onOne Software announces Perfect Photo Suite 6

onOne Software announces Perfect Photo Suite 6

Today at the start of Photoshopworld onOne Software, a leading developer of Adobe Photoshop and Apple Aperture plug-ins, has announced the newest version of their award winning product suite Perfect Photo Suite 6.

Perfect Photo Suite 6 offers the best new tools for solving the most common problems faced by photographers today. This major upgrade introduces completely new products Perfect Portrait and Perfect Effects, Perfect Mask, the next generation of Mask Pro, Perfect Layers, in addition to favorites Perfect Resize, FocalPoint and PhotoFrame. Now you can move effortlessly between applications, for a smoother and faster workflow and all products in the Perfect Photo Suite 6 work as standalone applications in addition to working directly from within Adobe Photoshop (Lightroom) and Apple Aperture.

Perfect Photo Suite 5.5 owners can upgrade for $149.95, with those who purchased after Aug 7th 2011 getting a complimentary upgrade. The full suite will be $299.95 and will be available in late October, 2011.

Click the image above to read more about the new release of Perfect Photo Suite 6.

Apple trouble… a customer experience.

As indicated a few posts back I would write about my customer service experience with Apple and one of their Authorized Service Centers (ASC).

Eventually it took up to almost 3 weeks before my Apple Mac Pro was returned to me for just the replacement of an Nvidia Geforce 8800 GT video card and a Super Drive check.

Here is the story.

On a Saturday morning my screen stayed black while my Mac Pro was booting and a fan could be heard spinning continuously on full speed. When I opened the side of the machine it was clear and obvious the video card was the problem.

My Apple Care Protection Plan was still a few months valid so I called Apple Care. It was a delight to call and get someone on the phone within a minute, unlike many other customer service desks. Within a few more minutes and after some minor tests we concluded that indeed the video card was likely the problem. I received a few addresses of Stockholm based ASC’s and a trouble ticket number. An hour later I was on my way to bring her in.

Without waiting too long at the Service Desk I could describe the problem and received a receipt with the message it was going to take 3-5 days. Since I also have had problems with both the Super Drives I reported this as well.

After 3 days I received the message the video card was broken and needed to be replaced. The spare part was ordered. Apple had told me they guarantee delivery of spare parts to their ASC’s within one day.

One day later I received the message that the video card was not in stock. It would take another 2 weeks for it to arrive. As this was unacceptable for me I called Apple Care again and explained the situation. A friendly and helpful man heard me out and stated he was going to look into it, as he could see the video card was not out of stock.

A week (!) passed by before my Apple Care contact person returned to me with the message that the information in the system appeared wrong, the video card was indeed out of stock and it would take another week for it to arrive.

4 hours (!) after the Apple Care telephone call I received confirmation from the ASC that the video card had arrived and was installed in my machine…

It did take another week however before the Super Drives where tested and the file structure on my HD was corrected, which appeared to be the problem for the Super Drives not working. I could finally collect my machine after 19 days of service.

In my final phone call with Apple Care I asked them what they thought about the course of things. They confirmed it was unfortunately neither as they had wanted it, nor representative of their service. I was compensated.

What I had expected from a company like Apple was some kind of alternative solution instead of waiting a few weeks for a spare part to arrive. The more since they knew my machine is business critical to me.

Why did they not contact me with either a temporary replacement of my video card with another type while waiting for the right card to arrive or offer me an upgrade to an available video card for a payment of the additional value? It would have been my choice to accept or decline, but at least I could have continued working with my machine.

On a positive note I have to express that I am very impressed by the persons I have dealt with during the service process. All have been very reachable, responsive, friendly and helpful. Unfortunately it seems however that Apple has some serious issues with the accuracy of information and service assurance processes.

Will I continue to buy Apple products? Absolutely! I love Apple and their products; I love the design and the ease of use. I just hope that my recent service experience will not be repeated.

Apple trouble… no monthly wallpaper yet.

Although it is the first of the month there is no monthly calendar wallpaper from my side yet.

Due to some technical problems with my Apple Mac Pro I have temporarily no access to my post-processed images and calendar tools. I hope to post a wallpaper later this week, alternatively I might skip a month. It seems still unclear when my Mac Pro will be returned to me, but later more on that topic in a separate post when I will share my Apple Customer Care experiences with you.

One point that I have already learned from my recent technical problems is to expand my back-up to external devices. Although I am using Apple’s Time Machine to back-up all files on my main hard-disk, the back-up is placed on the secondary hard-disk within the Mac Pro. With the main machine gone there is no access to either the original or the back-up… 🙁