Hard Drive Replacement Ends April 12

If you bought an iMac between October 2009 and July 2011, you may have received an email from Apple about a failing hard drive. Some of the 1TB Seagate hard drives sold in 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMacs during this time may fail.
If your hard drive is covered by this program, you can have it replaced with a new one, free of charge*, here at Capitol Macintosh. We are an Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP), and can replace affected hard drives.

This program ends on April 12, 2013 or 3 years after the original purchase date of your iMac; which ever is later.

*Data migration or transfer is not covered by Apple under this program, so please make sure to back up your hard drive before you bring in your Mac. If you prefer, we can handle the data migration for you for $47.50.

Click here to submit your serial number

Your hard drive does not have to be failing already. ”If your hard drive is covered by this replacement program call us, we'll verify it qualifies, order the replacement hard drive. The replacement drives are free, but please note that data transfer (different than migration) is not covered by Apple, and will be charged at $95/hour if you need us to transfer your data. The hard drive replacement program is good for three years from the original purchase date of your iMac, or until April 12th, 2013 - whichever date is later.

If you believe you have paid for a repair or replacement due to this issue, contact Apple regarding a refund.

Six things every new iPad (or iPhone) owner should do immediately

Summary: So you got a new iPad (or iPhone) as a holiday gift huh? Here's some things that you should do right now to keep your new gadget safe.

Enable Find My iPad immediately
Find My iPad used to be a paid service but it's now free and allows you to locate your iPad (or iPhone) on a map when it's lost - or more likely, misplaced in your house. First, you need to log into your iCloud account or create a new one in Settings > iCloud > Account. Then flip the slider for Find My iPhone in the same area of the Settings app to ON. When panic strikes use a web brower to log into iCloud.com and click the icon for Find My iPhone. Find My iPhone helped one of our employees lcote their phone that has fallen out of their pocket.
There's another critical step you should perform after enabling Find My iPad/iPhone:
”•Settings > General > Restrictions > Enable Restrictions (enter your passcode)
”•Then scroll to Privacy > Location Services and touch Don't Allow Changes

If you don't take this step, a savvy thief that takes your phone before the auto-lock engages can simply turn off Find My iPhone just as fast as you activated it. When Don't Allow Changes is enabled, the Find My iPad section of Settings > iCloud is greyed out and it can't be switched off.
Keep your iPad in a case
The iPad is a thin piece of aluminum and glass that is very expensive and one drop could be fatal. I know that some people hate to cloak their beautiful Apple devices in a case, but if you take your device out of the house, it could save you an expensive ($200+) repair.
Disable ad tracking in iOS 6
While we're on the topic of ad tracking, there's another place that Apple hides a little ad tracking switch. On your iPad or iPhone, navigate to Settings > General > About > Advertising (third from the bottom) and flip "Limit Ad Tracking" to ON. Not exactly intuitive. More information about the setting is available by clicking on the tiny Learn More link at the bottom of the screen.

Turn on Passcode Lock and Auto-Lock

If you leave your iPad in a taxi or on an airplane, anyone can pick it up and look through your email, contacts and photos -- and that's probably the least of your worries. A simple way to avoid unnecessary data exposure is with a Passcode Lock. You can enable it in Settings > General > Passcode Lock. A Passcode Lock is useless if a thief grabs your iPad while it's awake.So I also recommend enabling Auto-Lock which times out your iPad after a defined period of inactivity.

Opt out of interest-based ads from the iAd network
iAd, Apple's mobile advertising platform, displays relevant ads on your iPad based on your interests. If you do not want to receive these ads (or rather, don't like advertisers tracking your interests) you can opt out by accessing http://oo.apple.com/ from Mobile Safari on your iPad or iPhone while logged into your iTunes account. More information can be found in this Apple knowlegebased article