I HATE APPLE

Um. So I'm not saying there couldn't be a better Finder, but... is that really all the guy can find to complain about?

(maybe it's a joke)

I would say applecare is important for laptops, less so for desktops.

AppleCare is pretty essential for laptops. They're expensive, they get beat up, and if the screen fails you're already way ahead of the game in overall cost.

I've actually had to use it once and it saved plenty of time being able to leap-frog ahead to the front of the support line. To be fair though, if I don't have my laptop I'm not able to work at all - making that "does it pay for itself" question pretty easy to answer.

(they seem to run xp happily enough 8)

Agreed. My solution was to buy a g4 tower on eBay. I think there's a sweet spot in price/performance right now from the "Digital Audio" models up to the early Mirrored Drive Door g4s. Unless you're doing really processor-intensive stuff, they should be snappy for a few years still. The last batch of g4 towers are still overpriced on ebay, though.

AppleCare almost pays for itself in resale value for laptops even if you never need them to replace the screen or anything.

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/apps/cs2.ars

seems to suggest CS2 runs as fast or faster than CS1 on same hardware

What a RACKET! I HATE APPLE!

(are there any other independent applecare-type insurance plans that i can look at or is that it?)

I HATE ADAM

Listen to what I am going to say very carefully: I. Poured. Beer. Into. My. Powerbook!

And Renter's Insurance paid for a whole new one WITHOUT raising the premium! Everybody - Renter's insurance WORKS! It is good! I could kiss them!

So maybe I don't need Applecare anyway.

This is not so annoying (since after the first time you turn off energy saver), but what's wonderful is that Apple's vaunted support site (that the tech support guy from India told me about several times while on the phone) doesn't mention a goddamned thing about the process.
back to the beginning

I check my ebay auctions, go to take a shower after work, come back and it's frozen in sleep. Fuck around with everything I know for a while (hold in the power button, hold in the power button a little longer, unplug it, unplug it and leave it out a while), nada. Spend more time looking on their support site for hints: nada. Finally call tech support, sit on hold for 15 minutes, spend time going through all the processes I've already gone through (and told him about) before he decides to tell me how to reset the PMU. Thanks buddy, could have saved yourself some time there.

It seems to be working fine, I can put it to sleep and wake it just fine. Leave it on, go to the store, come back: dead. So now it's just energy saver fucking up. Reset it, call tech support, sit for 15 more minutes, rudely interrupt the surfer dude who answers when he wants me to go through the steps again. His big suggestion (guess we're off-script now) is that I need to go in and turn off the setting that sleeps hard drives whenever possible.
I get kind of pissed because I'm not a techie and I know that's unrelated - that setting is for them to sleep when they computer is working NOT WHEN IT'S GOING TO SLEEP COMPLETELY.

So I tell him I'll do that, but it's not going to work, so what do I do next? He mumbles for a while about turning off energy saver completely and I get a little pissy - I'm not paying $2300 for a desktop so I can cripple one of its features a week after it arrives. How do I make the damn thing work? He doesn't know and says something about the power supply. I cut him off and ask if I need to take it to an Apple Store, he says yeah, I hang up.

I'm sure that Dell's and HP's (etc.) customer service is no better, but I bought an Apple because it's streamlined, efficient, easy, etc. I expect that premium I paid to go for tech support, too. I shouldn't have to burn a Saturday driving to Dallas because they couldn't bump me up to someone with an idea how to solve the problem.

http://www.tuaw.com/