New Study Reviewing ChatGPT and Poker

Legal U.S. Poker Sites recently conducted a new study involving ChatGPT. Amazon Mechanical Turk was reviewed, and it was determined that ChatGPT usage is on the rise regarding online poker. With over 1,000 online poker players surveyed with at least three years of experience, it showed that the majority had used ChatGPT at some point. 

The study consisted of 67% males and 33% females. The majority were Gen-Z at 41%, and 34% were millennials. The findings of the study revealed that players are supportive of AI. Around 93% are in favor and 40% of those surveyed had used it to elevate their gameplay. Around 45% believe AI helps them to become better players. 

Is It Cheating?

From the survey, around 22% said they have used AI to win online poker. Millennials are more likely to use technology during gameplay than others. Around one in five respondents have used ChatGPT to win, which is essentially considered cheating. They had the help of a bot to find the right decision for their hand. 

The opinion of ChatGPT and poker cheating is mixed. Some feel that no clear rules say you can’t use this tech, so it’s not cheating. Others feel that any outside help at the poker table should not be allowed. There are rules in place at online poker rooms that restrict players from using bots, so we may see that ChatGPT is added to the list in the future if the tech becomes an issue. 

Using AI to Better Your Poker Game

Those who have not used ChatGPT during gameplay utilize the option to experiment with different strategies or simulate different hand scenarios. Players can easily take hand histories from an online poker site and input them into ChatGPT to see what the outcome should have been. This helps with decision-making when that hand type pops up again in gameplay. 

More than half of poker experts feel that AI bots will rule the game of poker in the future. It would make it almost impossible for a human to win when up against a computer. Gen Z players who go up against AI are losing over $1,000 on average. Millennials are losing a bit less at around $750. 

Poker Community is Split 

Even though ChatGPT and poker players are coming together, players have mixed feelings on the topic. If you visit Reddit or Twitter, you can find forums that discuss tech usage and how players are divided. Some are not sold on the idea and feel that ChatGPT offers bad advice. 

Others feel that it can be useful in learning how to play online poker, especially with game variants you are unfamiliar with. Others feel that using this type of technology takes away from the game and removes skill. If players are using AI to figure out hand decisions, they have an upper hand against someone who is relying on skill. 

Either way, tech and poker will always have a symbiotic relationship, and that will not change any time soon. We expect the future of poker to include even more ChatGPT usage and other technology. Hopefully, we see the tech help the game rather than destroy it. 

As a content creator, I have been aware of AI Writing tools for quite some time, but I don’t use them in my reviews. I have tested them out and found that while they are good, they aren’t perfect. More importantly, they don’t always sound like a human. In fact, when it comes to being creative or offering an opinion, AI tools tend to fall very short.

There are many AI writing tools available to the public, but the most popular one right now — the one getting the most buzz — is ChatGPT. I was curious about how it worked so I decided to dive right into the system and provide an overview of my experience. For the remainder of this article, I will include some snippets from the ChatGPT responses, but they will always be in quotes or otherwise called out.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT was developed by OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research organization founded in 2015. The platform is an AI-driven chatbot that was launched as a prototype in November 2022 with its stable release on February 13, 2023. GPT stands for generative pre-trained transformer which is a language model that is designed to provide human-like text. ChatGPT is well-known for being versatile and being able to generate different types of content such as:

• composing music, teleplays, fairy tales, and student essays
• writing and debugging computer programs
• and, answering test questions

As good of a tool as it is, ChatGPT does still have some limitations. It has limited knowledge of events that occurred after 2021 and the program is designed to not provide political opinions. The platform also falls prey to algorithmic bias.

How does ChatGPT work?

The first step in the process is to visit https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt. This page of OpenAI’s website describes the platform and its history and provides users with different options to use the system. There is an option underneath the “Introducing ChatGPT” headline that says Try ChatGPT.

When you click on this option, you will be taken to a window that checks your browser. Then the system will ask you to log in or sign up. If you need to create an account, you can provide an email address, and continue with Google or a Microsoft Account. You must verify the email address and provide a phone number for security purposes.

Once you have created your account, you can start using the ChatGPT system through your browser. The browser-based platform is free to use, but some companies may charge for access to my API or to integrate the services into other products.

Is ChatGPT free to use?

“As an AI language model, I am not owned or operated by any individual or company, and my use is generally free for the public. However, some companies may charge for access to my API or integrate my services into their own products or services. Additionally, some applications or websites that utilize my services may charge for their own services or offer paid subscriptions for additional features or access. Overall, the availability and cost of using ChatGPT depend on how it is being used and the policies of the organization providing the access.”

Using ChatGPT to Create Content

I was interested in what ChatGPT could do so I started asking it questions about the upcoming Academy Awards ceremony. The questions I asked are in italics and ChatGPT’s responses are in quotes.

Who are the best picture nominees this year?

“As a language model, my knowledge cutoff is September 2021, and I don’t have access to current events or nominations beyond that date. Therefore, I cannot provide you with the current year’s Best Picture nominees. However, you can check the official website of the Academy Awards or entertainment news sources for updates on this year’s nominees.”

What are the qualifications for best picture for the Academy Awards?

“To qualify for the Best Picture category at the Academy Awards, a film must meet several eligibility requirements. The eligibility criteria for Best Picture are as follows:

1. The film must be feature-length, defined as a runtime of more than 40 minutes.
2. The film must have been publicly exhibited for paid admission in a commercial motion picture theater in Los Angeles County for a minimum of seven consecutive days, starting from the first day of the exhibition.
3. The film must be screened for Academy members in a theatrical setting in Los Angeles County.
4. The film must be produced with a frame rate of at least 24 frames per second.
5. The film must be recorded in either 35mm or a digital format of at least 2048×1080 pixels.
6. The film must be in English or have English subtitles.
7. The film must have been released in the previous calendar year, from January 1 to December 31.

Once a film meets these eligibility requirements, it can be submitted for consideration by the Academy’s voting members. The members then vote to narrow down the list of eligible films to a set of nominees, and from those nominees, the final winner of the Best Picture award is selected.”

How many best picture winners have also won best director?

“In the history of the Academy Awards, there have been 72 instances where the Best Picture winner has also won the Best Director award. This means that the film’s director is recognized for their exceptional work in directing the film, and the film itself is recognized as the best overall film of the year. However, it is worth noting that there have also been several instances where the Best Picture and Best Director awards have gone to different films. This can happen when the Academy members feel that one film was the best overall, but another film had exceptional direction. The most recent example of this was at the 93rd Academy Awards in 2021, where Chloe Zhao won Best Director for “Nomadland,” while “The Trial of the Chicago 7” and “Nomadland” were both nominated for and won other awards.”

How many best picture nominees have there been?

“Since the inception of the Academy Awards in 1929, there have been a total of 563 films nominated for the Best Picture award. The number of nominees per year has varied throughout the history of the awards, but since 2009, the Academy has allowed up to 10 films to be nominated for Best Picture. Before 2009, the number of nominees ranged from 3 to 10 per year, with the most common number being 5. The number of nominees was expanded to up to 10 to allow for a greater diversity of films to be recognized and to reflect the evolving landscape of the film industry. The actual number of nominees in a given year is determined by a preferential voting system in which each Academy member ranks the films in order of preference, and the films with the most votes are nominated.”

Since some AI writers tend to repeat themselves, I decided to ask the same question twice, but in slightly different ways.

Write an overview about the 2023 best picture nominees.

“As a language model, I don’t have access to future events or nominations. However, I can provide a general overview of what typically goes into selecting the Best Picture nominees at the Academy Awards.

The Best Picture category is considered the most prestigious award at the Academy Awards, and each year, a select group of films are nominated for this honor. The selection process involves several steps, including initial screenings by members of the Academy, followed by further rounds of voting to narrow down the field.

Typically, the films that are nominated for Best Picture are those that are considered to be the best in terms of their overall quality, including factors such as acting, direction, cinematography, and storytelling. They are often films that have received critical acclaim and have made a significant impact on audiences.

In recent years, there has been a push for greater diversity and inclusion in the films that are nominated for Best Picture. This has resulted in a greater variety of films being considered for the award, including those that focus on underrepresented communities and issues.

It is difficult to predict which films will be nominated for Best Picture in 2023, as it depends on the quality of films released during the year and the preferences of the members of the Academy. However, it is likely that the nominees will be films that have made a significant impact on audiences and have received critical acclaim.”

Since I thought the use of the year threw the system off, I posed the same question, in a different way.

Write an overview about the best picture nominees.

“As a language model, my knowledge cutoff is September 2021, and I don’t have access to current events or nominations beyond that date. Therefore, I cannot provide you with an overview of the current year’s Best Picture nominees. However, in general, the Best Picture nominees at the Academy Awards represent the most critically acclaimed and culturally significant films of the year. These films typically showcase exceptional writing, direction, cinematography, acting, and other aspects of filmmaking, and they often tackle complex themes and issues that resonate with audiences. Over the years, Best Picture nominees have represented a wide range of genres, from dramas and comedies to science fiction and animation, and they have been produced by both major studios and independent filmmakers. Winning the Best Picture award is considered one of the most prestigious honors in the film industry and can have a significant impact on a film’s box office performance and cultural legacy.”

Conclusion

I personally feel that AI writing tools can be very useful but I don’t think they are a replacement for a human when it comes to content creation. The creative opinions that humans add to their content cannot be replaced by AI writing platforms like ChatGPT. They can make the writing process easier by providing an option for an author when they are stuck with writer’s block but most AI writers end up generating content that is somewhat robotic in nature and just doesn’t feel like a human wrote it. ChatGPT is impressive and it is a lot of fun to work with, but it’s not perfect.

In fact, when I asked, “Can ChatGPT replace a human writer?”, this is the response I got.

“As an AI language model, I can produce written content based on patterns and information from the vast amount of data I have been trained on. While I can generate text that may be grammatically correct and even informative, I am not a substitute for a human writer.

Human writers bring a unique perspective, creativity, and tone to their work that an AI language model cannot replicate. Human writers are also better equipped to understand the nuances of language, culture, and audience, and can tailor their writing accordingly.

That being said, AI language models like ChatGPT can be used to assist human writers in their work, for example by generating ideas, summarizing information, or suggesting alternative wording. Ultimately, while AI language models have their strengths, human writers remain essential for producing high-quality written content.”

Learn more about OpenAI and ChatGPT by visiting openai.com or Twitter.

Recently I started working on a review of a Synology NAS unit. I needed to pick up some hard drives for this unit to get started as fast as I could. No local stores around me had what I needed in stock but big online retailers like Newegg and Amazon did. I did, however, find a shop recommended by Synology two hours from me that was supposed to carry gear for Synology. I thought if Synology trusted them enough to add them to the list of retailers then why not give them a shot.

As a bonus, I thought, “They are a small business and I would be supporting a business other than a big box store.” I placed a call and spoke with Mitch, one of the employees, who informed me they don’t keep the drives I wanted in stock, but he could overnight them to the store for me since I needed them ASAP and they would cover the cost of the overnight shipping. “WOW!” I thought to myself. “Overnight shipping is more than Newegg and Amazon could do.” The best I got from them would be on Monday. This was a Thursday and I thought I was going to be able to drive up on Saturday to pick them up. That would give me the weekend to work on the setup of the Synology. Perfect.

I explained what drives I needed to Mitch – 10TB WD Red Pro NAS HDD 3.5″ x 3. I made sure to have him repeat them to me as I needed to make sure I had the Pro model HDDs (WD also makes a Plus model). He gave me the total and said I could pay for them when I picked them up. I was even willing to pay for them over the phone since they were expediting such a big order for me. “There is no need to pay now,” Mitch said. I got off the phone with him and was excited to be able to start working on the NAS unit review.

The First Red Flag

Later that afternoon I got a phone call back from the store to inform me that they ran into a problem and they could not guarantee overnight delivery to the store as originally promised. They said, the drives might still show up the next day (Saturday), but they wouldn’t know for sure until their UPS shipment actually arrived.

This was the first red flag that was thrown about this transaction and I felt in my gut this was going to turn out bad. I called on Saturday around noon and was told the drives were 100% not going to arrive that day, but they would be delivered on Monday. Mitch explained that the problem was with UPS.

At this point, I could have just let them get stuck with the drives since they were already in transit and not drove the 2.5 hours to buy them. I could have just ordered them from Amazon who would still have them at my house by Monday – without me having to pay extra for gas or the wear/tear on my car. I decided that I still wanted to support a local business and since they did try to get them to me faster I would still give them a shot.

I tried to figure out what my options were since I had the time to make the drive on Saturday, but Monday meant I would have to leave later in the day. To my surprise, I was told they would give me a slight discount on the drives ($30 off) for not being able to get the drives to me in time. I thought, “$30 off per drive? That’s a great deal!” Awesome! I’m happy again.

Monday rolls around and I was excited to take the trip. I had never been to this particular town and it was a nice change of pace. Because I was having to make the trip later in the day and would be arriving at their store after their business hours, the owner had given me his cell number and told me it was no problem that I was running late because he had work to do at the store and he would be there after they closed.

I had also been told a few times by other employees that most of them lived close by the store and they could come to meet me if I was there after business hours. I thought this was a ‘going the extra mile’ benefit of a local business and was impressed with what I felt was a higher level of service.

Once I arrived, the owner was there and he let me in the store. He said they all thought it was weird I ordered from them since I lived two hours away. I explained that Synology suggested them and since they were a small business I would rather give my money to them than to Newegg. He laughed and told me that because they thought it was weird, he did research and looked up Mac Sources and after that, he felt more comfortable with helping us out.

He goes on to tell me that his team took the drives out of the boxes and tested them for me to make sure I was getting good drives and no sectors were bad. I wasn’t thrilled that they took the drives out of the box but I also thought, “Cool, now don’t have to test the drives myself.” I asked him if they were the WD Red Pros and he said, “Yes, they are the exact drives you have on your site.” I felt pretty good about that because we’ve only ever featured the WD Red Pro NAS HDD in reviews. So, I thought there was no chance he was getting them confused with other drive models.

I mentioned to the owner about the discount Mitch talked about and he said, “No problem. How does $50 sound?” I thought, “This is great! That’s even more than I was offered at first.” He typed some things into his computer. I handed him my credit card. He gave me a receipt in the bag with the hard drives and I left. I thanked him again for all the trouble they went through to get the drives for me and he said, “It’s no problem.”

I placed the package in the back seat and started the 2.5-drive home.

A Sweet Transaction Turns Sour

Things that are too good to be true usually are. Because the owner said they tested the drives, he confirmed that they were the same drives we reviewed on Mac Sources, and because I confirmed the order with Mitch on the phone before placing the order, I trusted that everything was kosher with the transaction and I did not double-check the products before leaving their store. I also trusted that I was getting a discount as he said. When I got home, it was nearly midnight so I set the package on my desk and didn’t open it until the next morning.

The first thing I did was pull out the receipt. I noticed that there was no line item for a discount of $50 per drive, but the price per item was $50 less than the MSRP at the time. So, I thought everything was fine. Next, I pulled the boxes out and opened them up. The boxes were plain cardboard and not the typical Wester Digital retail box with branding. I didn’t think much of that since it was ordered direct to a retailer.

At this point, we noticed that the static wrap had never been opened on any of the drives. This means there was no way the drives were tested since the seals on all the bags were intact. I felt my heart begin to race as I thought, “The owner lied to me. He said his employees tested them.” I calmed down a bit when I thought, “Ok, maybe his employees said they tested it and he trusted that they did it. Maybe he didn’t know.”

After I had all the drives out of their bags, I noticed they were the Plus model and not the Pro model as I had requested. Now, the biggest difference between the two models is the transfer rate. The WD Red Plus is just a bit slower than the Red Pro drives. Both models are rated for 24/7 use and can be used in RAID setups. So, having the Plus model drives isn’t going to affect my Synology in a bad way, but for the purposes of the RAID test, I wanted to get the same HDDs to match what I already had installed.

At this point, I was fuming. Not only did I have the wrong product, but I also felt I had been lied to. I started calming down again when I thought, “But, hey I got a good discount on this deal. So maybe I can deal with the mix-up.” Then I looked at the receipt. As I mentioned above, the owner rang in the hard drives saying he was giving me a $50 discount. I assumed that meant per drive and not of the total. So, when I saw the price per drive was $239 instead of the $289 I expected, I thought that was the discount he provided. That’s a big NOPE.

As it turns out the recommended price per drive of the WD Red Plus HDD (10TB capacity) is $239. So, not only did I feel I had been lied to, but I had also just paid full price for the wrong product. Not only that, but before I mentioned a discount, the owner was going to charge me for the WD Red Pro price, which would have been $50 more per drive than the Red Plus drives sell for.

I was at an impasse. I had to get the testing on the Synology unit started. I used what I had and decided to try and resolve the matter over the phone.

Lousy Communication and Customer Service

In trying to resolve the order mistake and pricing problem, I called the owner’s cell phone first. I thought I would try to let him know that maybe his employees were untrustworthy. I didn’t get a response right away, but when I did he said he was unaware of his team not testing the drives as they had told him they did.

That’s not a good team in my opinion. The owner then offered “to make things right” for me and said he would speak with the team to find out what happened with the drive testing and how they ordered the wrong ones. 

He never called me back.

If I were the owner of a business and my team screwed up something this bad I would be following through myself to make sure everything was corrected. Instead, he had Mitch, the guy who ordered the wrong drives in the first place, call me back and offer to refund $30 to my credit card. That was $30 total and not per drive.

I started to feel disrespected. It’s upsetting to have used five hours out of my day and gas to shop at a local store to have this many issues – and the best they can offer is a $30 refund.

Since they weren’t budging on any other resolution options, I agreed to the refund. Mitch said in order to process that, he needed my credit card information. I HATE giving out my credit card information – especially to a business that I’m not 100% familiar with. Fortunately, I was using my Apple Card and the security options on it are better than most credit cards.

Reluctantly, I provided my CC information. He assured me that once the refund was processed the info would be destroyed. Still, I felt that my information was floating around somewhere in La La Land. Mitch said the refund would show up on my card within 7-10 business days.

I wait. And wait. And wait.

After about 30 days, I realized that I never saw the refund applied to my account. I have reached back out to the business and have tried to give them the benefit of the doubt. The last time I called I spoke with a lady that I had not spoken with before. She said she knew about the situation and that the refund should have gone through. I check my Apple Card like a crazed person and I’ve never seen it show up. She said she would look into it and call me back.

Let me be clear. This “calling back” thing from this company has not been their strong suit. So I don’t expect any over-the-top solution to this. In fact, she said we may need to refund it to a different card. I am willing to say maybe Mitch typed in my numbers wrong or maybe Apple’s CV2 number changed before the refund was processed.

It’s been a little over a week since I spoke with her and still no refund. So, I called back and spoke with the lady again. She said, “I pushed the refund through again. It should have gone through.” Pushed it through again?! This means they did keep the credit card number on file because I didn’t give it to her a second time.

No resolution. No satisfaction.

As of today, it’s been 56 days since I made the trip to their store. I still have no resolution to this issue. This is why I decided to write this article. I do think that supporting local businesses is important, but buyers need to be careful of where they place their trust. Bigger businesses have the ability to “make things right” over the phone – immediately. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve called Amazon or chatted with them online and had a refund in my account before the call was over.

In fact, I had a Logitech HomeKit Doorbell that stopped working more than three months after I purchased it. I tried contacting Logitech support and had no response. So I reached out to Amazon. Their customer service rep had me off the phone in less than 10 minutes (including wait time) with a refund in process and a return label for the defective product.

They even set it up so that I could drop the return off at Kohl’s instead of shipping it because it would ensure I got the refund faster. This was THREE MONTHS after buying it from them when their return window had closed. They accepted the return since the manufacturer was non-responsive with support and since they sold it to me originally.

I tried to give the local guy a shot and gave this particular business the benefit of the doubt more than once. But sometimes the little guy just doesn’t give a darn about the customer – nor can you trust them just because they are a local business. If I would have avoided this company like the plague and shopped with Amazon or New Egg, these issues would have never happened. And, if something like this happened either of those big retailers would have made it right the first time.

I am absolutely floored at how Synology trusts this company enough to include them on their partner list. I can’t express how dissatisfied I am with this business. I want to blast their name all over the internet but will take the high ground on this one (Thanks, Kenobi).

It’s upsetting to think this company still has my card on file and it’s upsetting to be lied to by the owner. My recent experience with Amazon, which happened while I was in the middle of drafting this article, is one more reason why I truly believe shopping local is not the best move you can make with some businesses.

The disaster that is happening inside of Ukraine bothers me to the core. In the ten years since I started MacSources, I’ve been very fortunate to work with some amazing public relations specialists and software programmers based out of Ukraine. These people are more to me than work contacts. They are my friends.

I have lengthy conversations with them about every topic under the sun and they are some of the most supportive people in my life. Even though Ukraine is more than 5,300 miles from where I am located, I’ve even been able to meet some of them in person. I am very protective of my Ukrainian friends and it hurts my heart to know that they are in harm’s way.

If I was standing with them, I would gladly pick up arms to help my friends protect their homes from the Russian invaders, but I am not anywhere close. So what can I do? I can try to help bring some more light to the sea of information floating around about what is happening inside of Ukraine since prime news outlets only provide so much. This article will outline first-hand information that I’ve collected from people who are in Ukraine and hopefully, it will shed some light on the real situation over there.

Background

The current crisis has been building for many years, but most recently, Russian forces started building up along the Ukrainian borders in November 2021. Throughout the subsequent weeks leading up to the invasion in February, Russia continued deploying forces to the Russo-Ukrainian border and at one point may have had nearly 100,000 troops in place. Russian President, Vladamir Putin continually denied that Russia’s military actions were leading to an invasion and even labeled the suggestions as ‘alarmist’ during an interview on November 13.

In addition to the deployed troops, other subtle changes were taking place – such as the slow, but deliberate evacuation of Russia’s embassy staff in Kyiv that began in January and was finalized on February 23 – that pointed to a dangerous situation for Ukraine. In the early morning of February 24, 2022, Putin launched a ‘special military operation’ into eastern Ukraine. Within minutes of the announcement, explosions were reported in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odessa, and the Donbas.

First-hand Accounts

In the interest of keeping my friends safe, I will not divulge individual names, but some representatives for specific Ukrainian-based software companies have made public declarations, which I will be sure to call out. Again, I want to state that the purpose of this article is to provide accurate, honest information from people who are experiencing it first-hand.

• Over 200 civilians have been killed by Russian attacks. This was provided by a friend who is located in Odessa. As of February 28, People.com was reporting that 406 civilian casualties have been counted as of Sunday night. This figure includes children.

• MacPaw, a software development company, was founded in and based in Ukraine. They have issued several statements stating how they remain dedicated to both their customers and team members throughout this time. Their blog states, “For us, Ukraine is our home, which we do not leave despite the danger. We believed in the best outcome but prepared ourselves for the worst. We have prepared assistance programs and launched a contingency plan to ensure not only the safety of our team but also the uninterrupted support and development of our products.” MacPaw has drafted a blog that describes their position and provides options for people to help.

• Another software company, Readdle, is based in Odessa, Ukraine. We’ve worked with Readdle since 2014 – more than 80% of our life as a website. They have also collected their thoughts into a blog post with many different links that provide options for assisting civilians, animals, and the country at-large during this volatile time. Their article that was published on March 1 states that, “Since the start of the war on Feb 24, more than 357 civilians have been killed, 1684 wounded, including children.”

I’ve been trying to send out daily messages to my friends and I get the following types of responses back.

“Thank you. I’m in a safe place but this is a very tough time for us.”

“Unfortunately, we’re not safe. My family and I hear sirens a couple of times a day and hide in shelters, and we hear bombing and shellings. So, please inform people about the critical situations in Ukraine. This is a war against the World, not Ukraine.”

Keeping Data Safe

MacPaw and Readdle’s teams are both working around the clock to ensure that their team members are safe and that their customers don’t have any service interruptions.

“All critical Readdle infrastructure is up and running and there will be no disruptions to anything customer facing as a result of the complex situation in Ukraine.”

Igor Zhadanov, Readdle Founder and CEO 

“We have launched an emergency plan to ensure the safety of our peers based in Ukraine. With regards to the use of our products, including CleanMyMac, Setapp, etc., we ensure no disruptions in the support and development. We securely host all of our infrastructure and user data on Amazon Web Services, and the cloud service server’s physical location is outside Ukraine.”

MacPaw

Oleksandr Kosovan, CEO of MacPaw:

Russia invaded our country and has been bombing civilians in acts of unprecedented violence. Still, we’re more united than ever, ready to fight for our home.

Ukraine will resist! #StopRussianAggression #StandWithUkraine #RussiaInvadedUkraine pic.twitter.com/pmBbjKJXxt

— MacPaw ?? (@MacPaw) February 27, 2022

If you use any of their products, you can feel safe knowing that amidst the conflict they are enduring that the specialists at both developer companies are looking out for your privacy, too.

Final Thoughts

While I try to remain neutral in circumstances like this because I want to remain a credible source for information, I find it more and more difficult since this attack on innocent people seems completely baseless and uncalled for. I’m upset that my own country and the councils around the world are only issuing ‘sanctions’ instead of truly helping to prevent conflicts like this from occurring.

Right now, Ukraine needs support in the form of funding and military/weapons. If you want to donate directly to causes that are benefitting the Ukrainian people, click one of the links below.

• Donate to Ukrainian armed forces here
• Donate to humanitarian efforts in Ukraine here
• Donate to Red Cross in Ukraine here

I also want to introduce this petition. It’s provided on openpetition.eu and it’s calling for NATO to close the airspace around Ukraine as well as deploy peacekeeping troops to the area. There are only 2 days left on the petition (at the time of publishing). At this point, the goal is 1,000,000 signatures and more than 835,000 people have already pledged support (at the time of publishing this article).

I wish I could do more to help, but hopefully providing this information will help others see what is going on and provide some assistance to the people in the middle of this atrocity.

#StandWithUkraine

Once you’re through reading this post, you’ll know which games to play first. You’ll be an expert in no time!

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Created by Blizzard Entertainment, this epic card game is perfect for people who love a good battle and a great strategy. It’s a real-time battle between two opponents in which players use powerful heroes, spells, and weapons to combat each other. The goal is to destroy the opponent’s hero while defending your own. Pretty easy to play, but not so easy to beat! Hearthstone can be played on many devices, including Windows PC or Mac OS X computer.

Online Blackjack

As a Mac owner, there is no reason why you can’t indulge in a little online gambling! Blackjack is one of the most popular card games on the web, and you can play it at sites like www.cafecasino.lv. The rules are pretty simple: don’t go over 21, or you bust. You stay in the game as long as you can keep from busting, but if you do bust, your turn is over, and it’s time for the next player to take a turn.

Sid Meier’s Pirates! Gold Edition

Sid Meier’s Pirates! Gold Edition is the best game in this category. This board game is basically a medieval version of poker, but without the cards, of course! There are different ways to play, such as “Informal” or “Casino”, and you can easily choose the one that best fits your desired gameplay style. The excellent graphics quality and variety of game modes make this game a must-have for all Mac gamers who love strategy games. The exciting gameplay will keep players entertained for hours on end. This Mac game can be played on Mac OS X 10.

League of Legends

This amazing title is one of the most popular PC and broad game-playing communities in the world, and with a few tweaks to your settings, you can also play LoL on a Mac. It’s also one of the most played games on all smartphones and tablets. League of Legends is a team-based action game in which teams of players compete with each other to eradicate their opponents’ bases and destroy them. In League, you will find a wide range of characters, items, spells, and mechanics that you can use to defeat your enemies.

Layers of Fear

This game is another example of how a developer can take the old and make it feel new again. Created by Bloober Team, Layers of Fear features a story-driven experience in which the main character is stuck in an asylum and must solve puzzles throughout 5 chapters to escape. When you play this Mac game, you will be put in the mind of a washed-up painter whose sanity is slowly slipping away. You will have to go into two dimensions as you explore this dark and twisted world that has been haunting your every move for years.

Life is Strange

What would you do if you could rewind time? You would probably use it to fix all the little mistakes or wrong choices, wouldn’t you? Well, that’s exactly what Maxine ‘Max’ Caulfield, the main character of Life is Strange, does. She rewinds time to save her best friend from being killed and discovers more about her past in the process. Created by Dontnod Entertainment, this game has been praised as one of the very best Mac games out there, and it’s not hard to see why. The storyline is simply fantastic, and so are all the characters. This game orginally built for consoles, meaning that it’s best suited to being played with an iOS controller. 

Mad Max

This game is very similar to the movie with the same name which was released in 2015. It is a third-person open-world action game that was developed by Avalanche Software and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, and it features a post-apocalyptic setting. The game follows the story of Max Rockatansky, who traverses a wasteland in his car while helping people and fighting against warlords who have taken over most of the world. Mad Max can be played on both Windows PC and Mac OS X computer.

As you can see, these days Mac owners have a wide range of games that they can choose from, whether it’s a shooter or online gaming, no longer do you need to buy a PC.

Powerful macOS utility application, Mailbutler, has humble beginnings, and founder, Tobias Knobl talks all about it in the interview below. The app is remarkable and provides a lot of important information for your digital communications. During this discussion, Knobl gives some background on the app and what it does, the funding gained for the company, and how the software company grew. Find out all about Mailbutler right from the founder.

1. First, to help provide a bit of context and background, can you begin by telling us what Mailbutler is? 

Mailbutler GmbH is a German software company that Fabian Jäger and I founded in 2015. The product itself is a productivity extension for Apple Mail, Outlook, and Gmail designed to help professionals and teams manage their emails better. Some of our features include Send Later (an email scheduler), Tracking (insights into opened emails), Email Templates, and Email Signatures. Our goal has always been and will always be to provide an all-in-one solution for all email-related topics that help people increase their productivity and stay on top of their inboxes.

I met Fabian in 2015 when he came to the Entrepreneurship Center at the RWTH Aachen University, where I was working at the time. He told me about the email plug-ins he was developing and I immediately recognized their potential. We ended up founding Mailbutler together and relocated to Berlin that same year. Mailbutler was officially launched in March of 2016, and a relaunch that included redefined features and a completely new infrastructure took place in January of 2018.

2. What funding path did you take? Do you have investors on board or are you self-funded? What are some of the pros and cons of the funding approach you’ve taken?

We are entirely self-funded and profitable. This allows us to fully focus on our product and our customers without having to satisfy investors at the same time. Since no approval process is required, we have freedom of choice and don’t depend on a group of shareholders. The downside to self-funding is having limited resources to grow our start-up. However, taking full responsibility for funding our business has worked out pretty well for us so far!

3. Now, let’s talk a little bit more about your early growth days. What were the primary marketing strategies that helped Mailbutler gain its first bit of traction and onboard its first customers?

Word of mouth recommendations played a vital role in growing our company – and still do! That’s why we put a lot of effort into our customer support and, of course, the product itself. Word-of-mouth marketing is an extremely powerful way to influence business results, which we are witnessing first-hand.

4. Today your company offers users many features. You have Tracking, Send Later, Signatures, Templates, Follow-up Reminders, Snooze and more. However, when you first launched your MVP what features did you launch with and how have you gone about expanding your feature set over time? What feedback loops do you have integrated into your company to help you get feature ideas from your users? Up until this point has your focus been on broadening your set of features, or adding depth to existing features?

We’ve added new features over time and are continuing to work on the ones that already exist to improve the user experience. The first Mailbutler version included the following features: Signatures, Send Later, Attachment Reminder, Cloud Upload, Avatar Images, and Evernote Exporter. We added features such as Notes and Tasks, Tracking, and Message Templates later on.

When we develop new features, we mostly focus on what our customers are requesting. Our customer support team collects feedback and forwards it to Fabian and me. After evaluating the requests we determine if it would be useful to implement certain features based on the potential benefits for our users.

5. What are some growth channels you’ve tried that haven’t worked as well as you thought? What are some growth channels you’ve tried which worked better than expected?

In the past, we paid magazines and blogs to promote us by writing articles about Mailbutler. This was definitely a learning experience because we realized that smaller, more affordable “niche bloggers” benefited our company more than larger, more expensive magazines and blogs. The lesser-known blogs we worked with had very attentive audiences and served their niche perfectly, whereas articles about us that were published on popular blogs seemed to quickly become irrelevant.

6. You have a free plan called “Essential”, and three paid plans (Professional, Professional +, and Business). How much have you experimented with pricing and monetization?

We started off with only the Essential and Professional plans and added the Business and Professional + plans later on. The Business plan is more comprehensive than the other three: it offers unlimited “Team” features which allow you to easily collaborate with others working on your team, as well as automatic blind carbon copy forwarding to a Customer Relationship Management tool. After we created the Business plan, some customers, particularly freelancers, were asking us for a plan which included more than Professional but didn’t have some of the collaboration features which people working for and by themselves didn’t need. This led us to create Professional +.

The Essential plan is usually sufficient for private users, but really it’s designed to be an introduction to the product – everyone gets a 14-day free trial on signup so they can try out all of our features which are included in all our other plans.

Another great thing about the different plan types is that customers can mix and match subscriptions. If Mailbutler is used within a team not everybody needs to be subscribed to the same plan – some might be on Professional while others are on Business. This is one of the things that differentiates us from other SaaS providers.

7. Where does your team spend the most time: customer acquisition, monetization, or retention?

We’re continuously working on improving ourselves in all three of these areas. We don’t just want to gain new subscribers; we also want to satisfy our existing customers. This is why our current focus is on user retention. After downloading Mailbutler our customers receive a series of helpful onboarding emails. With these, we want to make sure our customers get to know Mailbutler’s features better and understand exactly how everything works.

Apart from these emails we also rely on excellent, attentive customer service. Our customer service team is extremely engaged and happy to answer any questions or comments that might come up – whether they’re about the installation process, certain features, or general feedback. People can of course email us to ask questions, but we also keep our eye on comments on our blog and our customer support team regularly goes through these comments to answer any queries potential or existing users might have. Excellent customer support is crucial for us when it comes to user retention.

8. Can you tell us a little bit more about what your Search Engine Optimization efforts entail and how big of a driver has it been to growth?

Online Marketing, especially SEO is definitely something we’re focusing on. Most of our traffic comes from organic search, especially through Google, which is why it’s crucial for us to have an optimized website. We’re quite lucky because email productivity suites are something many people are actively looking for – hence the importance of search engine results.

Our blog is something that has become much more important to us over the last couple of years. We now have a dedicated content team that regularly writes for the blog as well as a Content Marketing Manager who deals with all of the on-page SEO aspects of content. Organic traffic is a really important part of our marketing strategy and something we have been really focused on since we redesigned our website in 2021.

9. How long did it take you to hit $2000 MRR?

Thanks to our loyal group of users it only took us around two weeks to hit this target. Here’s why: Mailbutler’s features already existed before Mailbutler itself was founded. People were able to purchase them as individual plug-ins which is why the features already had somewhat of a fanbase prior to the launch of Mailbutler, which helped us reach $2000 MRR very quickly.

10. Lastly, if you had to start over again and do three things differently, what would those three things be?

To be completely honest, there are some things that we would do differently now, but fortunately for us they never really had a negative impact on our business. I do, however, believe that we learned a lot throughout the years. For example, we once made the mistake of releasing a new Mailbutler version during the summer when sales are generally not as good because most people are on holiday. That was certainly a mistake we won’t be repeating any time soon. Also, when we changed our payment method from a one-time payment to monthly/yearly subscriptions, we should’ve informed our subscribers sooner about the upcoming change because many of them weren’t familiar with subscriptions back then and disliked it at first.

But there are also things that worked out right from the beginning. We always positioned ourselves globally and therefore had the chance to establish Mailbutler in the American market as a German company, which tends to be quite hard, but worked well for us. However, since most of our customers are American, we haven’t been focusing on the German market as much as we could have. This is why we released a version of Mailbutler for Microsoft Outlook, which is one of the most used email providers in Germany. In general, though, Mailbutler has been a huge success and we hope it continues to be as we move forward!

We recently did a review of Mailbutler check it out here.

Find more from MailButler by visiting Facebook or Twitter

Apple dedicated their homepage to “Celebrating Steve” today with a link to a film that highlights his life. Through a series of clips and Steve’s own voiceover, the film depicts Jobs’s views on the world and on Apple’s product line that was developed under his leadership. It’s a lovely tribute and it can be viewed on Apple’s homepage.

In addition to the video, Apple also included a statement from the Jobs family, which can be found below.

Statement from the Jobs family

For a decade now, mourning and healing have gone together.
Our gratitude has become as great as our loss.

Each of us has found his or her own path to consolation,
but we have come together in a beautiful place of love
for Steve, and for what he taught us.

For all of Steve’s gifts, it was his power as a teacher that has endured.
He taught us to be open to the beauty of the world, to be curious around
new ideas, to see around the next corner, and most of all to stay
humble in our own beginner’s mind.

There are many things we still see through his eyes, but he also
taught to look for ourselves. He gave us equipment for living,
and it has served us well.

One of our greatest sources of consolation has been our association
of Steve with beauty. The sight of something beautiful — a wooded hillside,
a well‑made object — recalls his spirit to us. Even in his years of suffering,
he never lost his faith in the beauty of existence.

Memory is inadequate for what is in our hearts: we miss him profoundly.
We were blessed to have him as husband and father.

Apple CEO, Tim Cook, also paid tribute to his late friend on Twitter with the Apple film embedded.

It’s hard to look around the world and not see the influence of Steve Jobs. I think now more than ever, we can be grateful that Steve took the reins of Apple and did what he did with it. The world would be a much different place without Steve Jobs.

I want to preface the following story by saying that I completely understand that some people may have wonderful service with Spectrum Mobile and this could have been an isolated incident. That said, I do hope those of you who read this article will be cautious when doing business with this company. 

This ordeal begins with a simple text conversation I had with my daughter in August. I texted her one day just to check in with her and it led to a comment from her that said something like, “By the way, I might need you to come to Spectrum with me so I can change my form of payment on my cell phone account.” This was quite an odd statement to me because she set up her mobile account with her boyfriend in April. “Why would they need me to help with that? It’s your account.” “Because they attached the mobile account to your home internet account.” That simple statement had me seeing red. 

Let me back up to say that my daughter and I are not on the best of terms. She is 19 and trying to start her own adult life. We have done what we can to point her in the right direction, but she wants to figure things out herself. That way of thinking led her into a few situations where she didn’t have money to pay for bills and because of that, I haven’t been comfortable adding her to my phone contract. She is living away from home now and establishing her own life and this mobile account with Spectrum was supposed to be part of that. Now that you have that context, let’s move on. 

After I calmed down from the shock I started asking my daughter questions about the account. Here is what she told me. In April when her boyfriend took her into the Spectrum Mobile store to get an account, they worked with a rep named Michael. When they asked about getting a mobile account Michael asked if they had Spectrum Home Internet service and they said, “No.” We found out later that at this point, Michael should have told them that he couldn’t help them with a mobile account unless they had the home internet first. But, he didn’t. 

He took my daughter’s social security card and license. He ran the address on the license, which was still the same as my home address. Because we do have Spectrum Internet Michael told my daughter, “Hey, good news! It looks like there is home internet at your address. We can just add the mobile account on there.” My daughter then said, “That’s my dad’s account and I don’t want the mobile account linked to that internet service.” She was in the process of moving out of my house and didn’t want the service to be connected to our address or me. Michael said, “Don’t worry. The account stays completely separate, I’m running your social security number for the credit check and this will stay under your name. It’s just using your dad’s internet as the base account. As long as you keep the bill paid, he’ll never find out the two accounts are linked.” 

Now, I want to point out that my daughter is not an authorized user on my account. In fact, no one except me is an authorized user on my account. According to several Spectrum employees (other than Michael), there were many points in this story where the account creation should have stopped. The fact that no one had any authorization to access the account or make changes was one of those points. Nevertheless, Michael created the account using my home internet service as the base account, my daughter’s name as the account owner for the mobile account, and her boyfriend’s debit card (with his parents address as the billing address) as the automatic form of payment, which is an account requirement. 

Come to find out, the reason she needed to change forms of payment on the account was that she didn’t pay her July bill and as a result, her service was disconnected. Apparently, the debit card on file was declined and they required a new form of payment to be on the account. She went into the store with cash and they told her they couldn’t accept cash payment and she would need to change the card on file. The rep she was dealing with at that time was not Michael and so he actually followed protocol and told her that she would need the account holder (me) to authorize the change to the account. She didn’t want to involve me at first and the rep at that time was trying to help her out and suggested starting a new account. At this point, her boyfriend did have a Spectrum Internet account so the rep created her a new account attached to that Internet account. They told her then that the fees on the other account (the one attached to my home internet) would just stay waiting to be paid and nothing would happen unless she wanted to reactivate that line. 

Is your head spinning yet? No? Well, I’m not done with the story…just wait. This is where I step in. 

The first trip I ever made into this Spectrum store was the day my daughter informed me about this account – in August. This is important to note for later. We walked into the store that afternoon and actually talked to Michael. I told him that I wanted to have the mobile account removed from my home internet account. He asked to see my ID “just so he knew who he was talking to” and then he told us that the past due charges (approximately $140 for two months) and the full amount of the device (an iPhone 11) totaling $700 would have to be paid before they could remove the account. I told him that was ridiculous because I never authorized the account to be created. 

He told us that was just how things worked and there was nothing he could do. He also tried to say that the past due charges would just remain on the account. I questioned that because I work very hard to make sure my credit is good and that all my bills are paid on time. I didn’t want this past due account to reflect poorly on me. Michael said, “Oh, you don’t have to worry about that. They (the charges) will just remain as a balance due and nothing will happen to your credit. If you want to reactivate the line you’ll have to pay them, but if you don’t they will just stay there.” I told him that was not correct that at some point Spectrum would send the account to collections and that would reflect on me because the base account (the home internet account) was in my name. 

Michael tried to shrug that off and tell me I was wrong. I asked if he could check with someone else. So, he called their 800# and sure enough, the woman on the other end of the phone informed Michael that I was correct. After 120 days of the account being unpaid, the account would be sent to collections and because it was technically ‘my’ account, it would go under my name. I asked if there was anything they could do to remove the account from me. The only option that was offered was to transfer it over to my daughter, but she would need a home internet account as the base account. This is when we found out that Account 2 that was created for her was a problem. That account was run under her social security number and therefore there was a credit limit attached to the account. This credit limit had to deal with the amount of money allowed for a device. At that time, she was waiting for a second iPhone to be sent to her (the first iPhone was tied to Account 1). So, they couldn’t transfer a second mobile account line into her name because the credit limit was only allowed for one device. 

ARGH! 

At this point, we leave the store and I head home. I decided to try calling Spectrum Internet customer service and see if they could shed any light on the situation. I do want to give a lot of credit to the phone reps. I spoke with several different ones in this ordeal and each one was friendly and considerate. They all seemed to try to help as much as they could, but they had a lot of limitations. As it turns out, Spectrum Internet and Spectrum Mobile are COMPLETELY different entities within Spectrum. They have different billing departments and different customer service departments. I explained the situation to the rep from Spectrum Internet and he said, “I am so sorry. This is a tricky situation and I do have to send you over to Spectrum Mobile customer service because I can’t even access their system.” 

I was connected with an amazing rep at that point. She stayed on the phone with me for the better part of an hour trying to find options for us. The final option she came up with was escalating the case to the fraud department since the account was created without my authorization. She told me that Michael should have stopped in his tracks the second my daughter said she didn’t have home internet. She also said they have very strict policies they have to follow when creating an account and it seems like he bypassed them all. 

Even though I was pretty tired from all the back and forth that day, I decided to try to go back into the store that night. I figured Michael would be gone and other reps might be able to help or maybe I could talk with the manager that was there. I made my way back into the Spectrum Mobile store and I worked with a very nice rep, but unfortunately, I can’t remember his name. I told him what was going on and his eyes widen and he said, “Oh! All the pieces are falling together now. I do know who you are talking about (in reference to my daughter) and yeah, this is not how we typically work.” Unfortunately, the store manager is out on parental leave and there is no one “in charge” at this particular store. Their area manager apparently was coming into the store every day, but they claimed to never know her schedule. 

So at this point, I had to start playing the waiting game. A few days after my first trip into the Spectrum store, I received an email that says, “Changes to your account have been made.” Upon further investigation, the message stated that the “authorized user was changed.” Again, I didn’t request that, so I called customer service and they fixed it, but from what I think happened, Michael might have been trying to cover his tracks and tried to add my daughter as an authorized user after I went into the store. I think that is why he wanted me to show him my ID – so he could say that I did agree to it. 

I made three more trips into the Spectrum store to try and catch the area manager there and I made several calls back to customer service. On one of the trips back into the store, I ended up talking to Michael again. He recognized me immediately and tried to give me the brush off. I told him I was there to try to meet with the manager. He said, “She’s not here. We don’t know when she will be here.” I asked him if he could call the area manager to find out when she would be there. He said they couldn’t, but he could send her a message. He got pretty smart with me during this exchange. He kept saying, “She’s not here,” and, “I don’t know when she’ll be here,” instead of trying to help me in any way. 

I want to pause the story here for a moment to mention how the Spectrum Mobile store had no phone number to call. The reps had business cards with their individual email addresses on them, which you could email, but they had no phone number to call. This was what Michael meant by saying he could ‘message’ the area manager. He could send her an email. I find it really hard to believe that they don’t exchange phone numbers and that as a mobile carrier store, they don’t have phone numbers. Another one of the times I went into the store, was when they first opened. There were several people waiting and only three reps to provide service. Many people were unhappy and one lady even shouted from the waiting area to say, “Don’t you have anyone else to come help?” When they said no, she left murmuring something about calling the 800# and complaining. Now, I’m sympathetic about the staffing issues, but I think they probably could have found a way to provide better service to all the people waiting. 

Back to my story – Over the course of the next several days, I was given small updates to let me know that the case was with fraud and they would be contacting me. They did also tell me that the area manager should be calling me. I never heard from the area manager and I was never able to meet up with her at the store either. I did, however, end up receiving a call from Wendy a Tier 3 Customer Service rep with Spectrum’s fraud department. On the first call, she apologized for it taking so long for her to get to me. She had to do some investigating on her end before she could reach out. 

After that first call, she still had to contact supervisors and employees before the case could be resolved. Even though it seemed like there was forward movement, there was no suggestion about how the cards may fall at that point. I was deeply concerned that I was going to be forced to pay the $700 for the device and the $140 for the account charges before they would remove the account. We had the phone from my daughter and were prepared to return it to them, but at that point, we didn’t know if they were going to allow that. 

This led to more waiting. After it was all said and done, I believe the ordeal took about three weeks for it to be resolved. Wendy was not able to confirm what type of punishment might happen to the employees, but she did say that there were consequences for them. Spectrum did resolve the case in my favor. They ruled that since I hadn’t stepped foot in that store (I said at one point that they could check their security cameras and see that I wasn’t there when my daughter was) and that my daughter wasn’t an authorized user on the account that the account should never have been created. So, they sent me a box to return the phone and erased the account charges so that it was as if the account never existed. My daughter didn’t receive any reimbursement for the payments she did make ($70 for April, May, June = $210), but at least the account was removed. 

According to LinkedIn, the employee, Michael, that committed the fraud against me is still working at Spectrum Mobile. I truly believe that this is not the first (or the last) time Michael created a fraudulent account in this manner. If he knew how to bypass certain authorization points, then it seems as though he would have learned to do that somewhere or have previous knowledge of how to do it. I also know that Spectrum provides credit to their sales reps (either in commission form or some other monetary method) for the number of accounts they create. So it seems to me that Michael knowingly committed fraud in order to get whatever credit was due to him for the account creation. 

Because of this situation, I can NEVER recommend Spectrum service to anyone. This was a HUGE security breach because all the security measures (account holder social security number, account holder identity, account pin, authorized user status, etc.) were ignored in order to create this account. All Michael did was check to see that my daughter’s mailing address from her driver’s license matched an account in their system. What if it hadn’t been my account? What if it was some complete stranger? He would have just tacked the account onto the matching address and that innocent person would have never known. I truly believe he saw my daughter as an easy mark (she really doesn’t know much about creating accounts like this)  and took the opportunity to pad his account creation quota. 

For those of you who have Spectrum Mobile, I hope that you are happy with your service. For those of you who are considering it, I would suggest taking a deep dive before jumping into a contract with them.

Verizon upgrades used to be so simple. In fact, I remember when I got my first iPhone I paid the $499 (at the time) total cost of the phone, and then I just paid the monthly service fees for the cellular service. When it was time to upgrade, you could only do so when your contract was up. Now, the process has evolved so that more people can take advantage of getting newer devices sooner. Today, you can trade-in your existing phone and get credit for it. Today, you can send back your current device that is under contract and pay an Early Upgrade fee. Today, you can start with a brand new carrier and get a new phone that way. All of those options are indeed available and so is buying the device 100% although these days, that can be a huge burden to many people all at once. That is why companies like Apple and cellular carriers offer Device Payment Plans where you can pay for the phone over the course of your contract. Here’s the catch. It can make upgrading to the newest device a bitch. Here’s what happened to us today – iPhone 13 Preorder day. 

We woke up at approximately 6:45 a.m. CDT. This is 15 minutes before pre-orders are supposed to start. Verizon is our carrier of choice, but we were willing to go through Apple if need be. The phone we were interested in was the iPhone 13 Pro in Sierra Blue with 256GB of storage. As it got closer to 7:00 a.m. – preorder time – we began refreshing both Verizon’s website and Apple’s website. Apple’s site didn’t go live for preorders until approximately 7:10 a.m.  By that point, we had already gotten stressed out with Verizon’s site and had decided to forego the preorder process. Here’s what we went through. 

We were logged into our account and clicked on the “Pre-Order” button on the homepage. I do applaud Verizon for making that front and center on the homepage. From there, you are taken to a screen that allows you to customize your iPhone 13 of choice. We entered our choices and then tried to ‘Trade-in’ our current phone. This is where the process gets a bit confusing because of the wording in the order process. NOTE: If you are a current customer of Verizon and your phone is on a Device Payment Plan (DPP), you are NOT trading your phone in. You are RETURNING your current phone to fulfill the terms of your DPP. This is what tripped us up early this morning. First, the phone we were working with was an iPhone 12 Pro. It was part of a DPP and it still had 14 payments left on it. For those math majors out there, that means it was only about 42% paid. Verizon requires you to have paid at least 50% of the device’s total purchase price before you are qualified for an upgrade. So, we ended up having two issues to deal with. 

1. The device wasn’t at 50% and therefore not eligible for a traditional upgrade, and
2. We thought we were trading a device in and eligible for the promotional credit. 

As I mentioned, by 7:30 a.m. we were so frustrated with the system continuing to tell us that we had to pay the current device off in full in order to upgrade and not being given the option to upgrade a specific line, that we gave up. About four hours later, we decided to pick up the phone and call Verizon support. We had always had the option to upgrade in the past simply by paying half the device off. We couldn’t understand why the system was so rigid and not offering that option. Aside from the hold times with Verizon, the people I spoke with were very helpful and were able to get the issues resolved. In total, I was on the phone for about 1.5 hours. Here are some lessons we learned and hopefully writing this out will help others figure out how to upgrade their line if they are having trouble and MAYBE Verizon will take note of this the next time they go through a website design system upgrade. 

LESSON 1: Make sure you know the upgrade terms on your specific account. We actually did call the day before we tried to upgrade but didn’t get a knowledgeable rep. Had we known that payment would need to be made before the line was eligible for the early upgrade we would have done so days before to ensure the payment was reflected on the account. We tried to make a $91 payment on the day of the upgrade to bring the line up to 50% paid, but the payment wasn’t ‘posted’ to the account yet by the time we tried to upgrade. 

LESSON 2: If your device is in the Device Payment Plan, you aren’t eligible for those sweet cash-back promotions that are always touted. The DPP is a promotion in itself and like most fine print states, “Only one promotion per customer.” 

LESSON 3: Most of the time you don’t have to pay anything on the day of the upgrade. This was still true for us even though we had to pay an extra $91 payment. If the ordering system asks for a payment method, this only means that it will be charged to your account once the order is shipped. They don’t charge it immediately. Day of fees you could be charged might include Early Upgrade Fee, DPP charges (if applicable), and taxes. All three of those line items were part of our Day Of charges. They totaled $206. 

LESSON 4: If you get trapped into a loop with preordering that tells you you have to pay your current device in full, call customer service. They have ways of bypassing that roadblock so you can still do an early upgrade. We found that screen online one time but didn’t see the option again after we navigated away from it so the system kept demanding $640 (the remainder of the current device purchase price) be paid off before the upgrade could take place. 

LESSON 5: Trade-in and Return are not interchangeable terms. When you are part of the Device Payment Plan program you are essentially leasing the device from Verizon (or your carrier of choice) and have the option of returning it in order to fulfill the terms of the DPP. It is NOT considered a trade-in. It’s only considered a “trade-in” if the iPhone is 100% paid off and you own it. So, if you happened to have a second iPhone that was paid off, I suppose you could get credit for it, but few people have multiple iPhones laying around like that. 

Personally, I think that Verizon’s website should be completely redesigned so that it is more user-friendly and so that things like upgrades aren’t such a painful, confusing process for current customers. A simple yes/no button option could have been employed to guide users to the correct path for their particular upgrade. Until then, we might be left calling to upgrade for the foreseeable future.

The past 18 months have been a struggle for everyone – including us. Thankfully, we’ve not had to deal with illnesses within our MacSources family, but we have known and lost loved ones due to COVID-19. Our business was effected in a couple of ways. First, incoming products were slowed due to supply chain issues and second, our standard conference options were reduced to virtual events. We typically use those events as a way to commune with other technology nerds. So, naturally we were saddened to not be able to do that as a part of our typical annual tradition. Still, we remain vigilant about keeping safe and thankfully, the majority of the companies we work with have been able to return to a normal state of business. 

It’s amazing that we made it to our 9th birthday – and we’re still going strong! We wouldn’t be where we are today without our readers. Thank you for continuing to visit MacSources.com and for sharing our content throughout the internet. We also wouldn’t be where we are today without the public relations teams we work with. They are amazing and many of them have been with us from the very beginning! They are our friends and we couldn’t do what we do without their support. 

Finally, we want to extend a very special thank you to our staff writer, Jon Walters. In addition to writing for MacSources, Jon is also a devoted husband and father to four beautiful children AND he is a full time physician. Not only is he a physician, but he is the Medical Staff President at the hospital he works for AND he’s been heading up his hospital’s COVID task force. The past 18 months have been particularly crazy for Jon, but writing reviews has been therapeutic for him. Jon has actually been writing with MacSources since 2016 and we are honored to have him as part of the MacSources family. 

As we round the corner into our 10th year of publishing, we are exited to continue bringing real, honest product reviews to consumers. When we started, we were reviewing mostly mobile apps. While we still review software, our main focus is on consumer products. At first, we only reviewed products that were technology-related, but today, we’ve expanded what we review to home goods and even EDC items. We strive to make sure our reviews are unique, authentic, and personal. 

Happy Birthday, MacSources…and many more! 

I’m sharing this story today — on the anniversary of Steve Jobs’s death — because I believe it is the essence of Apple products. Joy. This sentiment was echoed by Frederick Allen in an article he wrote about Jobs the day after his death. Allen said, “Steve Jobs, throughout all his brilliant years, had at bottom just one product: joy. That is why he stood above all corporate leaders of our time and probably of any time. He was not an ordinary businessman but an artist of the human experience.” 

It is with this in mind that I write this memorial article on the 9th anniversary of his passing. Since 2011, we’ve seen the release of 16 iPhone models, 23 different models of the iPad, and 8 Apple Watch models. Each variation has improved on the last and none of them would have been possible if Jobs hadn’t taken the risks he did with Apple, Inc. Each year on this day I take the time to reflect and refocus on what’s important in life. This year has been tumultuous and as we move into the last 30 days before the presidential election in the United States — so volatility is in the air, even more, these days. Sometimes it feels like we are a powder keg about to explode, but if we follow the lessons of Steve Jobs and think about ‘focus and simplicity,’ our lives could become a lot more clear. Let me take you back to my grandmother’s watch story. 

As a lot of people have discovered, when you set an Apple Watch up using Family Set-up – meaning that you are connecting it to a family member’s iPhone – many of the advanced health features like the Blood Oxygen monitor and the EKG measurements are not available. My grandmother’s health has been stable, but not without ailments in the past few years. She has COPD and is a cancer survivor so we thought the ability to monitor her Blood Oxygen levels more frequently would be a great benefit. When I was setting the watch up for her, I noticed that after it was paired to my iPhone that the health features I was looking for were locked out and unavailable. After some research, I found some articles outside of Apple that outlined the roadblocks on the Apple Watch I was discovering. 

As one might imagine, this was a frustrating process and by the end of it, I was exhausted. I was finally able to let the frustration go when my fiancé reminded me of the pure joy my grandmother felt when we gave her the watch that afternoon. She didn’t care about the extra features. To her, the watch was a symbol of love from me to her and that was what made it special. Once that was the focus of the watch, everything else became so simple. 

Steve Jobs gave us many lessons to learn from. Focus and simplicity is one of the more important ones that I think we should all pause and remember today. It may be work to sort out the noise, but in the end, focus and simplicity can bring you moments of pure joy.  Steve, we miss you.

(Featured Photo Credit: AP Photo/Christopher Ena, File. Sept. 20, 2005.)

The world is changing at an exponential rate these days and now more than ever it’s important to remember to back up your work. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to chastise my loved ones when I find out they don’t have a backup of their phone or tablet. I cringe when I go to help them with their system updates only to find the last backup they have is from 580 days ago (according to Time Machine). So, today’s public service announcement is brought to you by the letter “B” for Backup. 

March 31 is dubbed “World Backup Day” and it serves as a reminder for people the world over to back up their files, mobile devices, and all other forms of data. A few years ago, the only way to backup your computer was to plug in a portable hard drive and copy files onto it. Now, there are many, many more options out there including single external drives, network-attached storage (NAS), and even Cloud-based Storage. Some of the more popular cloud-based options are:

• iCloud
• Dropbox
• P Cloud
• Box
• Amazon Photos – If you are an Amazon Prime member, you already have access to unlimited photo storage. 

Services like Backblaze provide an option to complete full off-site backups of your files and systems. Off-site backups are a great idea because that means no matter what happens to your physical device, the data is protected. The process of maintaining an off-site backup like Backblaze has become a lot more user-friendly in recent years and I do recommend it. Another option for off-site backups is to use a NAS device (like Drobo, Synology, and QNAP), but keep it at a friend’s house. You can then access it as a personal cloud backup and your data can be uploaded securely. 

Even though World Backup Day is really about making sure you have a second copy of your data saved somewhere other than your primary computer hard drive, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how to retrieve lost data. If you find yourself in a position where you have lost your data, in some cases, you can utilize services like DriveSavers to recover files from hard drives. That said, you really want that to be the last resort option because shipping your hard drive out to a company in the hopes that they are able to recover the data from your dead drive is an intense, stressful process.

Over the years, tons of data have been lost. Whether it be a student’s term paper, a financial report from a business, or a once-in-a-lifetime memory of a beloved family member — data need to be backed up. With storage costs at an all-time low and software options more widely available, there is no reason why everyone shouldn’t make a backup of their precious data on March 31. With the world going completely digital within a matter of weeks, backup really is a must these days. So, take a few minutes today to figure out what option works best for you and make a backup.

For more details, visit WorldBackUpDay, Facebook, and Twitter.

He is indeed missed by those who best knew him. Apple CEO, Tim Cook, always celebrates his friend’s life with a Tweet on this day, which I always take comfort in. In this year’s tweet (shown below), Cook quotes Jobs as he reflected on time. Time is precious. There is no doubt about that. And it is time that keeps us moving forward. Last weekend I celebrated my 39th birthday. It was also my grandmother’s 93rd birthday. Too often we squander what has been given to us in regards to time and miss the point of the gift that is in front of us. In essense, we lack focus.

For the past six months, my place of employment (a nonprofit) has been going through a transitional period. We are in the process of redefining what our mission is and how we want to serve people through it. Our CEO  is having us all follow The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving your Wildly Important Goals by Chris McChesney. The book focuses on being able to make strategic organizational change with the emphasis placed on focusing on ‘wildly important goals.’ The author describes why execution fails within an organization and how we get “caught up in the whirlwind of urgent daily work that we’re distracted from our most vital goals.” This discipline of focus is not a new concept and it certainly isn’t new to the thousands of Steve Jobs fans who study his practices. In the process of reading some articles on Jobs in preparation of writing this year’s tribute, I came across a study that Walter Isaacson wrote for The Harvard Business Review in 2012. In it he said the following about Jobs’s discipline of focus and how he felt about it in relation to running a company. 

“Focus was ingrained in Jobs’s personality and had been honed by his Zen training. He relentlessly filtered out what he considered distractions. Colleagues and family members would at times be exasperated as they tried to get him to deal with issues—a legal problem, a medical diagnosis—they considered important. But he would give a cold stare and refuse to shift his laserlike focus until he was ready.

Near the end of his life, Jobs was visited at home by Larry Page, who was about to resume control of Google, the company he had cofounded. Even though their companies were feuding, Jobs was willing to give some advice. “The main thing I stressed was focus,” he recalled. Figure out what Google wants to be when it grows up, he told Page. “It’s now all over the map. What are the five products you want to focus on? Get rid of the rest, because they’re dragging you down. They’re turning you into Microsoft. They’re causing you to turn out products that are adequate but not great.” Page followed the advice. In January 2012 he told employees to focus on just a few priorities, such as Android and Google+, and to make them “beautiful,” the way Jobs would have done.”

Isaacson, Walter. “The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs.” Harvard Business Review, 29 Oct. 2014, https://hbr.org/2012/04/the-real-leadership-lessons-of-steve-jobs.

I was blown away by this description as it aligns perfectly with The 4 Disciplines of Execution concepts. So it would seem that this Jobs inspired people with his methods of leadership long before this wildly popular guide for organizational change was published. It’s just one of the many ways that Jobs influenced the world we have today. And one of the many ways we can regain that focus in our lives — both personal and professional — so that we don’t miss the point of our lives.

The article I read by Isaacson was titled, “The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs.” I encourage anyone who wants to be inspired to do ‘one more thing’ or be one of ‘the crazy ones’ to read it. Jobs’s lessons will live on much longer than the company he built. I believe this is his true legacy. 

Even though it’s been seven years since Steve Jobs’s death, the world continues to be influenced by his vision of what it could be. Today marked what would have been his 64th birthday. Those of us who are thankful for what he brought to this world take time on this day to reflect on his life and what it meant to all of us. Apple CEO, Tim Cook, sent out the following tweet as a tribute to Jobs’ birthday.

After reading Cook’s thoughtful tribute, I, too, think that Jobs would be happy with the direction technology is taking and the part it plays in all of our lives. His revolutionary device, the iPhone, changed the course of civilization as we know it. Because of the iPhone, Apple’s competitors brought their own smartphones to market and caused a mobile device revolution began. Because of that movement, the world suddenly became more digital — almost overnight it seemed. I will forever be grateful for the contributions that Jobs gave our world. Because of his devotion to making things better and creating products that enhanced our lives, we can stay connected with loved ones like never before. That is a lasting legacy that we can all appreciate.

My world revolves around all things digital. I remember the first computer in our household — some old MS-DOS machine — and when we decided to switch over to Macintosh as our operating platform of choice. It was a choice based off of creative software needs, but to this day, it remains my favorite operating system (even though I work with macOS and Windows on a daily basis).

Even those who aren’t fans of Macintosh can’t deny the impact the computer and operating system have changed the way we interact with computers. The introduction of the first Macintosh computer in 1984 revolutionized what people thought of computers and how everyone could use them — not just business people.

Today, we celebrate Macintosh’s 35th birthday with joy and respect for the system that started it all.

On this day in 1984, the first Macintosh computers went on sale. This was two days after the famous “1984” Apple computers ad directed by Ridley Scott aired during the Super Bowl. The original Macintosh, first called Apple Macintosh and later renamed, Macintosh 128k (because it had 128K RAM), had a beige case and included a built-in 9-inch black and white CRT monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

There was a handle built into the top of the case, a design feature later replicated with the original iMac release, and the computer had an initial selling price of $2,495. If it were sold in 2018, it would have been more than $6,000. Macintosh computers were showing a strong sales record with 70,000 units sold by May 3, 1984.

The computer had two pieces of software pre-installed — MacWrite and MacPaint — and it was powered by a Motorola 68000 CPU running at 8HMz. Apple founder, Steve Jobs, introduced the Macintosh to the world during one of his famous keynote speeches on January 24, 1984.

During this speech, he shows the computer and its software off and he highlights the text-to-speech feature to have Macintosh say, “Hello.”