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First, find your serial number

Probably the quickest and easiest way to learn about your Mac is with the serial number. Look on the surface of your Mac or on your sales receipt or original packaging. If you can’t find it either of those ways, you can locate this while running your Mac:

• From the Apple menu, select “About this Mac.”
• Click on “More Info…”
• Highlight the “Hardware” category, and look for the serial number there.

(If you have OS X 10.1 or higher installed on your Mac, you can also go to the Apple menu, choose “About this Mac,” then double-click on the OS version number. It will change to your serial number.)

Then use these sites to get the help you need

With the serial number, you can find out the hip version name of your particular model. For instance, how are you to remember that the MacBook Pro 4.1 was also referred to as the MacBook Pro Early 2008. To get even more information about your Mac, Apple has provided a few online services that can help you out:

• Apple’s Support’s Tech Spec Search Utility: A great, well-maintained source of information about Apple products that includes all the product information even after it has been removed from the primary site as well as the Apple Online Store. Enter your serial number into the search box, and you will find information about the processor speed, size and weight, memory, storage and much more. support.apple.com/specs
• Apple’s Service and Repair Web Site: If you are in need of service or repair, whether you have Apple Care or not, this site will help get you started on the road to recovery. You can contact an Apple advisor, make an appointment with a genius at an Apple Retail Store, or search for a local Apple Authorized Service Provider. selfsolve.apple.com
• Apple’s Apple Care Registered Products List: If you have purchased Apple Care for any of your products, or if you have very recently purchased a new Mac and are still covered by the free Apple Care coverage, then this is the place to go when you need help or support. apple.com/support/applecare
• Apple’s My Support Profile list of My Products: Relatively unknown site that helps keep track of all of your interactions with Apple support as well as maintain a list of the products you have registered with Apple. In fact, this site will help you keep track of all of your Apple purchases. supportprofile.apple.com

What I find interesting about being an owner of Apple products is the amount of time and energy people, including myself, put into knowing everything there is to know about the next piece of hardware Apple is to release. Yet as time passes, many of us simply forget the exact details of what we already have. I hope this guide will help close this knowledge gap.

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There’s often no way around offering internal support for most organizations. Many companies have customized software or hardware that no-one else can support. Others need tech support to happen fast and can’t don’t want to outsource it. If your organization relies on providing technical support internally, making the support process as clear as possible can help avoid problems and speed up the process.

1. Provide a process for minor or frequent issues. Many of the problems that an internal support team can find itself facing regularly are fairly minor or even repetitive. When the rest of the organization has appropriate tools, like checklists, they can diagnose those sorts of problems themselves, rather than immediately turning to the support team, which can let your team focus on the problems that are really crucial.
2. Create tutorial and reference materials. A support team’s time can also be well spent heading off potential issues. If you can sink some of that time into creating tutorials and other reference materials that can help the rest of the organization avoid potential issues, it’s possible to get ahead of the game. Tools like TeamSupport put a high priority on creating “knowledge bases” — reference materials that customers and clients can refer to quickly, rather than putting in a call to support.
3. Set expectations, especially for response times. People can get a little on edge while waiting for a solution to their problem. But if you clearly communicate when they can expect a response, if not a solution, you can at least minimize the phone calls and emails the support team receives just to check up. An internal website listing updates may be one option, while an automated email system may be another. Many companies now post statistics for the tech support they provide external customers on the web, such SiteGround’s full list of their response times, which could be an option for internal support as well.
4. Put a face on the support team. It’s hard for people to see a support team as individuals. But by making an effort to get the support team out and about with the rest of the organization, you can at least humanize them. That can mean bringing them into meetings, changing up the office space, or using social tools.

There will always be frustrations in the support process: people always want problems fixed immediately, which isn’t necessarily possible. But the more you can smooth out the process, the fewer of those problems you’ll have to face on a regular basis.

Image courtesy Flickr user Ellecer Valencia

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Not every situation requires a call to tech support staff. TeamSupport provides a customer portal that includes a knowledge base that makes it easy for someone with a problem to look up an answer, rather than waiting on on a response for support. Of course, TeamSupport also allows for support ticket submissions, along with ticket management, so that support staff can handle any issues that a search of the knowledge base can’t address. More advanced features, including live chat, are available as add-ons.

TeamSupport puts a major emphasis on communication, making it as easy as possible to not only track tickets but to talk to the people submitting those tickets. Customers who need support are organized into a database automatically, making it  possible to provide ongoing help to those who need it (as well as track issues against the customers who report them). For teams responsible for providing internal support, TeamSupport also offers communication tools to help simplify the support process. A wiki and other collaboration features make it easy for your support staff to stay up-to-speed on potential problems.

The app is available in three different editions, with prices ranging from $15 to $35 per month per user, going from from a package meant for small teams that need a step up from spreadsheet to manage support issues up to an edition that allows users to closely track tickets, bugs and more.

TeamSupport offers its own support portal, providing in-depth information for users interested in getting a closer look. If nothing else, it’s a great example of company eating its own dog food.

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Apple Support Communities offers more than just a fairly standard discussion board. It centers on product-specific communities, which are themselves divided into sub-communities depending on the type of support you’re looking for. The site surfaces the most recent content, is based around more of a question-asking model like Quora, a popular social Q&A site, and provides status incentives to help encourage community members to assist their fellow users.

The redesign seems aimed at making support more accessible for new users, and at incorporating more social features to make it easier to give feedback and follow discussions. For example, users can now “Like” any post made in community threads, and you can follow individual communities using a bookmark feature, or by signing up to receive email notifications of new replies. Users can also customize which community feeds appear on their home page quickly and easily using links posted throughout the site.

There’s also a new incentive system that borrows from the recent popularity of gamification. Users can choose which are the most helpful answers, which awards five points to a user, and Apple will sometimes single out a “correct” answer, which grants an additional 10 points. Earning points increases your level, which tops out at level 10 (80,000 points). Apple hasn’t yet revealed what specific privileges are unlocked at each level.

Apple previewed the new site in August last year, but hadn’t made mention of any progress until the new version went live this weekend. My early impressions are that this might be Apple’s most successful foray into social networking yet, or at least the best-designed one. Anyone else agree?

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In a mailing list posting on Tuesday, Mozilla’s Firefox honcho Mike Beltzner affirmed: “I am gathering data on the number of PPC users we have, but the likely outcome is that we will not be supporting PPC [PowerPC] for Firefox 4.”

Mozilla has already cut off Firefox support for Mac OS X 10.4 after version 3.6, and the new SeaMonkey 2.1 Alpha released yesterday (SeaMonkey is based on the Firefox browser engine) also dumped support for OS 10.4.

Feeling The Pain

These developments were inevitable, and the proverbial writing has been on the wall for some time for Tiger support especially, but looming termination of all PPC support is a splash of cold water for legions of holdout users. With two old 550 MHz G4 Pismo PowerBooks running OS 10.4 Tiger still in daily service, I’m definitely feeling the pain of constricting browser support. At present, I’m using SeaMonkey 2.0.6 (current stable release), Opera 10.01, and iCab 4.8 on the Pismos along with old Netscape Navigator 9.

Indeed, in many respects, Navigator 9 remains the most satisfactory all-round browser on low-powered Power PC machines, although its security profile is woefully out of date, so I wouldn’t recommend it for visiting your online banking site, or anywhere else that security is a particular concern. You can still download Navigator 9 here.

SeaMonkey: The Best Compromise?

SeaMonkey 2.0.6 is probably the best compromise at this point between performance, reliability, and security, and I was disappointed when I downloaded the version 2.1 Alpha 3 build, which features some interesting interface upgrades, only to discover that the system requirements cited on MacUpdate were in error, and it doesn’t support OS 10.4.

iCab 4.8 still fully supports Tiger, and I don’t anticipate that it will be dropping it anytime soon, since they still offer a browser on their download page that supports 68k Macs running System 7.1, but the latest 64-bit version of iCab 4.8, of course, requires Snow Leopard, and it’s doubtful that legacy versions get much security updating, if any.

The latest version 10.6 of Opera nominally supports Power PC Macs running Tiger as well, but in practice, I’ve found that it’s slow and unstable on the old Pismos, with lots of spinning beachball time. The last build that works well on those machines is version 10.01 (c. October 2009).

Curtain Dropping On Power PC

Consequently, I’ve resigned myself to the fact that the curtain is dropping on Power PC Macs. I’ll not be giving up on my beloved Pismo PowerBooks any time soon, and hope to continue using them for years to come, but I’ll do any security-sensitive web stuff on my MacBook and whatever supersedes it. Opera 10.6, Google Chrome, Firefox 4, and Safari 5 all offer a superb browsing experience for Intel Mac users.

It’s interesting that Web browsers seem to have emerged as the tipping point of practical computer obsolescence. Are you feeling the pinch?

Related GigaOM Pro Research: What Does The Future Hold For Browsers?

Next Gen Customers on Previous Gen Devices

The most likely recipients of older iPhone 3G devices will be the siblings of the owners of the devices which have replaced them with the new iPhone 4. This is a very important class of user that Apple cares a lot about. The new owners of these older iPhone 3G devices will be potential Apple customers throughout their academic life. And it appears that students are serious about Apple. Providing a less than awesome experience now could jeopardize their loyalties later.

One iOS to Rule Them All

The current burden on developers targeting Apple’s mobile devices is that there are too many software versions to manage; 3.1, 3.2, and 4.0, to name a few. The number of devices on each of these three major platforms is still significant. With the upcoming iOS 4.1 update, Apple has the opportunity to converge more of these devices to just one OS platform. That is, if they can convince iPhone 3G owners that performance is no longer an issue.

Focusing on multiple platforms does take time away from adding features and releasing new titles. Giving developers the tools they need is only part of the equation. Switching between simulators and managing several different devices takes time. Cutting down on the number of device and OS combinations that developers need to support will only strengthen the quality of the apps for devs that don’t test across the matrix of combinations, and give back some development time to those that do.

Engineering Pride

Apple has been quite public about the engineering capabilities of other software development shops. Apple was also adamant all along that iPhone 3G devices would be supported on iOS 4, minus some features. Nonetheless, Apple proclaimed support for these devices. Taking on its own challenge, stepping up to the plate and delivering an awesome experience to its next generation of customers is what Apple’s core values are all about.

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That budget goes not only towards things like putting a computer in the hands of each employee, but also keeping the lights on and paying the rent. Given those constraints, many non-profits are much more likely to look at sub-$500 Windows computers instead of Macs.

Unfortunately, by making that decision you may be costing your organization in the long term. Here are three reasons why even a non-profit with a tight budget should be strongly considering Macs.

1) Support costs

There are the obvious reasons why Macs cost less to support, ranging from the fact that you don’t need to worry about viruses to the stability of OS X. Less obvious is the fact that recent surveys of IT professionals have found that Mac computers are less costly to manage than Windows PCs.

For smaller non-profits who don’t have an in-house IT department, you’ll also want to consider the value of the Genius Bar. If you have an Apple store anywhere near your office you can simply walk in with a problematic computer and usually have your problem solved quickly and easily. Compare that to the cost of spending time on the phone with Dell or HP support, or the lost opportunity that can accrue if you have to ship your computer away for repairs.

2) Longevity

I’m not one of those people who thinks that all Windows PCs are built like junk. You can certainly find a reliable computer running Windows, but there are two key things to consider. First, your chances of getting a reliable computer at a very low price isn’t great. Second, the odds of picking the right model from the array of available Windows computers also works against you.

By contrast, almost any model of Mac is a solid bet to be a reliable computer for three or four years. Trust me, I’ve been in organizations that have had to replace their entire collection of computers barely a year after buying inexpensive Windows laptops. You have to ask yourself if you want to buy two cheap computers over four years or one more reliable one. If it’s the latter, you’re probably better off going with Mac.

3) Software

This is usually a mark against the move to Macs, the argument being that you will need to repurchase all of your expensive software for another platform. Non-profits can avoid much of this cost due to services like TechSoup, which allow them to purchase software at a steep discount. If you’re a small non-profit iLife provides you with excellent tools to produce multimedia and a simple website without spending a single additional cent.

If you do need to do something more complex you have an incredible array of easy to use, attractive and relatively inexpensive applications to choose from. A few suggestions that would work well in a non-profit setting include Bento, RapidWeaver, iWork, iBank and Acorn. These range in cost from free to well under $100.

The value of any computing platform is defined by what you can do on it, and the Mac is without peer in this regard. There is value in having software that just works, and there is also value in having employees that enjoy working with their platform rather than suffering under it.

1. Attention to small steps. On New Year’s Day, I found myself feeling increasingly overwhelmed by the goals I hoped to achieve this year and wondering how in the world I’d ever reach them. I became frustrated by the sheer volume of work that needed to be done and wasted the majority of the day worrying over it all. The next day, though, I remembered that success really comes from consistency in the small steps. I’ve made a lot of progress in my business over the past couple of years, and I know that what it’s really about is increasing the number of small steps I take, as well as the frequency that I take them. In 2010, the important thing is to simply take small steps — and more of them.
2. Discipline. Small steps only work if they’re taken over and over again. If you start an exercise routine and miss a day, that won’t matter so much, as long as you exercise more days than you don’t. To succeed, simply focus on reducing the number of days you don’t do the things you need to do.
3. Having a destination in mind. Most entrepreneurs appreciate that the journey is usually far more important than arriving at any given point, but it’s still important to know where you want to go and have a general direction to move toward.
4. Constantly switching from big picture to small picture. For me, I know that I have some pretty big goals and several large rocks to move this year, but I also have to keep my eye on smaller-view things (like how the bills will get paid this month and next). I have a tendency to either be in big-picture mode or small-picture mode, when what I really need is to look at my situation from both vantage points very frequently. By switching view points often, I’m less likely to neglect the present or the future of my business.
5. Support. Even though it may feel like we’re on an island a lot of the time, we definitely need support to build successful businesses, whether that’s our accountability partners who keep our feet to the fire, our networks who help us bridge the gaps along the way, or our family and friends who keep us grounded to what’s important.
6. Leaving behind limiting beliefs. We all have our own gremlins that follow us around trying to convince us of what we can’t do and why we can’t do it, but to succeed, we have to leave them behind. There will always be excuses and reasons not to do things, but this year, figure out reasons why you should and how you can.
7. Encompassing valued traits. Just as important (maybe more so) as the doing and the having is the being. Who is it that you hope to be? What traits do you want to embody? How can you start integrating those traits into your daily life?
8. Appreciation. It’s hard to stay connected to any vision if you’re not savoring the things in your life along the way toward reaching it, and that includes the people in your life, who you are, where you’ve been, and what you’ve accomplished.

Success in the new year will come if you stay focused on making the most of each moment you’re given, and with these few tools helping you along your way, I hope success will prove inevitable.

What else could you use in your toolkit in order to make 2010 a success?

Image from Flickr by ahisgett

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The Dell Experience

Client #1 comes in because Windows won’t boot. The minute she turns on the PC, I know the problem. It’s that horrible high-pitched clicking noise that is worse than nails on a chalkboard to any technician. It’s obvious the drive has failed and the solution is to replace it. I booted off a test CD and verified the hard drive failure.

Fortunately the computer is under warranty. No big deal, Dell should replace the hard drive. I call Dell. After 20 minutes on hold, I’m not getting a live person, so I try the online chat and wait and wait and wait. Eventually, someone comes online. The first obstacle is that the client is a student and the father bought the computer via his work. Dell will not assist us until we tell them the owner of the computer and the shipping address. Arrrgh. So we play a multiple choice game for about 20 minutes trying to find out which name and address it was under.

We are now at about an hour. When we get the “correct” answer to the shipping address, our tech then begins to help us. I explain that the hard drive is making a high pitched clicking noise and the system doesn’t show a hard drive. First, the tech wants me to try a special diagnostic that is preformed off the hard drive. Of course the hard drive is dead, so we go back and forth with that I must be doing something wrong. His English was so shaky that I often didn’t understand his questions. (How does one answer  ”Is this issue not facing now?”) Eventually the tech believes I’m doing it right and then asks me to boot off a CD that come with the system, which of course the client doesn’t have. We’re supposed to look for the disks and contact them again, but I refused. The client didn’t know where the disk is and we needed this resolved.

Eventually, the support person realizes we don’t have the disk, but he now wants us to open up the computer and reset everything. We’re now at the 1.5 hour mark. Eventually the agent agrees the hard drive should be replaced. Thank you! However, they must ship the hard drive to one of their contracted field techs per her warranty. Actually, that’s lucky; sometimes you have to ship the computer back to Dell. Her warranty was “upgraded” to include on-site repair. The tech will then contact her to set a time to install the hard drive. Three days later, there was no contact from the tech, no hard drive. Fortunately, I gave her a loaner and got her up and running.

We tried calling Dell to no avail. There was no record of the request for the hard drive. Eventually we contacted Dell “Unresolved Issues” and the hard drive was shipped. Total time on the phone: three hours. Delay in hard drive replacement: almost two weeks. The time involved on the chat I assure you is very typical and it’s not just Dell. I see it with HP/Compaqs as well. Service is simply not part of their deal.

The Apple Experience

My next client had a Macbook. I could hear it was the same problem immediately. Ironically, it was the same brand and size of hard drive as was in the Dell. I entered her serial number on Apple’s support web site, and it showed the computer was still under warranty. We then set up a “Speak to an Apple Expert” call-back for about 20 minutes later. On the dot, the technician called. I explained the loud noise and told the tech I booted off the Leopard DVD and the hard drive showed errors. He agreed to ship a new hard drive the next day. Total phone time was less than five minutes and it was 30 minutes from problem diagnosis to closure and less than 24 hours from the time I called until the new hard drive arrived on her doorstop. Again, this interaction was very typical.

For the sake of argument, let’s say these clients didn’t use a consultant to solve their problem. The Mac client could have made an appointment with a genius if an Apple store or an Apple Authorized Service Provider for the repair. The PC client has no physical store she could go to unless she bought that PC at a store that also offered warranty repair.

The phrase “Penny wise and Pound foolish” comes to mind. Did the first client end up saving money because she bought a PC?

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