My 10 month old MacBook Air refused to boot

Last week during my business trip abroad, I started my day with a not working MacBook Air. It just refused to boot. I could see the light on the back side of the monitor and that’s all. This is the last thing you would expect from a 10 month old computer.

On the Internet I could find some magic key combinations helping me to recover it from this frozen state, but nothing worked. The fact that I was one of thousands of MacBook Air users experiencing the same problem did not help with my frustration. I had to give it back to my store for repair and face ca three weeks of waiting time..

I got the impression that the Apple quality is much worse than during its early days, and the fact that it takes so long to solve such a problem is very frustrating. I had to buy a new MacBook Air model and the only positive experience was that Time Machine has fully restored all my data from the Airport Time Capsule.

The recent rumours about Apple entering the car business, and is “working secretly toward creating an Apple-branded electric vehicle” to challenge Tesla sounds like a fairy tale in the context of the quality problems I experienced with my laptop. 

Watch out for low costs activity trackers sold by airlines

Since my Apple shop visit in San Francisco in November 2013 I am an enthusiastic user of Fitbit.

It replaced my watch on the left hand and instead of the time I started watching the number of steps I made every day. I also discovered a very handy feature: the vibrating alarm which is very helpful to give you a discrete signal to notify you when you about to finish your presentation at a conference or meeting. 

Yesterday after coming back from a business trip my wife proudly showed me the Nuband activity tracker which she bought on Wizzair plane for just half of the Fitbit price. A real bargain she said.

Unfortunately very soon we found out that the Nuband app is not working, we could not even connect the iPhone with the device and the sync up failed to execute.

After a quick research on the Internet we realised that we were not the only ones with a not working Nuband device. Most of them have been bought on a plane flying Lufthansa or Qantas. The iOS Keepfit+ app has no rating and since July 2014 had no updates. Android one has an average rating 2 which is very bad when compared to the Fitbit app which has a rating of 4+.

Be warned,  don’t be tempted by wearables bargains at tax free airlines shops. I think that airlines should be much more careful while selecting their tax free assortment as disappointed buyers will blame them instead of the manufactures for their bad experience.

If anyone knows how to get a working Nuband replacement we would be grateful to hear from you.

Regarding Fitbit, I have just found out that they introduced a new model Fitbit Charge HR with Heart Rate monitoring which I was awaiting since I started using Fitbit to replace my Polar Heart Rate monitor.

iTaxi app helps to join New Year party on time

Yesterday we were preparing for a New Year celebration. Around 22:00 PM my daughter started calling all taxi companies in Warsaw but without result. It looked like the whole Warsaw was on the way. To my surprise iTaxi app, I am using every time when I need a taxi in Warsaw, showed a taxi just one minute away from our home. Ordering a taxi was a matter of just one click. In this way my daughter and her two friends became new customers of iTaxi as they were very happy to join their party on time.

Will iTaxi be able to face the competition from Uber? Uber started its operations in Warsaw last August and I hope that iTaxi will not only maintain, but also increase its market share and it will be a very good alternative for those willing to pay more in return for a better travel experience.

I have just became a registered user of Uber app and will try the Uber travel experience soon.

Tourists in Poland lose money accepting payments in Euro

Since my last post about "unfair" exchange rates offered by the Euronet ATMs,  most of the payment terminals in Poland introduced the possibility of payments in Euro as an alternative to payments in local currency Polish Zloty. The Polcard terminals are labeled with encouraging slogans such as;

“Card payment in your currency ! OK ?"

"Kartenzahlung in Euro ! OK ?"

I have also seen DCC logo standing for Dynamic Currency Conversion,  informing tourists about the possibility of payments in their own currency. It’ s all about the convenience of payments in the currency you are used to in your own country. Unfortunately this convenience, based on my analysis, can be very expensive. 

In general accepting offered exchange rates by the payment terminals or ATMs means losing money. I decided to do a little analysis and collected all my payment transactions from the 26th of December using different payment cards and ATM’s. My analysis still shows that the worst exchange rate is offered by Euronet.

On 26th of December the official bank exchange rate reported by the European Central Bank was;

1 EUR = 4,3078 PLN or 1 PLN = 0,2321 EURO

On that day I was offered by Euronet 3,9123 Polish Zloty for one Euro, exactly 9,5% less than the official exchange rate.

On the same day Bank PKO offered 4,168803 Polish Zloty for one Euro which was 3,24% less than the official exchange rate and 6,5% more than the Euro exchange rate offered by Euronet.

I made two transactions using the payment terminals. While paying 108 Zloty for delicious hot chocolate and deserts at Wedel I was offered 4,1698 Zloty for one Euro (0,2397902 Euro for one zloty)

This was not bad as it was very close to the exchange rate offered by the PKO BP. The other terminal did not offer any Euro payment options and  my own bank (ABN-AMRO)  applied the following Euro exchange rate: 4,2895 Zloty for one Euro ( 0,2331 Euro for 1 Zloty). This was 3% more than the Euro exchange rate offered by the payment terminal.

As a tourist in Poland you should absolutely avoid the Euronet ATM.  The question is how much you can actually lose withdrawing 2000 Polish Zloty at Euronet ATM in comparison with PKO BP ATM?

See below!

For 2000 Polish Zloty you would pay 31,49 EURO more using the Euronet exchange rate when compared to the PKO BP ATM and 40 Euro more than at the exchange office "kantor" at Hotel Metropol in Warsaw. 

The best option is to pay using your own bank card, as my ABN-AMRO Bank offered by far the best Euro exchange rates. Reject Euro payment options offered by payment terminals and trust your own bank exchange rates.

NaviParking helps tourists find a safe and secure car parking space in Krakow

Many friends told me that it's a real hassle to find a safe and secure car park in Krakow. This brought me to an idea to develop an app navigating tourists to 24H guarded and secure car parks close to the Main Square. I hope that NaviParking will become an indispensable app for all tourists visiting Krakow allowing them to fully enjoy their time there instead of wasting it on finding a car park they can trust.
The problem "where to park in Krakow" is solved :)

Euronet ATMs still the worst place for Euro (EUR) Polish Zloty (PLN) exchange.

In my previous post I did not recommend tourists visiting Poland using Euronet ATMs service to convert Zloty (PLN) to Euro (EUR). Hoping that this has changed, over the last two months, I again withdrew Zloty from Euronet's ATM during today's visit in Warsaw. To my disappointment the offered Euro / Zloty exchange rate (1 EUR = 3.73 PLN) was again more than 10% lower than the official bank exchange rate reported by the European Central Bank ( 1 EUR= 4.15 PLN). 

For 500 Zloty I was about to be charged 133.85 EUR. Obviously, despite of a clever program trying to change my mind (see the screenshots below) I did not use Euronet conversion service :) This was a right choice as my bank, ABN-AMRO charged me only 122.06 EUR!

Today the best Euro/Zloty exchange rate was offered by the exchange office "kantor" at Hotel Metropol in Warsaw. Those having Euro in cash could buy 500 Zloty for only 121 Euro.

This is how Euronet offers Zloty withdrawal with Zloty/Euro conversion 

In case you decide to chose the withdrawal without Zloty/Euro conversion Euronet tries to change your mind :)

If you like to know how get most of value from Euro in Poland you might be interested in reading my recent post "Tourists in Poland lose money accepting payments in Euro"

How tourists in Poland can enjoy cheaper holidays

In my previous post I described growing popularity in Poland of mobile payments and various initiatives, as IKO, challenging credit cards companies. The highest  credit card transaction costs in Europe made mobile payments a very attractive option for both consumers and retailers.

In September Polish Parliament passed the amendment to the Act on Payment Services and as result from 2014 the maximum interchange fee of 0.5% will be introduced on all Polish payment cards

While Poles are going to take advantage from much lower , closer to the EU standards, interchange fees the tourists need to be aware of quite common practices of offering Euro payments, instead of Zloty, while using credit/bank cards. The offered Euro payment option comes across as something you at least understand and can trust. However it can be very expensive. How expensive I tried to figure out myself while using Euronet ATM machine in Krakow on 19th October 2013.
While withdrawing  500 Polish Zloty I was offered Euro exchange rate option.  I neglected that option as I found the offered exchange rate too low.
A few minutes later, however, I did decide to use the offered  exchange rate, as you can see in the attached receipt,  1 Euro = 3.775 Zloty (PLN), to find out how bad the offered exchange rate was.
Not choosing the Euro option was very beneficial for me: my bank ABN AMRO applied an exchange rate 4.1397 zl for 1 Euro and I only paid  120,78 Euro (including 2.75 Euro transaction costs) for 500 Zloty instead  of the 132,4 Euro charged by Euronet.
According to ECB the official exchange rate that day was 1 Euro = 4.1808 Zloty. Using Euronet exchange rate you pay 10% more for Zloty than you should using the official exchange rate.

What at first glance came across as an advantage appeared to be a very expensive option.

I found the following  statement on the Euronet receipt very interesting:

"I have chosen not to use the Mastercard currency conversion process and agree that I will have no recourse agains Mastercard concerning the currency conversion or its disclosure" 

All in all you can enjoy your holidays in Poland for even 10% cheaper if you  do not accept payments in Euro and rely on your own bank currency exchange rate, use the country's biggest ATM network of PKO Bank Polski or find a trusted specialised currency exchange office (kantor)