Adam-Jackson

You won’t find Apple and Cheap in the same sentence anywhere on the web and that’s why I wanted to write about it. I’ve been buying and selling computers online for years and have learned a few things to make things much easier. I’ll try to keep this brief and break it down.

Assess your needs. Do you “need” the fastest, latest and thinnest computer? If not, buying a computer last-gen is a great way to save up to 40% on your Mac purchase. Anything above 3 gigabytes of ram and a 2.1Ghz Core2Duo is enough for most tasks and over 80% of Apple’s current computers meet these requirements (Mac Mini and MacBook Air excluded) but even then, the MacBook air at 2.13Ghz w/ 2gbs of ram worked great as a mobile machine and I try to push the envelope on performance.

If you have a Mac now: download MacTracker (link). It’s a great way to compare machines side by side, see their benchmarks and if they are still supported by Apple. I love the application.

Narrow it down to Two Machines: After much consideration, I’ve decided that I need a 15″ bottom of the line MacBook Pro or 13″ top of the line. (link) and these range from $1499-$1699 new from Apple. I’d also consider getting a white MacBook if cost really becomes an issue (link).

Should you buy now? Good question. My first stop is the Macrumors Buyer’s Guide (link). This guide shows you the current lineup of machines Apple sells and when they were last upgraded or revised and historical data that shows when that machine sees updates (every 6 months, 12 months, etc). Then, the professionals at Macrumors give ratings of Buy or Don’t buy. This is an excellent way to make sure you’re not buying at a bad time.

Next Steps: If you want to buy a new machine, don’t buy from Apple.com unless the machine just came out two weeks ago and you’re dying to have it right now. The other reason you’d buy from Apple.com’s online store is if you wanted a CTO model which means you’re going to add ram, update the hard drive and ask that Apple install some software at the factory. This makes the delay in receiving your machine longer and also means you will have a hell of a time returning it to Apple. CTO models are custom and Apple will raise a fit about you trying to return it.

Where to buy? Well, since you don’t need the iMac that literally just came out and isn’t available anywhere else and since you aren’t going to be configuring the machine special w/ extras, it’s safe to buy from these four places (in this order).

• Apple Refurbished site
• Amazon.com
• MacMall
• eBay

Let’s break these down. The Apple refurbished section is a collection of Macs updated daily that are unfit to sell as new. Apple NEVER sells scratch / dent computers but the mix of computers here is about 80% open box returns where the user used it for no more than 14 days, returned it, Apple did a complete edge to edge inspection on it and re-certified it as “new”. What do you get? Well, you get a Mac w/ up to $300 in savings and no shipping delays because it’s already sitting there waiting to be purchased. You have the same one year warranty as people that buy the Macs brand new and you can buy the AppleCare three year plan on that machine w/o issue. I also hear refurb buyers get some more love when you call Apple because they want the refurb buyers to remain happy. the last thing Apple needs is people not trusting refurbished machines. I’ve bought nearly half of my computers from Apple’s refurb store and swear by it and have never received a bad Apple (literally).

Amazon.com is a tax-free and often good deal way to buy a Mac. There’s an ongoing $100-$150 off on nearly every Mac they stock and you get it tax-free which, in California saves you roughly $200-$300 on a Mac (our tax is 9.5%). So if you’re buying that stock, no custom configured brand new Mac, buy from Amazon because you’ll save up to $500 more than you have by buying directly from Apple. If the Mac just came out, Amazon will ship it later than Apple would because Apple sends Amazon products AFTER the people that bought the product direct from Apple.

MacMall is the same as Amazon except you have to pay that pesky tax but the coupons, deals and such are really good on MacMall and they do bundles where you get a free printer, bag, ram upgrade and copy of Microsoft Office for like $29 w/ the purchase of a new Mac. Sometimes it can be a good deal but remember Amazon and MacMall will never ship as fast as Apple will so if you can wait an extra 10 days and save the money, I’d go for that.

eBay..this deserves its own section (more on that later).

Why buy the latest and greatest Mac over last-generation models? It’s not an issue of speed anymore. Any Mac manufacturered since 2008 has the performance for most families to do what they need to do w/o pulling their hair out. Computers are fast at any price range these days. Everything I’ve listed above is only “new” or current-gen models. It’s rare that you’ll find a last-generation mac on the Apple Refurb Store. MacMall will do a closeout deal on last generation models if Apple releases something new so check for that. The only real benefit if you’re a casual user of getting the latest Mac is the resale value and longevity of the machine. You get that brand new Apple warranty (that can be extended to 3 years), if you put it up on eBay in 2 years, you’ll get a better resale value and you get new components that technically are more reliable since they’re new. Buying last-gen machines can save you some serious dough but you lose those benefits I mentioned. Either way, it’s up to you.

eBay, oh eBay: I love eBay. I’ve been a member since 2002 (8 years which means I was only 14 when I joined the service and sold my first piece of tech). In fact, I used to budget everything up until I was 18 like paying for my car, gas, school lunch and even homecoming dance using money I made through buying and selling on eBay and getting a paypal Debit Card before I was legally allowed to own a checking account.

Anyway, most of my computer purchases have been on eBay. There were two instances I bought directly from Apple.com’s store. My latest iMac (brand new, only available on Apple and I lacked patience) and my 15″ 2.93Ghz MacBook Pro (I wanted a solid state drive, which was a custom addon directly from Apple). Aside from those machines, it was a mix of eBay & Apple’s refurb store.

eBay can be risky. I’ve had problems with it but if you’re smart and follow tips like these, you’ll be fine. Here are my tips to buying on eBay.

Use Mactracker to search for model numbers of machines and not “macbook pro” Apple model numbers look like this MC234LL/A. Here’s a sample eBay search of that model number (link). I already noticed three machines listed incorrectly. Basically they’re listed as Revision B 1.8 Ghz Macbook Air when that model number means it’s a 2.13Ghz MacBook Air Rev C w/ SSD. How does this benefit you? Well, message the seller, ask them to get the box out or flip the computer over and verify that model number is correct…Then make them an offer.You just won a great deal because people bidding on that computer read “this is a 2 year old 1.8Ghz machine” and they bid appropriately when the seller just didn’t know what they had and you just got the latest and greatest Macbook Air for $700 less than retail.

Yes, this is how I’ve bought every single Apple computer online. This is the ultimate eBay tip. Find what you want, copy the model number and search for it then find listings in that result where the seller typed the wrong details. You have to message them to confirm that model number and then you’re golden.

On eBay, only use Buy it Now. When I search eBay, I immediately ask eBay to only show buy it now. w/ auctions, it’s time consuming, you get in a bidding war with someone and you end up making mistakes or winning two computers on the same day and stuck having to pay for them. Buy it now is a great way to find a kick ass deal and you walk away in under 60 seconds. If, at your current job, you make $35 an hour, then add up the amount of time you took to read this blog post, do your research then bid back and forth on the computer you want only to not get it and have to do it all over again when you could have just clicked “buy it now” and saved yourself valuable time. Trust me. Don’t bid on computers.

Organize by “one day remaining” Find computers that are worth $2400, currently at $800 usually because the seller sucks at listing computers or put in the wrong info and message them making an offer for $1800. They’ll be amazed and go for it. You just saved $700.

A story on how this worked for me once. I bought a 17″ MacBook Pro last year, maxed out with all of the bells and whistles. I used the tips that I listed above, saw an auction with 48 hours left on a $3400 machine from a brand new eBay user. I emailed the person asking to confirm the serial number. Tip. never give out your computer’s serial number and they gave it to me. I confirmed the machine was purchased from Apple.com 5 weeks ago and had the 3 year warranty so they spent a pretty penny for this machine. Because I was skeptical I asked them to call me and said I’d make an offer once we chatted. I got a phone call from a man in his late 70s claiming he bought it for his wife for Christmas but she wanted a PC instead and it was wrapped and under the tree so they missed the 14 day return policy and then he said, “I know computers lose 50% of their value once you leave the store so I’m just trying to recoup the time it took to set it up for her and her subsequently realize she hates Macs.”

I offered him $2100 ($1300 short of retail not even considering the 9.5% tax from Apple) and he accepted. I bought that computer, sold it 6 months later for $2900. I got a compute for 6 months, made $800 at the end and bought an iMac AND a Macbook Air with the money I made.

This system works. You can make thousands, and I haven’t spent ANY money on my computers in years because I buy low and sell high because that’s the nature of things in the Apple resale value. I hope this was helpful.

Selling your Mac: Briefly, these tips for selling your Mac

• Always get the warranty. It boosts the resale value. You can buy AppleCare warranties on eBay for 50% off Apple’s price
• Always keep the box and software
• Always include a new power adapter w/ the sale ($79 purchase from Apple)
• Include any extra software for free that you don’t use or want anymore w/ the serial keys
• Be honest in your sale and claim why you’re selling the Mac
• Sell before the next model comes out. Once your computer is two generations old, the resale value really drops.

Good luck and don’t forget, my MacBook Air is on eBay right now and you can bid here.

Here’s the eBay link to my MacBook Air sale.

In September of 2009, I wrote a review of the latest Apple MacBook Air after using it for over a month. In that review I said:

Apple’s MacBook Air is the best $1900 Netbook I’ve ever owned. Apple has managed to create a notebook that can go anywhere, do anything and satisfy 90% of my needs in such a small package that it makes me wonder what took me so long to get one. Yes, there are caveats but I’m the happiest Mac user ever with The MacBook Air.

My opinion of the MacBook Air hasn’t changed. It’s still the best notebook I’ve owned. It’s simply stunning and I can’t imagine living without it. Why am I selling it?

This rumor got me thinking. The current shipping Apple notebooks were all updated before mid-June 2009. I fully anticipate a MacBook update soon w/ new 32 nanometer processors and switching away from Core2 to Core i5/i7. Will the MacBook Air get these updates? I’m not sure and I can’t really imagine going back to a full size notebook after carrying the air around for 6+ months.

My new job at Brightkite provides a MacBook for me and it’s fast enough for all of my work tasks. It’s heavy compared to the MBA but I certainly can deal with the weight for the time being. This also means, for the past 10 days, my MacBook Air has been sitting at my desk at home gathering dust because I’m not about to carry two notebooks to work with me.

My philosophy of only owning things I use once a week applies to this. If I don’t use something at least once a week, I don’t need it in my life. That includes books, CDs, kitchen supplies and even electronics. It’s been one week and I haven’t used the MacBook Air once simply cause it’s not convenient.

Another factor is that, in less than a month, Apple’s iPad will be shipping and I was hoping that it would replace my MacBook Air for 80% of the time which means 6 out 7 days a week I grabbed my iPad instead of my MacBook Air.

So, in summary:

• New iPad ships in less than 30 days
• New Core i5/i7 Apple notebooks shipping within 60 days (based on rumor and past Apple product timelines)
• Work provides me with a MacBook that is better in performance than the MacBook Air but slightly heavier.

All of those factors lead me to the only solution which is to sell my MacBook Air. If everything aligns, I’ll enter the month of April with an iPad and Core i5 MacBook Air in my bag. The MBA for work (faster than the MacBook work provides for me) and the iPad for personal things, email on the train and books.

Right now, I have to whip out the full size MacBook on the train, plug in a 3G card (that I pay $65 a month for) and make sure I have battery life left when I arrive at the office 2 hours later. The iPad will serve book-reading, email and RSS while I make my way to the office w/ its included $30 a month 3G connection. I’m pretty stoked about the iPad and the MacBook Air w/ a new Core i5 would be terrific. I’m only hoping Apple can up the MBA memory from 2gbs to 4gbs of ram and I’ll be sold.

So, in anticipation of a new MBA and new iPad and with the fact I have a laptop right now that’s pretty darn fast, I’m selling the MacBook Air.

You can bid on it here. (eBay)

Skip down to the long horizontal line to start reading my “justification” the first part is just puff and BS about my Apple buying habits and not really crucial / important to the overall post. Seriously, skip it.

Apple introduced a new device category. The last two “new” products introduced by the consumer electronics company were the AppleTV in January of 2006 and the iPhone a year later in January 2007. Since then, Apple hasn’t done anything too revolutionary. I guess the MacBook Air in 2008 was an evolutionary step for their notebook line but it wasn’t any reason to divide the pie chart of product categories and the iPod Touch is lumped into the iPhone OS devices. It’s safe to say the iPad is an iPhone OS device and will be calculated in with sales of iPhones and iPods but it is a brand new way to consume media and is just as important as the iPhone was when released in 2007.

I think everyone agrees that the iPad is something that will evolve and improve just as the original iPhone did. On the other hand, it could fall the way of the AppleTV and see incremental software and storage capacity updates over time and eventually be laid out to pasture like Apple’s XServe and XServe RAID. It’s really too early to tell. Apple CAN do wrong and they’re not too big or too popular to fail and a new product category is extremely risky and their stock price shows that. Investors are very cautious on their outlook and conservative estimates place 2010 iPad sales at 1-5 million. By comparison, Apple sold 42 million iPhones in 2009. Basically, analysts feel the iPad might be able to do 10% of the sales iPhone did in 2009 and at the low end, it would be somewhere around 2%. Analysts are usually wrong but I just wanted to put it in perspective just how unconvinced everyone is about the real-world potential of this new device. When Apple released the iPhone 3GS, there were hundreds of articles asking the question, “if you’re an iPhone 3G user, should you upgrade?” It’s the same this time around except there are 10 times the amount of articles and the authors eventually say to users, “if you have a notebook and an iPhone, don’t buy an iPad. Just wait.” I disagree.

It’s interesting that people flooded my inbox and twitter stream with queries asking if I was going to buy the device. I hadn’t even planned on writing a blog post because most of the important stuff had already been covered by the professional journalists. What happened in the past year was my buying patters set me apart as an Apple consumer or simply as a tech consumer.

What happened was I mastered the apple resale equation. I’m okay with admitting that now. Looking at my bank and paypal statements on purchases made to Apple Computer in 2009 totaled $16,500+. There were a few more numbers in there but it was more than most people pay a year in mortgage payments. OMFG! Yes, but I maintained eBay PowerSeller status all year. Why? Because, I sold $18,000+ of goods on eBay. All of those were technology hardware which means I made a profit of $1,500 last year selling the Apple hardware I bought. How? I’ve been selling computers and iPods on eBay since 2003. I’ve sold almost 200 items on eBay on 7 years. That’s not very much but that’s 200 items that get $100-$4,000 which I turn around and use to buy the latest gadget. This obsessive disorder toward the latest computer hardware is a problem I admit that but until it starts costing me money, I have no reason to stop my buying trends. If I could guarantee you a new car every 6 months and you’d make money as well, would you do it? Of course you would. This is all I’m doing so the haters tell me I’m wasting my money and I’m really not.

The situation I’m in now is that people actually think my opinion on Apple hardware matters simply given that I have used every new Apple hardware in the past 5-7 years. Okay, fair enough but I’m not an expert reviewer, just someone who has found a way to beat the system. Without further ado, here is my justification for an Apple iPad.

———————————————————————–

The iPad is a transition product sitting awkwardly between iPhone / iPod touch and Apple’s portable / desktop computers. It’s much too beefy to even be called a Kindle Killer (which it is) and much too big to cannibalize non iPhone OS devices (nano, shuffle, classic). The iPad will be most suited (aka, a no brainer) to families, moms, dads, little sisters, grandparents who only need the basics (web, email, media, books) and don’t need to get into the maintenance, software costs, complicated operating systems that regular notebooks / netbooks provide.

Basically, your grandmother doesn’t want the hassle of applying security updates and booting up her netbook just to check Yahoo! Mail. An iPad with wireless internet in her home on a DSL Lite connection is perfect for seeing photos you’ve emailed her and watching ABC News Video content or buying a new book. She’ll use it less than 30 minutes a day and be extremely happy with it and the phone calls to you on Sunday morning when it doesn’t boot will cease because the device is too simple to fail (almost) unlike the Windows XP you bought her that has a tiny ass screen with blue screens of death once a week.

Another scenario is you 12-16 year old sister, daughter, son, niece, nephew doesn’t need their own computer yet because the family computer is adequate and spending $899 for a MacBook is out of the budget but they need a computer to take notes on and play with games. It’s cheap enough that you can justify it and large enough that it can be used as an “internet terminal” better than an iPod Touch. It’s great for teenagers who need something more functional than an iPod.

My mom and dad will be getting iPads from me for Christmas. Dad has long wanted a notebook computer but my recommendations put him at just under a thousand bucks and that’s for a windows PC and all he wants to do is search the web, watch videos and check emails. An iPad would be perfect because both Mom and Dad get angry and tired of dealing with their Windows PCs and I have to pay for LogMeIn access to offer tech support to them when they have issues. An iPad would be perfect for them and my sisters could use them as household devices when my parents weren’t using them.

For these three groups, the iPad is perfect. You, the reader, aren’t in this group. You’re a technological person, you own an iPod / iPhone and you have a notebook (PC or Mac). I know this because 5% of my readers are iPhone OS users, 50% are Macs and 40% are PCs. Less than 5% of the readers are Linux, Symbian, Blackberry and Windows Mobile. You don’t “need” an iPad. Don’t worry. I’m going to help you justify it because I want the iPad to be around for a while unlike the AppleTV because I bought one and Apple abandoned it. It makes me sad

Why I need one:

I own the following:

• iPhone 3GS (32GB)
• AppleTV (160GB)
• iMac 27″ Core i7
• MacBook Air 2.13Ghz w/ SSD
• iPod Nano (16GB w/ Video)
• Dell Quad-Core PC w/ tons of gaming components, TV-Tuner, 30″ Dell LCD
• XBox 360 w/ Bose 2.1 Speaker System

I have everything and more than most people need. I have a home theatre solution, portable solution, ultra-portable system, music player and work machine and then some. Yet, I’ve justified an iPad… So don’t worry, you’ll have no problem justifying it to your family and spouse after reading this.

When I leave the house, my Incase or Brenthaven backpack has the following contents:

• MacBook Air
• Protective sleeve
• AC Adapter
• AT&T 3G Card
• SD USB Reader
• Canon G11
• Extra Battery for Canon
• Flip Mino HD
• USB Cable for iPhone
• Mini Tripod
• Shure SE530 Earphones
• Knife

In summary, I have about 18 pounds of technology worth about $3800 in my bag at all times. That’s just a heads up to you crazy fuckers who follow me around looking to score some free tech goodies that are all brand new and in warranty.

Anyway, 5-7 pounds of my gear is the MacBook, adapters, cables, chargers and accessories that go with it. What do I actually use the air for? If I’m going to work, that’s a 17 minute walk and I don’t need it so mostly the air is for conferences, meetings and if I get the itch to stop at a coffee shop on the way home and write (like I am now). The MacBook is also with me on the weekends when I’m out with friends or taking photos. Occasionally an email will come in that would take too long to answer on my iPhone so I whip out the MBA w/ 3G card and get some work done no matter where I am in the city. This is also my setup when I go out to dinner, I have a smaller more thin bag and always have my laptop and 3G card on me because work could happen at any time and I don’t want to rely on my iPhone for big tasks that would take 10x as long on that tiny screen.

The times I actually needed my MacBook Air are at least once a day while I’m out all day but mostly it’s Email, word processing, spreadsheet work, wordpress work (safari / firefox) and other web based support tools for clients and maybe some work in Tweetie. That’s it. The iPad can do all of that.Days when I’m at my office, the MBA comes with me to meetings, lunch dates and conference room sit downs with my boss. I’m usually only taking notes and saving them to MobileMe for access on my iMac when I get back to my desk.

Come to think of it, the MacBook Air is a full featured notebook but it lacks the capabilities (multi-media capabilities) that my MacBook Pro used to have. The reason why is my Dell PC at home and iMac at work (both owned by me) are fast enough and accessible enough that if something is CPU intensive (audio, video, gaming), I just walk 10 minutes to the office or wait until I’m home to do it. All and the weight I saved by downgrading to a MacBook Air has been phenomenal but the MBA is still overkill for what I do when out and about.

My MacBook Air is really used for just those basic tasks. I’m looking at my MBA dock right now.

• Tweetie
• Mail
• Firefox
• NetNewsWire
• iCal
• Things (to-do mangement)

Tweetie, NetNewsWire and Things are all available for the iPhone and sync back to my iMac. Mail & Firefox & iCal are already on the iPad. This is all I use on the MacBook Air and it only gets 2.5 hours of battery life when I turn the brightness up. To top it all off, I pay $65 a month for an AT&T 3G Card that’s bulky, cumbersome, requires a USB extension cable (because the card won’t fit in the MBA USB slot). Then I have the MBA power adapter and SD card reader adapter (cause I like to upload photos on the go when I’m riding the bus back to my house after a long day of photo walking.

Finally, I’ve been holding off buying a Kindle since it was introduced. I kept waiting for Apple to compete. I buy books on the kindle app via iPhone but it’s too small to read. So I’ll be using the iPad for reading books as well so that will factor in a savings of around $259

Let’s run the numbers:

• iPad 32GB Model w/ 3G – $729 + $30 a month for unlimited AT&T 3G = $1089 for 12 months of use
• Minus the cost savings of $259 since I won’t be buying a Kindle this year (side-note)
  
• MacBook Air 2.13Ghz Model -$1899 + $65 a month for AT&T 3g + $125 for AT&T Card (retail) = $2804 for 12 months of use.

After owning a MacBook Air for 6 months, it’s clear that I’m spending nearly 3 times as much and carrying 4 times as much weight in my bag for a device that does the same tasks as an iPad. Let’s not mention the AC adapter, cables, adapters and 3G DataCard I have to carry around with me EVERYWHERE if I want to work effectively when work is required.

By using the iPad,

• I go from 5-7 pounds of gear to 1.5 pounds of gear
• If I’m robbed, it’s a $729 loss and not a $2,000 loss
• My battery life goes from 2.5 hours to 10 hours (Apple’s iPad claim)
• The experience is seamless with less maintenance, repair costs and other “expenses” inherited by owning a notebook computer

In Summary:

An iPad doesn’t fit my lifestyle completely but compared to the MacBook Air, it will compliment my iMac and Dell PC at home perfectly fitting right between the iPhone and iMac as a replacement to my laptop. I used to be under the impression that faster, bigger, better is the way to go. Now, I realize that lighter and more portable wins even if you lose a bit of the functionality.

However, I don’t think I’ll be selling my MacBook Air. I like it a lot. it’s a great computer and I’m not always in the office. Some days, I’ll spend all day at a cafe working on some heavy duty stuff or simply not leave my bed until noon working on my laptop and a “lap tablet computer” is simply not ergonomic enough to work on for 10+ hours without being in extreme pain and discomfort or having the feeling of wanting “more”.

I think it’ll play out like it did when I purchased the MacBook Air. I wasn’t sure how powerful the MBA would be and how well it would fit in my life. so I bought one but kept my 17″ MacBook Pro. It took a month for me to realize that the MacBook Air is the only notebook I needed. I sold the 17″ and got the iMac 27″ instead. Now the MBA is my only portable computer (aside from the iPhone).

My plan is to buy the iPad, try it for a month and if I notice that I’m rarely using the MacBook Air (like less than 30 minutes a day), i’ll scrap it and be iPad only but I need to make sure it really truly fits into my life as a justifiable productivity tool. If I still find myself grabbing the MacBook Air instead of the iPad, I’ll sell the iPad.

I think the device can do what I need, 10x faster than the iPhone but probably 2x slower than my MacBook Air but the portability and convenience of the iPad and investment if lost or stolen is much more valuable despite the slight drop in productivity.

For your non-techie family and friends, it’s perfect. They should get one ASAP. For us techies, it’s not so easy to justify. I hope you enjoyed this 2400 word justification

Starbucks Gold Card (Introduced Summer, 2008)

While stopping by my most often visited Starbucks store last week in San Francisco, the barista recognized me as “The gold card guy” and “the guy who is in the Christmas Blend fan club” and asked if I’ll have the usual (Grande Christmas Blend). She then checked to see if I had heard of the new Starbucks Gold Level Rewards. I had not but I was a Gold Card member and wanted to hear more. Half way into this pitch she was stumbling over the explanation and just told me to go to the website to read all about it because she still wasn’t sure what it meant but she did assure me all Gold Card holders would be “upgraded” for free.

What’s Starbucks Gold? Well, it’s a program that started at the end of Summer, 2008 as a $25 a year membership that gives you benefits for being a loyal customer (despite the fact you’re paying for those benefits). Starbucks Gold has the following benefits:

• 10% off most purchases in participating U.S. Starbucks stores (the main benefit)
• A free drink when you purchase your membership in-store (one time savings)
• Option to pay however you’d like (cash, credit card, etc.) (as opposed to being forced to pay?)
• A free beverage on your birthday (birthdays ftw, one time savings)
• Exclusive offers and discounts throughout the year (umm, yeah, whatever)
• Free Wi-Fi access for up to 2 hours each day in participating Starbucks stores (good, but the free Starbucks stored value card gives you the same thing)

After 1.5 years as a member, I never once received an “exclusive discount or offer” despite visiting 4+ days a week. Whatever, I guess. I did use those 2 hours of free wi-fi at least twice a week for meetings and times when I just wanted to get out of the house and work with a cup of coffee at my side. It’s a nice benefit. I’d have to spend $250 a year on Starbucks in order to validate this $25 purchase at 10% discounts on most things in the story. I spend $250 every 3 months ($1,000 a year) so it’s a great deal since I’m getting $100 back every  year w/ 10% off. So yeah, overall, the program was pretty cool. In fact, when my membership was supposed to lapse in mid-August, Starbucks sent me a letter notifying me that they were going to extend Gold Memberships for free through January 5th, 2010 (a free 6 months) and I didn’t know why but now I do.

Starbucks’ New Rewards Program:

Starbucks has introduced the most confusing program ever that is equivalent to the rewards programs that frequent fliers deal with from those pesky airlines. This page on Starbucks.com does a decent job explaining how the program works. I’ve embedded the “easy to understand” graphic below that’s not very easy to understand.

Welcome Letter to Gold Level Rewards

So, based on this, any Starbucks “Gift card” or “card” holder that can store a balance is just a normal customer that has money to spend. Once they visit Starbucks.com and register their card, they get a free beverage on their birthday (as long as they keep a balance on their card). This is a small thank you for allowing Starbucks to email you marketing materials and know your age which is also good data to have on their customer who was previously anonymous.

My Gold Level Rewards Card

That icon “5 star” that you see is a representation of “transactions”. Every transaction in a United States Starbucks Operated store counts as one star. There’s no expiration on those starts accruing so if you go 5 times in a day or 5 times in a year, you’ll still get those points. Once you get 5 transactions, the benefits of free wi-fi, free coffee refills (brewed only, Clover Brew is excluded) and other benefits are now yours. Remember, you must use that registered card in those transactions to qualify which means you’ll need to have money on that card.

This is great for the occasional person that visits Starbucks. They get some great benefits like the ability to add soy to their latte for free or get a refill on that grande coffee and use the Wi-Fi for 2 hours without ever paying. It’s nice and you only have to use that Starbucks card 5 times and register it to get those benefits. I’m all about Starbucks opening up this previously $25 a year program to all customers.

Introducing Starbucks Gold Level Rewards:

Free Drink every 15 Transactions sent to you via US Mail

What’s this talk of “gold level rewards”? Well, once you accrue 30 transactions on your Starbucks Card, you are now a “Gold Level” member and you’ll get a free drink for every 15 transactions. Remember, these can be the purchase of coffee, tea, cookies and even ground coffee by the pound. I don’t think it counts on the purchase of coffee appliances (espresso machines and other misc. things they sell in stores). You also get a “personalized gold card” in the mail that makes you look fancy and special every time you go in the store. All of the “green level” benefits roll over to this new card.

There are always finer details so I went to their Rewards FAQ to find out more:

What is a star and how do I earn one?

You can earn stars and receive in-store benefits simply by paying for a transaction with any Starbucks Card registered to your account (at participating Starbucks stores in the U.S.) You will be able to track your stars online by logging into your account.

What is the main benefit at the Gold Level?

The ability to earn free drinks based on visits is a key benefit of the Gold Level. People told us they wanted to be recognized and rewarded for their frequent visits to Starbucks and they also wanted free drinks. The personalized, exclusive card is another way to provide recognition for the people who visit us the most. Finally, the ability to receive all the benefits previously available only in Starbucks Card Rewards was a key improvement to the program based directly on customer feedback. (Current Starbucks Gold members did not receive those benefits.)

How will I receive my free drinks?

We will send you postcards that you can bring into stores to redeem for your free drinks. This is also the way the current birthday beverage benefit is fulfilled.

Why is the program changing?

Starbucks Card Rewards and Starbucks Gold were both very popular with customers and exceeded our expectations. However, we are always looking for ways to improve our programs. With My Starbucks Rewards we have incorporated many of the specific suggestions we received from customers and our Partners. The new program will:

• Be free at all levels – no membership fee, enabling more customers to participate
• Be one simple program that is easy to understand and use
• Provide tiered rewards – i.e. once you achieve Gold Level, you will still continue to enjoy the benefits offered at the Welcome and Green Levels
• Recognize and reward our best customers based on frequent, personalized rewards including free drinks

Is there a fee to join the new program?

No. There is no membership fee at any level of the new program. All you have to do is register your loaded Starbucks Card and you will be entered into the program and qualify to receive a free drink on your birthday.

My Gold Level Rewards Card

So, there you have it. Let’s discuss these a bit. I already covered the “stars” but it seems that every single transaction in the store counts but I’m pretty sure, as before, it doesn’t count on coffee roasters, grinders and other “appliances.” The main benefit is that you get free drinks simply by registering your card, hitting 30 transactions and then every 15 transactions, you’ll get a free drink! How do you get this free drink? Well, you will be mailed a coupon which will cost Starbucks money to mail it and waste thousands of trees just so you have this physical coupon that you can use in the store and can be immediately tossed in the trash by a barista.

Their reason for changing the program is complete bullshit. What Starbucks is effectively doing is canceling the $25 a year program and instead asking that you pay for 15 items (transactions) and they’ll mail you a coupon for a free beverage and they’re hoping US Mail will lose it or you’ll lose the coupon and thus they’ll never have to actually give you that free beverage.

My Gold Level Rewards Card

The only benefit I can see is that any Starbucks card on your account counts. So you and your wife use two separate cards that auto-reload every month and in one week, you can both use Starbucks once a day and accrue a free beverage each week. You’re still spending a shit load of money on Starbucks where the 10% discount would be worth much more.

A few loyal customers and employees gave their thoughts on my favorite blog, StarbucksGossip.com

Eric Writes:

Opening: I stated on Thursday when the iMac came in that I only review new technology after I’ve been using it for 2-4 weeks. It’s been 5 days and I’m already fully prepared to review this amazing machine. The key reason is that the iMac isn’t a notebook. A notebook sits in your lap, at the cafe, in your bag and at your desk. Aesthetics and the bond you form with that lifestyle machine is significantly different than a desktop PC. So, although the iMac is simply amazing, it doesn’t need the extra 2 weeks of “travel” for me to fully evaluate it.

The Apple iMac is a machine that I’ve always respected but never lusted after. Apple continued to win my heart with smaller, faster, lighter and more beautiful notebook computers beginning in 2001 when I first toted a Tangerine G3 iBook under my arm. Each iteration seemed to compliment me with orange to white to black and then to aluminum. Apple continued to innovate until I arrived at the MacBook Air. It’s the ultimate portable Mac and it’s far more of a workhouse than many PC counterparts with similar specs (and without the portability). I’ve owned every generation of Apple laptop since 2003 from 12 to 17 inches from G3 to Core2Duo. I think my laptop reviews are pretty accurate from a user perspective.

My first Mac was a Mac Plus, followed by an SE/30 (it was a hand-me-down) and then a Graphite G3 at 600Mhz. I ditched desktops but got a great price on a Dual-Processor 2Ghz G5 PowerMac in 2006. It was used, fast and heavy. so heavy, that I actually cut my toe wide-open when I walked into it at midnight  while walking to the bathroom to pee. Seriously, the thing was a beast.

The iMac’s slow product cycle became boring. I was interested again in 2007 and 2008 when the iMac went aluminum with a black mirrored glass front. I waited for the redesigned MacBook Pro to ship in October and realized that I could get a similarly speced MacBook Pro for only $250 dollars more and have the same power with okay portability. Sorry Apple, I stayed true to the MacBook and, for a while, I was happy with my purchase.

I realized though around August, after purchasing the MacBook Air that the MacBook Pro was a great machine that never left my desk. It was a lot of aluminum just sitting there losing value and doing the job of a desktop machine. The iMac was still the same speed as the MacBook Pro which meant resale value of my 4 month old MBP was higher than a new iMac from Apple. Of course, when the iMac was updated, I immediately knew it was time to sell the MacBook Pro and go back to desktop.

What made me switch? What was so compelling about the iMac that inspired me to click “Buy Now” on Apple.com?

• The Intel Core i7 w/ Hyperthreading. The first Quad-Core iMac w/ 4 additional virtual cores, a blazing fast front side bus and amazing energy savings as it downclocks the processor within milliseconds so if you don’t need 3.2Ghz, it downclocks to 2.8Ghz.
• An amazingly gorgeous 27″ LED display. It puts my $2,000 30″ Dell LCD to shame. It makes my 24″ Dell Ultrasharp look like crap and even friends who have Apple’s new 24″ display will say that the new iMac is breathtaking next to it.
• A two terabyte hard drive and 8 gigabytes of ram is actually affordable. Apple really outdid themselves on pricing. Due to the recession, Apple has dropped prices all around, but I’m still making what I made 2 years ago so only $150 to double my ram from 4 to 8 gigabytes? Hell yes!

A word of warning. Apple has nearly ceased shipments of the new iMac due to quality control issues. At the time of this writing, users are getting machines that have flickering screens, yellow screens and even machines that are cracked on the edges from being too big for that iMac box that was designed back when 20″ was the largest their machines went. Be careful. If you’re ordering an iMac, be prepared to ship it back. I know 4 people who have had theirs replaced within 24 hours of receiving it.

The iMac i7 processor is overkill but it’s fast. I always get the fastest machine for resale value. 90%+ of the apps that you will find:

• Won’t support more than 1 or 2 cores ( you have 8 in the i7)
• Won’t support 64-bit processes / threads (Which the i7 is 64-bit)
• Won’t benefit but a CPU faster than 3Ghz

Keep in mind, this machine is going to last you for 2-5 years. Plan for the future! I’ll be selling it in 3-4 months but that’s just me. I did my research and those who went for the i7 are seeing 20% gains in performance while ripping DVDs, exporting movies and ripping music. If you do a lot of content creation, the i7 is a worthwhile investment. If you’re reading this in March of 2010, then yes get the i7 because more apps will support all of those blazing fast cores.

All I can say is that everyone that went for the i7, including me, are happy with it and feel a noticeable improvement.

Do you need 8 gigabytes of ram? Personally, I have worked on this thing all day and at my peak of “normal load” my “wired” memory usage is around 4.8 gigabytes. The thing to know about the Mac OS is that if you give it more ram, the OS will take it. BSD is pretty good about giving up ram, as well. It doesn’t “use” the ram, it simply wires it for an application so when that app needs it, the ram is right there waiting but it will change the wired amount of ram constantly in anticipation for certain processes or simply to give some away to another app that you’ve launched. With

I don’t need a two terabyte drive. One terabyte would have been fine. Actually, I’m pretty happy with the upgrade simply because of the resale value. What’s nice about finally going back to a desktop is that I can store my entire iTunes & iPhoto library on the boot drive and back them up to a time machine external drive. This is awesome! iPhoto is 150 gigabytes and iTunes is 400 gigabytes. It’s nice to be able to keep this local for the first time since 2003. After filling up the drive to the brim, I still have one full terabyte of free space remaining. This is pretty amazing. Now I just have to buy a 2 terabyte external drive because my 1 tb drive won’t back up the entire iMac.

Using the machine:

This is what really matters. Once the machine is setup and on my desk and after 4 hours of copying 500 gigabytes of data over from my MacBook Pro, what is the machine actually like?

It’s no doubt the fastest Macintosh I’ve ever used. It’s 3x faster than my 3Ghz 17″ MacBook Pro. It’s 5x faster than my MacBook Air just based on GeekBench Benchmarks. You will be thoroughly amazed at just how fast this machine is. In all honesty, that’s all I care about and every thing I do relies on speed. I can honestly say that my current notebooks could never ever keep up with my speed. I’m extremely demanding of my machines and was constantly fed up with the 3Ghz MacBook Pro being insanely slow. I’m happy to report that the iMac is the first machine that isn’t too slow. I’m serious. The machine is the fastest Mac I’ve ever used and I can’t get it to slow down at any time. I guess the fact that it’s 3x faster than my previous Mac certainly makes up for that.

The display puts to shame every other display I’ve ever used. At home, I have a 30″ Dell 3008WFP hooked up to my Windows 7 machine. It’s a beautiful and huge monitor but it’s not warm. There’s nothing warm or inviting about that monitor. It’s a high resolution monitor but it’s not crisp, warm and the color seems washed out. I learned that Apple used extremely high quality displays in the new iMacs that are far better than most consumers will be able to get. If you do buy a 27″ LED display w/ Super IPS technology, you’ll pay about $1200 from a non-name manufacturer. Apple is including a computer in this amazing display.

I have my 24″ Dell  UltraSharp display hooked up to the iMac as a 2nd monitor and there’s just no comparison. The Dell looks like shit compared to the iMac. It’s not even noticeable in the Apple store but once you get home and assume typing position do you realize just how epic this screen is compared to any other computer. Even if you don’t need the power, just get the base $1699 model if only for that amazing screen.

With all of that space, I kind of hoped Apple would have included an SSD option as a boot drive w/ a 2nd hard drive internally. Booting to a 128GB SSD in 10 seconds and having all of my data accessible on a 2nd drive would rock. Instead, my MacBook air is up in 10 seconds and the iMac takes about 45 seconds. Clearly, the hard drive is the ONLY bottleneck on this machine. I could buy a 512GB SSD but it would cost the price of a new iMac so I’ll just deal with it. Luckily, at launch it takes about 2.5 minutes for all of my apps to start and do their thing and then, since everything is in ram, my machine is ultra fast moving forward. An SSD is really only useful for launching and opening things. Once you’re up and running, it’s totally fine so this isn’t really an issue that I should be talking about.

Hey look at my new computer!

As far as bragging rights go, this machine is the  ultimate Mac. Not many PC or Mac users see a Mac Pro and drool because that Mac Pro could be an old dual-core machine from 2006 but the iMac is 27″ of beauty with an edge to edge display, small footprint and amazing look & feel.

The sound is loud and rich. It has great sound and maybe all iMacs have this but coming from a MacBook Pro, I’m amazed at how loud the new iMac can get. I just sold my speakers that were hooked up to my notebook because I simply don’t need them anymore.

NO CABLES! Seriously. Look at my desk and sit down. I don’t see a single cable. It’s simply amazing how much this affects my workflow and my overall mood. It’s not until I plug in my MacBook Air that I have a power cord running across my desk.

Noisy. The iMac gets very noisy. Dual fans kick up to high even when I am ripping a CD or doing an iTunes visualizer. The back of the machine is amazingly hot. It will burn your hands if you rest them on the back of the machine. It’s clear that the i7 just isn’t ready for laptops yet. It’s only a single chip but it’s still a desktop chip which is a first for the iMac. This is mostly why the iMac wasn’t appealing to me before. The guts were the exact same as Apple’s notebooks. Why not pay a tad bit more for portability?  The 27″ iMac w/ Core i5 / i7 is a desktop machine with desktop parts and thus has desktop speeds. It’s really amazing to spec the Core2Duo 21″ model versus the 27″ Core i7. It’s totally night and day.

The SD card reader is huge if you’re a photographer. I was tired of bringing around either a USB cable or SD card reader with me everywhere. It’s amazing how convenient it is to have an SD reader. Yeah my 3 year old PC had one of these but Apple is finally doing it and I love it!

The iSight is unchanged. Still not really used. I don’t know anyone that video conferences anymore.

No eSATA? Seriously? Just look at these charts. I’ve said enough. http://macperformanceguide.com/Storage-Drive-SATA-vs-Firewire.html

No included remote? Seriously Apple? Remote doesn’t stick to the side of the machine anymore? Seriously Apple? I never used the remote but c’mon!

No number key on the included keyboard? C’mon! I love wireless to death but the fact that I don’t have a number key really sucks. Every Friday I do 3-5 hours of reports in Excel and I’m just going to keep my wired USB keyboard simply for those times when I’m going to do number crunching.

No full-size HDMI, DisplayPort or DVI? That’s fine. Apple likes to standardize their machines to cut costs and reduce issues and simply put the cost of adding adapters on the user’s shoulders. I had a DVI to Mini Display Port adater so I’m good but it would get expensive if I wanted to do anything else with it.

By the way, my Dell 30″ might not have the amazing picture quality as the iMac but it has about 10 different ports on the bottom for nearly everything you could imagine. The iMac just isn’t going to compete with that.

Overall:

The iMac is pretty amazing. I weighed in on the options quite a bit before deciding to sell my MacBook Pro. The machine is simply stunning and I admit that I’ve come into the office every day this week just to use it. I’m sure my colleagues are happy about that too.

The photoset is here. I’ve embedded it below.

Just a few minutes ago, I logged into Twitter.com to verify something and saw this glorious goodness:

That’s actually not my screengrab, I stole it from this guy but I do now regret not screen-grabbing the feature for later use. I’ve long expressed my “distaste” of the new feature but, as usual, Adam should have kept his mouth shut until actually trying it because now I can see exactly the kind of power RT has now that it’s an official feature. It was well thought out and takes retweeting to the next level in a very logical way.

The Basics:
First of all, I had to go back a page or two to find a tweet that was retweeted by someone else. It turns out Evan Williams retweeted someone named Rael who I’ve seen mentioned by friends here and there. As I scrolled over that tweet, it looks like Twitter has added a “tip” that says, “Wondering who this is?” with some info as to why you’re seeing that person in your stream. This is an excellent way to avoid any “freak-outs” that we’ve seen in the past from a few celebrities that got the feature early on.

I’m writing this assuming you’re a Twitter power user and understand what retweeting is. If you’re not, this blog post should get you started. The retweeting feature of Twitter.com allows you to retweet any interesting tweet you see with 2 clicks. Click “retweet” and confirm that’s what you want to do as Twitter lets you know this will be tweeted to all of your followers. You won’t see the retweet in your main /home page on Twitter. Why? Well, we’ll get to that later. People that are following you that have the new feature enabled will see someone’s  face in their stream that they’re not following and it will say that they were retweeted by you. They can also retweet that person as well but to their followers, it won’t show your name and will just say retweeted by “3 others” up to infinity I’m guessing.

If the person following you does not have the feature yet, they’ll simply see your face like usual with RT and then the tweet and it will look just like it did before the new feature so there’s no weirdness for people following you that don’t have it yet.

Discovery:
I’ve written a lot of lessons about discovery and mindshare and, personally, I found myself taking additional time when scanning the stream of data just to look at tweets that started with RT. The RT means it was retweeted and is something important. My fear was having a new face in my stream would throw me off (thinking I accidentally followed someone) but instead, on Twitter.com they made the UI understandable enough that if you saw the RT logo (a little square stamp) you could, over time, start ignoring them or paying more attention to them just like you did when you saw RT before a tweet before. The image is more recognizable and thus easier to filter as our brain interprets data and catalogs it.

So my first gripe was out and I’m happy about that. The RT will be missed but until Twitter rolls it out site-wide, we’ll be seeing it for a while. Plus, any 3rd party Twitter applications that don’t support Twitter’s ReTweet API, will still do the old fashioned way and since it’s text, Twitter won’t be able to block it. For those of you that prefer the old method, no one is stopping you from simply copying someone’s tweet and putting RT in front of it. Over time, more apps will support the new method.

Discovery is key. RT wasn’t just a way to share someone else’s tweet with your followers; it was a way to give kudos, thanks or a thumbs up to someone. Sharing, re-blogging or quoting is a way to show your appreciation and spread the word to people you follow. Twitter users love being retweeted. The thing about RTs is that I never gained any significant amount of followers from it. I’m sure many followers of people that retweeted me, saw my post or my link but not many clicked through to follow me. That might be changing. I saw this reply today just after using the RT feature and talking about it:

So, Hans-Jörn actually discovered me through a retweet of someone else. This makes complete sense because humans are visual creatures so my face appearing in his timeline (since he has the new retweet feature) triggered an awareness to my content and despite what my message was that was retweeted, he may have a trust with the person who retweeted me so w/ my face, content and “recommendation” from a friend, Hans felt confident enough to click “follow” next to my name. This was never possible prior to the new feature being enabled.

The Finer Details:

I wanted to note a couple of things that were interesting. Another one of my fears was that guys like Ashton Kutcher or websites like TechCrunch that have millions of followers and thus get retweeted hundreds of times would fill my stream. Everytime a new TechCrunch post is tweeted out, dozens of my friends tweet out the link that it’s hard to concentrate. The new retweet feature only enables you to see that status one time. Let me drill down into this a bit more.

I follow @Ev on Twitter. He posts something 10 minutes ago and 10 of my friends retweet it. I’ll never see those retweets because I already saw his tweet (since I’m following him). Sure, there’s a likelihood that I wasn’t looking at Twitter when he posted the update, but Twitter would rather not fill your stream with duplicate tweets. To back up just a bit, it’s important to remember that anyone simply putting, “RT @Ev….” as a text retweet, I’ll still see those because it’s text. This is an example of retweet content that will continue to live on for some time:

The same rule applied to people I’m following. I retweeted a post from @Ev. I refreshed my Twitter.com/home page and saw that my RT wasn’t showing up! The reason is that since I’m following him, it won’t show in the stream but if I navigate to /AdamJackson on Twitter (which is my public profile view), the Retweet does show up. This minor experience decision from Twitter will mean the stream is less spammy and thus solves one of my major gripes about the RT feature.

When a retweeted post says, “retweeted by 21 people” you can’t actually see who those people are. Earlier designs showed a view of Twitter avatars from people who retweeted it but it seems that was scrapped or just temporarily disabled. That’s totally fine because it’s distracting. I’d like to be able to click the number and see a list of people who retweeted. Further expansion on this since Twitter is now organizing the data differently would be to show leader boards by the amount of retweets but I guess I’ll have to stick to TweetMeme for now. Here is what the old retweet method looked like in earlier mockups.

Here’s how it looks now:

You can also now “undo” a retweet. Instead of the option to “delete” a retweet which might serve as confusing since it looks like you’re deleting the original person’s tweet (not technically possible but could be confusing to some), this undo button makes more sense that you’re undoing your retweet.

A final granular feature that I think is extremely important is the time stamp of the person’s original tweet is accurate since Scoble tweeted this out “9 hours ago” that’s the time stamp that is maintained when my followers see his face on my stream. Remember, people that follow him won’t see it. When I hover over the “you” area which is you or whoever retweeted it, I see a timestamp for when I actually retweeted it which was 31 minutes ago.

In Conclusion:
I wanted to mention that this was only after 5-10 minutes of using the new retweet feature. This was a feature I was pretty against when the screen shots first appeared last month but now that it’s being rolled out, I’m very impressed. Let’s keep in mind that this is still in beta and rumors say that it’s only being rolled out to 5% of users but the new feature will work with 3rd party clients via the API and I can expect even more good things from this new implementation as Twitter continues to improve the way it functions. Overall, I’m pleased with it and look forward to seeing where it goes next.

My Mom who is techie enough to do real estate online, send emails and video chat with me has decided to use Twitter. She’s already on, actually but we can pick any computer user who is proficient enough to use Gmail and put them in front of Twitter.

The sign up process is simple but I’ve only told them, they can follow family & friends and update those people with what they’re doing. It’s a way to easily connect with others and share things. Mom is excited but the front page is pretty confusing. “popular topics by the minute, day and week” is on the main page. She reads through all of the topics and this is what she sees.

She’s aware of Veterans Day and Fort Hood but “#blamediddy” and “#donttrytoholla” look weird. What’s “Google Wave” and why are people talking about “MW2″? This is a bit confusing and she immediately assumes that this site is a place to talk about current events but she heard from me that this is a way to keep up with friends and see what they’re doing. Twitter’s tag line says, “Share and discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world.”

At this point, her interest has passed and she’s merely following my recommendation. Joining is easy but with 82 million current users (11/12/09), she has a problem picking a username. Once she’s in, there are hundreds of “suggested” people that are recommended to her to follow. Al Gore is there and model, Brooke Burke and some guy name TechCrunch is recommended. She follows a few celebrities and moves on. Skipping the “find friends” area she now has a main page full of tweets from celebrities and there’s a box that asks, “what are you doing?”

After a while of scrolling around and seeing a lot of tweets she has no idea what to do from here. The sidebar has her name and tweet count and there’s a search box and then trends that show all kinds of topics and most mean nothing to her at all. She’s not really interested in pop culture and why are people talking about “3 words after sex”? She sees an option for lists and finally there’s a button that says, “Find People” at the top of the page.

From here, she can enter a friend’s email address, login to her Yahoo Mail account or search by first and last name for family members. This process couldn’t be easier but since her friends don’t tweet very much, her Twitter stream is now full of deals from Dell Outlet and some VC in Silicon Valley that’s live blogging a conference. “This isn’t very valuable” she says. She makes a great point.

I’m watching closely as she explores the screen. I told her she can reply to someone’s tweet to start a conversation. “How?” she says. She makes a great point. The reply and favorite buttons aren’t visible until you hover over a tweet. This simple user interface decision turns into a user experience nightmare. I don’t answer and let her try to find out for herself. 52 seconds later she finds the reply button and clicks it. The process of sending a reply is very easy.

She clicks on TechCrunch’s avatar and sees their page full of auto-posts. This is pretty boring and she wants to unfollow them. Where?

I have to show her the drop down to unfollow them. What are lists, she asks. Well, lists are a way to organize people you want to categorize into different sections like friends and family and maybe one for Florida friends and another for California. That makes sense but she has no idea how to create one so it’s very quick that she gives up.

Back on the main page, she’s following 10 people and suddenly Ashton Kutcher shows up on her stream w/  “retweeted by brooke burke” text below it. “Why is Ashton showing up? I can’t stand that guy!” I explain to her that people can retweet other people’s tweets and you can choose to not see those on a person to person basis. She understands and wishes that she could just disable retweets all together, “what if someone retweets something pornographic?” she asks and I have no response and just tell her that let’s hope they tag it with “not safe for work” so she doesn’t click it.

This was all Mom needed for her first Twitter lesson. She goes off exploring and here are some follow up questions I get over email.

• Who is “britneyfuckedvids” and why is she following me so many times?
• I clicked on some post under trending and now I see a ton of RTs about google wave. How do I get out of that?
• Someone followed me and keeps sending me all of these replies about hotel deals and travel. Did they hack into my twitter?
• I signed up for a get more followers thing but now all of these people are showing up in my page?
• How do I tweet from my phone like you do? Where do I go to get something like that?

Then, fast forward one week and she’s stopped using the service. She goes to my page to see what I’m up to but she’s simply stopped. The spammers, features and retweets just made it one big mess and even though she’s a modern woman in her forties, Twitter was simply too much to fuss with.

If she had joined Twitter 3 years ago like I did, the progression of complexity would be slow and manageable but it’s kind of like you’ve never used a word processor and all of the sudden, here’s Office 2007, Go have fun! It’s too much and sometimes we just want notepad or textedit instead of MS Word. Twitter is on the road to complexity and when it really matters and we really are trying to do something, along comes the failwhale and Twitter is over capacity.

Air travel has become mundane, boring and a necessity among travelers. Honestly, I blame our poor train system in the US but events such as 9/11 didn’t force the airlines to actually cut costs, they maintained their price structure and took out amenities which includes putting seats closer together and not serving food even on 6 hour cross-country flights. A cheap ticket equals 2 layovers and a soda is $3.50. If you’re 6 feet tall, expect to have leg cramps and when your laptop dies 2 hours in, it’s too bad because now you are forced to taking sleeping pills to fall asleep and hope you don’t wake up with horrible neck pain. Welcome to typical boring Domestic Air Travel!

Virgin America launched in 2006 as a different kind of airline company. They launched amid an industry downturn where most of the airlines had filed for bankruptcy or had seem massive restructurings to stay alive. Virgin America, the dream child of Sir Richard Branson was different and it appealed to the geeks.

Virgin flies to the top geek destinations. The hub is San Francisco and popular destinations include NYC, LAX, Seattle and Las Vegas. Honestly, over 90% of my flights are to those cities. Virgin has me roped in from the beginning. Despite a great network, I had never flown with Virgin America before. Why? Because I’m cheap and that $20 premium didn’t seem worthwhile. Lately, their aggressive pricing has my flying with them 3 times in one month and I couldn’t be happier.

Honestly, United is the cheapest airline followed closely by Southwest. United’s hub is San Francisco which makes for cheap flights to my home town of JAX via ATL. $299 round trip flights are common. With Virgin, I can fly to Ft. Lauderdale for $99 each way and then rely on a family friend to pick me up. This idea never would have crossed my mind if I hadn’t hopped on Virgin America for my flight to Vegas last week. They changed everything about how I fly and I can never go back to another airline, if I can help it.

————–

The Experience: Virgin operates out of San Francisco’s International Terminal which is nice and new. This is a good touch since I’m based here. It’s new and has the interior of an Apple Store with metal & glass. Other VA terminals aren’t as lovely. The planes are all less than 3 years old so you have a nice unsoiled plane with new interior and shiny exterior and none of the BO smell that airlines like United have.

It’s important to note that I have only flown Virgin America as a first-class rider. Sure it was more expensive ($15 extra per flight) but was totally worth it!

Anyone that hops on a VA flight has great comforts such as leather seats, extremely friendly flight attendants and a modern entertainment system full of on-demand movies, satellite TV and even an in-flight chat room that everyone can join in to chat FOR FREE. The movies cost extra but it’s a great experience. You can even order food and drinks from the RED entertainment system and swipe your card there. Additionally, all travelers have a USB port and 3 prong power plug (like the one in your home) to charge your gadgets. I immediately sit down and plug in my MacBook Air and iPhone 3GS for charging while in flight. Yes this means a 6 hour flight is completely possible!

Most flights on VA now have Wi-Fi so I can open my notebook or power on the iPhone while in the air and hold Skype conversations and get things done from 35K feet w/o any issues! No longer must I be unproductive while on a flight and have to deal with my laptop power dying. A 7 hour direct flight to Florida will now be a 7 hour power work session while watching Satellite TV and drinking a cosmo. Yes, it’s that amazing!

First Class is a different story. The photo above of the seats is what first class looks like. The leather is white instead of black which isn’t a huge difference but the chairs are more plush and more comfy! They even have foot rests and an option that auto reclines the chair far back and with 50 inches of leg room, there’s no problem stretching out!

Once my feet are out and the seat is back, I’ll put in an order for a Vodka Cranberry drink via the RED television screen in front of me which is easy to reach and at eye level and then immediately enable the massage chair option. That’s right, one button and my back is getting an exquisite massage while my cocktail is being made. Immediately afterward, it’s time to plugin my laptop and iPhone in the charging ports and get those going for that long flight.

I have to add that I’ve done all of this before the plane takes off! First class gets a red-carpet treatment (literally) when you check your bags in and the same red carpet treatment by being the first to board. I’m on the flight with a cocktail in hand before anyone else even boards. I also have to say that on VA and as First Class, you get two FREE checked bags! That’s right, those bags are free to check up to 75 pounds each. Most airlines don’t get you a free bag and it’s capped at 50 pounds. On united, the first bag is $15 and if it’s over 50 pounds, the price becomes $125!!!!!

While I’m in flight on the first class area, all cocktails are free, on-demand movies are free and one flight attendant is taking care of only 6 first class seats so that next cocktail or an order of chicken w/ carrots is a touch away or wave of the hand! First class is the way to go. My advice, when you go to the gate to check in, just check to see what the first class upgrade flight is. If it’s $50 or less, GET IT! You’ll drink 3 cocktails, eat a hearty meal and enjoy free on-demand movies while getting a back massage.

I was always told First Class is a waste! It’s for those guys that fly so much that they get free upgrades but VA makes the class totally attainable and totally worth it. The perks outweigh the price and if I have the money, I’m going to upgrade from now on.

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The price: Cheap! It’s pretty killer. Flights to LA are as cheap as $40 each way and vegas round trip is around $109. I can fly one way to Miami / Ft. Lauderdale for $99 and round trip to NYC is around $250-$350 depending on how you time it. Yes it’s that cheap and so cheap that you can’t not fly VA if it’s available in your airport. They’re concentrating on the big cities and destinations for frequent travelers. ATL, DFW, Portland and Chicago are all excellent airports but geeks aren’t flying there. Adding Austin, TX would be great but that’s a pipe dream and something that probably won’t happen.

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Overall: I sat down next to a guy in First class on the way to Vegas last week. He was in his 50s, holding a kindle and sipping a Gin & Tonic. He said to me, “first time? you’ll never be able to fly with any other airline ever again.” After I got off that flight, it was apparent that he was right.

In May of this year, I was contacted by a marketing company that represents Ford and asked if I wanted to test drive a vehicle for a few days. That vehicle was the Lincoln MKS and it was an absolute joy to drive as I stated in my review, “I’ve never driven a more comfortable ride that has enough power to take on most vehicles on the road.” You can read the rest of that review, here.

Well, a few months later, the same group contacted me again about a promotion they were running involving the brand new 2010 Ford Taurus. The new Taurus is completely redesigned with some of the most advanced features seen in a full-size sedan and the promotion involved a road trip a season opener NFL game. I applied and was picked as one of the winners! The full details of my road trip were outlined in this post.

The drive was just over 800 miles or 13 hours of non-stop driving through farm country, mountains, cities and flat highways. Being the adventurous person that I am, I accepted the offer and made my way up to Seattle for the Seahawks’ opening game against the St. Louis Rams.

The Ford Taurus exceeded all expectations of what Ford could deliver in a car that’s sticker price is under $50K. The all new Taurus starts at $25K but with every feature loaded on this vehicle, it soared to just over $40K. Regardless, every addition to this vehicle enhanced the experience and would be on my Taurus if I was in the market for a new car.

Before I begin, I’d like to note that this is not a professional car review. I’m just a blogger who absolutely loved test driving this fine work of craftsmanship on wheels. Let’s begin.

The exterior of this car was aggressive, stylish and a much needed redesign to the Taurus I grew up with. Accents on the front & hood added the look of speed with a hint of sport that I’d expect from a Camaro or Mustang. The back of the Taurus had a raised look which made the car look as if it was leaning forward. This is a similar look that the Lincoln MKS had too. The raised rear didn’t impair the my viewing angle when looking in the rear-view mirror but it did make for much more room in the trunk than I’m used to after driving import cars for so long. If there’s one takeaway from domestic cars, it’s that the trunk is huge and I love it! In fact, the trunk was so large that I slept in it! I’m not ashamed to admit it but maybe that’s all I should say about that!

I unlocked the vehicle and hopped in. The plus leather and stylish interior did not look like that of a Taurus. There were curves, accents & wood finish that looked like I was sitting in a Jaguar minus that classic analog clock that Jaguars have. Yes this was a modern sedan that I would be happy in even after 13 hours of driving it. In fact, every time I got out of the car to pump gas or use the restroom, my body ached to get back in because it was that comfortable!

Technology was not absent from this vehicle. The best part was that the Taurus contained technology that improved the safety of its occupants where most features act to distract the driver and passengers. Here are the features that completely wowed me!

1. Adaptive Cruise Control with Collision Warning
2. Intelligent Access with Push Button Start
3. MyKey parental programmability
4. Blind Spot Information System (BLIS) with Cross Traffic Alert
5. Rain-Sensing Wipers
6. EasyFuel capless refueling
7. Ford SYNC and Voice-Activated Navigation with SIRIUS Travel Link
8. In-Truck safety lever (you can get out of the trunk if locked in)
9. Auto-lighting based on outdoor conditions

Here are some extra features that enhanced the comfort of the ride:

1. Interior “mood” lighting
2. Dual-Climate Controls
3. Heated & Cooled Seats
4. Sony Surround Sound Stereo system
5. Bluetooth & USB Media support (music playback & hands-free calling)
6. Sun / Moon roof

I’d like to elaborate more on each feature to review exactly what I loved about each one. I have very little to say negatively about any of these features.

Adaptive Cruise Control with Collision Warning - This is one of my favorite features. I actually detailed my love of this features in a few YouTube videos (here & here). Basically, with cruise control enabled, the car will slow down based on a preference you set on the distance you want to keep between you and other vehicles in front of you. It will slow down and if an imminent collision is expected, the car will flash a red bar on your windshield, the music you’re listening too will mute and the car will begin braking as needed. This feature worked even when I was in complete control and ready to his the brakes. It wasn’t too sensitive and was perfect as I used it at all times while on the highway. ACC even resumed the speed you were going once the cars in front of you either move over or speed up themselves. You can set it to 72MPH and it will remain at 64 as the cars are in front of you and then resume shortly afterward. The system uses radar to judge the distance between you and other cars. One thing I found interesting was at 2AM on a rainy mountain road, I had cruise control enabled and the car would disable the cruise control. I don’t know if it was the winy roads, rain or darkness but when the car was unable to judge radar, cruise control would auto-disable.

Intelligent Access with Push Button Start – There were those shiny red lit numbers on the exterior of the car for easy keyless access. I didn’t use those since the key I had contained a lock / unlock button. Once inside the car, I started it with the push of a button but only if the key was in the car. It just knew and I honestly don’t know how that even works!

MyKey parental programmability – As soon as I turned on the ignition, the seat adjusted for me to the last position and I was ready to go! There were probably other features like mirror position and radio presets but I didn’t get into those since I was the only person driving the vehicle.

Blind Spot Information System (BLIS) with Cross Traffic Alert – This was amazing! The car let me know when a vehicle or object were beside me and by the end of the trip, I stopped paying attention and looking over before changing lanes.

Rain-Sensing Wipers – These worked flawlessly! It rained on the drive home and the wipers worked perfectly to clear away water from the windshield. I have zero complaints here!

EasyFuel capless refueling – This totally just makes forgetting your gas cap a thing of the past. Open the lid and insert fuel pump. That’s it!

Ford SYNC and Voice-Activated Navigation with SIRIUS Travel Link - This was a feature partly available on the Lincoln MKS but the SIRIUS Travel Link wasn’t enabled. The travel link shows local prices of fuel w/ directions, a weather report and even local movie listings. The coolest thing is that Travel Link warns me when there is traffic delays ahead or construction so I can avoid it and re-route. Very smart!

In-Truck safety lever (you can get out of the trunk if locked in) – On Saturday night, I didn’t feel like getting a hotel for 4 hours since I had to be up so early so I parked near the Seahawks’ Stadium so I could also snag one of the free parking spots before the big game! Sadly, the area was full of questionable activity so instead of risking my safety of sleeping in the car for everyone to see, I decided to camp out in the trunk. It was roomy, comfortable and very quiet! I expected that I would need the trunk button on the included key set but when I got in, there was a level that I could pull to get out. This safety feature was pretty cool when my alarm went off at 6:30AM!

Auto-lighting based on outdoor conditions - The car’s dashboard & headlights would auto-enable once the outdoor lighting dropped at dusk or during a storm. very intelligent!

Interior “mood” lighting – The inside of the car had 5 customizable colors with different brightness intensities. It sounds tacky but made the ride a lot more comfortable as I could see my way around but was tame enough that it didn’t distract driving at all. You can see a video & picture of it.

Dual-Climate Control – I rode alone but I enjoy cars that have dual-climate control. I generally have a very warm body temperature and like it extra cold.

Heated & Cooled Seats – Due to my hot body temperature, I can’t stand heated seats but I used the cooled steas nearly the entire trip! It was pure bliss!

Sony Surround Sound Stereo system – Jay-Z’s new album dropped right before going on my trip and I listened to it time after time. The SONY system was exceptional!

Bluetooth & USB Media support (music playback & hands-free calling) – I had technical issues with this feature in the Lincoln MKS w/ iPhone 3G. My iPhone 3GS worked great in the Ford Taurus. I could stream music via Bluetooth or USB. The system was flawless and I used it for the entire trip! Music would pause when a call came in.

The Ford Taurus was a technical wonder with an exceptional exterior and interior! There was certainly power behind the wheel but I was less than impressed by handling, park-ability and the size of the car.

The Taurus was fast, very fast! I read reviews before picking up the vehicle that stated you usually are going faster than you think and this happened a few times. I’d be on the Interstate going 74 miles per hour and decide to pass a truck and suddenly was at 98 mph. I admit to breaking the law because I quickly slowed down but that speed difference happened in seconds after hitting the gas.

0-60 tests, I didn’t do but I was impressed with the overall speed of the car. Handling is another story. Overall safety handling like going down a mountain pass at 65 miles per hour in the rain was perfect. I never lost control of the car or heard tire noise going around curves. Overall, the vehicle was extremely well built from a safety standpoint but I never quite felt a sporty aspect to this car. The design suggestions aggressive sport handling but the reality is that this is a luxury sedan that’s perfect for businessmen (and women) and it’s strong points are design and interior comfort.

Gas mileage was okay. I got 24 miles per gallon on the interstate and 19 within Seattle and Portland city limits. It’s not 30MPG like most import auto-makers get but for a powerful and VERY HEAVY car, I was satisfied by the gas mileage.

Overall, I’m happy with the Ford Taurus. Now I need to justify to myself the fact that I need one RIGHT NOW. I had the most fun driving this car and yes I drove it for a total of 32 hours over the course of 3 days! However, I still loved every moment of it and never thought how tired I was of driving this amazing vehicle! Ford has made luxury affordable and I loved every moment of it!

I encourage you to check out the videos & photos I took on YOUTUBE & FLICKR.

The first time I was exposed to Michael Moore was in the late 90s when I saw “Bowling for Columbine”. I was just recently a teenager and didn’t quite grasp every aspect of the film which is a reminder that I should probably go back and watch it again but I do remember the research and attention to details that Moore presented was phenomenal. He has deserved every award and dollar received in the past 15 years. Sure I have a few complaints about Michael Moore but, compared to what I witnessed tonight at his screening, my thoughts are completely different from what everyone else has to say about Moore. First, let’s focus on his new film because that’s what this post should be focused on.

“Capitalism: A Love Story” reveals the corporate greed & corruption that happens in the American business system. He details the destruction of democracy, the exploitation and abuse of the “peasant workforce” and how our government’s greed let this all happen. Yes it was a fantastically produced Michael Moore documentary that made things easy to grasp for us simple folk but it was also entertaining and received as many laughs as it did gasps from the audience. As usual, I’m never surprised by what I see in these documentaries. In many ways, the way I was raised has exposed me to the harsh realities of our world in terms of corporate america, how the government truly works and even where our food comes from. Documentaries only serve as a brief refresher (not reminder) to how things are but I’m certainly well aware of how things are in the world from a big picture standpoint.

Something that I find worth noting too is that I get a lot of hell from the web and friends about my lack of knowledge about current events, celebrity news and the latest this or that. Honestly, I don’t care and I do pay attention to such news when someone tells me about it only enough to track exactly how long before that news is no longer “news”. Things that really matter to us and our world are on my mind and I’m actively doing something about it. Who’s dating who and even wary / terrorism around the globe aren’t on my radar. The reason why is that these stories are big news for 2 days and then gone despite the fact that the war or global issues are still happening. So chill out about my lack of knowledge about what governor cheated on his wife and instead try yourself to not get caught up on what’s cool now and what’s important right now. Anyway, back to the review.

My complaint about each of Michael Moore’s films and this actually pertains to most documentaries is that everything is one sided. Filmmakers use extreme happiness & extreme sadness to get their point across. A mother who lost their child to a disease is shown crying on screen while the corporate insurance exec is shown getting out of his limo while narration of his 400 million dollar a year bonus is discussed. Yes this is reality and yes I’m not arguing the validity of the film but what I’d like to see is an honest look at both sides of the fence from a reporter or journalist that is truly non-biased. During my talk with Moore after the film, he was introduced as a “liberal, political commentator” and I see this as an issue. I am liberal and generally voted democratic unless I see a candidate who has values and a track record of truly doing the right thing and not just voting along with his party’s core values.

Moore is truly presenting the case from a far left point of view which is completely okay and I support him simply because his films are full of information that would have taken me a lot of time to learn from myself. Moore works for years on a film and it shows and for that, I applaud him. What I hope for is a far-right version of Michael Moore that shows an honest and straightforward display from the other side of the fence but it has to be honest and not full of BS. Better yet, let’s get someone who has Michael Moore’s passion for uncovering the truth but presents this truth in a bi-partisan fashion and then I’ll be a fan. I doubt this will ever happen.

The film is worth seeing as I recommend all of his movies because it uncovers many truths that were previously buried deep below our modern consumer economy mindset. The truth was there but we chose not to see it. We need more Michael Moores to help us see what was in front of us the whole time.

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I saw the movie early as I am a part of the California Commonwealth Club. They offered members a chance to see the film weeks before release followed by a discussion with Moore himself, Q&A and refreshments afterward. It was a pleasure to meet Michael in person but something struck me about people in Moore’s position and that’s being called a HYPOCRITE.

My position on calling people that is that I don’t. I simply don’t call someone a hypocrite even if they murder 50 people and then travel around selling bibles and reciting the 7 deadly sins. The definition of hypocrite is:

a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings

On the exterior of Moore’s personal in these films, it would be easy to call him this. In the latest film, he discusses capitalism and how democracy should be implemented in every workplace as he highlights a few business that are doing this where every employee is a part owner and each of them have a vote. Naturally, during the Q&A, someone stood up and criticized him for making so much money from these films and not distributing it to the people who helped him make the film. I was partly expecting this ever since I saw Moore arrive with two trained body guards at  his side that remained near his stage during the Q&A. It was clear that he’s dealt with public criticism and perhaps physical attacks in the past. His response to this question isn’t important. It was clearly rehearsed but why share it with you now? Because it doesn’t matter.

Michael Moore is a filmmaker. His job is more to entertain than it is to inform and ultimately, good films make money and given that he’s the writer, producer and director of these films, then it only makes sense that he made money from each of these movies. I’m not christian but the teachings of Jesus even if mostly fictional do have value on our daily lives. The lesson of the stone throwers as Jesus asks if those without sin cast the first stone and everyone realizes that they are all full of sin and therefore they can’t possibly stone this person given their past sins. This is why I don’t call someone a hypocrite. Michael Moore is adding value to our lives by informing and entertaining us who choose not to see. A result of that is that he makes millions of dollars. For any of us to criticize how he lives his personal life is completely false and so typical of us to do.

The analogy of crabs in a bucket comes to mind and the fact that we always want to pull those who have success down with us by any means necessary. You know how you can prove something to Michael Moore? Take a job in finance or public office or health care and live out your career without become corrupt, greedy or bought. Help people and make our world better and support others who live by the same standards that you do. Start a co-op business based on a democratic system, buy American and respect your employees. Don’t take bribes, don’t buy with credit when you don’t have the money and, as Michael said, “go make your own film and inform me.”

Michael Moore is on his own path and he is adding a valuable product to our lives that we can purchase and enjoy that betters our lives. Just because he’s overweight, has millions of dollars and doesn’t donate 80% of his income to charities doesn’t mean he’s not contributing to our society and making the world a better place. Everyone is contributing in their own way and as I type this blog post at 1:20AM on a Friday morning after working from 7AM-Midnight for the 6th day in a row, it’s clear that I’m contributing to society in a positive way. When you go home at 5PM and plop down on the couch for a football game and read this post in disgust, just remember that both myself and Michael Moore are probably working our ass off trying to make the world a better place as you sit there and criticize us for not living what we preach. For the record, Michael isn’t preaching and is only presenting the truth. Whether he chooses to apply what he has uncovered to better himself or his world is up to him just as it is up to you whether you want to use the knowledge for good. Stop casting stones and start looking inward.

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Mr. Moore did comment on the newspaper industry and I was extremely happy in what he said as I align with his opinions on this. The newspaper industry will be dead in 12 months. He and I both agree that this is a sad ending to a 400 year tradition of the world’s news delivered to your doorstep each and every day. Moore says that millions of Americans are illiterate or can’t read beyond a 4th grade level. He also added the European newspapers focus on circulation as their primary income while American newspapers focus on advertising revenues. Newspapers are more likely to lay off staff than simply focus on improving the quality and circulation of their paper. The combination of Americans becoming more stupid, paired with the fact that newspapers have not evolved has ultimately led to their failure.

It wasn’t too late for the newspapers a few years ago but now it is. The sad part about this situation is, “John with a blog in redwood city talking up a storm about the Afghanistan war can’t report like the New York Times can” and this is from Michael’s mouth word for word. It pisses me off how people are fighting for citizen journalism and praising the death of our newspapers and traditional media. There has to be compromise or a middle ground. Bloggers need to go back to Journalism school and learn how to write honest and thoroughly investigated stories about current events. Newspapers and TV reporters need to let go of the greed, forget advertisers and try to honestly report the news to the best of their ability with ZERO FILTER and together both mediums can exist.

If the traditional press continues to lose our trust and bloggers continue to write op-ed pieces (like this one I’m writing now) that have zero investigation or insight then the way we get information is doomed for failure and there isn’t a single technological advance that can truly resolve what is happening right now. Real-time news systems like Twitter and FriendFeed aren’t going to do it and we’re going to feel (and actually be) stupid when newspapers are gone and we’re a dumber nation because of it.

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The evening with Michael Moore was enlightening, fun and educational. Go see the film and keep your opinions of Michael’s personal lifestyle to yourself. Finally, do what I did and subscribe to the Sunday local paper. Get it delivered to your doorstep and support the industry.

LINKS:
Video (Available Soon):Fora.tv
Audio (Available Soon): Commonwealth Club
Moderator Website: http://angiecoiro.com/