 The Apple Thread

A place to ask for help, advice and generally discuss anything realated to OSX, iOS, iPods and the state of Steve Jobs's new liver. how the company will survive without his Jobsness at the helm.
But first, some useful advice and links.

Technical Support
If you're having technical issues, by all means fire away. There are certainly people on this board who may well be able to give you an idea of what is causing a particular issue. Having said that, if the problem is hardware related, you will probably end up having to visit your local Genius Bar or an Apple Authorised Service Provider anyway. There's only so much diagnosis that can be done via short descriptions on the internet. If you do have to visit a service provider and you are under warranty the service provider will bill Apple directly for the repair. If you are unsure as to whether or not you're under warranty, you can find out by chucking your serial number in here.

Often, minor issues with the OSX software itself is caused by issues with permissions. If OSX is playing up, it's always worth trying to repair your permissions. If that doesn't solve the issue, you can also try repairing your hard drive.

If these things don't solve the issue, the next step may be an erase and install of OSX (that guide is for Snow Leopard, if you have an earlier version of OSX, the process is much easier). Please note that the 'erase' part of 'erase and install' refers to all of your software, files and folders including any iLife applications (iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand iWeb, and iDVD) which you should have on a seperate disc that came with the machine.

It is possible that an archive and install will deal with the issue, but it is equally possible that this will simply keep whatever it was that was causing the issue. On a similar note, immediately restoring from a Time Machine backup may simply copy the issue back onto the machine. I would suggest making selective backups of what you really want to keep onto a hard drive or USB stick and just copying them over to the same place once the reinstall is completed. If you are using this method, you will find lots of useful stuff hidden in the Library folder in your Home Folder (not the one on the root drive) such as preference settings for individual applications, templates, saved games etc. Personally, I have a look through the Library Folder, and the Application Support Folder contained within it, and copy any folders relating to applications I want to continue using (and that haven't been playing up on me) and put them back into the same place once the install is completed.

Similarly, minor issues with iOS devices may be solvable through a hard reset, (although that guide is for iPhone, it will work on iPads as well) whilst a device that isn't responding to that may have to be put into recovery mode and have a forced restore from iTunes.

iPods can also be reset.

If you have an issue with sound only coming out of one channel of your audio jack on your iPod or iPhone, check that there isn't any fluff in the bottom of the headphone socket stopping the headphones from being inserted properly. This can usually be fixed with some compressed air or a paperclip (although if you go down the paperclip route and end up damaging something, don't blame me).

Online Resources
If you wish to do any upgrades or repairs yourself, iFixit will provide all of the guides and advice you need, as well as selling the necessary tools and parts. If you want to upgrade your RAM, I find Crucial to be very good, they sell good quality RAM, have fast service and their system scanner tool will tell you exactly how much RAM you have, how much you can fit, and will take you straight to their relevant page so you can see how much it might cost.

You can also find some excellent websites for help with issues and troubleshooting, including Apple's own support pages and the MacRumo(u)rs forums.

To find the latest or older versions of software and applications, or to just try and find out if a particular piece of software exists, check out MacUpdate and CNet Downloads (nee VersionTracker).

Other Websites
For Apple news, rumours and speculation, you could do worse than to check out the previously mention MacRumors (which inludes the excellent buyer's guide which works out when a product is likely to be refreshed based on the average time between refreshes and the amount of time since the last refresh) or Appleinsider.

For keeping up with useful new apps and software, I personally use Lifehacker, despite the fact that the ultra-organised, super-productive lifestyle that it promotes makes me feel like one of the laziest people in the world.

Software
I'm planning to add to this section in the future with useful software. I'm open to suggestions as to what to add here so please chuck in the apps and applications you use and I'll add them to this OP.

Anything Else?
If there are any tips that you'd like to add, software you use, resources you find useful or anything else you feel should be added, please put them here and I'll update as needs be.

One Last Thing
If this saves without paragraphs again, I think I might cry.