Kudos for Us!

For the eighth consecutive fiscal quarter, Capitol Macintosh has earned the Apple Authorized Service Commitment to Excellence Recognition award. Apple has over 2500 ship-to locations in the US and Canada and Capitol Macintosh is one of only 56 locations that have been able to achieve this accomplishment.

Being honored 8 quarters in a row places Capitol Macintosh in the top two percent of North American Apple service providers, those that have implemented and utilized best practices, including repair, turnaround time, first-time fix and parts per repair.

“The Commitment to Excellence award program recognizes Apple Service providers who have excelled in delivering superior customer service and an outstanding repair experience to our valuable Apple customers,” said Norwita Powell, America Field Services, Apple, Inc.

Calibrating a MacBook or MacBook Pro battery

Mac OS X 10.5 Help
Calibrate the battery in your MacBook or MacBook Pro every month or two to keep your battery functioning at its fullest capacity.

To calibrate the battery:

Plug in the MagSafe power adapter and fully charge the MacBook or MacBook Pro battery until the light on the MagSafe connector changes to green and the Battery icon in the menu bar indicates that the battery is fully charged.

Allow the battery to rest in the fully charged state for two hours or longer. You may use your computer during this time as long as the power adapter is plugged in.

Disconnect the power adapter with the computer on and start using it with battery power. When the battery's charge gets low, you'll see the low battery warning dialog on the screen.

Continue to keep your computer turned on until it goes to sleep. Save your work and close all applications when the battery's charge gets low and before the computer goes to sleep.

Turn off the computer or allow it to sleep for five hours or longer.

Reconnect the power adapter and leave it connected until the battery is fully charged. You may use your computer during this time.

Repeat the calibration process every two months or so to keep the battery fully functioning. If you use your MacBook or MacBook Pro infrequently, it's best to recalibrate the battery at least once a month.
If you purchased additional batteries, repeat the calibration process with those batteries as well.

Chill Pill - Ultra-Compact Pocket Rocket Audio Speaker System

At just 3.75" x 2" in size, this tiny portable speaker system pumps out enough volume to overcome any built-in laptop or iPhone/iPod speakers. Chill Pill is brilliantly designed and comes with all the power and cord essentials you will need. It is powered and charged by a retractable mini-usb cable and does not need batteries. There is also a retractable 1/8" headphone port which plugs into any iPhone, iPod or MacBook. Open the Chill Pill, plug it into your device and enjoy 8 hours of uninterrupted music at your home, office or car. With big sound and a rugged compact case, the Chill Pill will become an essential part of your digital traveling kit. Easy to carry in a briefcase or purse. Only $49.97

Apple Tops Customer Satisfaction Index, Again

Brian Caulfield, 08.19.09, 01:30 PM EDT
Steve Jobs and company have dominated the rankings since 2003.

BURLINGAME, CALIF. -- Remember 1998? Bill Clinton was impeached. Steve Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan ruled the box office. And Steve Jobs was wreaking havoc at Apple - terminating projects such as Cyberdog and the Newton - and introducing a new all-in-one computer, the iMac.
It worked - 1998 was the last year Apple posted a less than average score on the American Customer Satisfaction Index for Personal Computers. Apple took the No. 1 spot on the list in 2003, and it has dominated ever since.
Apple's score of 84 on the latest survey, released this week, was down one point from the year before. However, it is a full nine points above the average score of 75. In other words, after a dip from 2007, Apple has recovered nicely. And while Dell and Hewlett-Packard both showed modest improvement, Apple remains at the top of the list.

A Mac Virus?

Not so fast. Malware posing as antivirus software is spreading fast with tens of millions of computers (not Macs) infected each month, according to a report released from PandaLabs.

PandaLabs found 1,000 samples of fake antivirus software in the first quarter of 2008. In a year, that number had grown to 111,000. And in the second quarter of 2009, it reached 374,000, Luis Corrons, technical director of PandaLabs said in a recent interview.

The rogue antivirus software issues false warnings of infections in order to get people to pay for software they don't need. The programs also typically download a Trojan or other malware.

About 3 percent of the people who see the fake warnings fall for it, forking over $50 for an annual license or $80 for a lifetime license, according to Corrons.

If you own a Mac no worries. Clicking on the email will do no harm to your computer.

iPhone For You!

Family Memories on your Mac, and More

The era of VHS tapes is winding down, and after three decades there is a lot of video content to transfer for modern playback devices. What's more, any video stored on magnetic tape (such as VHS, Video8 and Hi8) has a limited life span and deteriorates over time. Elgato Video Capture provides an easy way to bring those precious memories into iTunes, to edit them in iMovie, and to share on the Web. Elgato Video Capture, now in stock at Capitol Macintosh.