September 15th, 2009
Today we unveiled a whole new interface for our repair videos and take apart guides. Our main goal with this overhaul was to provide an overall better user experience when using our free mac repair guides.
Click Here to Go to the New Mac Repair Guide Interface
The first place we started was with navigation. We wanted to be able for our customers to be able to access all of our videos and guides with as few clicks as possible. What we did was to completely scrap our old drop down selection system in favor of a device type category navigation. Now, all you have to do is click on your device type, click on the model type, and click on the video you would like to view.
Below is a screenshot of the new interface.
Our next goal was to make the actual video interface more interactive and more intuitive. Before, we were using the standard YouTube Player to distribute our video guides. Now, we’ve written our own distribution system.
In the main real estate on the video guide page, you’ll have the video you’ve selected. On the right hand side you’ll see all the other videos which make up the manual you are watching.When a video ends, it will automatically begin playback of the next video and show you what video is currently playing.
Below the player you’ll find a user star rating system that you can use to rate the particular video you are watching, and below that you’ll find a comments section that will allow you to comment or ask questions on the video you are watching.
Some guides have both videos and pdf manuals, and you’ll be able to access the PDF manual from this same interface.
Below you’ll see a screenshot of the new video interface page.
We’ve got a lot more planned for this new manual distribution interface. If you’ve got any comments on the interface or suggestions on ways to improve it, we’d love to hear your input.
August 28th, 2009
We’ve made a quick video to show some of the new Snow Leopard features. You can find our take on Snow Leopard below the video:
Background:
Mac OS X v10.6 (Codenamed: Snow Leopard) was announced on June 8th by Steve Jobs at the WWDC. Today it has been released. The upgrade is $29 for current Leopard single users and $49 for current Leopard family users with 5 licenses. Anyone running previous versions of OS X will need to purchase the Mac Box Set which will include a full copy of Snow Leopard, iLife ‘09, and iWork ‘09 for $169. This is the first Mac operating system to not support the older Motorola processors.
System Requirements:
Features:
This new version of OS X focuses more on performance than new interface gadgets. It takes advantage of 64-bit processors, multi-core systems, and the instruction set provided by Intel processors over the older PowerPC architecture.
User Interface
There are of course some improvements to the UI even though the main focus is on performance and efficiency.
Our Review:
You won’t see much difference in the interface with Snow Leopard over its predecessor. The small tweaks though seem to be pretty good. I was never a fan of stacks and thought it was implemented poorly especially when trying to navigate through subfolders. With the new implementation it works much easier to find a certain file through Stacks instead of having to go through a Finder window.
For the new Expose style implemented into the dock, it may take getting used to, but it could turn out to be very handy when working with multiple windows from the same application.
Finder does seem more responsive in our initial tests when listing folders with several items and calculating file sizes.
Microsoft Exchange
This feature has been highly requested in the business market. With support for Microsoft Exchange built in, this should help convince companies to make the switch over to Mac. Mail, Address Book, and iCal all have built in Microsoft Exchange support.
64-bit addressing
Most of the built-in OS X applications have been rebuilt to take advantage of the 64-bit system. iTunes, Front Row, and DVD Player have not been upgraded yet, but all other applications should see a large performance increase on 64-bit systems.
Our Review:
Most applications are not optimized yet for the 64-bit addressing, but we can definitely detect more snappiness with the built-in Apple applications. More benchmarks will need to be run to see the actual performance, but it looks promising.
Grand Central Dispatch
All current Macs have a multi-core processor, and with that, programmers can take advantage by sharing the workload across the two cores with parallel processing. Most developers do not bother due to the added hassle, but with Grand Central Dispatch this will make it extremely easy for developers to implement a multi-core application as it will do most of the work for you. Once the applications start coming in with this implemented, there should be a large performance increase.
Our Review:
Again, this will require the developers to start releasing applications that take advantage of this. It’ll just take some time for most applications to be running at their full potential. There is definitely a bright future though.
OpenCL
Most current machines come with a very good processor that is not even taken advantage of any everyday applications. This is the graphics processor. With OpenCL, applications will be able to offload complex functions and equations to the GPU and then send it back. This again will greatly improve performance in complex applications such as games, video, and graphic editors.
Our Review:
Unfortunately out initial test machine just has onboard Intel graphics, so any possible advantage from OpenCL will not be seen on this system. Once our employees start installing their own copies on their home machines geared more towards gaming we should have a clearer picture. This again, however, is another feature that will take time to mature and see the results. Developers have to program all of these new features in.
QuickTime X
Apple released a new major version of QuickTime. This adds 64-bit support, HTTP live streaming, and many interface improvements.
Our Review:
The new QuickTime is one of the bigger things you’ll be able to play with right off the bat. The new smokey black interface is a nice change from the old brushed metal look of older versions. There are several new toys available now for people that did not have Pro versions before. You can export videos into other formats, do screen, audio, and video captures straight from the application, and you can upload to Youtube and other sites directly from the application.
Common Unix Printing System
CUPS as it is more commonly known will be updated to allow more compatibility with printers.
Our Review:
The detection and implementation of printers does seem to work better. The new printing system will also automatically update printer drivers for you, so you no longer have to go search manufacturer websites for updates when you have a problem.
August 27th, 2009
Already have a twitter account? Just click the following link to retweet:
Retweet Autofill For Snow Leopard Giveaway
The winner will be randomly selected at 12:00 CST on Friday August 28th using random numbers from Random.org. Each entry will be assigned a number based on the order they come in. We will post a tweet with the winners shortly after 12:00 CST as well as tweet the individual winners.
In order to get the free Saturday delivery, the winners must respond by 3:00 CST on Friday August 28th. If a winner responds after this time, but within 24 hours of our tweet, shipping will be changed to Standard overnight delivery for Tuesday delivery. If a winner does not respond within 24 hours, another winner will be chosen at random.
Rules:
1.) You must be a follower of Powerbookmedic on Twitter to win this giveaway.
2.) One winner per household (per address).
3.) We will only accept US mailing addresses.
4.) If Saturday Delivery is not available for your area, your Upgrade will ship via Standard Overnight.
Snow Leopard System Requirements:
Mac with an Intel Processor (Core Solo and Core Duo supported, Core 2 Duo and up preferred for 64-bit mode)
August 18th, 2009
Today we announced a new feature that we’re very excited about, the Mac Serial Number Lookup Tool. This new tool will allow you to find out all the detailed specs for the serial number for your Mac laptop or iPod. It also provides direct links to Repair Guides, service parts, memory, and hard drives based on your specific Apple serial number.
You can try the new tool at the link below:
Below is a screenshot of the information that will be provided when a serial number lookup is performed. You can see the information is rather detailed and includes things like processor architecture, codename, screen resolutions, etc…
This new feature is currently in Beta. Our data, while mostly complete, is missing some model info. If you do a serial number search and do not find your machine, you have the option of submitting the data for that serial number, and we’ll get it added to the system.
As this feature is in beta, we’d love any feedback you’ve got or features you’d like to see added to the tool. Please post any comments you may have or features you’d like to see. You can also email your suggestions to support@powerbookmedic.com.
July 8th, 2009
Today we introduced a new feature that we’re pretty excited about. Now, when you schedule a Mac Repair with us, you can choose to have a secondary notification about status updates via Twitter or SMS. If you sign up for this feature, then every time there is a status change on your repair, you’ll receive a tweet or SMS message in addition to the email or phone notification. (Note that for SMS, standard text message fees apply.)
You can read about this and all of our status update option at the link below:
Mac Repair Status Update Options
To follow us on Twitter, our username is powerbookmedic. You can also Click Here to go to our twitter page.
April 20th, 2009
We have redone the live search as seen on our last site with a little more flare. Just start searching for a part and it will try to figure out what you are wanting to buy. If it doesn’t find what you are looking for just hit enter to do a full blown search through our entire site.
If you have any problems or recommendations, don’t hesitate to shoot us a tweet with any issues. Keep in mind that Firefox and Safari are preferred browsers for our site. Internet Explorer users should make sure they are running the latest version for better compatibility.
April 15th, 2009
PowerbookMedic.com is a customer centric company. We try to look at everything we do from policy to design in the viewpoint of the customer. This brings me to the next new feature I’ll discuss which is the Repair Status page. We know how important computers are in everyone’s everyday life. So, we also know how difficult it is to be without your computer when you need to get it serviced. With that in mind, we’ve redesigned the Repair Status feature on the site.
When on the Repair Center page, click on the “Check your Repair Status” link in the right hand corner of the leaderboard.
When you click on that, a page like the one below will open up.
At this page, simply type in the email address you used to create the initial repair quote, and the ticket number that was assigned to you to login to the repair status interface.
Once you’ve logged in, you’ll see a screen similar to the one above.
Our new Repair Status system will show you exactly what is going on with your laptop at every stage of the repair process. It will also show you what repair technician is currently working on your machine at each stage of the process.
If you have a question about the status or the repair in general, you can also post a question directly from the Repair Status interface.
This new Repair Status system should help to relieve some of the anxiety of sending your laptop in for repair. It’s never easy to be without your unit, but knowing exactly where it is and who is working on it sure does help.
April 13th, 2009
Along the theme of the last post, and the next few posts, today I’ll be talking about another one of the new features we’ve built into the new site.
One of the goals we had with the new site was to make it as simple as possible to find the part you need for your laptop or iPod. To accomplish this, we built several new features into the site. One of those is the part locator on the Home Page.
The part locator feature gives you three different ways to search for what you’re looking for. The best part is that, due to our brilliant programmers, you can do it all without switching pages or browsing through different pages.
The first search box is a general search based on Apple part # or keyword. If you know what you’re looking for, this is likely the fastest way to find it. Simply type in what you’re looking for, and the results will appear on the right hand side of the leaderboard box. Click on the product you’d like more information on to go to that product page.
The second box is a search by model #. Type your model # into this box to identify the family name of the machine you need parts for, and then click the associated link on the right hand side to either get more information or to go to the category for that family type.
The third box is a search by category feature. This feature is great if you’re just browsing for a part you need. To use this feature, simply select your model and the category you’d like, and you can browse for the parts you need. Then, just click on the product to go to that product page.
These three different ways to search for products make locating the right product not only easy, but fast as well.
April 10th, 2009
Today we unveiled the long awaited new release of our website. We’re still working out a few kinks, but overall the transition has gone rather smoothly. So why not spend a few posts talking about some of the new site features.
There are two things we love here at PowerbookMedic, one of course is Apple. The second is cutting edge website design. Almost everything we do is done in house, and when it comes to programmers, we’ve got some of the best.
One of the features that has been getting the most attention is our new Identify Model feature. To get there, just click on the “Identify Model” link in the navigation bar.
So what’s so cool about this new feature? As you begin to type your model number into the search box, the site narrows down in realtime which model you have. Once the site has enough information to determine the family name of the machine, it highlights it. Hit enter, and a lightbox window opens up with all of the model number information for that family name including model and speed info.
This new feature should make it easier than ever to locate exactly what parts you new for your Apple laptop or iPod.
We’ll be fleshing this new feature out in the months to come based on user input and suggestions, but in its initial form it’s a pretty great new feature.
On a side note, I’d like to give a special thanks to all our team members and their families. There have been a lot of extra hours and late nights over here, and this new site wouldn’t have been possible without you…and an extra special thanks to my wife who has endured a shell of her husband these last few months. Thank you!
Happy Easter!
-Bradley
Owner PowerbookMedic.com, LLC
April 7th, 2009
Throughout the years, we’ve had quite a few versions of the site. On April 10th we’re launching the third major version. With all of your past comments and wishes taken into consideration, we’ve designed what we feel is the most elegant, easy to use and functional site yet.
Along with this new revision comes this blog…a place for us to communicate what’s going on over here to you.
Let us know your thoughts on the new design. It’s your input that has made PowerbookMedic what it is today.
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