Tony Bevilacqua

With the release of the new MacBook and MacBook Pro machines yesterday, I thought it would be helpful to go check out the iMac, and make sure there have been no changes. Low and behold, there was a change in price on the particular machine that I had purchased.

Put Apple to Work for You

Should Apple reduce its price on any shipped product within 10 days of shipment, you may contact Apple Sales Support at 1-800-MY-APPLE to request a credit of the difference between the price you were charged and the current selling price. To receive the credit you must notify Apple within 14 days of shipment. In the event a credit is given to you, the same credit card that you used to make your purchase will be credited.

The price difference was a mere $61, but none-the-less, this is money I paid, and could easily get back. I called Apple Support at 1-800-MY-APPLE - After collecting my order number, the agent quickly offered me the discount that I was looking for.

When purchasing hardware from a company like Apple, Dell, etc - Always check out the policies on price change. I did this well before my purchase of the iMac, it offers a certain satisfaction that I won’t be left completely screwed in the event of a price change.

Some companies may try to pull a fast one on you. Don’t accept no for an answer, if you are within their written policy! In Apple’s case, the agent quickly accepted my request, and put forward the refund. Nice Job Apple.

How are you reading this blog? Probably just browsing around, and you caught some freak ass link that somehow landed you on this page. Nice Job, read on, add me to RSS.

Wait… what is RSS?

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts. An RSS document, which is called a “feed,” “web feed,” or “channel,” contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with their favorite web sites in an automated manner that’s easier than checking them manually.

Now that you are up to speed, it’s time to become an RSS master, and it doesn’t really take much effort at all to make it happen. See, I use a nifty little app called “NewsFire” developed by David Watanabe. This fantastically stable, and reliable RSS application has provided me with an oasis of streaming content delivered to my desktop every 15 minutes, for over 45 websites.

I am probably a more advanced RSS user than most, as I monitor quite a few feeds. I find this useful for:

• Tracking Software Updates from Companies I Purchases Products From
• Reading up on the next “Make Money Online” schemes from the SEO brigade
• Keeping up with corporate blogs, such as Apple, Microsoft Technet
• Read news headlines for Silicon Valley Gossip, Game Politics, and GamesPress
• Monitoring my own feeds, and the status of SpawnPoint.com
• and of course, keeping up on the activities of my friends.

Stop wasting your time “surfing the web” and let NewsFire bring the web to you, when something worthwhile is available to read. Go grab a trial copy of NewsFire right now… below are some of the great features:

A Dynamic Performance
NewsFire is the first RSS reader to use animation to alert you to news and convey meaning. Watch your feeds and groups swoop around as news streams in.

Intelligent Search
Search for news, blogs, and podcasts everywhere directly in NewsFire and save the results as live feeds. Even cooler, NewsFire articles show up in Spotlight.

Groups and Labels
NewsFire lets you group and label your feeds, so you control the news reading experience.

Smart Feeds
NewsFire takes feed organization to the next level, letting you create smart feeds that match whatever criteria you want.

NewsFire Main Window

NewsFire Preferences

NewsFire Viewing Blog + YouTube

This morning Apple announced the release of updated MacBook and MacBook Pro notebooks with the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors, larger hard drives, and 2GB of memory standard in all models.

The new MacBook Pro is now boasting hot new NVIDIA graphics capability with up to 512MB of video memory. The highly acclaimed “Multi-Touch Trackpad” first seen in the MacBook Air at release, has been integrated into the MacBook Pro line, but not the MacBook line. [Edit]

The New MacBook

Featuring a gorgeous 13-inch glossy widescreen display, and with prices still starting at just $1,099, the new MacBook lineup comes in three models and includes faster processors and larger hard drives across the line; sleek white 2.1 GHz and 2.4 GHz models with 120GB or 160GB 5400 rpm hard drives and a stunning black 2.4 GHz model with a massive 250GB 5400 rpm hard drive, previously only available as an option. The 2.4 GHz MacBook models ship with 2GB of memory standard, expandable up to 4GB across the line.

The New MacBook Pro

The new MacBook Pro features the latest Intel Core 2 Duo technology with
up to a 2.6 GHz processor with 6MB of shared L2 cache; up to 4GB of 667 MHz
DDR2 SDRAM memory and up to a 300GB hard drive, plus NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT
graphics with up to 512MB of video memory.

The 17″ MacBook Pro also incorporates an optional LED screen.

The new line is looking fantastic, and I’m excited to see what else is coming out Apple in the future… They have 1-1.5 years before I am going to want to drop a wad of cash on a MacPro and some massive screens.

I was a bit skeptical about buying an iMac for a desktop solution. The machine itself is a sealed unit… there is no “diving in” and “resolving the issue” like a desktop PC, or average white box. Very much a laptop style machine- I mean, it uses SO-DIMM Ram… the iMac has only one external screw on the entire chassis.

That being said - I felt it important that I drop the extra dough, and go for the AppleCare extended warranty. It was an extra $200 on top of the price of the iMac, but it did extend the warranty up to three years:

Even though I wasn’t executing AppleCare at this point (I was still within 365 days of my purchase) - I had the need to use their services to resolve an iMac related issue I was having. My keyboard squeaked… chalkboard style.

I gave them a call on Thursday afternoon, spoke to a very nice gentleman on the phone - He received my iMac Serial Number, I told him my problem, he asked for my address - all set. I did however, have to provide them with my credit card number; apparently if you don’t send the defective part back, they will charge your credit card (pretty standard, at least when I worked with IBM and HP).

The keyboard came on Monday morning at 9:15AM via DHL in a nicely appointed box. The keyboard was accompanied by a well written set of directions in both English and French - as well as return labels for UPS ground.

Overall - AppleCare has been good to me so far. I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

I recently decided that I was going to start blogging again, and do something with the Tony Bevilacqua dot net site. I have set it up multiple times, and it has never really gone anywhere, I usually get distracted… lazy, you know, the usual…

Since getting my new mac, I have been working with a lot of great applications that have been created by the community, and specifically for this blog, a great little application called “MarsEdit 2” by Red Sweater.

Just a few of the features…

Intuitive Interface
MarsEdit’s no-nonsense interface works just like email. Edit your drafts in a convenient text editor, spell-check, and publish.

Wildly Compatible
Works with WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, Movable Type, LiveJournal, Drupal, and Vox. And that’s just to name a few.

Easy Uploads
Upload images and files directly to your weblog. When you want to reuse an item, just select it from the media catalog.

With it’s user friendly interface, 10 second setup and configuration, it’s definitely something that I would consider taking a look at. MarsEdit offers a 30 day trial for this application. If you have a Mac, and are on any of the above compatible platforms, I recommend checking it out!