I've worked for an Apple Specialist before, interviewed at another, and shopped at over half a dozen, so I've seen things from their perspective... yeah, there are occasionally little hassles with Apple.. but the local Apple rep responsible for our area worked his butt off to be a good liaison and make sure things went well.
I hate to repeat what everyone else on here has said, so I will just agree that most of the high rated posts in this thread are absolutely correct -- there are some excellent resellers, and some really terrible ones.. and they all seem to gravitate towards one end of the spectrum or the other. Slightly higher prices are understandable -- the smaller shops have much tighter margins and can't buy in the same volumes.. but the smart store operators can compete based on service, niche areas, store environment, all sorts of factors.. the used car sales guys just end up having a hard time and then scream bloody murder and blame everyone but themselves.
On the subject of MacAdam, any time they get mentioned online, this page should be used as an excellent example of their behavior and Tom Santos' treatment of customers:
http://www.omino.com/~dom/readme/macadam.html
(be sure to check out his reply too!)
Maybe items like that, or their "unsatisfactory record" with the Better Business Bureau, or their poking around through confidential Apple databases might have something to do with that license revocation? IMNSHO, it's about time. Businesses like that give Apple Resellers & Apple Specialists a bad name, and then whine and pule about it when karma catches up with them.
Tangent: Just found an interesting op/ed piece that's definitely worth a skim:
http://adzoox.com/applestore.html
Anyway, just my 2.17 yen. There are some resellers who have healthy working relationships with Apple and do just fine. There are definitely some ways Apple could improve relations with them, but I think there are a large number of people at Apple that deserve much more credit than they are getting... along with many hard working people at Apple Specialists and Resellers who put in honest work, know their stuff, and take excellent care of customers, who deserve lots of business and respect. Then, there are some other characters who just need to STFU and go far, far away where they won't make anyone else's life any harder.
Great. I bet this completely hoses the Thanksgiving vacations of a large number of Apple employees. I wonder how many people in legal, software engineering, QA, and the make-nice-with-the-record-companies departments just had their plans for the week yanked right out from under them.
Not to mention that this really damages a Good Thing.. even the most zealous anti-DRM person has to be able to understand that'll be easier to get the record industry to loosen their frantic grasp one finger at a time than to try to wrest their precious billions away from them and force drastic change. Yeah, bad for the big companies, big deal... but bad for the artists, bad for the Apple employees who worked their butts off to create this, bad for the end users when the record companies start calling it a failed experiment.
I have sympathy for those who have difficulty with Apple's DRM terms. I hit the 3-computer cap myself... 2 machines at work, 1 laptop at home, 1 desktop at home, my girlfriend's tower... However, I have NO sympathy for people who bitch about it like Apple's out to ruin them. That clause about Apple reserving the right to change the terms whenever they want? If a huge petition is delivered to Apple politely clamoring for that limit to be raised to 4 or even 5 computers, who's to say they wouldn't do it, or at least try to convince the record companies? People who complain about it not being international? If they missed it, I suggest they check into the news that Apple is in heavy talks to get iTMS launched for international customers. If they saw that news and ignored it, then they should STFU.
The iTMS isn't Apple out to rip off customers.. Apple has publicly admitted it's not a profit generator. It's there as an innovation, a jedi hand wave to get the record companies to realize there is a better way, to start them willingly down the path to change. I know a lot of people who spent 80+ hour weeks getting the iTMS launched, and their biggest fear was that someone would break the FairPlay system and bring it all crashing down.. while the impact to sales is hard to predict, how can these paranoid record companies who have til yet regarded online music download services as their big enemy (even if they're just a scapegoat for their own mistakes) learn to embrace this new technology that can be good for everyone?
Trying to force revolution upon the record companies will just make them lash out, act irrationally, and fight all that much harder. It's better to get them to decide that what consumers want really is the right path. They have to make that decision.. then they think it's their idea, and they're much happier to go along with it!
My opinion all boils down to one Japanese proverb about three feudal warlords:
What if the bird will not sing?
Nobunaga answers, "Kill it!"
Hideyoshi answers, "Make it want to sing."
Ieyasu answers, "Wait."
Which of these is going to be the most effective? I guess your answer has a lot to do with your personality and the techniques you use to attain your goals.. but in feudal Japan, I think it's fair to say that Nobunaga's power was dramatic but short lived, Ieyasu's was complete but he had to wait quite a long time.. in fact, until everyone else had disappeared... Hideyoshi's story was the most impressive as he rose from a farmer's son employed as a sandal-bearer to absolute ruler of Japan.
(OT: If that story intrigues anyone, check out the book "Taiko" by Eiji Yoshikawa -- he also wrote one about Musashi, the swordsman famous for his strategy and two-katana techniques)
A couple people have made "I'm surprised Apple didn't work out a better deal w/ the labels" comments -- I wonder if Jobs doesn't have a master scheme based on his experience with pixar?
Their initial deal (for the first 5 movies I think?) was giving disney a lion's share of the profits.. but now, with Pixar's name associated with hits like Toy Story and Finding Nemo in the public consciousness, Pixar's in a prime position to renegotiate.
Maybe Jobs is trying to position iTunes in a similar manner? There's no way Apple would raise the price of songs.. that'd be a disaster.. but if they brought down the costs of the songs to apple (i.e. reduced the music label's shares) a few years from now, when the music companies are depending on the income from the online music sales, then Apple could get a bigger slice of the pie.
Actually, it is correct for some models. Yes, it is also the command for resetting parameter RAM, but it serves as both for some models. Some you have to hit a reset button, others are shift-funciton-control-power, it all varies. That's why I said to check the KB.
I've seen increased battery life too. Try resetting your power manager? (cmd-option-p-r on some systems, others you have to push and hold a reset button.. check apple.com/support and search for "power manager" and your laptop type)
Like jo_ham said, you have to be very careful comparing Macs & Dell/Gateway/HP/etc. products. Once you spec out features to as close a level as possible, the Macs actually do come out ahead on most (not all, but definitely most) fronts.. especially with recent price slashes on the laptops and consumer lines.
As far as the XServe goes, if you break it down per-gigabyte or per-gigaflop, the prices compare very favorably. Check out the website ( http://www.apple.com/xserve/raid/ ) for the XServe RAID box for Apple's quoted comparisons if you like.
And plus, just look at all those blinkenlights!! I've seen both an XServe + XServe Raid playing an HDTV file on a 23" Cinema display, and a small rack of XServes chugging happily away on.. well, something.. and they're quite sparkly. Mmmm, blinkenlights..
Oh yeah.. and it probably would have helped them stay in business if whatshisface (Elite's owner/president) had decided to resign his reseller's agreement.
And frankly, it's not Apple's fault that Elite sucked. The number of complaints from their (ex)customers I've heard about them is astounding. Their management decisions, sales tactics, and repair records are all the explanation I need for their failure.
I've worked at an Apple Specialist before, who realized that the Apple Stores interact with a completely different market, and that there are entire market segments almost exclusively available to Specialists. They've continuously grown and become the largest and best Reseller / Specialist / Service Provider within a good 100 mile radius. Yes, there was a supply shortage when the new iMacs rolled out.. yes, MacWhorehouse and a couple of the newly opened Apple Stores got a handful of units before we did... but we still got the first stock in the county.
Every Apple Specialist and Reseller has a rep who covers a certain territory and takes care of "his stores", the shops in his area. Ours ROCKED. Totally on top of things, took care of ordering issues, advised about ways to improve store operations, suggested places to get additional income (it's all about the service department, baby!), helped the store plan out long-term strategy, and always was checking in on how the store was doing.
If Elite hadn't been a shady operation and had run themselves well (As ComputerWare and a number of other successful Apple Specialists have), worked cooperatively with their Apple liaisons, maintained a better-trained staff base (rather than paying them a crappy wage + dinky comission.. I interviewed @ one of their stores once and took another job), paid attention to the market and where Apple was opening stores, and only re-opened Computerware stores in GOOD locations, things might have turned out differently.
Apple has K-12 account reps who would LOVE to get in on helping a school update that many machines.
Try calling the Educational Support # at 1-800-800-2775 (APPL). Usually there are individual K-12 reps for each area or school. See if the folks at Educational Support can get you in contact with that person. Honestly, with this kind of volume, they could probably make it much easier for you, both logistically and financially, if you get what I mean.
Also, might I suggest as a resource: http://www.apple.com/education/k12/
Slashdot Mirror
Shameless Marathon reference.
I could be wrong about this, but I'm pretty sure that registering your machine with Apple will also set the warranty date...
I've worked for an Apple Specialist before, interviewed at another, and shopped at over half a dozen, so I've seen things from their perspective... yeah, there are occasionally little hassles with Apple.. but the local Apple rep responsible for our area worked his butt off to be a good liaison and make sure things went well.
I hate to repeat what everyone else on here has said, so I will just agree that most of the high rated posts in this thread are absolutely correct -- there are some excellent resellers, and some really terrible ones.. and they all seem to gravitate towards one end of the spectrum or the other. Slightly higher prices are understandable -- the smaller shops have much tighter margins and can't buy in the same volumes.. but the smart store operators can compete based on service, niche areas, store environment, all sorts of factors.. the used car sales guys just end up having a hard time and then scream bloody murder and blame everyone but themselves. On the subject of MacAdam, any time they get mentioned online, this page should be used as an excellent example of their behavior and Tom Santos' treatment of customers:
http://www.omino.com/~dom/readme/macadam.html
(be sure to check out his reply too!)
Maybe items like that, or their "unsatisfactory record" with the Better Business Bureau, or their poking around through confidential Apple databases might have something to do with that license revocation? IMNSHO, it's about time. Businesses like that give Apple Resellers & Apple Specialists a bad name, and then whine and pule about it when karma catches up with them.
Tangent: Just found an interesting op/ed piece that's definitely worth a skim:
http://adzoox.com/applestore.html
Anyway, just my 2.17 yen. There are some resellers who have healthy working relationships with Apple and do just fine. There are definitely some ways Apple could improve relations with them, but I think there are a large number of people at Apple that deserve much more credit than they are getting... along with many hard working people at Apple Specialists and Resellers who put in honest work, know their stuff, and take excellent care of customers, who deserve lots of business and respect. Then, there are some other characters who just need to STFU and go far, far away where they won't make anyone else's life any harder.
Exactly what he/she/they said. It might be a little harder outside of the US, but that's exactly the way that gets the most success stateside.
Buffering.....
Great. I bet this completely hoses the Thanksgiving vacations of a large number of Apple employees. I wonder how many people in legal, software engineering, QA, and the make-nice-with-the-record-companies departments just had their plans for the week yanked right out from under them.
Not to mention that this really damages a Good Thing.. even the most zealous anti-DRM person has to be able to understand that'll be easier to get the record industry to loosen their frantic grasp one finger at a time than to try to wrest their precious billions away from them and force drastic change. Yeah, bad for the big companies, big deal... but bad for the artists, bad for the Apple employees who worked their butts off to create this, bad for the end users when the record companies start calling it a failed experiment.
I have sympathy for those who have difficulty with Apple's DRM terms. I hit the 3-computer cap myself... 2 machines at work, 1 laptop at home, 1 desktop at home, my girlfriend's tower... However, I have NO sympathy for people who bitch about it like Apple's out to ruin them. That clause about Apple reserving the right to change the terms whenever they want? If a huge petition is delivered to Apple politely clamoring for that limit to be raised to 4 or even 5 computers, who's to say they wouldn't do it, or at least try to convince the record companies? People who complain about it not being international? If they missed it, I suggest they check into the news that Apple is in heavy talks to get iTMS launched for international customers. If they saw that news and ignored it, then they should STFU.
The iTMS isn't Apple out to rip off customers.. Apple has publicly admitted it's not a profit generator. It's there as an innovation, a jedi hand wave to get the record companies to realize there is a better way, to start them willingly down the path to change. I know a lot of people who spent 80+ hour weeks getting the iTMS launched, and their biggest fear was that someone would break the FairPlay system and bring it all crashing down.. while the impact to sales is hard to predict, how can these paranoid record companies who have til yet regarded online music download services as their big enemy (even if they're just a scapegoat for their own mistakes) learn to embrace this new technology that can be good for everyone?
Trying to force revolution upon the record companies will just make them lash out, act irrationally, and fight all that much harder. It's better to get them to decide that what consumers want really is the right path. They have to make that decision.. then they think it's their idea, and they're much happier to go along with it!
My opinion all boils down to one Japanese proverb about three feudal warlords:
What if the bird will not sing?
Nobunaga answers, "Kill it!"
Hideyoshi answers, "Make it want to sing."
Ieyasu answers, "Wait."
Which of these is going to be the most effective? I guess your answer has a lot to do with your personality and the techniques you use to attain your goals.. but in feudal Japan, I think it's fair to say that Nobunaga's power was dramatic but short lived, Ieyasu's was complete but he had to wait quite a long time.. in fact, until everyone else had disappeared... Hideyoshi's story was the most impressive as he rose from a farmer's son employed as a sandal-bearer to absolute ruler of Japan.
(OT: If that story intrigues anyone, check out the book "Taiko" by Eiji Yoshikawa -- he also wrote one about Musashi, the swordsman famous for his strategy and two-katana techniques)
why isn't this thread showing up in the apple section?
A couple people have made "I'm surprised Apple didn't work out a better deal w/ the labels" comments -- I wonder if Jobs doesn't have a master scheme based on his experience with pixar? Their initial deal (for the first 5 movies I think?) was giving disney a lion's share of the profits.. but now, with Pixar's name associated with hits like Toy Story and Finding Nemo in the public consciousness, Pixar's in a prime position to renegotiate. Maybe Jobs is trying to position iTunes in a similar manner? There's no way Apple would raise the price of songs.. that'd be a disaster.. but if they brought down the costs of the songs to apple (i.e. reduced the music label's shares) a few years from now, when the music companies are depending on the income from the online music sales, then Apple could get a bigger slice of the pie.
Actually, it is correct for some models. Yes, it is also the command for resetting parameter RAM, but it serves as both for some models. Some you have to hit a reset button, others are shift-funciton-control-power, it all varies. That's why I said to check the KB.
Said update didn't include panther compatibility.
I've seen increased battery life too. Try resetting your power manager? (cmd-option-p-r on some systems, others you have to push and hold a reset button.. check apple.com/support and search for "power manager" and your laptop type)
Check versiontracker.com, uControl was updated a day or two ago.
They'll bend over backwards to get you set up. You said cluster. That means multiple units. $$ka-ching$$ "What can we do for you?"
Like jo_ham said, you have to be very careful comparing Macs & Dell/Gateway/HP/etc. products. Once you spec out features to as close a level as possible, the Macs actually do come out ahead on most (not all, but definitely most) fronts.. especially with recent price slashes on the laptops and consumer lines.
As far as the XServe goes, if you break it down per-gigabyte or per-gigaflop, the prices compare very favorably. Check out the website ( http://www.apple.com/xserve/raid/ ) for the XServe RAID box for Apple's quoted comparisons if you like.
And plus, just look at all those blinkenlights!! I've seen both an XServe + XServe Raid playing an HDTV file on a 23" Cinema display, and a small rack of XServes chugging happily away on.. well, something.. and they're quite sparkly. Mmmm, blinkenlights..
Oh yeah.. and it probably would have helped them stay in business if whatshisface (Elite's owner/president) had decided to resign his reseller's agreement.
And frankly, it's not Apple's fault that Elite sucked. The number of complaints from their (ex)customers I've heard about them is astounding. Their management decisions, sales tactics, and repair records are all the explanation I need for their failure.
I've worked at an Apple Specialist before, who realized that the Apple Stores interact with a completely different market, and that there are entire market segments almost exclusively available to Specialists. They've continuously grown and become the largest and best Reseller / Specialist / Service Provider within a good 100 mile radius. Yes, there was a supply shortage when the new iMacs rolled out.. yes, MacWhorehouse and a couple of the newly opened Apple Stores got a handful of units before we did... but we still got the first stock in the county.
Every Apple Specialist and Reseller has a rep who covers a certain territory and takes care of "his stores", the shops in his area. Ours ROCKED. Totally on top of things, took care of ordering issues, advised about ways to improve store operations, suggested places to get additional income (it's all about the service department, baby!), helped the store plan out long-term strategy, and always was checking in on how the store was doing.
If Elite hadn't been a shady operation and had run themselves well (As ComputerWare and a number of other successful Apple Specialists have), worked cooperatively with their Apple liaisons, maintained a better-trained staff base (rather than paying them a crappy wage + dinky comission.. I interviewed @ one of their stores once and took another job), paid attention to the market and where Apple was opening stores, and only re-opened Computerware stores in GOOD locations, things might have turned out differently.
Apple has K-12 account reps who would LOVE to get in on helping a school update that many machines.
Try calling the Educational Support # at 1-800-800-2775 (APPL). Usually there are individual K-12 reps for each area or school. See if the folks at Educational Support can get you in contact with that person. Honestly, with this kind of volume, they could probably make it much easier for you, both logistically and financially, if you get what I mean.
Also, might I suggest as a resource:
http://www.apple.com/education/k12/