07 Dec 09 How To Redeem A Damaged iTunes Gift Card

Went a little overboard with the card scratching, eh?

Don’t Worry! Here’s How To Fix It!

Every year around the holidays the iTunes gift cards start rolling in. It’s a safe play for distant relatives, friends and colleagues. Needless to say, I’ve gingerly scratched the adhesive backing off many an iTunes gift card. That said, I wasn’t terribly surprised when this time around I scratched too hard and took the gift card’s secret code off with the adhesive. Perhaps I was due.

Granted, it was my fault, but I was out $25.

Moreover, I was relatively unsure of where to start and I had a lot of questions: Do I return it to the store where it was purchased? Should I contact Apple directly? Is getting reimbursed even a possibility?

I was happy to learn that, as suspected, my issue was not an isolated incident and Apple does have measures in place to assist consumers with recovering their iTunes gift card credit. Better yet, it required no phone calls or in-store visit and can be done entirely through iTunes.

How To Obtain The Secret Code

Within the iTunes Store select “Redeem” from the menu options.
Enter as much of the code as you can read and submit. This will produce an invalid code message. Keep attempting to submit the partial code until a “get help” message appears– it may take 5-6 attempts.
Once you have requested help you will be presented with a screen requesting your card’s serial number, activation number (which we can’t read) and your name/email.

Locate your serial number using the diagram in the image, then enter as much of the activation number as you can read– it’s OK if you can only make out a character or two.

That’s it! You should receive an email from Apple noting that they have received your support request and the issue should be resolved in less than 24-hours.

Much to my surprise, I had an email from iTunes Support the following morning providing me with the activation code I had inadvertently removed. Thanks, Apple!

Tags: gift card, help, iTunes, lost code, redeem, scratched

Filed in Entertainment, Mac OS X, Tech, iPhone with 8 Comments

08 Nov 09 Two Ceramic Chihuahuas And A Microphone

Hey, you two, get a room! The chihuahuas enjoy a kiss in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

I’m a dick. There, I said it.

Now that I’ve brought you up to speed we are free to get to this first of what I hope to be a few of my these videos.

The Backstory

I recently got married and my favorite uncle, often known for impressive, thoughtful and occasionally expensive gifts, went way outside the box.

What did he get us to help commemorate and celebrate the biggest day of our lives? A pair of ceramic chihuahua salt and pepper shakers. Well played, sir. Well played, indeed.

We all know that no ill will was implied by such a gift. Moreover, we have our doubts that he even knew what was in the box. However, that doesn’t mean we are going to let it go.

Hitler Learns Of The Chihuahuas

Here is a direct link to the video on YouTube. It is also embedded in the post below.

The chihuahuas recently spent a week in Croatia with us, filming on location and experiencing a cross section of eastern Europe.

Let’s find out what happens when Hitler learns of my uncle and his amazing chihuahuas:

Tags: Chihuahuas, Downfall, Hitler, Parody, Registry, wedding

Filed in Entertainment, Funny & Offbeat with 0 Comments

13 Oct 09 You’re Due For A Rant, Palm

One of these gals wants to sell you a Palm Pre, the other already knows you don’t want one.

OK, Palm, I didn’t want to have to tell you this way, but your commercials really suck– stop trying… seriously. I’m not sure if you were going for Borg, Minority Report Precog or a combination of both, but someone should have stepped in and stopped that train wreck before it aired nationally every 60 seconds.

To put it in perspective, if the smartphone world was a boy band you would be Chris Kirkpatrick. Who’s that, you ask? Exactly.

The numbers sum it up best. In 2000, your stock traded at up to $669 a share while today it trades for just over $11, prompting Time to call you one of the 10 biggest tech failures of the last decade. Quite the achievement.

Furthermore, you went on to hack iTunes and then cried about it to the USB board when Apple closed the loophole. So I can’t say anyone has a great deal of sympathy for you.

That said, your commercials are painful and the otherworldly vibe isn’t very inviting. Moreover, what the hell is she talking about? I guess wherever she comes from a synced calendar and address book equate to a religious experience. She must have had a Razr before.

Watch Agatha the Precog get all deep and stuff

Yeah, yeah, the schnozberries taste like schnozberries, we get it. If you found that her riveting diatribe shook you to your core and made you question life and reality as you know it, then I’m willing to bet that the Hannah Montana movie resides somewhere near the top of your list of life changing events.

I can only hope that Palm will run out of money for ad campaigns soon.

Tags: Minority Report, Palm, Pre, Rant

Filed in Entertainment, Funny & Offbeat, Tech with 2 Comments

13 Oct 09 My iPhone Groom’s Cake

The iPhone Cake

IMPORTANT NOTE: For greater appreciation and a good laugh, check out San Francisco Weekly’s 6 Saddest iPhone Cakes first.

I recently got married and my amazing wife had a fantastic iPhone groom’s cake made for me. There’s no doubt about it– it was definitely a huge hit!

Also, I learned that clever cakes, photo booths and crab cakes are all major crowd favorites. Plan accordingly.

Not knowing what to expect, I had a feeling that my groom’s cake would be Xbox related, but I was super surprised to find the best iPhone cake I’ve ever seen.