Thursday, January 20, 2011

The Mac App Store is Ruining My Life, or "I Want My Prezi on My iPad...NOW!"

Recently, I got all excited about a geek-out morning I was going to have at home...I was going to finally update my MacBook Pro to include the Mac App Store, and I was going to put Prezi on my iPad! I mean, look at this!:



But first, the Mac App Store, then the creshendo to PREZI...

So, MacApp Store downloads like a charm...I download a few free apps. Like my iPod Touch, I provide my Apple ID to download said free apps. then the kids wake up, so I leave my computer to take care of breakfast so I can return to finish up and move on.

...I return, and my 3-going-on-18-y.o.-mix-between-Tim-Tebow-and-Sheldon-Cooper son, Simon, is on my computer, gleefully purchasing software! Forty dollars worth, to be exact. Worse yet...software that I already own.

I know it is a long shot, but I decide to open a complaint with PayPal, in the hopes of getting Apple to show some mercy, and perhaps to take to heart a couple of my suggestions. I understand the draw to have your Apple Account always on with your iPod Touch or iPad...you can close them, put them away if needs be, and then whip them out and be downloading in seconds. But I had just learned the hard way that this may not be the best of ideas for a desktop computer... that perhaps Apple might add an extra layer of security (or at least have the option available) for those of us with kids that can secret away cell phones to call Shanghai or install most of a Sesame Street game on a momentarily unattended computer without assistance.

Of course, this epistle takes the time I would have spent downloading and playing with "PRRRRRREZI FOR THE IIIIIPAAAAAAD", so I have to wistfully pine away until the following week, when I can carve out some time at work to play with it.

The time FINALLY arrived, and I prepared myself for Prezi nirvana. I opened the App Store on my iPad, hit the chartreuse INSTALL button on the Prezi app page, and plugged in my Apple ID. The wait seemed eternal, but finally, there was some motion on the screen...

"Your Apple ID has been disabled."

It was like Richard Collier looking at the anachronistic penny that sealed his fate to never again see Elise McKenna.

Email: no luck.
Phone: So very sorry to not be able to assist me.

I'm trying again today, hoping against all hopes to reach someone in Cupertino. Only Cupertino can save me now.

How about a fresh cup of hypocrisy to start the day?

Civil discourse, indeed:




Politicians could at least feign effort. They make this too easy.

It's like shooting fish in a barrel.
It's like taking candy from a baby.
They leave themselves wide open for potshots.

You all live in glass houses, okay? Enough said.