Needing to renew Applecare on my Macbook Pro. On the good advice of Gerry Harvey I decide to check online for a better price…

• Applecare for Macbook Pro 15″ from Apple.com: $449.00 AUD inc GST
• Applecare for Macbook Pro 15″ from the Apple Store in Sydney: $449.00 AUD inc GST
• Applecare for Macbook Pro 15″ from bdkf1 on eBay.com: $289.00 AUD (GST not payable)

The seller is in the USA, so on top of his discount as an Apple reseller there is the purchase power difference of a strong Aussie dollar also in play.

I saved nearly $200 by buying Applecare from somewhere a little different and accepting a few minor risks. Online shopping FOR THE WIN!

A few things I considered before doing this…

• The seller’s eBay feedback has lots of entries from folk that have purchased Applecare and registered it online from the seller before (i.e. he is legit)
• Applecare is not region specific, so there’s no problem with buying it from overseas. (i.e. it will work)
• The seller is happy to send through the registration number ahead of time. (i.e. so I can get my laptop under warranty quickly, and regardless of any shipping hiccup that might happen)
• If there is a problem, Paypal offers buyer protection. (i.e. if it all goes south I can get my money back.)
• I’ve done this exact thing before. (i.e. it DEFINITELY works

UPDATE: I have received the Applecare number form the seller and can confirm that it registered 100% OK with Apple and allowed me to place a support call. Boom.

Apple’s warranty service is nothing short of extraordinary – they consider it an extension of their marketing and take VERY good care of their warrantied customers. On the flip-side, find yourself with a broken Apple device NOT under warranty… It’s VERY expensive and an altogether less pleasant experience.

So, how do check if your Apple laptop/iPad/iPod/etc is covered under Applecare or not?

• Go to your local Apple website (i.e. http://www.apple.com/au for me)
• Click on “Support” tab in the top menu
• On the right hand side under “Self Service” is “Check Your Service and Support Coverage”.
• Enter your serial number (there are instruction on the page for finding your serial number, regardless of device, on the page), and that’s it!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have 9 days left to renew the warranty on my Macbook Pro… <eek>

Helpful? Leave a comment below if this has helped you.

So you’ve had your light-bulb moment, there’s stars in your eyes and your new idea is making everything seem bright and lovely.

Seems like the perfect time for a reality check…

I wrote a post on proper business planning here, but as a “lighter version” here’s a few questions to ask yourself before you jump into to building stuff:

• Does my idea address an established need? (or is it a “solution looking for a problem”)
• Are people already looking for what I’m planning to do? (TIP: use the Google Keyword Tool to check out what people are searching for on Google)
• Who of my friends are in my idea’s target market, and what do they think of the idea? (TIP: in my opinion an idea is no good unless it gets a few haters, but if NO-ONE thinks it’ll fly then you might need to revisit the drawing board)
• Once it’s ready, can I quickly connect my idea to the market? (TIP: market = monetized CUSTOMERS. No money = no market. We are not in this for the chicks.)
• What are the start-up costs of the idea? What are the ongoing costs of running the idea? What’s the PERSONAL TIME COST of the idea? (these are important to at least take an educated guess at early on)
• What’s the monetization strategy? (TIP: there are 1,000,000 ways to monetize an idea… think laterally)

Once you’ve been through a few of these questions you’ll have a better feel for whether or not your idea is feasible.

PROTIP: Don’t feel bad if the answers to some of these questions start to make you feel like you’ve overestimated your idea’s potential yield. This is a common mistake but shouldn’t discourage from proceeding IF you decide the idea is feasible. It might not be the next Facebook, but if it’ll  teach you a few things, provide a few laughs, and allow you to build your wealth through business then it is worth doing. Do not be discouraged.

I overheard someone asking this question and found this answer in Facebooks’ Help Center:

To unsubscribe from a multi-participant conversation:

1. Open the conversation.
2. Open the Actions menu.
3. Select “Leave Conversation.”

The other people in the conversation will be notified that you left and you will no longer receive messages from the conversation. Note that you can only unsubscribe from group conversations — you can’t leave one-on-one conversations.

Today’s useful website award goes to Gmailextract.com. Gmail Extract does exactly what’s on the label – it extract a list of email address from your Gmail or Google Apps account. All you have to do is sign in, select the folders you want it to scan, and off you go. When it’s done it sends you a neat little zipped up CSV file, ready to be imported into your contacts manger, autoresponders, etc…

I’ve been using this service for a LONG time to retrieve email address lists from my many Gmail and Google Apps accounts. It’s great, it’s never let me down or done anything weird, and I recommend it highly!

It’s a long time now since I used to wield a Nokia 3330… A minimalist and very reliable little phone that I used to charge ONCE A WEEK…!

Smartphones like the iPhone 4 come with lots of nifty but very power hungry features, and unfortunately the ability to power these devices hasn’t improved at the same rate.

So, what can be done to extend your iPhone 4 battery life? The golden rule really is “if you are not using it, turn it off…” This is tricky on such a feature rich phone… Often times there are things turned on that you’d NEVER use – but because you aren’t aware of them they never get turned off.

Here are the tricks I use to get better battery life from my iPhone 4. Hopefully this list helps you get your iPhone 4 battery life back to an acceptable level. They are in order of how effective they are starting from the most effective.

• Turn off Location Services. This is the single biggest drain on your battery. Turn it on only when you need it, and turn it off afterwards.
• Change “Fetch New Data” from “Push” to “Hourly”. This makes a MASSIVE difference… You could ever put it on to “Manual” as long as you remember to check your mail.
• Turn off Notifications.
• Turn off Personal Hotspot.
• Turn off Bluetooth unless you need to use it.
• Turn off Wi-fi. This is a little more annoying, especially if you are a frequent user of hotspots, but it pays off in battery life.

n.b. These tips should work on other iPhone’s too.

n.n.b. These tips should have a similar impact of Android and Blackberry battery life – although I can’t vouch for this personally.

Do you have any tips to add?

Here’s a fresh challenge for a lovely Wednesday afternoon…

I don’t know about you, but I get sent a lot of marketing stuff via email. I’m not talking about spam, I’m talking about newsletters, blog digests, special offers, and so on. Stuff that I have opted in to at some point and that genuinely interests me – I’d read it all if I had the time.

And there’s the problem. I found myself at the point where my mental direction was held hostage to the last piece of marketing guff I read.

I read somewhere that it can take anywhere up to 40 minutes for your brain to recover from distraction and resume what it was previously doing… Add it all together and this becomes a huge waste of time in my day. Can you relate?

THE SOLUTION?

Instead of trashing, foldering, or flagging this barrage of information for later cunsumption (which never quite happens, adding to the stress and ill feeling of it all) do the brave thing – UNSUBSCRIBE. From everything. Yes, everything. Anything that is not life threateningly important, click the little link at the bottom or hit reply with UNSUBSCRIBE in the title like it asks you to. Go through your trash, your “stuff” folder, where ever it all winds up for you, put an hour aside and UNSUBSCRIBE.

Put an hour aside and UNSUBSCRIBE… That’s almost a jingle right there..

Man it’s made a difference in my life… How about yours?