Slashdot Mirror

I believe you do what college students who will do the exact same thing do (or worse, drop it): buy accidental insurance.

If you don't get it through the company when purchasing it, you can buy insurance through a company such as SafeWare which actually provides more protection than the standard ones from Dell and such.

For $1,500 worth of coverage, the premium for a K-12 student is $126 a month, with a $100 deductible. You'd have to be an idiot not to get some kind of insurance

There's Safeware that offers Laptop Insurance. Not sure if the GP is using Safeware or some other company. Safeware has been around for quite some time, so I would assume they're pretty decent.

Check out Safeware.com. For under a hundred bucks a year, they'll give you $2000's worth of insurance coverage that includes theft and accidental damage (such as spilling coffee all over your keyboard or dropping your laptop on the bus and acquiring a hefty dent), neither of which are covered by warranty.

1. Ok. And if that bothers you that much (even though in my book it's comaring Apple iPods to oranges since it's not really a peripheral in its primary use), then it must not be for you. No problems. As for me, and many others, I'd never buy a PC that cheap. iPods are definitely targeted at people with good computers (heck, many "$300" computers don't have USB2.0 or FireWire built in). People with bottom-of-the-line bargain basement PC's probably want the various $50 32MB flash MP3 players because clearly they've made a decision to save money instead of buying top-quality technology products. They also tend to have dial-up which lessens the likelyhood that they have many GB of MP3's.

2. I didn't mean to say it's unbreakable. But it's not fragile. I've dropped mine several times. I did have a minor problem early on with mine (this was also before I'd really dropped it at all) and Apple took it and fixed it and overnighted it back all in less than a week. and it's been fine since. It's got a warranty, and when that runs out, put it on your homeowner's insurance or the excellent Safeware policy.

> what college [do] you go to where you see so many kids walking around with $300 MP3 players?

I go to San Francisco State University, an urban public university that describes itself as having undergraduate fees that "are still the lowest in the nation when compared with similar public higher education institutions." In other words, like most of the second-tier California State University system, SFSU is a school with a large majority of students from California working-class and low-income families. Having spent about 1.5 years here, I can confidently say that the "obscenely rich" make up a tiny, tiny portion of the students on this campus.

> Do these kids drive $20,000 cars to school as well?
Actually, many do. Now I have absolutely no idea how they afford those. And we have lots of these Asian guys with these little Hondas with all the extensive racing mods and those huge spoilers. They must work, a lot.

Anyway, though, my point was that $300 isn't that much money. Really, it's not. My roommate spent that much on a video card and 3D games in the last year. The iPod is no different--it's the best player, so if you like music, you make sacrifices and get one. For me, it was bought on my American Express card and ultimately paid for with Financial Aid money. I don't even have a job. I also don't have a car, which saves me thousands every year.

Lots of college students own things that cost more than $300. Car payments/insurance, insane video cards and gaming consoles/software, and designer clothes are a much bigger expense for most students than an iPod would be.

Oh, and while we're talking college, iPods start at $269 at the Apple Store for Education (telesales and Web), and at the Apple campus resellers located on most college campuses. So that's the price that should be compared when you're talking about the college MP3-player market.

> Again, the iPod is merely an item for those who can afford to drop $300 on a MP3 player...

And again, without any offense intended toward anyone, all these cheap imitations are merely items for those who can't. Neither of these statements are very informational, and the cost issue doesn't have any bearing on whether you should buy an iPod. If you can't afford one, you can't buy one. If you can afford one, then in my opinion is it's worth your money.

Simple. Warn parents that they'll be held responsible if anything happens to them and hand out fliers about SafeWare. You could insure a $900 iBook for $75/year with a $100 deductible against theft, dropping, etc. Almost all parents would go for it.

If you're going to get a laptop for college (I'm planning on getting a 12" PowerBook), make sure you get insurance. Insurance from Safeware protects against theft and accidental damage. I was quoted at $200 per year for $4000 worth of equipment (their minimum). Think about it--would you rather pay $200 per year for a few years, or pay $1500 to replace an LCD screen that you spilled beer on? (Disclaimer: I don't work for these guys, nor do I actually do business with them yet--but I do intend to purchase insurance when I actually get my laptop.)

Get whatever you buy insured. And if you happen to buy it from Circuit City tell them to shove thier extended warranty up thier... BTW>If other laptop users have had bad experiences with CC and extended warranties please email me (see URL above).