Buying a New Mac

Dad has agreed to buy me a new Mac. He has promoted me into getting it soon.. so

I went on line and bought one.. almost

He thought that I should get one like his. A 24 inch intel chipped IMac. The current speed in 2.8mhrz. The problem that I have had is that getting one of these beauties would also require getting a different set of software to run it. Everything is working well with my current set up.

Apple and and Adobe combined to work a pretty amazing deal. If you buy the Creative Studio Premium (which includes Photoshop and other great Adobe programs) you will save over 1300 dollars in educational discounts with the software and computer.

So I ordered it up through the Apple store like I thought you were supposed to do. Then I called the apple 800 number and ordered the CS4 to go along with it. Well... you were supposed to order on the phone and not online to get the discount. Doing it the other way is about 600 dollars more.

The apple person on the line canceled my online order and wrote me a new one for the additional software.

There were some choices that had to be made. I always bet a bigger hard drive than basic. It came with 350 GB. For 45 dollars more you get to 500 gb. I needed the Microsoft Office for students and education too. It can come loaded on for $145. There was an option for Aperture 2 to be installed for another 175. Might as well get IWork. The new Ilife will cost me an additional 10 bucks when it comes out the end of this month. The CS4 was $345. I will have to send in my proof of academic eligibility within a month to maintain it on the computer.

So.. bottom line this venture is 2799.07. That seems like a lot of money. The guys around around the lunch table didn't think so. They all remember their Si's or even our original Macs that cost at least 3K and that was in that years economy and we were all making a whole lot less per year.

So all of this messing around with the order, cancellation and reorder, sent my credit card company into fits. They had an automated call to me right after the order to see if I had actually made the order. The power on their connection was so poor that I couldn't hear what they had to say.. so the credit card company canceled the order.

This morning I called the number on the back on the card and an automated response computer read all of the recent transactions. I okayed it with the press of the 2 key and it released the card to gather more activity.

The apple confirmation showed that I had a problem. It had a place for the customer to resend to the previous card. I did that and this afternoon I got a congratulations letter via e-mail.

So I am hoping that the new computer will hit.. or rather slide gently on the porch next week. Hard to say with so many people taking time off to enjoy the inauguration of our new President on Tuesday. Monday we have MLK day off. So will many others.

Trash is out so it must be Thursday.

Love
Pat