Given the success of our discounted rate for on-going lessons and tutoring sessions we are offering a new 5 lesson deal for $85 per hour! For $85 per hour you can sign up for 5 or more one-on-one tutoring sessions or lessons. These are one hour lessons where there will be no in-depth troubleshooting, just computer training. We offer this special rate of $85 per hour to customers who pay for all 5 lessons up front with one check for $425. Call today to schedule your first appointment: 347-GEEKS-OF, that’s 347-433-5763

The problem with most modern computers is that it doesn’t take much for them to fail. The spinning disc that has all your data etched on it (the hard drive) will quit spinning eventually, whether due to old age, dislocation or some other catastrophe. Particularly if you have a laptop. And even if it’s some other component of your computer that fails, it’ll be a costly process to get the hard drive removed and the data recovered from it.

Fortunately, with a bit of foresight this entire ordeal can be avoided. The key to feeling secure about your data is through redundancy. An external hard drive costing under a hundred dollars can be set up to automatically preserve the irreplaceable things on your hard drive (personal photos, tax returns, and the like).

If you own a Mac with a system Operating System of 10.5 or newer, you have a program called Time Machine already installed. Once you pick up an external hard drive, it’s just the flick of a switch to begin backing up the entire computer. Every hour automatically, or as you desire manually. It can even do so wirelessly, assuming you have the right hardware.

Getting a backup drive is the most smart, cost-effective tech investment to make after you’ve purchased the actual computer. Not only will all your files be easy to recover in the event of a serious problem, but you’ll be able to revisit the way the computer was at any time you’ve done a backup, so you can recover individual items that you may have moved or accidentally deleted.

Peace of mind is increasingly easy to buy nowadays; the advent of insurance conglomerates, legal recourse and money-back guarantees makes it easy to get compensated when something goes awry. But for when your computer crashes, and your data is lost, there’s no surefire way to protect those crucial computerized essentials than to purchase an external hard drive and back up your computer.

The most underused way to immediately perform some common computer actions are their associated keyboard shortcuts. While they require some focus to learn, they can be used throughout many programs and will end up saving the savvy user tons of time in the long run.

Many people are familiar with the more common ones, which I’ll list below. The ⌘ icon represents the Command key, found immediately to the left or right of the space bar on your Mac. If you don’t commonly use shortcuts, the timing might take some time to master, but I typically hold down the Command key first and press the letter in question once.

Text/Writing (commands apply to text highlighted)
⌘N – New – To create a blank document or a project from a template
⌘O – Open – Brings up a browser to select a file to open from your files
⌘S – Save – You should be doing this often enough that learning this shortcut makes lots of sense.
⌘Z – Undo – Very useful to retrace steps, also works editing photos
⌘X – Cut – Removes text from current document, and keeps it in the clipboard to be Pasted
⌘C – Copy – Copies text to clipboard without removing it
⌘V – Paste – Takes most recently added text from clipboard and inserts it into selected areas
⌘A – Select All – Highlights all text within a particular document or region
⌘P – Print – Pretty self-explanatory

Internet/Browsing (commands apply to the currently selected window)
⌘N – New Window – To bring up an additional browsing window
⌘S – Save as… – This allows you to preserve an archive of this webpage offline
⌘+ – Zoom In – Increase the size of text and images
⌘- – Zoom Out – Decrease the size of text and images
⌘R – Reload – If the page slows, freezes or your connection times out, this can trigger the webpage to appear correctly

Fun Extras
⌘⌥⌃8 – Invert Screen Colors – This one is tricky (⌥ and ⌃ represent Option and Control, both in the same row of buttons as Command)
⇧⌥K – Apple Logo! – The ⇧ stands for Shift, right above Control

There are lots of others. Once you know what buttons the funky symbols stand for, you can just look under the menu options at the top of the screen, and opposite each action is the keyboard shortcut for it.

In our continued effort to expand our online presence, we’ve created a company listing at the website thumbtack.com, which will help promote our efforts to reach out to new clients through the internet. Check out the link below for further details.

Mac in-home and in-office tech support and lessons

Well, the term ‘good deal’ is a little subjective in this case. Because, as you know if you’ve ever considered buying it, ‘cheap’ is not a good way to describe it. Typically it’s around 15-25% of the purchase price for the entire computer. This is on the high side for any extended warranty, especially when it’s only covering an additional two years tacked onto the automatic one year warranty that every new Apple computer comes with.

But to put this in a broader perspective; there are absolutely zero companies on this planet that would be willing to offer an extension of their warranty if it doesn’t earn them money on their bottom line. So, while it offers a certain peace of mind to know that you’re in no danger of paying for computer repair for 3 years (unless you drop it, spill anything on it, or otherwise destroy it yourself), keep in mind that Apple is cashing in on your feeling of security.

Let’s think about this mathematically: Apple sells AppleCare, at roughly 20% of the price of a new computer, to cover it against failure for three years. As long as less than 1 out of 5 of the computers they sell need complimentary servicing within three years, anybody who gives Apple money for AppleCare is handing them complete profit. They don’t have to create any kind of product with that money, they just have to provide free repair/replacement for the computers that break down. Assuming their standards of quality control are high enough to limit the number of defective products (and they generally are) Apple has nothing to lose by offering Applecare.

To be fair, I don’t want to create the impression that I’m biased against Applecare, or product warranties in general. If you were in control of a company that sold complex consumer electronics (or any other device prone to failure) you would certainly ensure that any warranty you offer costs enough to make it cost-effective.

But as a former Apple Store employee, I can attest to the fact that we were encouraged to adamantly recommend Applecare to every customer purchasing an iPod, iPhone, iPad, or Mac. This is, again, because Apple has very little to lose, and the price of Applecare to gain. If your device fails, and you’re not covered under either the one-year automatic warranty or you didn’t buy Applecare, Apple will fix your product. But they’ll charge you enough that they’ll see a return from it.

With Applecare, they’re just skimming that return right off the top of the initial purchase, and unless your computer undergoes an uncommon and catastrophic failure, they’ve got your money.

Buy Applecare if you can easily afford it, or if you like the peace of mind associated with it. It’s also a slightly better deal if you can get a student discount on it. But just be aware of why it’s so expensive, and how likely it is that Apple will benefit from its purchase more than you will.

Seth

It’s about time. Apple hadn’t updated their ultra-portable notebook model, the MacBook Air, for over a year. Even when it was quietly being outfitted with higher specs at sporadic intervals, nobody was really addressing some of the inherent design flaws that are, realistically, bound to be present in a first-generation device.

These included, but were not limited to: Naught but a single USB port, hidden away in a little flip-down compartment that also housed the display output and the headphone jack. A display that wasn’t as securely attached to the notebook body as their other offerings, leading to some display wobble and, eventually, a display that might not stand up on its own. A trackpad that still included the single, unattached button at the bottom, years behind the smooth glass all-in-one offering of the rest of their notebook lineup. An anemic battery life. A price so high that its popularity would never step far outside the niche market it was initially intended for. I could keep going, at the risk of sounding like a very picky nerd.

But now, fast-forward to Apple’s newly released Air; EVERY issue I mentioned above has been directly addressed by the new lineup. The available USB ports have doubled from one to two (and no longer are there any hidden port compartments); the display seems as solid as their other offerings without compromising stability; the trackpad has been updated to the new, silky-smooth, easy-to-love model; the battery life has approximately doubled; and perhaps most importantly, the starting price has decreased by 50%.

But that’s not all that’s new with the Air… Now there are two distinct models, with 11″ and 13″ screen sizes. The only inclusion in the 13″ that the 11″ model lacks is an SD card slot on the right side. Also worth noting: the aspect ratio of the 11″ screen is 16:9, the only of Apple’s laptops with that appearance. All their others are 16:10. But despite the small, 11″ form factor, they’re still able to include a full-sized keyboard.

Neither of these computers contains an optical drive for CDs/DVDs, as with the previous model Air. An external Superdrive (Apple lingo for the ability to read/write both CDs and DVDs) is available for $99. But now, all the memory available in every model of Air is solid-state, akin to what you find in an iPhone/iPod/iPad. Not only does it take up much less space, but it’s much more durable and, most noticeable of all, it’s extremely fast. Startup times for these new Airs hover in the 15 second range. Doesn’t sound like light speed, but that’s as fast as any of their more expensive models that don’t use SSD, and you’d be challenged to find a competing ultraportable 13″ or 11″ model made by any other company that even comes within a minute of that.

In summation, I think Apple is going to sell an enormous amount of these. To be able to offer a lightning-fast, ultraportable, and yet almost fully-equipped laptop at a starting price of $999 puts them in a very strong position in a market segment (netbooks) that Apple was previously more than happy to ignore. I encourage everyone to take a look at them, in an Apple Store, or a Best Buy, or similar. If you’re in the market for a new laptop, you may find these new models to be an ideal solution.

Seth

Lessons and tech support for Apple computer users in New York City. In-home and in-office.

Hey everybody,

Our online presence is continuing to expand, and our new Facebook profile will serve to be a cornerstone of it. If you currently have your own Facebook profile, and you’d like to become a fan of ours on Facebook you can click the “Like” button here:

Or you can follow these extremely easy steps:

1. Make sure you’re logged into your Facebook profile, then type “Geeks of Gotham” into the search field at the top of the Facebook page.
2. When you see our name, Geeks of Gotham and our black-and-white logo appear in the live Facebook search results, click on it. You’ll be brought to our company’s Facebook page.
3. Right next to the title “Geeks of Gotham” on our Facebook page, there’s a button that says “Like” with a thumbs-up image beside it. Just click on it and you’re done! Thanks for your support!

All the best,

Eric and Seth
(347) GEEKS-OF
(347) 433-5763

Part of what gives Apple’s products such impulsive appeal to early adopters is the extreme secrecy that predictably surrounds the way in which they’re introduced. Very rarely do we get a glimpse of things ahead of time, as with the iPhone 4. And despite the endless online speculation prior to new releases, the features of the final product are always a surprise.

That’s why today, I’d like to take a look at two very prevalent rumors circulating about up-and-coming product releases- let me begin by discussing the likelihood of a 7″ iPad model.

In short, there’s almost no chance of a 7″ model appearing in the near future. Steve Jobs, celebrated Apple CEO, recently referred to 7″ tablets as “dead on arrival” at Apple’s fourth quarter financial results conference call. He seems to believe that the seven inch form factor is “too small”. In some respect, he’s right; if you take an iPad and cut it in half, the remaining screen size is about a 7″ display. See the full context of the quote below:

Commenting on avalanche of tablets heading to market; just a handful of credible entrants. Almost all use 7″ screen, compared to iPad at nearly 10″ screen. 7″ screen is only 45% as large as iPad’s screen. Hold an iPad in portrait view and draw a horizontal line halfway down. What’s left is a 7″ screen…too small. There are clear limits to how close elements can be on the screen before users can’t touch accurately. We believe 10-inch screen is minimum necessary.

To some people, it might make sense for Apple to market an in-between product to fill the gap between the 3.5″ iPhone/iPod Touch and the 9.7″ iPad. But I have two additional reasons that it probably won’t happen.

First is the apps. What sort of applications would a 7″ version of the iPad run on? Scaled-up iPod apps, which would perform well but look no different from the low-resolution iPod versions? Or dumbed-down iPad apps, which might look nicer, but would inevitably be a drain on both performance and battery life? Quite a conundrum. It hardly makes sense for Apple to create a third, middle-of-the-road app store.

Second, and just as importantly, is that Apple is obviously still in business to make money. In the interest of their company and its shareholders, they need to protect those premium margins that continue to bear them quarter after quarter of record profits and soaring stock prices. And with a 7″ iPad, that’s much more difficult than with an iPod, iPhone or iPad.

Here’s why: if Apple did release such a product, they would be pressured to sell it at a significantly lower price than the current iPad. Not as low as the iPod Touch, but probably lower than the iPhone at its normal, non-carrier-subsidized starting price of $599 (that’s $100 higher than the base 10″ iPad). Apple can sell millions of iPhones, because the subsidy from AT&T keeps them from being prohibitively expensive to people. But they can’t offer a subsidized tablet, because a tablet doesn’t have a voice plan, so they lose the phone functionality that AT&T can charge such a huge monthly bill for.

To conclude, I don’t bet for or against Steve Jobs. He’s been known to deny the usefulness of rumored functions right up until the day he releases products that contain them. But their product lineup at the moment fits the bill for an overwhelming majority of their customers, so I would be surprised to see a 7″ iPad within the next few product cycles.

Now some good news: Verizon iPhones are NOT too good to be true! Ever since the iPhone was first released in 2007, one of its greatest criticisms has been AT&T’s service (or lack thereof). For almost as long, rumor pundits like myself have been speculating as to when, or whether, Apple might allow their revolutionary design to work on more than one network. Well, here’s one of many recent articles that thinks there’s a Verizon iPhone on the horizon for January 2011, just in time to miss the holiday shopping season.

Of course, if every AT&T subscriber with an iPhone switched to Verizon as soon as they possibly could, keep in mind that the increased network traffic might reduce the overall signal quality of everyone on Verizon’s 3G network. iPhone users engage in web browsing much more commonly than normal smartphone users. Of course, the more comprehensive coverage that Verizon offers across the country could serve to open up the iPhone option to entire new demographics.

I’ll be interested to see what happens early next year, and I know I’m not alone.

Seth