Computing

I have been saving for most of the past year to replace my aging MacBook with a new one. I had pretty much made up my mind what I wanted: a 13” MacBook Pro with Retina display and 512 gigabytes of flash drive space. I had an appointment to go walking with D at the mall today, and the plan was that afterward, I would go buy the new computer at the Apple store. In the meantime, I looked online at my choices to decide whether I needed to buy a CD/DVD drive to go with it, whether I should replace my old wireless mouse, and what software I might want to get.

In the process, I found myself looking at the iMacs and thinking. Since I bought my iPad, I haven’t really traveled with my laptop. It sits on a desk in my house anyway. I could get more speed, a larger screen, and more hard drive space (one terabyte) for less money if I bought a desktop.

On the other hand, I like the flexibility of a laptop. The iPad is useful for travel, but I find it hard to blog with it from the road. Of course, I don’t blog while I’m on the road because I prefer for strangers not to know that I’m on the road, so there is that.

A helpful clerk at the Apple store, David, gave me the specs on several models and left me alone to play for a while. While I was surfing the net on the iMac, it occurred to me, if I bought it, I would still have my MacBook. No one was going to take it away from me, and while it is slow by modern standards and stuffed to within 3 gigs of its maximum storage capacity, it does work. Once I have a new desktop computer, I can move all the files I truly need to it, and then reformat the MacBook, upgrade to the newest Mac OS and add back only the items I truly need. Doing so might even speed it up a little.

David made the same point when he came by to check on me. I decided to come home and think about it a little more.

Actually, what I came home to think about is going online to buy a refurbished iMac of the model I had been looking at from the Apple online store.  I can get one for $263 less than a brand new model, which means I can buy the extended warranty and still have a little cash left over. That’s how I bought my MacBook, in fact, and it’s still perking along 5 or so years later.

That would mean no commission for David, but a little research reveals Apple’s sales staff doesn’t work on commission. They do get points for selling add-ons, however, which would explain why he was pushing their One to One subscription for another $99. It has to be bought when you buy the computer, he explained to me. I hate having to make snap decisions like that.

I went online and used Apple’s Chat Now feature to talk with Jeffrey, who answered all my questions about buying the refurbished iMac (which is only 4 months old) and informed me that I could still buy One to One by telling them at the store I had bought a refurbished Mac. Since I won’t have my new Mac for another 3 weeks or so, that gives me time to think it over.

I'm still not entirely sure whether Jeffrey was a real person or some very sophisticated software. He answered all my questions appropriately, but then I wasn't asking things like, "Are you as excited as I am about March Madness coming up next month?" I wouldn't have had any suspicions about Jeffrey if it weren't for his frequent interjections of "Right on!" into the conversation. I'm from the generation that used that phrase, and even I don't say it any more, although I will let slip an occasional "Far out!" Although I usually phrase it, "Far out, as we used to say in my younger days."

Just after I ordered the Mac, my husband offered me his Best Buy gift card, which he got by returning the Christmas gift his sister gave him, a video camera which he didn't think he would ever use. There are some accessories and software I still want to get that Best Buy carries, and the gift card should just cover them. 

Far out, as we used to say in my younger days.