Suite du précédent billet.

• +I’m from Barcelona
• +The Ravonettes
• =Goose
• =Caribou
• =The Dodoz

Vers la soirée de jeudi.

Ce jeudi le programme du paléo 08 est sorti. Comme l’année dernière, je serai présent en tant que bénévole durant les 6 jours du festival afin d’assurer la sécurité du camping. Voici mon choix de groupes pour le 22.07 (si j’ai le temps des les voir et même la motivation est une autre chose). Mon classement est simple: ++ à ne surtout pas louper, + essayer d’entendre deux ou trois titres, = si tu passes dans le coins tend l’oreille, pas mentionné pas intéressant.

• ++SoKo
• +The Hives
• +The Wombats
• =Cali
• =BB Brunes
• =Redback
• =Love Mote

Vers la soirée de mercerdi.

C’est moins marrant que les coussins thérapeutiques rembourrés au chanvre mais au moins cette boisson est légale vu ses composants.

Pour celui qui comprend un peu le suisse-allemand c’est absolument à mourir de rire.

[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/Jvxi_aBtF-w” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]

It is not in my habits to speak ill of a software or a company but this time I was really upset by the behaviour of the SRS Labs company.

Everything beggan when I purchased the MacUpdate Promo Bundle of this July. Among many softwares, SRS iWOW was included in the bundle. It was not the reason I bought the bundle, but as it was included, I choose to give it a try. As the quality of the software is not the point of this post, I will not drill deeper in this direction.

The main point here is the registration process of this software.When you register it, it call home to see if the serial number provided is not pirated or activated too much time (more on this later). If the check does not succed, you can’t register. So far so good, I can understand that you try to protect you software.

Now let me explain you my installation story:

• I installed SRS iWOW first on my desktop. The registration went seamlessly.
• I then installed it on my laptop. Still no problem.
• I upgrade my laptop to run l OS X 10.5 by doing a clean install.
• I installed again SRS iWOW on the laptop with OS X 10.5. During the registration I get a message telling me that this copy was activated to often.

Just as an info I’m using either my desktop or my laptop depending on where I am. So I do not consider I installed it twice.
Here begin the unsatifaction of the customer and the reason I’m writing this post. If you display a message that says that your copy was activated to often you should at least tell your customer what to do when you face the situation. As you see in the following screenshot, there is no indication on what to do.

I then thought that without an internet access maybe the check would be disabled. It’s not the case as you see in the following screenshot but at least you get an email where you can ask for an activation code.

Unfortunately this email address is never read by a human and you get an automatic answer that doesn’t provide you a satisfactory answer (see below):

Dear SRS Labs Customer

Please note that we are unable reply directly to emails sent to this address. We are sorry that you are either experiencing a problem or in need a question answered, we first ask that you read the FAQ’s for your specific product to see if there is an solution available before contacting us.

Important Note: iWOW does not currently work with Leopard. We are working on a resolution to this issue and expect to provide an update.

Note: If you previously owned iWOW 1, tried the trial version of iWOW 2, and want to go back to iWOW1, then you need to download the reverting version (iWOW 1.1.11) of iWOW from here to go back to iWOW 1: http://www.srslabs.com/srsproduct/iwow1.1.asp. It will recognize your previous registration and will restore your previous iWOW.

iWOW USERS: If you are having difficulties registering iWOW 2.0, please note that iWOW 2.0 is an upgrade that can be purchased for $11.99, if you are currently a iWOW 1.0 user. Your iWOW 1.0 reg # will not work on the upgrade to iWOW 2.0.

Lost your registration number? If you have lost or need your registration number or need to upgrade to SRS Audio Sandbox for Vista please use the link below and follow the instructions provided.

Registration
http://www.srs-store.com/store-plugins/mall/helpcenter.asp

FAQ’s:

SRS AUDIO SANDBOX (SAS) FAQ
http://www.srs-store.com/store-plugins/mall/support_sas.asp

iWOW FAQ
http://www.srs-store.com/store-plugins/mall/support_iwow.asp

For Product Support Requests/Questions, Go Here:
http://www.srslabs.com/company/contact.asp

Note: Choose Consumer Product support from the drop down list and fill out all requested information and hit submit

Support Hours
Our support hours are Monday thru Friday 8AM to 5PM PST, exceptions are weekends and legal holidays or otherwise posted. Typical response time is same or next day depending on time zones

Regards,
SRS Support Team

Two things about this mail:

1. The company doesn’t even know about its own product because at the time I wrote them there was already a Leopard version available.
2. You never get an answer other that an automatic one if you use the contact page.

For me this is clear that this company doesn’t care at all about its users but only making big money. If you consider buying one of their product consider seriously the support quality.

Last but not least there is still a fairly easy way to register you copy of SRS iWOW even if it was activated to many time. Just copy the com.srs.iwow.plist file (located at ~/your_user_name/Library/Preference) to the computer where you want to register SRS iWOW. Of course you have to have a valid serial number before doing it (I’m no here to promote piracy but to denounce the user unfriendlyness of this company) .