What's up, I'm Brian Tong and welcome to the Apple Byte for all the good and bad stuff inside the world of Apple.
Now, I'm out of town and we've been asking for your e-mails so if some big, major Apple news happen, oh, well, but we're sure to answer to your thought-provoking questions, and a lot of you have been asking questions like this one: "Hey, guys.
Have you heard anything about what we can expect from the next iPod update?
I want a new iPod Touch but I can wait if there's something great on the horizon."
Thanks, Sonia.
Now, we don't have any hard details on what to expect out of the new iPod Touch.
We do expect it to get a better camera, more storage, and it's next version of iOS 5 and really Apple's rumored cloud service that will really make the difference, so we'll just have to wait until September to find out more.
Now, for all of you that have been following this show, here's what we do expect coming in the next few months based on what we know, product refresh cycles, and other rumors and speculation.
We're still expecting new iMacs revamped some time around the end of April or the first week of May.
We might see the Mac Minis at that same time but there have been no facts to support that yet.
New MacBook Airs with Sandy Bridge processors are expected around June and July and, iOS will be previewed in June at WWDC and the next iPhone 5 is rumored to be pushed out some time in the fall, around September, so mark your calendars, people, but the dates are always subject to change.
Now, Joseph asked: "Hey, Brian.
I was wondering where did you get such awesome skins and cases for your Apple devices?"
Thanks.
Well, if you wanna style up your gadgets, then go check out GelaSkins.com.
They make some really cool, artistic skins for almost every hot device you can think of and not just Apple devices.
I happen to rock out the eBoy ones and they're a favorite of mine.
Now Robin writes in with this one: "Hey, Brian, thank you for the great Apple info that you share.
However, frankly, I wish you would just stick to reporting info and delete the lame attempts at humor.
They are not funny and become annoying.
Other than that, keep up the good work."
All right, Batman sidekick, we read everything and we appreciate the honest e-mail but we'll make sure to remove you from any future free giveaway contests.
Now, this one's from Scott: "I recently bought a game for my iPad 2.
I paid $6 for this game but it crashes within the first 3 minutes.
How can I get a refund for this?" Scott, plenty of people keep asking about this so here's your how-to to help you out.
There are times where some of us get a little app-happy, I know you've been there,
and we've purchased the wrong app from Apple's App Store.
I recently purchased the Iron Man 2 game, I know, don't judge me, but I accidentally purchased the iPhone version instead of the one for the iPad.
I'm Brian Tong for CNET.com and I'll show you a little trick that a lot of people don't know about, how to return apps that you've already purchased.
Now, before we jump into this, I wanna emphasize that this is not intended to be used to buy an app, then return it, and hurt the developers because these guys are the people that are making our gadgets more enjoyable so let's respect that.
All right, the first thing you have to do is purchase some apps from the App Store through your iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, or computer or wherever.
Now, once you've done that, jump into iTunes and in the top right hand corner, find your username, select account, and log in.
Let's go to your purchase history and then you'll see a list of dates and order numbers.
Select the date that you made the purchase, and you'll see an order breakdown.
Then click on "Report a Problem" and an option will show up next to the price of each app.
Find the boo-boo that you made.
In this case, it's going to be Iron Man 2 for me, that was $6.99, and click "Report a Problem." A prompt will appear and you'll need to select the problem that you had and add any comments.
I explained my Iron Man 2 issue and also told them how I purchased the iPad version immediately afterwards.
Submit it and you'll receive a confirmation e-mail.
It only took about a day for an iTunes rep to get back to me, but I received an e-mail telling me the charges would be reversed.
Now, that's customer service.
There's really no reason to return a 99-cent app, and you do have up to 90 days to request a refund, but hopefully this feature helps you the same way it helped me out.
I'm Brian Tong for CNET.com with your how-to for refunding apps.
Respect your developers and use it wisely.
Now we love the app developers so please don't abuse this, Apple Byters.
Now, Alfonso writes in: "I wanna know what is the best way to burn a DVD movie to the iPad.
I have done some research that basically states I need to format the DVD to MP4,
but what's the best way to do this so I don't lose quality in the movie?
I have a lot of home movies I wanna add to my wife's iPad 2." Oh, that's really sweet, Alfonso, and the answer here is a free app called HandBrake that does all the magic for you.
You pop in your DVDs that you own, and it's available for Windows and Mac so check it out, one click and you are good to go.
Victor asked: "If I had an idea for Apple, how can I pass the idea across to Apple?" Well, Victor, you know, you can try to e-mail Steve at sjobs@apple.com <mailto:sjobs@apple.com>
and you might be lucky enough to get a response, but if your idea is really something that special, keep it for yourself.
And, finally, my recent breakdown over an ex struck a cord with several of you, Nate writes: "Hey, Brian, it seemed like you were kidding around but was any of the relationship described at the end of your last show based on true events?" No, Nate, none of it was true.
At all.
All right.
That's gonna do it for this week's show.
Send us your e-mails, guys, to theapplebyte@cnet.com <mailto:theapplebyte@cnet.com>.
I do get a chance to answer a good amount that you don't see on the show.
I'm Brian Tong, thanks for watching and we'll be back next week for another Byte of the Apple.
