A cool little find

I was just mucking about in the environment and went to the new menu to create a Midi Monitor and noticed the quicktime synth. Plugged it all in and got myself a roland GS synth from Quicktime. Ok its not the most impressive plugin in the world but its an additional GM/GS synth that i didn't know about in logic and im sure there are some here that don't know about it either. When i was at unit one of our projects was restricted to the use of a GM synth and its surprising what result you can get out of these things.

This is built in to OSX (or Quicktime).
It's like the Mac equivalent of a PC Soundblaster card. Cheap and cheerful.

Similar Messages

The cool little features in iWeb templates

Hi all,
I was just wondering how to get the cool little add-ons that the iWeb templates have on my site?
For example, iWeb has scissors on one of the sites. Their are also others like.. doodles, post its, "hello, my name is" I know I can simply cut and paste, but I'm looking for additional add ons. is there a stock pile of these somewhere on the web or maybe on my mac?

You can add scrolling banner text, blinking text, mouse rollover, Fancy Zoom, Show and Hide text and many other enhancements.
OT

Cool little addition to 8.0.1

You know how when you try to grab a curve in the Channel EQ, you're never quite sure if you're adjusting the Q ( up and down) or the Frequency (side to side)? Well, now when you are hovering over the Q area, a little "Q" appears next to the cursor just to confirm..
I like that.

I really wish you could also adjust Q when using an MCU in Vpot 8 'EQ' mode.... That would be awesome!

What do you call those cool little icons?

you know the ones... i cant figure out what there called or where to find a site that has a bunch of them for use.
if you dont know what i mean theres an arch linux one and a firefox one at the bottom of dibbles page (first ones i found just now) http://dtw.jiwe.org/news.php

cactus wrote:
Penguin wrote:phrakture, what *in the hell* is that avatar?
The "house keeping" robot from FLCL (fooly cooly).
naw but he's red in the picture.... which means ass-kickage (... or the main character's brother / the man he will become ... depending on how deeply you'd like me to analyze it)

Cool little icons - Where did they get these?

I ran across Depeche Mode's website months ago. I really like
the little icons they use at the bottom of the page for Facebook,
Youtube, Myspace etc. Where did these come from? Is it a Flash
product? Or is it a custom Flash icon their designer used? I would
love to get my hands on them if anyone recognizes them.
Check out:
http://www.depechemode.com/
-T

Hi SH -
While it does look like "each one is separate" it is actually
one image
containing all the icons including the hover state.
The sprite method uses CSS positioning to only display the
desired icon as a
background
The image:
http://www.depechemode.com/images/brat_bottom_footer_icons.jpg
The CSS:
#brat_hacked_footer span.announcement {
background: url(/images/brat_bottom_footer_icons.jpg)
#edecec;
float: left;
display: block;
width: 25px;
height: 22px;
margin: -4px 4px 0px 0px;
#brat_hacked_footer span {
background: url(/images/brat_bottom_footer_icons.jpg)
#edecec;
float: left;
display: block;
width: 25px;
height: 22px;
margin: -4px 4px 0px 20px;
#brat_hacked_footer span.store {
background: url(/images/brat_bottom_footer_icons.jpg);
float: left;
display: block;
width: 62px;
height: 22px;
margin: -4px 4px 0px 20px;
#hacked_footer_announcement_list span.announcement {
background-position: 0px 0px;
#hacked_footer_myspace span {
background-position: -25px 0px;
#hacked_footer_facebook span {
background-position: -50px 0px;
#hacked_footer_youtube span {
background-position: -75px 0px;
#hacked_footer_store span.store {
background-position: -100px 0px;
#hacked_footer_store_links a {
display: inline;
margin: -0px 0px -0px 0px;
#hacked_footer_store_links b {
display: inline;
margin: -0px 0px -0px 0px;
#hacked_footer_announcement_list a:hover span.announcement {
background-position: -0px -22px;
#hacked_footer_myspace a:hover span {
background-position: -25px -22px;
#hacked_footer_facebook a:hover span {
background-position: -50px -22px;
#hacked_footer_youtube a:hover span {
background-position: -75px -22px;
#hacked_footer_store a:hover span.store {
background-position: -100px -22px;
"shoutzager" <[email protected]> wrote in
message
news:[email protected]...
>I think they just doctored up those icons themselves.
Each one is separate
>with a rollover. Addthis has a popular product.
>
http://www.addthis.com/
>
> SH

Can't find a program

ok so i have a cupple different pictures that i wanna put together to make a backround. how do i do this....what program do i use to do this?? i have Iphoto and tryed but it doesn't seam to work in that....please helpp

hey there, i've been using a cool little program for the past few weeks that does exactly what you're looking for, jere's a link where you'll find it:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/27661
Have fun, and let me know if it helped!
Charles

Time machine, finder save to external hard drive problems

I have a new 2.26 GHz mini and I wanted to get bootcamp going and install windows xp. The instructions suggested to backup the hard drive and I thought this is a great time to try the time machine. I plugged in a external hard drive, opened time machine (Time machine said it needed 29 GB for full backup and the drive had 32 GB free), selected the drive, and let the "backup count down(I think it was a minute and a half)" run down to zero. Time machine started backing up the my main drive to the external drive no problem. It was running good (100MB in 5-10 seconds) for a little while when I noticed that it had reached 2.3 GB and was not going any higher. I let it stay like that for about 5 minutes thinking that maybe it would start going again. No luck. I shut down time machine and saw a finder window with the progress bar behind it saying 2.3 GB. I push the stop button and it said stopping, but it would not stop and disappear like it should. I relaunch the finder and the icons on the desktop disappeared and would not come back. I relaunched repeatedly but they would not come back. Since the bar at the top of the screen would not come back I had to hold in the power button to shut down the computer.
Upon restart everything seemed to work fine until I tried time machine again and it would not work. So I tried to manually backup the files to the external drive. When I copied some files the little finder window popped up and said, zero KB of 290 MB, and would not change. I left it running while opened a browser and did a search for an answer to my problems. After about a half an hour I went back and saw that some files had been transferred. When I looked in the Activity monitor, I saw it was saving the files very slowly. I went to the finder progress bar and when I hit the stop button, it would say stopping but it wouldn't. I would have to relaunch the finder to make it stop. Then I tried to copy the files to a shared drive on my network and the same thing happens.
Before using the time machine both these drives worked no problems. I went to the shared drive computer and used that machine to copy the files from the mini. All files transferred no problems. So now I'm trying to find out what is wrong with my mini. It seems that it has to do with the finder since it effects both the usb and ethernet hard drives. All other functions work as they should. I don't know if anyone has had this problem after using time machine but any help would be appreciated.
Also I tried deleting my com.apple.finder.plist and relaunch the finder. No change.
Scott

Batlo wrote:
(Time machine said it needed 29 GB for full backup and the drive had 32 GB free)
That's much too small for your backups. Time Machine usually needs 2-3 times the space of the data it's backing-up (see #1 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum).
I noticed that it had reached 2.3 GB and was not going any higher. I let it stay like that for about 5 minutes thinking that maybe it would start going again. No luck. I shut down time machine and saw a finder window with the progress bar behind it saying 2.3 GB.
That sounds like the drive is not formatted properly. See #C1 in the Start with the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
The other problems may have the same cause.
Most likely, it's set up for Windoze and not suitable for Time Machine. With only 32 GB free, you must have other data on the drive, so you probably can't erase it and reformat it for Time Machine.
Report back with your findings for the *Partition Map Scheme* and Format of the drive (per #C1), and we can figure out what to do next.

Finder display on desktop

How do I removed the finder display from the desktop? I click on the red circle and a smaller version moves to the dock, and the big display remains on the dsktop. I do this seven or eight times and, finally, the desktop is clear, but there are now seven little finder icons in the dock.
The display covers things on the desktop. I can't move it, since it demands to be in the center of the screen. I tried "hide finder" but it comes right back as soon as I open a file or program. Also in the display box is the Mac HD symbol and the network logo.
Help!
iBook G3 Mac OS X (10.2.x)

The "red circle"... does it look like this ?
And, are you clicking the button/dot on the far left of the group of 3?

To find out empty tables in a database

Hi all,
        I have a database which gets its daily feed from a ftp file. Now is there any way i can figure out the empty tables in the databese which doesnot get any data on the feed.
Thanks in advance,

That's a cool little function.
In case it ever DOES go away in future versions of SQL Server, this will do the same thing:
--Here is the command template:
declare @cmdtemplate nvarchar(500)
set @cmdtemplate='if exists(select * from ?) print ''Table ? is not empty.'''
--Set up the batch of commands, one for each table, substituting ? for the table name:
declare @cmdbatch nvarchar(max)
select @cmdbatch=coalesce(@cmdbatch+'; ','')+replace(@cmdtemplate,'?',TableName)
from (select quotename(Table_Schema)+'.'+quotename(Table_Name) as TableName
      from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES
      where Table_Type='BASE TABLE') as q
--Execute that batch of commands:
exec sp_executesql @cmdbatch
--Brad

Interesting little app that gives 100% CPU time to your app of choice.

Hi All,
I saw this cool little app that basically shuts down all other non essential processes and gives 100% CPU time to the app of choice. It is called Freeze Frame. Thought it might be worth a look, with all the overloads and all ..... PS - I am not affiliated with this company whatsoever.
http://www.elgebar.com/freezeframe.html
Regards,
Peter

gbrits wrote:
I'm sorry if I explained myself incorrectly. If I were allowed to post the code I would have done so already. I didn't ask you to post your code. I asked you to post structurally similar code that exhibits similar behavior.
I was hoping to get some pointers 'in abstracto' as to what generally may lead to such behavior (i.e not utilizing 100%). Unfortunately, there are about a snotzillion things that could cause the situation you describe. As already pointed out, all we can offer are random guesses, and that's not a productive use of anybody's time.
Perhaps my question was indeed to broad.Yup.
I'll get back to it with a more concrete simplified code example if I can . Excellent.

I'm a little confused about this apple remote thing

Background: I've currently got a mac mini, which i love, which came with this cool little remote deal which makes using iTunes super easy. Now I'm on the verge of getting a nice new Mac Book Pro and I'm wondering what to do in regards to this remote. What I want to know and have been unable to figure out is, does one remote automatically work for any mac in the vicinity? do you have to program a specific remote to work with a specific computer? I don't want to start playing a song on my MBP and have my mini start playing something else.
Anyone have any experience with this?

You can pair the remote with any computer running a version of OSX that supports the remote. Just follow the instructions at:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1619
I have three remotes, and have two of them paired. One paired to an iMac running 10.4.11, one paired to a MBP running 10.5.2, and the unpaired remote runs my apple dock to control my iPod hooked to the stereo.

Apple's App Store + Flash + PC Only --Info here! ;)

*I do not own a MAC at all and used Flash CS5 + Air 2.6 SDK to make APPs for the iOS and then upload them to the APP Store to try and make money!*
Hey guys, I just want to say first that if you have a PC and you have Flash CS5, and you have a developers license, you can make a game and upload it to the app store. I just pulled my hair out for a month trying to get this to work but I did it all on just a PC. Now I will share what I did, because nobody else cares.
0. Ok before you do anything you should goto the APPLE Provisioning Portal after you login on Itunes Connect, make an APP and fill out everything needed, including the bundle IDs and the certificates.
1. Program your game in AS3.
2. Get a developers license.
3. Change the CPU value in your apps .xml file to GPU.
4.   Now in apples provisioning portal, which is in the dev center after you login you must follow the steps to create your provisioning profile.   It will involve downloading certain certficates to create a .p12 file and a .mobileprovision file. Usually to do this you could use a PC and a program called OpenSSL and the command prompt. HOWEVER, uploading the app REQUIRES A MAC OPERATING SYSTEM to do so, so you might as well just use the MAC method to make your .p12 and .mobileprovision. You need these files when you compile to tell the IPOD/iphone/ipad that this is a legitimate file.
5. DOWNLOAD Mac OSX Snow Leopard from wherever you can or buy it .
5. MAC? I thought this was PC only!? Well it is, but in order to do this, you have to run MAC software on your PC. Normally this is very hard to do...well not really. YOU MUST have the program VMware. DOWNLOAD Vmware from wherever you can or buy it .   In VMware you can make a fake harddrive, make a FreeBSD hard drive with 2 cores, and SCSI. After it is created you must mount the Snow Leopard DVD to one of the cd-rom drives inside of VMWARE for your fake harddrive you just created. Now when you boot vmware you will need to go into BIOS by pressing F2. When in bios set the CD-rom to boot first. Save and boot.
6. The MAC OS install screen will pop up, you must go to the top menu and choose drive editor(or something like that) and then find your "fake" hard drive you just made, you must select it and format it as MAC. It happens fast. Then return to the install screen by closing the drive editor.
7. Choose install, now if you have a hacker version of snow leopard (which is what I had) you will have many settings to change in the preferences tab. The most important things to change would be the KERNEL. There is a chocolate kernel and one above it I cant remember, the chocolate kernel didnt work for me so maybe try the one that is above it. If you have Nvidia or ATI card choose ATI in the video section the info will state it works for both card types. Choose whatever for sound...probably wont work anyway. You must also choose a certain driver in the network section, I think it is called RL8589 or somehting like that.   And finally click install.   (NOTE: Everyone has a different system and these setting will need to be tuned to your PC, I do not know what your pc is so I cannot tell you exactly what to choose, you should be able to figure it out, and if it doesn't work, be prepared to try this ALL over again, I seriously had to reinstall MAC OS 4 times to get it right, but then it worked.
8. Now it will begin installing MAC OS on your fake drive inside VMware. After it is done installing it probably won't boot. You will need to download a boot disk to boot the MAC OS. My favorite (because it works) is a disc called Nawcom/OSX86 ModCD 0.3.1.   You DL it here: http://blog.nawcom.com/ModCD/OSX86_ModCD-032311-151021.iso.zip
9. Set the CD-rom from the Snow Leopard DVD to the Nawcom ModCD.
10. Boot up and you will see the Nawcom screen asking you to press any button, do so. It will start loading white text like crazy....until hopefully you will see the MAC welcome screen asking you to press the keys next to you shift keys, do this and set up the MAC with your developer information.
11. You can now login to Itunes connect using Safari we browser.
(REMEMBER the Bundle ID in the provisioning portal for your app must match the one in your .xml file. It will look something like com.Mycompany.Myapp.)
12. Download your certificates and use the Key Assist in Apps>Utilities and the provisioning portal on itunes connect(There is in depth docs on this) to create your .p12 and .mobileprovision files.
13.BACK ON YOUR PC, move the files from the "MAC" to the PC, I did this by plugging in a USB drive and loading the files on using the MAC OS, if you must, you can upload the .p12 and .mobileprovision files to a file host, like www.fileden.com. Put these files in WINDOWS somehow. (Remember that there are 2 certificates, one is the developer certificate, one is the distributer, for the app store you need the distributor certificate to be used when creating the .p12 file, not the developer certificate.(This final compiled file will not run on your iphone after for testing, it will however work after people download it from the app store. Compile your game using AIR 2.6 using the command prompt to run this line from Air2.6/bin folder:
adt   -package -target ipa-app-store -storetype pkcs12 -keystore   YOURKEYFILE.p12 -storepass YOURPASSWORD -provisioning-profile YOURCOMPANY.mobileprovision YOURAPP.ipa YOURAPP-app.xml YOURAPP.swf icon2929.png icon5757.png icon7272.png
14. Now you will have the .ipa file you need to upload to APPLE.
15. Now you can either put this on a USB drive, upload this to fileden, or create an .iso file with the .ipa file inside of it, then mount that as a second cd rom inside VMware, you may have to change the nawcom and iso file's positions in vmware so that nawcom is always number 0 and the iso with your APP is number 1.
16. Boot up MAC and "transfer" your APP.ipa to the MAC.
17. Download Application Loader from APPLE in Safari.
18. Install Application Loader.
19. Start Application Loader and then fill in your Itunes Connect login information and login.
20. Do whatever it asks and upload your APP, hit upload.
21. It will say verifying, if it gives an error, you have done something wrong in making your files...it is ok, it took me countless tries to create the file properly, your main concern is making sure the Bundle IDs match and that you use a distributor certificate to create the .p12 file not a developer one.
22. If the file fails, keep trying, there is a lot of info out there for trouble shooting but it is your fault it is happening.
So there is it, I used WINDOWS XP PRO for this. Yes Windows XP Pro was running, while MAC OS was running beside it in a window. The MAC may run a little slow but it is bearable to upload a game(not to use as a MAC for daily things).
*I do not own a MAC at all and used Flash CS5 + Air 2.6 SDK to make APPs for the iOS and then upload them to the APP Store to try and make money!*
To prove that flash can do the job, here is proof with my app iBomb! and 8-bit game that is pretty fun and has a cool little story!: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ibomb/id434765925?mt=8&ls=1
If I helped you out you could help me out by buying my app, it's ok if you can't.
I hope this post is HOPE for many of you flash devs out there like me that wondered if this was even possible. Take it easy guys!
-Nineteen95

You credit or debit card credentials must be associated with same country where you purchase iTunes media.
"Although you can browse the iTunes Store in any country without being signed in, you can only purchase content from the iTunes Store for your own country. This is enforced via the billing address associated with your credit card or other payment method that you use with the iTunes Store, rather than your actual geographic location. You can use the iTunes Store in all countries of which you’re a resident, but you’ll either need a separate iTunes Store account for each one, or you’ll need to continually be switching the billing information on your single account. Generally, it’s simpler just to set up an alternative account for these situations, although it’s worth nothing that features like iTunes in the CLoud and iTunes Match are designed to work best when using a single iTunes Store account, as you can only switch accounts with these services every 90 days."
From here > The Complete Guide to Using the iTunes Store | iLounge Article

Screwy IRQ's Help!!

Need help trying to install XP on a athlon , k7t turbo limited edition mother board , 1 stick 128 mb 133mhz , 40 gig ata100 "only can run a 66 cable cause Im poor" 32 mb radeon pci . I also dont know how many mhz I got, its running at 1.3 but the overclocking options dont look right either. I would take off the cooler and find out but i dont got any of that compound stuff.
Just trying to through a cheap system together and never thought id run into so many problems. When it boots up I look at the driver list and 3 or 4 devices are all on a same IRQ "just dont look right" It doesnt seem to be a problem but then when I try to install windows it gives me the IRQ_IS_REALLY_FUCKED up message. Now Ive tried Everything possible in BIOS and now im going through this forum reading about similar problems and I found one solution that is working now as im typing this. I had to disable the cpu's cache " This did not fix the irq problem but it did let me get by the blue screen with the irq problem on it. Besides that ive also tried putting my pci cards in differnt slots and Ive read the manual to the board maybe 10 times over and tried just about all the jumper settings only one that helped is when i messed around with the RAID. Now im wondering about a couple of things i hope you can answer.
1. cpu's temp was running in low 60's
? could it be the cooler
2. Couldnt install new bios cause my a: was not letting me copy files in dos to the ramdrive.
?If its that how do i fix it
3 once xp is done installing will it be ok if i enable cpu caching ???
4 and how can i figure out what kinda cpu i got without taking fan and cooler off.
Id apreciate any replies or messages ill be on icq and aim trying to fix this crap.
"Ive never had a prob like this before thats taken me all night to fix please someone relieve me LET ME SLEEP"
sorry about spelling to just noticed a little tired.

did you try resetting the bios to bios defaults? IRQ errors are usually due to driver or bad hardware. Try running the cpu/ram at 100mhz to see if that stabilizes the system.

Power Supply??? Anyone have this problem?

Hello everyone!
I have a few different things I am going to post but at the end they all go together so if you are bored read on.
I own an '07 Mac Pro 3GHz 8-Core and one day I started it up and it didn't come one. It had power but no video. I restarted it maybe 6 or so times for it to finally come on.
2 months later I start it up(yes I used it between this time) and it gets to the desktop and shuts off. I then try to start it and nada. So the next morning I try again and it chimes, gets to the gray apple screen and shuts off and has not started since.
I took it to an Apple repair shop(not Apple store but certified) and they are scratching their heads because this is usually a sure logic Board issue or Processor.
I myself had taken the time to fool with the diagnostic buttons and yes the Trickle Amber lights comes on but when I let go of he diagnostic button on the CPU1 & CPU2 Overtemp lights flashed.
So with no way to know what this means I just took a mental note about what lights did what and when.
PART 2
I had been searching the webtubes anywhere and everywhere for Apple Service Manuals but to no end. They seemingly don't exist.
Well not so fast. Not only did I find the Mac Pro Service Manual for my '07 I found the '08 and others all for free.
So with the info I thought for sure I could figure out the problems with my computer but the repair shop still had it. Turns out the repair shop was so used to the Logic/Processor thing they hadn't actually really diagnosed the LED's properly as I assisted them in doing once I read the manual.
As I read the LED meanings it became quite clear to me what the problem is but yet I couldn't understand how.
To me the Amber Trickle LED meant that the power supply was ok but this isn't the case. There is an LED I think number 6 or 7 that when the front button is pressed turns green to show the Power Supply is up to par.
Just from keeping notes in my head I remember studying the LEDs and never did a green light show ever.
Armed with this I went to the shop today where the tech downloaded the Service Manual while I was there and we went over it together at which point I said to him that there was no Green Light.
So while he boringly read through the LED explanations I stared at his certifications and his cool little collection of Sponge Bob items which I love by the way. After a boring repeat of yada yada yada we make the anticipated trip over the the hog on the counter.
Just like I thought... no green light.
Now I can't believe all this hoopla over that. Something so simple was overlooked for a week.
I look at it like this. People tell me now, oh yeah it makes sense that it would be that now that it is saying that from the diagnosis LEDs but not one person even suggested that prior.
And I went and purchased a new 2.26GHz 8-core because I couldn't wait any longer for it to be fixed and thinking it was gonna be $700-$2000.
Any thoughts???

It is very simple trust me.
I guess when the plug is in it still gets power(trickle power) enough to do little things and/or diagnose but the main power to boot up and run can still not work.
My guess is that it is made this way so they can still diagnose problems even when a power supply bites the dust so you know it is bad as well.
About the Overtemp lights here is the deal.
If you look at an '07 Mac Pro(can't speak for newer) behind the riser cards there is a row of LED's and words to explain why they are on, blink or whatever they do.
Things like TRICKLE POWER, CPU1 & CPU2 FAIL, CPU1 & CPU2 OVERTEMP, and others.
Just like the SMC button there are two other buttons on the Logic Board near these LEDs'
If you press them they diagnose the computers issues and make the lights come on depending on the issue.
BUT...
There are some of the LEDs that come on to show you power without having to press the diagnosis button. For example the LED #6 or #7(not sure) come on when the power is on, and in this case they don't, showing the Power Supply is not putting out the power. Even if it does and the power isn't sufficient this light will not turn on.
So...
When you hit the power button only the Fan and Drives spin due to the Trickle Power(from what I have read) but the Logic Board is not getting power from the Power Supply to start up as shown by the GREEN LED not lighting up to indicate the Power Supply is working.
That is a pretty good explanation as good as it can be.
I can post a photo tomorrow when I get my new computer up and running to show you the Board and you will be like Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh that is simple.
As far as the fix. yes I would have just got a Power Supply but it was not know at the time. I basically figured it out myself.
I have no regrets about buying the new machine. I have clients that need their stuff done and I love to do it, plus now this will become my Maya machine until it is needed for backup or something.
NOTE: Who wouldn't still be excited to get the latest and greatest.

My N97 consumer feedback

Hello,
I could not find any place to provide a concrete consumer feedback. Discussed the issue with Nokia Care Line numerous amount of times and while the issue gets escalated higher, nothing tangible has ever been realized. So I decided to post this here.
You will need a lot of patience to read the whole thing so get something to drink, sit back and enjoy.
I am based in Dubai and been staying here for 25+ years. My first phone was a Nokia back in 1997 (Nokia 8110) and then I bought the 3310. Those were the good old days. They did not have the fancy features we see in today's smart phones but they were strong and gave a great satisfaction of owning a gadget. From there I've had many Nokia phones ranging from the N-Gage, a couple of E series phones and then finally the N95 8GB. Till this date I was most satisfied with Nokia phones and as soon as the thought of a mobile or cellular comes to mind, Nokia comes to mind. I'm afraid the prestige Nokia once had has diminished and a major round of applause for that to their flagship N97.
The story begins...
I bought the Nokia N97 after great marketing by Nokia (huge model of N97 at a roundabout right outside the Radisson SAS hotel in Dubai Media City). I was mesmerized by the phone and I said to myself wow could this be it. Frankly I also blame the mindset of consumers in this part of the world. Nevertheless, I finally decided to make way for the N97 and put aside my most powerful mobile device ever (N95 8GB).
I bought the N97 on 1st Dec 2009 excited to the bone, waiting to tap those fingers on my first ever touch phone. Get home, unboxed, put it on charge and start to explore. In under 5 minutes while messaging an SMS using the QWERTY keyboard the screen starts to black out with unexplained white/yellow/red dots and lines. I nearly shed tears but decided to restart the phone and get over the dilemma thinking it was a one off. Phone restarts and comes back to life. Another 10 minutes into browsing and the same thing happens again. This is when I was heartbroken. Mind you I completely understand the fact that there can be manufacturing defects. I decided to leave it there and head to the store the next day but since it was 2nd Dec there was a public holiday for National day. I went back to the shop on the 3rd Dec and told them of the behavior. Typical response from the sales guy, "did you drop the phone?"... I grinned and said "Is that the best you can ask?" I had nothing to hide as I knew I was being truthful. I am overly cautious with my phone and so with a cool head I told him "No, I did not drop the phone". He asked me to leave it with them and they will check it out and come back tomorrow. I was there the next morning and he told me "yes there seems to be a problem with the phone and we will need to send it Axiom and it may take up to 8 days depending on when the person from Axiom collects it from their shop."
I decided to take the phone there myself. The same day I reach the Axiom service center on SZR and take a ticket waiting for my turn. I wait 35 minutes and finally my ticket # is called. I go over to the guy sitting on the desk and as soon as he saw my Nokia he went "oh Nokia, we don't repair Nokia's anymore but you can take it to the Nokia Care center. They have one right down the road" (Seriously can you may be put up a note at your center that we do not repair Nokia’s anymore so people don't have to waste their time waiting for you to tell them the same?).
I head over to the Nokia Care center and wait for another 45 minutes (gotta love it) for my ticket # to be called. Finally I have a chance to speak to a guy who is ready to listen to my problems. I explain him the whole deal and by now the phone even refused to start even after removing the battery and putting it back in. Instantly he acknowledged the problem and accepted the phone for repairs. I tried to ask why I cannot get a replacement instead since it has been only a few days since I bought the phone. He said if it was eligible for replacement then they will do so. I get a Job number and now I have to wait. The next day I get an SMS saying that my phone has been sent to high level repair factory and the minimum delay is expected to be 10 days. I am already heartbroken and how worse can it get? You will be surprised. Read on...
I get an SMS on the 7th or 8th day saying my phone was ready for pickup. I breathed normally at this point. Btw you can even check the status of the phone online; strangely and surprisingly the online URL to check the status is actually that of Axiom (http://www.axiomtelecom.com/repair.html) who first refused my phone. So is it still Axiom guys fixing phones for Nokia? I don't care, what I did care was that my phone was ready and I was there in a flash to pick it up. I started the phone while I was there and it seemed OK at that point as I tried sending a couple of SMS messages and watching the demo video etc. The guy told me that the electric circuit board was replaced and it should be fine now.
I come home all happy and excited that I finally got my phone back. Start using the phone and no problems with phone blacking out and no other visual issues either. Now I am a very heavy user and I expect smart phones to work with ALL features as advertised. Everything almost seemed to be okay but then I decided to check out the GPS and I only wished I didn't have to break my heart the second time but I did. The GPS apparently is a big failure on the N97 after reading a lot on the web and YouTube videos of users trying to mod the GPS for a better lock on position. Why would you need to mod something if it's supposed to work out of the box? This is not what I paid money for. Now I am not the most important person on this planet so I don't always need to know the Latitude and Longitude of where exactly I am at any given point but I do use the GPS API for a cool little application called Qibla that helps you determine where the location of Mecca is and this helps me in facing the right direction when I need to pray specially when I am on business travel at a hotel in Europe/America. This is something I would not compromise on.
Not to my astonishment the GPS is not just failing but it's practically dead on my device. Nokia Maps even failed to determine the position. It did not even give me a position at all. I tried everything and I mean everything under the sun. Apart from the built-in GPS, I tried the A-GPS (Assisted) and Network based methods with ISP provided access points. That alone cost me roughly 80 dirhams but not a single time did I get a lock on the position. I am left with no choice but to take back the device to Nokia Care and once again explain to the same gentleman the new GPS problem I faced after the first repair. He happily accepted the phone and the same drill again however this time he assured it was under priority and that a swap of the unit is likely. Again I get another Job number and I kept checking that Axiom repair status page online like a million times in vain. In parallel I decided to call the Nokia care line and register my feedback with them who sympathized with my problem but could only give me an escalation reference number. I knew that I just had to wait and there is nothing more I can do about it.
I was just not sure what the feeling was. Angry? Frustrated? Felt cheated. A week went by and I was starting to lose my cool. I called the Nokia care line everyday in an attempt to get things moving faster. I was assured by at least 3 agents I spoke to that my phone will be ready by Saturday 26th Dec but I guess the constant calling raised a few alarms and my phone was ready for pick up on the 24th Dec. In a flash again I was there to collect it. Got my phone, tried the GPS while sitting with the agent and unfortunately the GPS does not work well when indoors or in enclosed areas. I was just happy that I am getting my phone back so I told him I will check it in bright sunny conditions and hopefully I will not have to come back here again ever. He told me the GPS receiver was replaced.
I get home and the GPS is not working indoors. Expected. I rush down to my parking lot which is a wide open area and bright sun shining all the way down. HORROR! The GPS fails to determine the location after 20 minutes of standing there. A-GPS, Network none of them showed any signs of a lock on my position. The Latitude and Longitude showed nothing. It just said No connection after the miserable attempt to calculate GPS data. I started Nokia Maps to see if that can spot the position. The position on Nokia Maps of where I was showed me 6KM away from where I was. This did not change no matter which part of the city I went to. I was broken into pieces, felt like I was left naked.
Do I have to check on every feature that the phone has to ensure what is working and what is not? Seemed like a good idea so I checked the FM transmitter that can broadcast your music to "any" FM radio with a radio wave. The FM transmitter does not activate on my phone. I thought that it maybe has to be close to an antenna for a strong signal (physics) and so I was standing right next to my car antenna, set an unused frequency on my car FM radio and hit the activate button but nothing happens I changed the antenna on my car thinking it was the antenna (Seriously the phone can't be malfunctioning can it?) I still had faith in this phone. Changing the antennas did not help. Trying the same thing in my brother’s car did not help and I was like **bleep** man, maybe it does not work with all FM radios and I would just consider myself unlucky.
Today evening I was at the Dubai mall and there happens to be a Nokia store. I quickly stepped into the store and there lied an N97 in all its glory. For my curiosity I started the FM transmitter application and clicked on Activate and to my utter surprise the FM transmitter shows a message that it will now start broadcasting at that mentioned frequency. WHAT? There are no signs of any radio waves, no frequencies, nothing and it just starts to work like that!! This is when I figured Nokia manufactured the worst single device ever and that one got into my hands.
For any Nokia representative, forum moderator or anyone with any authority who wants to discuss my experience and I am ready to showcase you all that is not working on hand and all I need is an answer from you to this: Did I spend 2000 dirhams on a phone that boasts so many features with hardly any of them working? Or is my case just a horrible manufacturing defect product and if it is then what are you going to do about it?
Regards,
Broken
Message Edited by mvajid on 27-Dec-2009 01:44 AM

Hi,
Just to let you know that this is a user to user forum. We are all Nokia users here just like you. While there may be Nokia moderators here, they only task here is to make sure we behave and don't start fighting. If you wish to contact Nokia directly, you should use the "Contact us" tab to be top right of this screen but I believe you may already have done so. If you haven't already done so then you should because it gets you to Nokia Care directly. Please note that most Nokia Care Points are not run by Nokia themselves so you have been dealing with 3rd party contractors to date, so might be no harm to contact Nokia directly.
Anyway best of luck

A cool little find

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