Macbook Air ('Crackbook' Air?)

[Yorkie]

Thanks for reading the post Alan. (I like your avatar by the way - you look very chipper and in party mood!).

For anyone in reach of an Apple store, it's easy to see why the company and its products are so succesful. Unlike many high street shops which have people they call 'technicians' but who seem poorly trained and not too helpful, the staff on the Apple 'Genius Bar', which admittedly is a bit of a naff gimmicky title, seem very clued up, competent and helpful. You can book an appointment online and when you turn up, you usually get seen at the appointed time.

A lot of those who were there yesterday in a packed shop, were - as we might expect - people who'd had i-phones, i-pads, i-pods laptops etc for Christmas and were a bit clueless, but even though it was 4pm, and I dare say that the staff had been run ragged all day long, they were very helpful and courteous. A chap in front of me had an out of warranty laptop which he'd left on but without the power supply connected, running the battery right down. The Apple 'Genius' said that battery need recalibrating, which you can do yourself, and showed the customer how to do it in future. He said 'let's leave it on charge - you go and do some more shoping or have a coffee and when you come back in an hour or so, all should be well'. The only 'charge' ws the charge going into the battery!

Contrast that level of service with what you'd get with non-Apple PCs - you'd be ringing a call centre, (a so called 'technical helpline') probably in Asia, paying perhaps £1.00 a minute, to get absolutely nowhere.

You can also book free tuition sessions, even if you don't own an Apple product. They tutor people on how to use packages such as Word, Excel, Powerpoint. They advise on how to get onto internet, and use google, ebay etc. Same with other products -how to download music to an i-pod via i-tunes, or to use and i-phone or i-pad.

I have to admit that due to being less familar with Macs, I do have a slight preference for PCs, but the latest I-macs are very elegant and impressive - they just look like a slimline monitor with no wireless keyboard and mouse, and peripheral bits and bobs or rat's nest of cables.

I have an i-pod nano at least five years old. Apple have just recalled it, having sent special packaging for it, and are to replace it due to a battery problem which has arisen in a few cases.

From my personal experience, I can't speak too highly of Apple or its products.