Apple Reviews

Be prepared to hear Apple's Service Representative tell you that, "Amazon is not an authorized reseller" and that you must fax them a copy of your sales/shipping document, and also fax them a copy of the enrollment number of the service plan along with its bar code (which is on one of the sheets of paper inside the "protection plan" package).

If you have a fax machine at your fingertips, I guess this isn't a really big deal, but if you don't, and if you are handicapped and can only walk with great difficulty, you might decide the whole thing really isn't worth the hassle.

Also be prepared to read your iPods serial number which is indistinctly, dimly, and microscopically etched into the backside of your machine. My tired, old eyes required my best magnifying glass with intense light to make it out, and even then I managed to mistake 2 Qs for Os on my first attempt.

On my first request for service I found the iPod representative to be pleasant enough, even affable; but, upon reflection I realized that other than to recite the things I must FAX to them, she hadn't so much as given me the time of day, let alone an answer to the question I had asked her.

Considering that this policy only extends the warranty for one year, it is expensive. Coverage for the iPod's biggest problem, its battery, is vague. Apple simply defines as non-defects some apparent battery problems, such as the fact that the battery drains very rapidly when the unit is not in use and turned off. Plus, the battery can drop drastically in usage time, and Apple protects itself by saying this: "Service coverage is available ... for battery depletion of 50 percent or more from original specification." What other company clearly states that precipitous product failure is not covered by either the original or extended warranty?

Why on earth would anyone buy applecare from amazon.com? I mean, really, come on.

I purchased this mouse as my first optical mouse, and kept it for a few months. At the time I bought it it was inexpensive compared with other optical mice, and it had lots of functionality with its five buttons. However, its shape is very awkward and my hand and wrist would hurt after using it. I also found the drivers unusable and ended up using one of the MS ones, which worked great. I ended up buying a Logitech Mouseman Dual optical, which is definitely a better mouse and much better suited for me (read: game playing and graphics).
Bottom line: today there are much better mice out there at this same price point from both Logitech, Microsoft, and other companies as well.

I bought this mouse over a year ago. I planned on using it on my mac G3 running OS 8.6, but ended up bringing it in to work to use on my pc running NT 4.0. The mouse worked fine for the most part. Recently though, I have noticed wrist pain and that the mouse button won't always work. Keep in mind with the wrist pain that I use my mouse a TON at work. Also, I have noticed the scroll dosen't work in all programs. Same with the buttons.

The reason I didn't keep the mouse on my mac; the software to program the buttons dosen't support mac os.

I have used it for two months and I just love this mouse. You can get this for the half price of other brand name optical mouse, however, you could expect the same feel and function of the expensive optical mouse from this mouse. Only one drawback is that drivers are included in the floppy disk, not CD-ROM. Easy to set up and works great.

I have owned my Ipod for 18 months. It is the fantastic, but I am now on my 3rd remote which is not so fantastic. No matter how careful I am about twisting the wires,it seems that after a period of time they loose connection with the Ipod. I also do not like the fact that Apple bundles the earphones with the remote. I am forced to buy new earphones just to get the remote.

A decent pair of headphones that at least matches (in Apple white) the iPod's color(less) scheme. However if looks are not your primary consideration in choosing headphones for your iPod, you should probably look elsewhere. The cord is way too long and the remote (though nifty) adds even more length, sound quality is only average for the price.

I bought this about 2 months after I bought my 10GB iPod. I thought it would be nice, but nothing big. I was wrong. It totaly changed my iPod experience. You don't know how much the ability to play/pause, skip/repeat songs, and adjust the volume without having to touch your iPod is really like until you try it. Of the three main accesories, the dock, wired remote, and carryeng case, this is the best one by far. If you own an iPod that doesn't already come with this than add this to your cart right away. You wont regret it!

I have over the years had (and survived) with several different makes/types of low cost printers and hands down this is the worst one I have ever bought. The printer is an especial source of frustration when I am trying to print envelopes. I wanted to like this printer after having mixed results with HP and certainly liked the price, but have regreetted my decision to purchase this product after usi9ng for a couple days.

I used this printer for about 2 years. Adequate print quality and speed for the low price. I became quite frustrated eventually with it because its paper feed mechanism began to jam frequently. It is difficult to clean the friction wheels which are probably the root cause. It seems to me an intrinsic design flaw to have a friction-based paper feed system oriented so that the wheels are exposed enough to collect dust, but not accessible for cleaning.
One major advantage of this printer was the ease of refilling the cartriges - no security code or interior safety pouches or anything to make it tough to do this.

A step up from the Z45. No need to clean and adjust the print cartridges when replaced. It's all automatic!

This is one that I have seen that I could actually buy.
It has everything that I need for a phoneline network adapter.
However I am not buying at this time.How ever it will be on my wish list.
I'm sure someone will buy itfor it is a good item

Purchased a Linksys Phoneline router and USB Phoneline network adapter and instantly networked my home office and kid's computer. Now we all have the DSL!

Very happy

I could not rewire my house. There was too much distance and too many obstructions for wireless - and I was concerned about security. I installed the Linksys phoneline router and USB phoneline adapters. Everthing installed easily. Works great. And has been working great for about a year. Slower than Ethernet (I can tell when I transfer files between PCs) - but faster than my DSL connection - which is all that matters. Anyone who wants a no new wires installation should consider this approach.

I bought this printer 6/02 and used approx 500 pages of paper, I simply love it, it prints circles around Epsons and HPs I have had in the past. Black and white printing is blazing fast, on par with mid grade laser printers I've used when printing pages from acrobat and plain text, slower with b/w pictures or any shading. High quality color pictures take time, but look excellent when finished. Works great for T-shirt heat transfers. Both ink cartridges (color and black) are easy to refill if need be, my original cartidges that came with the printer lasted around 5 months....you'll never get that with the "sample cartidges" in HP printers.

The voice can be annoying "Printing started..." especially when late-night printing, but can be easily disabled in the configuration program.

Paper Jams: none yet :)

Granted, I normally don't print from DOS so I don't know of any issues with that as mentioned in a previous post. Also, I don't notice the CPU usage go crazy as mentioned.

I use it with the following:
Windows XP Pro SP1
P4 2.4GHZ with HT
2x256MB Corsair
MSI 865PE Neo2

I've had this since August (5 months) and I have yet to have a problem. It is FAST, the quality is great in both black & color & photo modes. The cartridge lasted 5 months with moderate printing... not bad, but not especially good. Much better deal than the Z65, or any of the HP printers. I would recommend this printer to anyone in my family or any of my friends.

Okay, so I bought the printer first and then was kinda bored so I decided to look at the reviews for it on amazon.com. I was surprised to see only 1 star as average. I bought the z55 about 3 months ago and I use it at my college dorm for primarily printing reports and occasionally large photos of friends or posters. I have never had trouble with the printer since I've bought it and its actually still working on the same print cartridge with which it started; thats amazing!!!

Now i do admit, the z55 is by no means a godsend, it has its quirks. First, Installation is a pain, yes, and the program that pops up everytime you print tends to freeze. According to my pop up, ive never gotten passed 66% of a print job (although the sheet has actually been printed out). But its easy to deal with, you just close the window when it messes up. For some strange reason my Windows XP Professional is much more stable than other computers with the same OS, so even if the lexmark program freezes, the rest of the computer is fine.
With the paper jam issue: I have had many printers from every company except epson. What I've noticed about lexmarks is that once theres a paper jam and you manually try to tug the sheet out with your hand, thats when you cross the border into printer hell. The printer continues to jam from that point on, or it will suck in more than one sheet of paper when printing, or itll take in the paper at an angle so it crumples at on side. But that has not happened with the z55 yet.

The Pros are all in the job:
The black and white print speed in draft mode is FAST, amazingly fast (yet noisy). And even on draft mode the quality of the print is good enough to be turned in. The text is crisp and the ink dries quickly.
THe color mode is SLOW, and the higher the quality, the slower the print speed. But you have to realize that you are printing at a whopping 2.2 megapixels jammed onto the sheet, thats a lot of dots, and who needs a high quality photo IMMEDIATELY? But once the sheet pops out of the printer is picture bliss, i have yet to see graininess due to the printers dpi. I have to constantly look for high quality images in order to print them out on this printer. Its excellent, the best I've seen so far.

Other than that there are some nice quirks like the printer turns off automatically when you turn the computer off and on when you send it a print job, and the pleasant voice that says printing started and printing complete.

All in all, I have really enjoyed the lexmark z55 and would recommend it to anyone looking for high quality color and quick black and white prints. You have to have a technological edge though in order to reap the benefits.

While the DMP-120 has an attractive pricetag, the unit itself
leaves a lot to be desired. The generous 64MB flash capacity
yields a lot of room for your favorite MP3 songs, but it suffers
from memory initialization problems resulting in loss of data.
Roughly 10 percent of the power-downs that were tested on two
separate units resulted in the unit locking up, requiring the
user to remove the batteries to "hard" reset the unit. While
this is not only inconvenient, data is lost or corrupted during
the hard reset most of the time, requiring the user to reformat
the flash and reload the memory. In addition to initialization
problems the unit exhibits what is most likely memory formatting
problems in the form of data loss or corruption. The symptoms of
this problem are that the first few hundred KB or so of every
song are either not present or cannot be interpreted by the
processor; in other words the first 1/2 second or so of every song
is not there and the song starts in what would appear to be
mid-stream. While this is not a major problem, it is perpetually
annoying and would be considered "unacceptable" by serious audio
enthusiast. In the defense of the poor engineering of the unit,
the customer service at D-Link was very helpful in replacing the
original unit (that was suspected to be faulty), but the supposedly
"tested" replacement unit exhibited the same faults.

Bugs with this unit. Not recommended for recording lectures. It loops your recording over and over, even though loop is not on. High static noise during mp3 playback. Not worth the hassle.

This player has been out for a while now ...and it has worked great. The sound quality is great and the features that come with this player is good. There are a few important features that comes with this player: lock for buttons (so you won't accidently push the buttons), external slot for SmartMedia card, rudimentary but effective equalizer, selective modes for different types of play options (single track repeat, all tracks repeat, etc..) and a sturdy belt clip which works when I run!

The only thing that I miss the most is a FM tuner. Also an optional arm band would be great for running. But for the price I got it at, I am not complaining. This little player is not flashy like the newer ones out there but it is truly worth getting if you want it for functionality and reliability.

I purchased a 450 CBi so I could use the Bluetooth technolagy with my HP ipac 2215. The printer is clearly advertised as having Bluetooth connectivity. Upon receiving the printer the information included indicates that a HP Bluetooth printer card is required priced at $97.00. After spending 3 hours on line and on phone I find the item can't be bought. HP's last instructions were to search on google for it. I did only to find only one reseller listing the item. They were out of stock.

I heavily use the HP 450CBi daily. Usually print 75 to 100 pages of Docs per day. Battery life is good. Print quality is good. Print speed is acceptable for a portable. Durability is questionable. I keep it clean and in its own protective case. I am on my THIRD HP450CBi printer in 9 months! Paper jambs, multiple sheets feeding, print carriage movement obstructed. I have tried many different types of paper based on quality, brand, thickness of paper, inkjet, multipurpose, etc. all with similar results. When number 3 gives out I think I go for a cheap disposable desk type model and plug into a 12V/110V power inverter in my vehicle. No Bluetooth as advertised. Forget IR. Just plug in a USB cable. Good Luck!

I bought this printer to go with my HP Pavilion ze5200 laptop the summer before heading off to college. I knew that in college, I'd be mobile and on the run, so I was looking for a good quality printer that was small enough to fit in a dorm, but wouldn't crap out on me as I was printing a ten page paper half an hour before it was due.

It's been about nine months since I bought the 450Cbi, and I've had a really good experience. It's small enough to fit compactly on my little dorm-room desk, and every time someone walks into my room they say, "Oh! What a cute printer!" It's small and lightweight enough to throw in my backpack along with my laptop as I go to the library or student center to study, and the fact that it can be battery-powered is just awesome--I can be sitting outside in the middle of the quad, with no outlets in sight, tapping away happily on my laptop with my printer chugging out my papers beside me. The quality is fantastic, both photo and simple black-and-white, and one black ink cartridge lasted me eight months, which is amazing considering all the papers a college student has to type.

For the negative stuff: As other people have said, it has a problem with paper jamming. I've had several times where the paper has jammed, and I've had to work like the devil to un-jam it. However, nothing has broken, and all in all, it's held up beautifully considering how much I put it through, always lugging it from one side of the campus to the other. My infrared printing did suddenly stop working on me for some reason--my laptop will detect the beam and begin to print, but an error will pop up and refuse to print anything that's not a Notepad file. As well, I was also disappointed that though the printer is advertised as being wireless, it doesn't actually come with a Bluetooth card. No matter though, a parallel port cable is short, compact, and has worked perfectly fine for me. I do think that it is a little overpriced--I paid $250 for it--but for me, it's been a great a little printer and I don't regret my choise to buy it.

Beware! I purchase the card because it was so cheap. And what did I get? A stupid music CD. The shipping was more than my purchase. He offered me a refund minus the shipping. People promoting FALSE advertisement anywhere should be ARRESTED or at least pay back a FULL REFUND. Just want to let the viewers know, I was RIPPED off and I burned the music CD I received!!

ATI claimed to have done something groundbreaking with the Rage128, yet the Voodoo3 quickly came out and blew it away. In fact, the Voodoo2 already outperformed the Rage128 in a few games, and the Voodoo2 was an aging card even then. Not to mention that ATI's drivers could have been written better by Microsoft (yeah, I know, low blow)... The Rage128 isn't compatible with certain Macs, either (some of which were quite common when Rage128 was released). Of course, they don't tell you this. Their tech support still claims it to be (after 3 or 4 years now) a temporary compatability problem that they are working to solve. All in all, my experiences with this card made me grow to hate ATI and everything they do.

For the price as low as $110, ATI's RAGE ORION gives outstanding graphic detail on all of the outcoming 3D games for Apple. I especially loved how I could set the graphics to HIGHEST QUALITY on a huge 3d game such as Quake III Arena!

Be aware this will not work with newer Macs that utilize USB, even though they have an available printer or modem port.

I had recently purchased a serial to USB adapter from another company, which failed miserably. After returning it to the store and losing 7 bucks for "repackaging", I decided to get the Palm one, which I am glad that I did. My first adapter btw, cost almost double that I got here at Amazon. Installation and set up were a snap. I would however make the disclaimer DELETE THE PALM SOFTWARE THAT CAME ON YOUR MAC, there were a couple of glitches that I encountered until I did this. I wiped out all the files from the pre-installed software and ran what came with the adapter. Problem Solved! I guess there was application conflict when the two were set up at the same time. I am not sorry for having made the purchase.

This adapter is great, it's cheap, and the Mac software is available FREE from palm.com. Unlike the USB to Palm adapter, this device is priced fairly (almost too cheap).

This adapter works perfectly with my PowerBook, I haven't had a problem with it, and you can't beat the price.

To those other people who rated this low: I don't think this adapter deserves a 1 star, just because some people ordered the wrong ones when they really wanted one for a USB based Mac. That's like saying you don't like Toyotas because you tried to buy a part from a Toyota store for your Honda.