Dear Friends,

It is the dog days of summer, but August is feeling a little like September right now with temperatures lower than normal. Our Mac to School campaign is in full swing with special financing, low prices and specials. You can still get interest-free financing for 6, 12 or 18 months on your Mac or iPad purchase.

Students get an even better deal, with a $100 Small Dog gift card with a Mac + AppleCare purchase or $50 with an iPad + AppleCare+ purchase. I think both are a better deal than Apple’s iTunes gift card offer because you can buy any of our products or services and not be limited to Apps and music!

We do require an AppleCare purchase to get those gift cards, but that should be pretty much what we call a “no-brainer” around here. AppleCare is nothing like those extended warranties that they try to get you to buy at the big box stores (which are usually full of loopholes and cost too much). AppleCare extends your Apple warranty from 1 year to 3 years for Macs, and from 1 year to 2 years for iOS products such as iPad, iPhone, iPod. The cost of AppleCare is less than just about any repair that we might do if your Mac was out of warranty.

More importantly, AppleCare extends its 90 days of phone support to 3 years for Macs and 2 years for iOS devices. This support not only covers your Mac or iPad but also the Apple operating system, any other Apple software and Apple hardware (such as an Apple display, purchased with that Mac mini, etc.). Ask around and you will find a whole lot of people are really happy that they purchased AppleCare.

With AppleCare+ for the iPad or iPhone, the coverage goes one step further and covers up to two accidental damage claims. There is a deductible of $50 in these cases, but that is better than shelling out $500 when you drop your iPhone in the sink (or worse).