meant savings for you from London Drugs!

This week, Apple quietly released a minor update to its MacBook Pro line, offering an upgraded processor, and in some cases graphics and/or storage options at the same price points as the previous models. For most of us, the improvements are scarcely noticeable.
Update November 21. Most of the stock backlog is now sold! Hope you were able to take advantage. (MacSeniors)

Slightly older models' prices at LD are discounted up to $400!

Retailers with a sizeable stock, however, are likely putting the older models on sale.
London Drugs, for example, has discounted its MacBook Pros from $150 to $400 depending upon the models. We think this provides an excellent opportunity for those of us who had been thinking about getting a new(er) Mac or a first time Mac portable and want to save enough to buy a Christmas present or two for the rest of the family.

London Drugs, by the way, right in your neighbourhood, is just a good a place to buy a Mac as the Apple Stores that are likely much farther away.

If you have been to an Apple Store lately, you know how busy they are, and how difficult it can be for neophytes to get the help they need….
We’re in no way disparaging the Apple Stores, but many of our clients have reported that they feel more comfortable shopping for computers in a less bustling environment.

We’re not implying that other retailers won’t also to offer discounted prices. We just passing along info we picked up today from the LD Lougheed Store. Thanks, Thomas!

HAVE A MEMORABLE MOVEMBER!

Big PUMPKMacMan

Yes, that’s MOvember, the month when we remember prostate cancer and the men who have had to deal with it. MacSeniors will be looking a little scruffy for the next few weeks as we try to train our facial hair to stand up and be noticed!

We’ll be contributing to Prostate Cancer (PC) research.
How about you?

Kimihiro Hoshino / AFP/Getty Images

Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak rides a Segway as he holds the Apple’s latest iPhone 4s he just purchased in Los Gatos, California on October 14, 2011. Stores worldwide were gripped Friday by the now familiar scene of gadget geeks scrambling for Apple’s latest smartphone, the US giant’s first new release since the death of co-founder Steve Jobs.
Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.

After striking out at a Surrey Rogers store (despite being first
in line early in the morning), MacSeniors was able to get our iP4S
on Friday evening from Wireless Wave in Lougheed Centre,
which had received a larger shipment than the
Rogers Store or Fido booth in the same mall. Thanks, Greg!

And this from Industry Leaders Magazine (online) 

iPhone 4S Sales Hit The Roof

Even as claims that the iPhone 4S is not much of a device do the rounds, facts and figures tell another story. The 4S was unveiled only a day before Apple inventor Steve Jobs passed away and most industry pundits said the phone felt the phone fell short of the expectations everyone has from Apple.

Unlike the previous versions of iPhone that had stunning new features and design changes each time, and not to forget that they were launched by Steve Jobs in his trademark charismatic manner, the iPhone 4S opened to lukewarm reactions.

But, even as the industry was prepared to see the first ever (in a long time) failed product from Apple, the market statistics prove otherwise. The iPhone 4S has sold a whopping 1,000,000 units in its first 24 hours! The record beats the previous record held by iPhone 4 for selling 600,000 units on the first day.

And an even more astounding fact,  coming from none other than the horse’s mouth itself- the Apple corporation, is that the iPhone 4S is the fastest selling product launched by Apple in the “iDevices” series—ever! Just goes to show that with Apple, nothing is predictable! Read the rest of this entry »

by Keith Richardson of
MacSeniors Consulting Services

Confounding the pundits!

First of all, the iPhone 5 doesn’t exist yet.
If you need a new smartphone now,
your choice is simple: buy the 4S or buy a competitor.

We, however, somewhere in between “need” and “want,”
have a more difficult decision-making process to navigate.
We’ve turned to the Internet for help.

Second, we’re bombarded by stories from folks who, if they were movie critics, would never give any flick more than ** out of *****. Words like “underwhelmed,” “disappointing,” and “fails to wow fans” jump up off the Google search results. And there’s plenty of evidence that Wall Street investors are non-plussed—even if some of the analysts tell a more positive story.

Considering where the criticism is coming from and what kind of details the naysayers are focused on, and after carefully examining the evidence, we think the 4S is a significant improvement over the iPhone 4—which we elected not to buy as our iPhone 3S was only a year old when the 4 was released. Evolved enough that we see no need to wait for the next year’s inevitable “mutation.” Read the rest of this entry »

Mystery Shopper Scam via email (click to enlarge)

In October, the Vancouver City police revealed the top 10 scams that we all need to beware of.

At the head of the list is one that we alerted our readers to back in September, the so-called computer virus scam, in which the victim gets a phone call from a major computer company  (like Microsoft) offering to fix a virus on the victim’s computer. Once the victim logs on to a website, the screen goes black and the scammer, who is often based in India, charges the victim $150 to make the computer work again. This may be slightly humorous for Mac users, as the caller pretends to know what’s on their computer but clearly doesn’t: not many of us running Windows on our Macs. Police recommend simply hanging up on the caller and avoiding the websites they recommend.

The nine other top avoidable frauds enumerated by the cops, with assistance from the Better Business Bureau, are

• the fake lottery scam,
• the concert or sports ticket reselling scam,
• the grandson in trouble overseas scam (two types!),
• the fake property rental,
• counterfeit currency used to buy electronics online,
•  the Nigerian scam,
• the fake bank security scam, and
• the fake charity collector, home or fire inspector.

Read CBC’s account from October 5.

Be careful out there!

reposted by MacSeniors from MacWorld
by Philip Michaels

Rest in Peace Steve P Jobs: 1955~2001

Steve Jobs, Apple’s co-founder and its CEO through a period of record growth and innovation for the company, has died. He was 56.

“We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today.
Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.
His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts.”

According to a statement released from Jobs’s family, the Apple co-founder “died peacefully [Wednesday] surrounded by his family.” Read the rest of this entry »