ LED Cinema Display and a very interesting looking “Magic Trackpad”.

New Mac Pro

Thanks to the next-generation Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Nehalem” processors and new system architecture, the Mac Pro now delivers performance that’s nearly twice as fast as before. Each processor features an integrated memory controller and 8MB of fully shared L3 cache. The NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 graphics processor with 512MB of GDDR3 memory provides up to 2.9x the performance of previous Mac Pro standard graphics cards. For even more graphics power, choose the ATI Radeon HD 4870 with 512MB of GDDR5 memory. With blazing-fast 1066MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM, high-performance graphics, a redesigned interior for easier expansion, and up to 8TB of internal storage, itʼs the most advanced Mac Pro ever.

Features

• 8-core or quad-core processing power with Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Nehalem” processors up to
3.33GHz
• 8MB of fully shared L3 cache per processor
• Integrated memory controller and up to 32GB of 1066MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM (16GB in quadcore configurations)
• Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz
• Hyper-Threading for up to 16 virtual cores
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 or ATI Radeon HD 4870 graphics and a double-wide PCI Express 2.0 graphics slot
• Up to 8TB of internal storage with up to four Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drives2
• Optional Mac Pro RAID Card providing hardware RAID levels 0, 1, 5, and 0+1
• Three full-length PCI Express 2.0 expansion slots for specialized cards
• Convenient front and rear I/O and dual Gigabit Ethernet ports for connecting a variety of devices
• Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad and Apple Mouse
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• Fully customizable with an innovative enclosure that supports future expansion

New iMacs

The new iMac is the ultimate all-in-one computer. Its Intel Core i3, i5, and i7 processors feature an advanced architecture and set new benchmarks for iMac performance. And fast discrete graphics processors now come standard in every iMac. The 21.5-inch and 27-inch widescreen displays are perfect for HD video, and the Apple Wireless Keyboard and Magic Mouse keep your desktop tidy.

Features

• 21.5-inch display with 1920-by-1080 resolution; 27-inch display with 2560-by-1440 resolution
• Dual-core Intel Core i3 and i5 processors up to 3.6GHz
• Available quad-core Intel Core i5 and i7 processors up to 2.93GHz (27-inch model only)
• ATI Radeon HD 4670, ATI Radeon HD 5670, or ATI Radeon HD 5750 graphics
• Wireless Magic Mouse and Apple Wireless Keyboard
• Built-in iSight camera, stereo speakers, and microphone
• Built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n Wi-Fi1 and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR

Magic Trackpad

The new Magic Trackpad is the first Multi-Touch trackpad designed to work with your Mac desktop computer. It uses the same Multi-Touch technology you love on the MacBook Pro. And it supports a full set of gestures, giving you a whole new way to control and interact with what’s on your screen. Swiping through pages online feels just like flipping through pages in a book or magazine. And inertial scrolling makes moving up and down a page more natural than ever. Magic Trackpad connects to your Mac via Bluetooth wireless technology. Use it in place of a mouse or in conjunction with one on any Mac computer — even a notebook.

New 27″ LED Cinema Display

Connect your Mac with Mini DisplayPort to the LED Cinema Display for a panoramic viewing experience unlike any other. You get a huge 27-inch glossy widescreen display with a cinematic 16:9 aspect ratio and an astonishing 2560-by-1440 resolution. With 60 percent more pixels than the 24-inch LED Cinema Display, the 27-inch LED Cinema Display gives you even more room for all your windows and applications.
Unlike most displays that take time to warm up before they reach maximum brightness, an LED-backlit display is instantly on and uniformly bright. LED backlighting also gives you greater control over screen brightness. So you can tune the LED Cinema Display to suit the ambient light in even the dimmest room.

Lots of places that offer nationwide Macintosh, iPhone, or iPod service will try to you lure you to their website by saturating their webpage with geographic keywords that make it appear that they are “in” your area.

If you’re looking for “local” Macintosh, iPhone, or iPod service or repair that’s really local to the Baltimore, Maryland or Washington DC areas, then you’ve found the right place.

MacMedics has been repairing Macintosh computers in Maryland since 1989.

When you’re looking for local Mac, iPhone, iPod, or even iPad service from a reputable service provider, come see us at MacMedics.

Thinking about going to the Apple Store for service? Our service is faster, usually less expensive, and carries our full MacMedics 1-year service warranty. See our Blog post about that here. The majority of our our Apple warranty repairs are complete and ready to return to you within 24 hours. Need a rental while your unit is in the shop? We can do that too!

Be sure to see our Blog post on why shipping your broken Mac or iPhone off to parts unknown is something that you should really think twice about.

My 30-second elevator pitch has evolved to include ATM repairs.

So someone in the elevator will see my MacMedics jacket, shirt, or tool bag and asks, “What exactly is MacMedics?”

I say, “MacMedics is an Apple Authorized Macintosh service and consulting business. We service and maintain Macs at ad agencies and other places where pre-press and graphic design happens like corporate graphics or marketing departments. We like to say we’re in the ATM repair business, because when your Mac is broken or slow, you’re not making money.”

I got a huge dose of this wisdom this recently. A guy who lives and works near our shop has a video production business. He’s been asking about maybe getting a new Mac for the last year or so.

We exchange e-mails every so often when he has a question about his Mac or to ask if we need any video production help. I saw him at Subway not too long ago and he let me know that he might be getting a new Mac soon.

He came into the shop with his older MacBook Pro that was really sick. He had tried to run a Firmware update while he was in the middle of a project and it failed, thus making the unit inoperable. It’s not a common occurrence, but we do see it from time to time. As soon as it happened he ordered a new MacBook Pro from somewhere else, and then brought that in so we could transfer his data from the old unit to the new unit. Sadly, we could have saved him even more time if he had purchased the new Mac from MacMedics.

Normally this is not a big deal. We set it up the new MacBook Pro to migrate and it failed about 75% of the way thru. We tried a few other things and tried again, and it failed a second time. We then began to suspect the drive might be failing as it was getting kind of noisy and it was getting pretty hot as well.

I decided to go ahead and clone the drive on our data recovery equipment, so I could copy the data off the drive quickly. I then had to fix that data in order to get it into to shape to migrate it. His hard drive was a huge mess. The report on the drive was seven pages long! The total process ended up taking several hours and it delayed him over 24 hours from the point where his old unit blew up.

So, he’s a professional guy who makes his living with this MacBook Pro, and he had no back up, and he’s never had the unit serviced or looked at. This MacBook Pro is really his ATM cash machine as it provides him with all of his bread and butter for his business.

This is a fantastic case study in why a little preventive maintenance goes along way. If you treat your Mac like your very own ATM machine, you’ll never have these problems. Let’s get real here? Are you going to let your ATM degrade to a point where it stops dispensing cash.

1. This client’s MacBook Pro is well over two years old, so if we had seen it at any point recently, we would have most likely replaced the unit’s hard drive proactively and serviced the unit.

4. A little bit of annual maintenance and an automatic and tested back up system pay for themselves very quickly.

We’re friendly with this fellow, so if had stopped and called us on the phone, we would have been able to tell him all of this. We love to talk shop. If you have questions about how to treat your Mac like your very own ATM machine, just pick up the phone and give us a call!

Apple recently identified a problem with certain Time Capsules sold between approximately February 2008 and June 2008. Some of these Time Capsules have experienced an inability to power on or unexpected shut downs. Owners of Time Capsules with serial numbers in the XX807XXXXXX – XX814XXXXXX range that have experienced one or both of these issues should contact MacMedics for repair or replacement options. Users that have already paid for a repair or replacement for a malfunctioning Time Capsule meeting the previously listed criteria should contact Apple Customer Service directly to seek a refund.

Additional information regarding this issue is available here.

If you have a sick Time Capsule that you need to get the data off of before you send it back to Apple we can help. See this MacMedics Blog post for more info regarding that process.

This iBook hard drive came into the MacMedics Lab for data recovery. The hard drive came out of an iBook G4. Sadly the client did not have their data backed up. This hard drive has a serious problem and it now sounds like a chicken!

Please ensure you have an automated, functional, and fully tested back up system in place. Hard drives can die at any time. See our website www.HardDrivesDie.com for more information.

As Apple Authorized Service Providers, we perform quite a number of Macintosh warranty repairs on behalf of Apple’s customers. We also do so for many of our own customers whom have purchased their Apple gear from MacMedics.

Over the last six months or so, our Apple service business has basically doubled. The Apple Stores in the area are so overwhelmed; many Apple owners are finding out that there is an alternative to making an appointment or waiting around in the mall for a face-to-face with a Genius at the Genius Bar. See our recently updated Blog post on why it makes sense to come visit MacMedics in either Lanham (1 mile from I-495 at RT 50) or Millersville (5 minutes from BWI Airport or 10 minutes form the Annapolis Mall)

When we perform an Apple Warranty or AppleCare repair for someone, Apple sends them a survey to ask how well we performed the service on Apple’s behalf.

Apple then forwards these remarks and the accompanying scores to us with the idea that they will help improve our service.

In the latest round feedback from Apple, these anonymous comments praise MacMedics in such a level of detail it almost looks like we wrote them ourselves.

These are direct from Apple, and we’d like to thank our loyal customers for supporting us. THANKS!

-Very customer focused.

-Matt at Mac Medics knew right away how to resolve my problem.

We’d like to thank one of our loyal clients for posting this review:

“I’ve been dealing with Dana and his crew for over 10 years. All of my experiences have been excellent. I recently purchased another computer from them. Not only did they take time to determine exactly what applications and functionality I required, but went out of their way to assure I DID NOT purchase programming I did not require…thus saving me a considerable sum. When it comes to Mac…these are the only people I will deal with. Courteous, patient, informative, knowledgeable and honest…I couldn’t ask for better service‎”

We have many clients who have been coming to us for years. This client bought a G3 iMac from us over ten years ago for $1200, he ended up replacing it with a 21.5″ Intel iMac for $1199. I think he got his money’s worth out of the G3! The G3 iMac died, so he brought that by for us to recycle for him.

MacMedics would like to thank Dwight Silverman’s Houston Chronicle’s TechBlog for the kind plug for MacMedics’ $150 Liquid Spill Rescue Program.

If you have just arrived from Dwight Silverman’s Houston Chronicle’s TechBlog regarding this topic. This is a delicate subject, and my comments were deemed too long (and maybe too self serving) to be posted on their Blog site. Seriously, please call us to at least chat about your issue, and $150 is a small price to pay to have ALL of the facts regarding your liquid spill case. If you don’t fully read this Blog post, don’t fall into the trap of thinking you’re out of the woods if your MacBook or MacBook Pro (or any other laptop) is working after you wiped it off, and dried it out. We see lots of cases where the computer will FRY it’s self after what’s left of the liquid inside starts to corrode and grows what we call creeping crud.

MacMedics does offer a $150 “liquid spill” assessment. For $150, we will have our Apple Certified techs take the unit completely apart and perform one round of electronic cleaning. The $150 will also get you a written estimate of what exactly the unit needs in terms of parts for repair, which you can in turn submit to your insurance or credit card to start a claim. Our $150 evaluation and first go-around of cleaning is a good deal, as sometime we can save the unit for $150.

See this review from DJ PHAZE We were able to save his DJ MacBook for $150.

Also, here’s our full post from the MacMedics Blog on liquid spills.

In regards to sending your unit out for repair we accept repairs from all over the world, and we are known for our quick turn around times. We will also start looking at your MacBook or MacBook Pro the day it arrives, so we do not wait around on liquid spills. Also, as this article mentioned, getting inside the UniBody MacBook and MacBook Pros are a pain. It is definitely not a repair for a beginner.

Another advantage MacMedics can offer is that we fix only what has a problem. When you compare our quote to $1200 one from Apple that uses a “tiered” repair system that favors the worst case scenario and no cleaning, our repair can be half as much, or even less depending on the problem. We only clean what needs cleaning, and we only replace what needs to be replaced. By totally talking the unit fully apart (most others do not perform this service) we have a fairly accurate view of what needs to happen. When you compare that to someone just giving a verbal estimate of $1200 without taking the unit apart, our repair is usually less. One other factor that is commonly overlooked is if Apple sends your unit away for depot service, there is a disconnect in ownership of the problem from the Genius who checked it in to the Repair Tech who handles your case in another state.

I’ll just mention one other thing here. Often someone will have a liquid spill, then clean it up, dry it out, and then use the computer. You really, really need to get inside that unit to ensure ALL of the liquid and corrosion is totally gone. We commonly see units suffer from a spill, for a few days, then totally fry, because the corrosion (creeping curb) will short out a circuit somewhere, killing the logic board or other complex electronic system.

When you are dealing with a crisis like this, it is helpful to talk to someone who has been through this process before. Feel free to call and talk to me, or any of our expert techs to get all of your repair options. 1-866-MAC-MEDICS

Also, MacMedics is an Apple Authorized Value Added Reseller, so even if you do have a MacBook Pro catastrophe on your hands, we can sell you a new unit, transfer your data, and give you a trade-in allowance for your damaged unit.

Sorry to ramble on, but this is a complex topic. Please check out our Blog for more details.

Dana Stibolt