Aurora on the iPad

Peter Morris — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 18:17:31 GMT

I fancied indulging my side interest of making music by buying some music making apps on the iPad. One of which is called "Aurora" from 4pockets.com

Because Apple don't allow trial versions of apps in the Apple store people often release a "lite" version of their app free of charge in order to let potential customers try a limited version of their app before purchasing. I was disappointed to see that this app didn't have such a version, but decided that at a price of £24 it must be pretty good so I took the plunge and bought it.

What a mistake! It is absolutely awful! Even the demo tunes (which should show it off at its best) were terrible! I looked at the Apple store to see if there is any way to get a refund, but the T&C say "all purchases are final", great!

I thought that perhaps the company that developed the app might be good with customer relations and, like myself, only want money from people who actually like my work and think it is worth paying for. Unfortunately it seems as though their philosophy is more like "We want every penny we can get our hands on, even if it means selling over priced junk to unhappy customers."

On the other hand, the very reasonably priced £5 app "MorphWhiz" is great fun!

Mr P Morris to sales
Hi

I bought aurora for my iPad. With a lack of a "lite" version I was unable to evaluate it without purchasing it. Having purchased it I have found I really isn't my cup of tea at all. Is there a way to get a refund?

Pete

sales@4pockets.com to me
Dear Sir,

You will need to talk to Apple

Regards
Bill Muir

Peter Morris to sales
Hi Bill

I've read the terms and conditions and it seems that there is no process for issuing refunds after the application has been downloaded, which is why I wrote to you directly.

Regards

Pete

sales@4pockets.com to me
Dear Sir,

Your transaction is with Apple. We get no data as to who has purchased product via Apple. We only get dates, number of sales, value and country details. Sorry we are unable to help.

Regards
Bill Muir

Peter Morris to sales
Yes, I can see that being potential for fraudulent claims :)

What if I were to send you proof of purchase when I receive my invoice, would that be sufficient?

Pete

sales@4pockets.com to me
Dear Sir,

We can not help you. You are a client of Apple not 4pockets.com

Regards
Bill Muir

Peter Morris to sales
Okay, that's a real cop-out answer. I will take this to mean "Dear sir, we intend to grab every penny we can and to hell with customer satisfaction." I shall ensure my rating on your product accurately reflects your sentiments.

Thanks for taking your share of £23 of my hard earned money for an app not worth more than £5.

Shame on you.

Pete

What colour is The Moon?

Peter Morris — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 10:28:47 GMT

Well, if you are apparently ignorant like myself you would say “White” or maybe “Shades of Grey”. This US Government website has a kind of “Google Moon” app which uses photographs from the 1994 Clementine project – which was a satellite sent to The Moon to capture images of its surface.

http://pdsmaps.wr.usgs.gov/PDS/public/explorer/html/moonpick.htm

Choose the 2nd option “Natural color” and then click on an area of The Moon to zoom in. There’s plenty of Brown there, and you can see quite a lot of Blue too.

I am curious though as to why during Apollo 8 when asked what The Moon looks like the response was "The moon is essentially gray, no color; looks like plaster of Paris or sort of a grayish deep sand". Page 361

Which is one of the reasons that Alan Bean's art (Apollo 12 moon walker) has always confused me - why does he paint The Moon Brown? Seems like now I know, but that Apollo 8 statement was odd to say the least.

Misc

Aurora on the iPad

What colour is The Moon?