Faulty Plastic

So I go to the Apple Store in Osaka. I got onto a local train after my koto lesson and realizing that I might not making it in time for my appointment so I called Ingram who was luckily at home and rescheduled my Concierge appointment. Turns out I was able to connect to a rapid train and actually arrived at 6pm. However, I still had to wait a bit. No problem.

Turns out, the reason why I had to wait was because there is a Genius at the Genius Bar that actually spoke fluent English. I had a sense of this in Apple Ginza, because there was actually a foriegner working at the store. I was a bit surprised to say the least and maybe a little perplexed and ticked off? Me being foriegner sometimes equals `no speak Japanese` so people get into a tizzy.

However, in the case of Apple no one went into a frenzied tizzy that was visible at least, and that I appreciated. I even told the guy I was prepared to go over the problems with my MacBook in Japanese, since he saw me write my address in kanji. That is what gets them - when Japanese people see me write my address in full kanji and in the proper Japanese way then they realize that yes, I do speak Japanese and yes I live here. Interesting thing is, all my information on my MacBook is in their system, and I got the laptop in the United States.

So problem 1 - the piece broke off the palm rest. Problem 2 - I got the first generation MacBook and people complained that the palm rests got dirty too fast. Apple finally recognized that it was a faulty part and not the consumers fault; I asked the Genius if Apple Japan does that too and he sad yes. I had been meaning to call Apple or go to Apple OSaka about that problem but it just seemed so nit-picky that I didn`t really bother. So in a way, that piece breaking off was a blessing in disguise.

Problem 3 - the part surrounding my screen was a little dirty where the magnets in the lid were...in sum, all of the plastic on the keyboard and surrounding the screen was faulty. It was even starting to pop off on the lower left hand corner, which I suddenly realized as I saw the side of my laptop.

I didn`t even need my Apple Care because my laptop was still in warranty (so maybe I jumped the gun when I got it? Oh well, better be safe than sorry) so I did`t have to pay for a thing. Except maybe train fare. Genius and I talked a bit about the weather in Japanese, and he complemented on my desktop wallpaper which was a photo of Santorini (a very belated thanks to Libby as I downloaded it off her Flickr). He even laughed at the name of my hard drive, which was `Ringo` - written in hiragana.

No laptop for a week. I got Chen`s library card so that I can use the Kyodai library when I am not at Rits (seriously, too far and it is actually CLOSED on Sundays) and my user id still works on the computers which is good because I have to prepare for my presentation soon.

But on the bright side, Apple is going to to a whole system check as well, and I practically get a brand-new looking computer. Apple always does hard drive checks; when my sister brought in her PowerBook because a piece of the plug got stuck in the socket to charge her battery, sure she had to pay about $200 (because she doesn`t have Apple Care, I think she has it now) but got a whole new motherboard and hard drive because when they checked the hard drive, Apple discovered that there was something wrong that was undetectable (I think it was the way the hard drive/motherboard was mounted in the computer), leading to a possible total breakdown of the computer that would be totally unrepairable - or cost a sh*tload of money. So she practically got a new computer for $200.

In other Apple news, the iPhone came out. Obviously, just in the States so the only hype I see is from the news, but personally I might get the Helio Ocean when I go back to the States. Its cheaper, has 3G and is from a South Korean cell phone company. South Korean cellphones are amazing - you can even watch live tv with them and its the same in Japan.