Apple launches 2014 Back to School promotion

Sad Professor

Instead of offering iTunes and App Store credit as in recent years, this year Apple is giving away Apple Store credit. Available with the purchase of all new Macs (except the Mini), iPhones and iPads. Offer ends September 9th.

http://store.apple.com/ie/browse/campaigns/back_to_school

Zapp Brannigan

Great deal. I like this more than the iTunes credit and iPod of previous years.

Sad Professor

Irish customers only get 70 euro credit, or 35 when purchasing an iPad/iPhone. That’s a bit crap.

Dman001

Still no iPod though! :P I wouldn't mind the App Store voucher if the Mac App Store had decent software on it. At least you'll be able to get a decent Macbook case with an Apple Store voucher.

Probably a stupid question, but don't suppose CompUB take these vouchers?

Elessar

Perfect time for me to purchase a new Macbook Pro...only I'm not buying last years model! Come on Apple update the line already!

Zcott

And hurry up with that retina iMac!

_Redzer_

Elessar wrote: »

Perfect time for me to purchase a new Macbook Pro...only I'm not buying last years model! Come on Apple update the line already!

The offer will expire by the time they refresh them.

At least they'll be getting a price drop to fill the gap once they discontinue the non-retina macbook this year... unless that's going to be the price point of the retina air.

Tokyo

Zcott wrote: »

And hurry up with that retina iMac!

Everything is a retina display if you stand far enough back from it...

_Redzer_

I'm sick of waiting so I'm gonna go ahead with a 13" 8GB 512SDD rMBP on Amazon for €1550. Seems like a great saving.

I know the answer is most likely no, but would I get a €70 voucher as well?

I know in some places in America where you buy from a store that's not Apple, like Best Buy, you can get it.

Sad Professor

No, the promo is only available from Apple.

Dman001

_Redzer_ wrote: »

I'm sick of waiting so I'm gonna go ahead with a 13" 8GB 512SDD rMBP on Amazon for €1550. Seems like a great saving.

I know the answer is most likely no, but would I get a €70 voucher as well?

I know in some places in America where you buy from a store that's not Apple, like Best Buy, you can get it.

I see the prices on Amazon are a lot cheaper than directly from Apple. But they are sold by third part sellers, although they do come with Amazon's guarantee.

Any reason, other than the exchange rate, why they are so much cheaper?

Doodah7

Quite often they are grey imports. Before buying off Amazon and particularly third party sellers, check that the type of keyboard. The US keyboard is slightly different to ours...

Dman001

tallpaul wrote: »

Quite often they are grey imports. Before buying off Amazon and particularly third party sellers, check that the type of keyboard. The US keyboard is slightly different to ours...

Thought this alright. One of the Third Party sellers did say that it comes with a UK ac adapter, and an 'International' keyboard. Not sure what they mean by that keyboard though.

_Redzer_

tallpaul wrote: »

Quite often they are grey imports. Before buying off Amazon and particularly third party sellers, check that the type of keyboard. The US keyboard is slightly different to ours...

Apparently it's the UK version given its code or something. It's £1299 for the maxed out 13", which is €1,513. That's amazing value.

Just waiting to gather the money together to go for it. Their might be a spec bump soon, but if I'm saving €350, I'll be laughing.

speedfreak

Zcott wrote: »

And hurry up with that retina iMac!

Guys, looking to pick up iMac fairly soon. Is there a refresh imminent? Didn't realise the screens weren't retina already.

Zcott

iPhone event in September might have Macs but nothing definite.

Dman001

New reports now that Broadwell will reach consumers by the holidays.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2453992/intel-beats-estimates-says-pcs-packing-next-gen-broadwell-chips-on-track-for-the-holidays.html

May as well wait and see what happens.

Elessar

Dman001 wrote: »

New reports now that Broadwell will reach consumers by the holidays.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2453992/intel-beats-estimates-says-pcs-packing-next-gen-broadwell-chips-on-track-for-the-holidays.html

May as well wait and see what happens.

Only if you're looking for a MacBook Air. Faster broadwell chips likely delayed to mid-2015

Sad Professor

What are basing that on? It says Broadwell PC chips are shipping to their customers.

Elessar

Sad Professor wrote: »

What are basing that on? It says Broadwell PC chips are shipping to their customers.

On this:

http://www.macrumors.com/2014/07/09/broadwell-early-to-mid-2015/

Actually looks like I'm wrong - not even the Air will get broadwell this year:

We expect the initial Broadwell-based devices, including fanless 2-in-1s built on the Core M processor, will be on shelves by the end of this year with more products and broader OEM availability in 2015," Intel told CNET on Wednesday.

Sad Professor

It’s difficult to decipher Intel’s face-saving jargon, but I think your original post was essentially correct. The Air will get Broadwell this year, not the current Air but the new fanless 12-inch. Everything else will have to wait until next year.

Assuming they are suitable (someone with a better understanding of Intel's roadmap can confirm) the MBPs should get the Q4 Haswell refresh, which will be ready for October unless Intel want to lose Apple as a customer. The existing Air was only updated so no rush there.

Elessar

Sad Professor wrote: »

It’s difficult to decipher Intel’s face-saving jargon, but I think your original post was essentially correct. The Air will get Broadwell this year, not the current Air but the new fanless 12-inch. Everything else will have to wait until next year.

Assuming they are suitable (someone with a better understanding of Intel's roadmap can confirm) the MBPs should get the Q4 Haswell refresh, which will be ready for October unless Intel want to lose Apple as a customer. The existing Air was only updated so no rush there.

My understanding was the Haswell refresh already took place in May? So it's just a case of dropping those in to an updated model and adding in maybe the latest Maxwell GPUs from nVidia?

Sad Professor

Yeah but I don’t think there was anything suitable for the 13-inch in that refresh.

Sad Professor

Mac Rumours is now pointing to two conflicting reports. One which says the 12-inch Retina Air is delayed (seems the Core M is actually a tablet chip) and other which says a redesign of the 11 and 13-inch Air (presumedly without Retina) is going into production next month.

Elessar

Well there we have it: Intel have launched refreshed Haswell processors for notebooks with 200MHz speed bumps.

http://www.macrumors.com/2014/07/21/intel-launches-new-haswell-chips/

All but a certainty we'll see refreshes before Christmas now. I was hoping for Broadwell but I'm not waiting another year, so I'll pull the trigger on one of these when Apple updates. On the plus side turbo boost for the top end model should go to 4.0GHz!

Zcott

Zcott wrote: »

And hurry up with that retina iMac!

"Sources say that Apple is finishing up work on both a smaller MacBook with a high-resolution display and a new desktop computer, either an iMac or a standalone monitor, with a 4K resolution screen."

From http://9to5mac.com/2014/07/23/os-x-yosemite-planned-for-late-october-as-apple-preps-4k-desktop-12-inch-retina-macbook/

Sad Professor

MBP refresh may be imminent.

http://9to5mac.com/2014/07/27/unverified-apple-store-photo-teases-faster-retina-macbook-pros-with-16gb-of-ram-across-the-board/

Elessar

Sad Professor wrote: »

MBP refresh may be imminent.

http://9to5mac.com/2014/07/27/unverified-apple-store-photo-teases-faster-retina-macbook-pros-with-16gb-of-ram-across-the-board/

Apparently the store said it was an error? I would be deeply disappointed if Apple didn't refresh the GPU aswell. 750m is last years tech.

Dman001

Elessar wrote: »

Apparently the store said it was an error? I would be deeply disappointed if Apple didn't refresh the GPU aswell. 750m is last years tech.

While I'm sure it was an error, it is a bit odd how they managed to "accidently" post the wrong CPU speeds (with minimal boost, as Intel announced last week) for each iteration and the wrong RAM size, no??

_Redzer_

GPU doesn't affect me because I'm interested in the 13". Hopefully this comes soon so I can get the 2013 model for cheaper -there's going to be SFA difference to warrant spending the extra on the 2014 model.

As far as I read, the shift to an 860m GPU isn't so straight forward because of the differing pin layout, so it's not a simple swap-out job and it warrants a slight redesign to accommodate it. I'm nowhere near an expert on the subject, just conveying something I've read recently.

Elessar

Dman001 wrote: »

While I'm sure it was an error, it is a bit odd how they managed to "accidently" post the wrong CPU speeds (with minimal boost, as Intel announced last week) for each iteration and the wrong RAM size, no??

It is a bit odd indeed. But I would be shocked if Apple only went for a CPU update. AFAIK every MBP update they have done has included a new GPU at least...

Elessar

*le sigh*

The leaks were true. Macbook Pros updated:

http://www.macrumors.com/2014/07/29/updated-retina-macbook-pro-faster-haswell-more-ram/

Slight CPU increase, NO NEW GPU, and a slight price drop.

I am not happy at all. I NEED a new MBP asap but I cannot in all honesty drop €3000 on a top spec machine that has last years GPU. Ugh. What to do! :mad:

_Redzer_

Mid tier 13" still the same price, which is a joke.

It cost €200 to upgrade from the entry level 4/126 and now it's still €200 to go from 8/126 to a 256SSD.

You'd be better off buying the 2013 model, I'm sure it's gonna get a few discounts on amazon and the like.

GoldFour4

Hey everyone I'm a potential first time mac buyer with a quick question about the education pricing. How is it verified that I'm a student? I just finished my undergrad and start my masters in a few weeks so I'm not trying to get around the system or anything!

_Redzer_

malistheman wrote: »

Hey everyone I'm a potential first time mac buyer with a quick question about the education pricing. How is it verified that I'm a student? I just finished my undergrad and start my masters in a few weeks so I'm not trying to get around the system or anything!

I could be wrong, but if it's anything like other student discounts, it'll prompt a portal to your college were you'll have to login in, once that's successful, they'll know it's a genuine student account and way you go.

Elessar

malistheman wrote: »

Hey everyone I'm a potential first time mac buyer with a quick question about the education pricing. How is it verified that I'm a student? I just finished my undergrad and start my masters in a few weeks so I'm not trying to get around the system or anything!

Use the link on www.campus.ie - this links to your college and gives you a greater edu discount than just buying from the education store direct.

mickstupp

malistheman wrote: »

Hey everyone I'm a potential first time mac buyer with a quick question about the education pricing. How is it verified that I'm a student? I just finished my undergrad and start my masters in a few weeks so I'm not trying to get around the system or anything!

I just got ordered one on Wednesday through the education store on apple.ie. It didn't prompt me for a college login or anything like that. In fact, the price I was quoted in the end was slightly less than that advertised on the page. Pro 13" retina for 1252 instead of the advertised 1268. The €70 voucher was emailed the next day, but as said somewhere above it's for the apple store, not the app store. I used it for an external hard drive. Neither purchase had post and packaging charges. That's all I know.

Am really looking forward to getting my first mac! But it's killing me knowing it's sitting in a warehouse half an hour's drive away and I won't see it till Monday.

_Redzer_

Elessar wrote: »

Use the link on www.campus.ie - this links to your college and gives you a greater edu discount than just buying from the education store direct.

Can't get into that on my phone, but is that price for the 128GB retina MBP, or the non-retina?

Elessar

_Redzer_ wrote: »

Can't get into that on my phone, but is that price for the 128GB retina MBP, or the non-retina?

Not sure what you mean? Use this link: http://campus.ie/discount/apple-discount-for-students%20

Elessar

Posting this from my new 2.8Ghz MBPr - without a doubt, it's incredible. Blazing fast, I did a comparison encode between this and my 4.4Ghz over clocked Ivy Bridge PC and the MBP is a hair faster! I'm stunned! The display is incredible and it's unbelievably thin. Looking at my 2010 MBP I can't believe how awful it is in comparison! Glad I took the plunge now

EDIT: The speakers are really really good, and loud!
EDIT2: I'm now getting 16-19 MB/s downloads from my wireless N router, it was capped at 11-12 MB/s on the old MBP. I love this machine.

mikemac1

Went ahead and ordered a 27" iMac. About 180 euro cheaper through the education link and also you get the 70 euro voucher

They don't ask for any sort of proof at all.

It's already shipped from The Netherlands. I assumed it was in a warehouse in Cork

boreder

mikemac1 wrote: »

Went ahead and ordered a 27" iMac. About 180 euro cheaper through the education link and also you get the 70 euro voucher

They don't ask for any sort of proof at all.

It's already shipped from The Netherlands. I assumed it was in a warehouse in Cork

Cork only makes the configure-to-order iMacs.

AGoodison

boreder wrote: »

Cork only makes the configure-to-order iMacs.

Is that the same for MBP? Mine looks like it'll dispatch tomorrow. Hopefully from Cork then.

Sad Professor

BTO MacBooks usually ship from Asia. Nothing ships to or from Cork, which these days is mainly for Apple's accounting gymnastics. Whatever iMac assembly they do there is very limited. Probably putting stuff in boxes or something. Their real European HQ is in London.

Elessar

I wouldn't say that. There's 3000 people employed in the cork offices. I think as part of the deal with the IDA they have to do some manufacturing there aswell.

Anyway my custome MBP shipped from China. Shipped on a Saturday and was in my hands on the Monday!

Sad Professor

Elessar wrote: »

I wouldn't say that. There's 3000 people employed in the cork offices. I think as part of the deal with the IDA they have to do some manufacturing there aswell.

Figured as much. Whatever manufacturing happens it's the bare minimum. Agency workers and the like.

Cork is their financial operations centre. If you had say a PR related query, they'd refer you to London.

AGoodison

Sad Professor wrote: »

BTO MacBooks usually ship from Asia. Nothing ships to or from Cork, which these days is mainly for Apple's accounting gymnastics. Whatever iMac assembly they do there is very limited. Probably putting stuff in boxes or something. Their real European HQ is in London.

Yup. Mine is in transit from China at the moment.

boreder

Sad Professor wrote: »

BTO MacBooks usually ship from Asia. Nothing ships to or from Cork, which these days is mainly for Apple's accounting gymnastics. Whatever iMac assembly they do there is very limited. Probably putting stuff in boxes or something. Their real European HQ is in London.

No, every non-standard iMac for this part of the world comes from Cork. They ship to UK distribution centre, and then make their way around the world, even if they are for Irish customers. The factory in Cork is run 24/7, 363 days a year.

The London offices are mostly for marketing, IT and publishing. The real Euro HQ, is in fact, Cork. It's their largest corporate office outside of the US, employing over 4,000 people.

They had a link about it on the UK site a few weeks ago.

Sad Professor

What about contact centre functions, or has that mostly been moved elsewhere?

mikemac1

Anytime I've phoned Apple for support I've gotten through to Texas

When I bought my last mac and I was sending a bank draft through the post (very old fashioned I know) I dealt with a payments/finance team in Cork

Cabaal

Sad Professor wrote: »

What about contact centre functions, or has that mostly been moved elsewhere?

contact center exists in cork but they also have a large amount of work from home operators dealing with contacts for them,