800 We Fix Macs

02/25/2021

The San Francisco Chronicle talks about the demise of our erstwhile neighbor: Fry's Electronics.

As the headline says, it used to be "a Geek paradise:" a Disneyland for nerds where you could browse for electronic components like capacitors & resistors as if you were shopping for a shirt at Macy's 🤓 It was a store that embodied Silicon Valley; a place where you could actually buy... Silicon 😮

But it wasn't just Electronics that could be found there: you could also buy perfumes, books, CDs, pillows & chips (the Potato kind) :-D It was Amazon before there was an Amazon.com

We can't think of a week that didn't have a Fry's element to it: whether it was a last minute part we had to buy, or a tester we needed because ours broke or a service referral from their parts department. We literally had a giant warehouse in our backyard.

Like many retail businesses, Fry's was disrupted by the Internet and outflanked by Amazon & Best Buy. Instead of adapting, management had their heads stuck in the sand. Apropos I guess since Silicon comes from Sand 😜

The Geek in us will miss it, even though the Fry's Electronics that closed down yesterday was just a shadow of its former self 😟

The longtime Silicon Valley tech staple for engineers and enterprising teenagers was...

02/19/2020

We could all use a helper like this, especially one who does it while we sleep :-P

Retired electrician Stephen McKears of Gloucestershire, England was puzzled to find the small metal items in his tool shed had been oddly yet neatly

08/31/2019

Another reason (besides the cool factor) for Apple to bring back it's iconic multi-colored Rainbow  logo is so Airlines can easily identify if your MacBook Pro is safe to fly 🧐

Following an Apple notice that a “limited number” of 15-inch MacBook Pros may have faulty batteries that could potentially create a fire safety risk, multiple airlines have barred transporting Apple laptops in their checked luggage—in some cases, regardless of whether they fall under the recal...

08/14/2019

Uh... how is an Airline supposed to quickly differentiate between a 2015 MacBook Pro and a 2014 or 2013 or 2012? On the surface, they all look the same :-o To confuse matters further, only *some* MacBook Pros from 2015 have faulty batteries :-/

We have visions of Airline Gate Agents holding magnifying glasses to read off serial numbers & consulting an Apple website before letting Mac Laptop users on board :-D

Following a recall initiated by Apple, the Federal Aviation Administration has banned mid-2015 15-inch MacBook Pro models with faulty batteries from...

07/31/2019

Thanks to the Capital One data breach, hackers & identity thieves won't have to ask "what's in your wallet?"; they'll already know 😜

04/21/2019

Who knew that the Dalai Lama's hobby is fixing Watches :-o In fact, he once stated that had he not become a monk, he would have been an engineer 🤓 So not only is he a nerd at heart, he obviously supports the Right to Repair Act 😇

The tinker man

10/09/2017

Apple has quietly released iTunes 12.6.3, which (unlike iTunes 12.6.2) works w/ iOS 11 & restores the ability to sync Apps to your iPhone & iPad. It can be installed over iTunes 12.7, which is the 1st time we've seen a lower revision of iTunes displace a newer version :-o

Learn how to deploy apps with iTunes.

09/26/2017

We are loving the new Explorer Watch Face & Dark Olive Sport Loop (which isn't as dark as depicted) on the new Apple Watch. Great combination! The new iPhones are nice, but you *can* do without them; Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE, OTOH, is the most significant new product from Apple Inc. this fall and a *must have* upgrade 🤓